I can’t believe it’s the end of August.

I was reflecting on our summer the other day as I scrolled social media and saw photos of families on trips or at Wonderland or at Water Parks or other really good adventures. It all looked amazing.

…and then I started to feel bad.

We didn’t do any big trips this summer. In fact, it’s been pretty low key. I began to feel guilty that I hadn’t tried to do “more” with the kids. Yes, we have a new baby, but other people take their babies to these places… should I have tried harder?

Then I saw this photo that M snapped the other night.

It’s just a bunch of kids and a pile of dirt… but they were SO happy. Completely and utterly filthy, but so happy. Before this photo was an outside bbq dinner and a massive water fight that extended the whole street. Just after it the kids took turns laughing their heads off as they rolled down the dirt pile in the back yard. They had dirt in places I didn’t even know you could get dirt…

…but they had an absolute *ball*. And all it took were some burgers, juice boxes, water guns, dirt and a street full of kids.

We may not have made out to the “big things” this summer, but we went to three splash pads this week. We met up with old friends. We walked to get ice cream, and stayed up too late eating popsicles. We played Pokemon cards for hours with friends, and had more water fights than I can count.

So, I put my mom guilt back on the shelf. We’ll try and do all the big things next year when W is a little bigger.

It wasn’t fancy, but we had an old fashioned small town summer, and I think it was a pretty good one.