Missing Summer

The swimming pool. I so love having a pool during the summer. It is the best thing ever. You can tan and get exercise all at the same time. Growing up I would have done anything to have a pool in our back yard. I would have spent everyday of each summer swimming around having a blast. I grew up in Casper Wyoming and we had the Platte River and a place we called the spillway. It was like a water slide but concrete, it ran into the river. The spillway probably wasn't the best place to go swimming but all the kids in the area did it anyway. I think I had my first kiss while at the spillway. A boy named Chris Beadle. He was older than me but I had such a crush on him. I was 12 he was 15, it was beginning to get dark, he walked me down hand in hand into a wooded area where all the older kids went to make out. I was so nervous my hands were shaking. When we stopped he pulled me close to him and I could feel his breath on my neck as he spoke. "I want to kiss you." I just looked up at him, closed my eyes and puckered up. My first kiss was the best, I can still feel the butterflies in my stomach and it was over 20 years ago. But a first kiss with each new guy is always wonderful.

This is our front yard during the summer. It is so beautiful when everything is green, bright, and warm. We have gold fish living in the little pond along with the occasional frog. But they have to watch out for the neighborhood cats, there is a white cat that hangs out here like it is a buffet, eating our poor little gold fish. But that's life for you, watch out!