five things Friday: summer highlights edition

We're headed off to the last hurrah beach weekend of the season, and with this arrival of Labor Day weekend (plus next week's first day of school, of course!) it feels like time to be making one of those "what I did this summer" reports. Which is the kind of homework that I like, because it was a pretty great summer.

Five highlights that would definitely get included in my "what I did this summer" report:

1. Family biking: I'm so glad we decided to get the Weehoo bike trailer to be able to have Hendrik join us on bike rides. It has meant a lot of great family time, including extended family time - my mom, dad, and brothers also got more into biking this summer, so we've been able to have some fabulous full-family rides (and corresponding stops for good eats, depending on our destination - ice cream or beer!).

2. Beach reading: pretty much my favorite activity of summer in general, this was a pretty darn good year for beach reads. Two of my favorites reads of all of 2017 came this summer - Beartown and The Almost Sisters - and it was all the better that I got to read them sitting in the sun on my favorite Lake Michigan beach. (More great reads of the summer here and here.)

3. Triathlon conquering: I crossed doing my first triathlon off of my life list, and it felt pretty great to have conquered that one. Bonus that it was a gorgeous day to be outside, and also the training got me outside and enjoying gorgeous summer weather and scenery even more.

4. Summer concert-going: the whole experience of the outdoor summer concert series at a nearby gardens is soooo good, and our times at the Beach Boys and The Shins concerts this summer didn't disappoint. And while the venue was not so amazing, our 4th Avett Brothers concert was more of a year highlight - as I would go to a concert of theirs any day in any season.

5. Chicago sightseeing: a lot of things about this summer have been even more fun with Hendrik at an age that he can do more family activities (and not have complete and total meltdowns if he doesn't take a nap), so it's been way easier to get to the beach with him, do the pool, go out downtown, etc. And also travel a bit! We had such a fun weekend exploring the fun kid-friendly things of Chicago - and we've been looking forward to the arrival of September in that we get to do another Chicago visit next weekend.

And I have to give an honorable mention to backyard sprucing - I really love how our patio makeover and playscape makeover turned out, making me want to be out in the yard much more. Plus they were fun projects to do!

After this look back, next week we'll be in the present, with my currently wearing summer-to-fall items on Tuesday, and then of course the Currently linkup on Wednesday - you should join in too, and tell us all about what you're currently celebrating, watching, welcoming, preparing, and photographing.