Where does the time go? It seems as though it was only yesterday that I was sitting in my comfy chair typing out a post on how dreary spring was ... and now we're on the cusp of Fall! Summer is my favorite in New England. The weather is mostly glorious, beaches are everywhere, and we pretty much get to spend all of our days outside. By the time winter is really over around here, summer is well deserved ... and this year we vowed to soak up every moment of sunshine we can.

We did a lot of biking. Around playgrounds, campgrounds, rail trails, driveways ... just about anywhere we could bike, we did.

We learned how to pitch a tent. And we camped all over Cape Cod.

We found our favorite beach. And drank a lot of Ningxia Red.

We found our favorite town in New England. And we went there at least once a week - sometimes twice - to make sure we really did love it as much as we thought we did. We talked to people, we tried out restaurants, we rode bikes, we went to the library. We drove by houses on the market in our price range. We went to Open Houses. We fell in love. Over and over and over again.

So we decided to sell our house.

The girls and I flew to Georgia to spend some time with family and D stayed in New England to get the house on the market. The plan worked. We were under contract before we even came home. It was, quite possibly, the most stressful and hardest two weeks of the summer. But in the end, the right decision. And it was SO good to see all the cousins play together. That just doesn't happen often enough.

We came home at peak harvest season. So we shucked a lot of corn. Over 100 ears to be exact. And it's still coming. I've now resorted to giving some to friends each week.

We ended our summer with one final camping trip. This time to Maine with our best buddies. We found Grant Park. And hiked (a little bit) around Acadia National Park. We fell in love with New England a little bit harder, and decided Acadia would be a place we went back to again next year. This time for longer than just a day.

We said farewell to Walden Pond. The place that made us initially think that maybe life in New England wasn't so bad after all.

And in the final weeks of summer, we found a house in our new beloved town, we gave more hugs and cherished more moments together as we prepared to send the oldest off to Kindergarten.

The Summer of 2017 .... it has been the most fun summer I can ever remember as a little family of four. And perhaps the most life changing as well. Here's to new beginnings!