Summer Round Up and Menu

I'm feeling like summer is over so I thought it would be appropriate to put together a little summer round up of pictures.

Just in case you were wondering, we had a GREAT summer.  We traveled a lot ...

 
We spent some time on the beach....

We spent some time in the mountains...

We got to go to a beautiful wedding and reconnect with some family that we hadn't seen in a very long time...

We spent a week at the lake...

Of course there were the trips to the pool...

Time to hangout with friends...

with cousins...

and grandparents...

And ... there was lots of family time.

Just looking through the pictures makes me wish we could relive last summer all over again.  This summer was a great season of reconnecting.  With our own immediate family and also with family members that live really far away.  We're all so busy and even the four of us who live in the same house have a hard time juggling our busy schedules to make time to spent together.  Vacation takes us away from all the busyness and chaos of our daily lives so we can simply enjoy each others company.  That is what this summer was truly about - spending time with the people that we love, reconnecting and making memories that will stay with us forever.

I will miss the lazy days of summer but I look forward to all the excitement that Fall has to offer.  Cross country meets and soccer games are scattered all over the calendar for the next couple of months which means that we'll be eating more meals on-the-go that usual.   I have to take that into account when I plan menus.   Speaking of menus, (How was that for a transition?) here is our list of meals that we will be enjoying this week:

Monday: Oven Cooked Mussels (A recipe from my Cooks Illustrated magazine.)
Tuesday:  Hawaiian Grilled Chicken (A recipe to use up my leftover chicken thighs.)
Wednesday:  Perch Sandwiches
Thursday: Zesty Beef Stir-Fry over Brown Rice (A recipe I found on nutritiouslife.com.)
Friday:  Cheesy Pretzel Chicken Pops
Saturday:  Southwestern Chicken Wraps (Using the leftover Hawaiian chicken.)
Sunday:  Freezer breakfast sandwiches

Have a great week.

Ciao!