Summer please don’t leave me yet! I thoroughly enjoy each season especially living in Minnesota. Summer always seems to go by too fast though. Not just because if where we live, but I think it always has. As a kid I was always bummed to go back to school. I have lots of fun memories going to the lake, camping, swimming and playing outside until it was too dark to see. Sunburns and mosquito bites always didn’t feel so bad after a trip to Baskin Robbins or a slurpee from 7-eleven.

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3 Ingredient Raspberry Fool ~ Recipe & Photo Credit

I remember one summer when my Mom and her friend took all us kids to a lake in a motor home. It was so much fun bouncing around in the back as we went down the road and not having to sit buckled into a seat for hours. We ate when we wanted and played games along the way. We arrived just as the sun was going down and I can still see that sunset over the water in my mind. My older brother so excited to be there and just had to get his feet into the water for a little while before it was time for bed. He ran to the dock and dangled his feet in the water for some time. When he pulled his feet out they were all green from the algae close to the dock and we all ran screaming from him. Haha. Fun times.

peanut butter cup ice cream

Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars ~ Recipe & Photo Credit

I grew up in California and have always loved the water. No fear of oceans for this girl. Nope. A trip to Pismo Beach for a week was the best thing ever!  My grandfather worked in the city there for a while and we would go visit. The day would consist of packing a lunch and playing on the beach for hours. We could never get enough. Sand castles, crabs, jelly fish and shells made for a happy day.

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37 Calorie Brownies ~ Recipe & Photo Credit

Another time we took a camper up to Russian River. Aunts, Uncles, Grandma and pa along with cousins were all on this trip. All the campers and tents in a circle with a huge bonfire in the middle. My Grandma would make breakfast each morning outside and we would all sit together in the middle to start the day. Skipping rocks, floating down the river and canoeing are very vivid in my memory bank. One morning, my Dad and I were walking through the woods to go use the restroom when he grabbed me and pulled me back…there in our path was a huge rattler! He motioned to another camper across the way…he came over with an axe and chopped off its head and then hung the body in a tree. I never remember being afraid though. I guess I knew my Dad would take care of me.

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No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies ~ Recipe & Photo Credit

For quite a few years my Mom was the art teacher at our church camp each summer and even though I wasn’t old enough to go I got to go along because well…she was my Mom and I went where she went! Haha. I always felt like big stuff being a kid of one of the teachers and got to help pass out supplies and go to the front of the food line. One time we were staying in a cabin that didn’t have a door on it…just a flap of material and my mom thought it would be fun to lure a racoon in the cabin. She set up a trail of candy from the door all the way up on her bed. We woke up in the middle of the night with her shining a flashlight on a racoon that was happily enjoying a piece of candy up on her bed. We thought it was the greatest thing ever!

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Gluten Free Lemon Crinkle Cookies ~ Recipe & Photo Credit

One of the great things about living in Minnesota you can put your little piggies in the grass and not worry about something biting you. After living in Texas this is a luxury! Soft fluffy cool grass…sigh.

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“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.” -L.M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island

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