It is Summer!

Right now is my absolute favorite time of year. I loved that it was warm during the wild storm that struck just as I was leaving University Chorale, and the remnants of the storm made for a great sunset. I skipped out on Poetasters because I couldn't resist when a friend in the ward invited everyone to come to her house and make paper ships to float in the river that's currently running through Rock Canyon Park. I got excited by the origami and ended up with three different boats, only two of which I actually floated down the river. They both lost the race, and I thought they were going to come in dead last, but one of them overturned and somehow that made it float much faster, and it managed to pass my second boat and someone else's newspaper ship that got beached at the edge of the stream.

That little river is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I was startled to see it floating around the "bowl" of the park when I went running up there a week or two ago. Apparently it's been five years since we had enough water for the river to form, and since I wasn't even aware that Rock Canyon Park existed five years ago, I had no idea that the river was there. Now that it's warm enough that I'm already hot when I start running, even at six in the morning, I may have to come back via the park one day and run through the river, just for fun.

Being at the park made me happier than I can say. The grass was green, the water was cold and much cleaner than the water in the canal at Maeser Hill. The sun was just starting to go down, and the clouds turned various shades of pink and gray and purple. There were soccer players kicking balls around, and some sort of event going on at the other end of the field, with a games booth and a carnival ride and a live band, and while normally I would have felt a little resentful that our peaceful boat race was interrupted, they were far enough away that I could actually enjoy the atmosphere the music and crowds created without being overwhelmed by the crowd itself. We dipped our feet in the water, and set our boats down to race, and followed them to our designated finish line, and fished them out of the water with a large net, and then went back home just feeling like it was summer. It was great. I even went along to a 9:45 movie afterwards, at 75 cent night at Movies 8. It wasn't even a movie I'd particularly wanted to see (although it was entertaining, at the very least), and I never go to 9:45 movies. Far too close to bedtime. I actually had to convince my roommates to come along with us instead of vice versa. And I had no regrets, even when I woke up at 5:45 the next morning after only five and a half hours of sleep (still without an alarm clock - I love that my body is so well adapted to an early morning schedule, even if it makes it difficult to sleep in).

After planning activities for two weeks in a row, it's about time for me to start passing the planning for FHE off to some of my children, but I had so much fun with paper boats that I decided we have to do it next week, up at Rock Canyon Park, and get more people involved in this. I feel better about highjacking the activity again because the girl who organized last night's adventure is in my group, so technically I just put her in charge of the activity, with the understanding that the activity is going to be making paper boats. FHE has been a great success so far this summer. We played Ultimate Frisbee across the street in the park last week, and had an international potluck out on my lawn this week, and paper boats next week. One of our group members works at the pool (the one with water slides down in the center of Provo), and I think we'll invite the other group to a pool night sometime in the next few weeks. Our turnout has been small so far - we get maybe a dozen of the 35 people in our too-large summer group. As an FHE mom, I feel responsible for the non-attendance of my wayward children, but as a regular FHE attendee, I actually much prefer the smaller group. "Just be encouraging, but expect that most people won't come," my roommate counseled me, and I can be okay with that.

Oh, summer!