I was one of those girls that sat down, with her pretty notebook, and dreamed about all the things that had to be accomplished when Summer Vacation rolled around. It usually included reading a lot of books and even “have an adventure”.
You loose that sense of excitment as an adult, but this summer I want to try and capture the joy of having summer ahead of me, armed with a list of stuff I have to do! So here’s what I’m hoping to accomplish this summer – some activities as a family, and some just me.
Visit every park in Durham County | There are a ton of city parks (over 40!), and most I haven’t even seen. I’m sure there are treasures that I don’t know about. Some have great playgrounds, others have spraygrounds for summer fun!
Go to the NC Zoo | Can’t believe we’ve been here almost 5 years and we have yet to go to the state zoo. Seems like a no brainer summer activity.
Visit a pool | We’ll be a bit moochie, but we have several friends who have pool memberships and can take guests. Pick me! Pick me!
Road Trip outside of NC | This one is already scheduled, but still should be added to the list!
Road Trip within NC | Now that we have a minivan, I should be able to convince my husband to do a day trip or overnight trip within NC.
Beach Day | We aren’t huge beach people, but it would be fun to do a quick day trip to the beach.
Visit the Farmers Market | I still can’t believe this hasn’t happened yet this season, but it needs to.
Go to the Marbles Kids Museum | This museum is in downtown Raleigh, but I’ve heard it’s a great museum, even for toddlers. This would be a good “too hot” activity!
Schedule Date Nights | We had a babysitter about a month ago, so my husband and I could go out to eat and enjoy a relaxing dinner. It was DELIGHTFUL! We need to get more of these on the calendar.
Attend a Bull City Craft Playcraft session | This is a really cool craft store that does toddler crafts almost every week day. It would be tons of fun, and a great “hot day” activity.
Keep Vlogging | I’ve already started, but I’d love to keep this up over the summer… whether it’s weekly OR random whole days. We shall see.
Attend a Food Truck Rodeo | There is a BIG food truck rodeo on Father’s Day, which we went to last year, and I’d like to do it again. But there are other smaller rodeos throughout the summer that I would like to hit as well.
Go to Pullen Park | This is a really cool park in Raleigh that we haven’t been to yet. Plenty of playground space, but also a carousel and a train!
Attend an outdoor concert | There are several options (free and paid) in the area for outdoor concerts. Just need to pick one and do it!
Organize more play dates | Many of our play date activities will wind down for the summer, but I don’t want to miss out on friend time.
Reread the Mitford Series | Jan Karon’s Mitford Series is my absolute favorite book series. I ADORE it! Lighthearted, warm, and funny, it’s just the kind of books that leaves you smiling when you finish reading them. There is a new book coming out in the fall, so I want to reread the entire series in anticipation of that new book.
Schedule “hookie” weekends | Our weekends are always jam-packed. We go to church on Saturday, and I am involved in several things each week, which means it’s a busy day! And then we jam so much in on Sunday that the weekend is rarely relaxing. I need to pull out that schedule and just block off weekends where we have nothing scheduled and block it off to play hookie.
What are your plans for this summer? Even if you don’t have the summer off, like the good ol’ days, try to plan a few special things!
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What a fantastic list! The girls and I really need to get started on ours soon!
I LOVE the hookie weekends we may just need to schedule a few of those two.
The hookie weekends just have to happen. It would be so nice to have!!
Does your city have a “park hop” series? We have a thing here where you can earn prizes for visiting all the parks during the summer – I think it’s an app that you check in with each time you hit a new park.
I’m not a beach person either. I don’t hate it, but it’s not my favorite place or my first choice for vacation. Glad I’m not the only one! 🙂
I don’t think Durham does! Or it does, but I don’t know about it. But I know I am missing out on some gems because I haven’t been to all the parks, so I’m looking forward to exploring! And beach for the day is about all I like to do 🙂
Love your list! I hope we can make it to a few similar things this summer like an outdoor concert!
Outdoor concerts are such a great thing with kiddos!
Your list looks great. I have three weeks off in the summer and need to do a similar list. Since we had our trip to New York we will not go on a big trip in summer. Time to do things and visit places that had been in my mind for a long time.
Oh you could do so much with 3 weeks off in the summer! So many good adventures to have!
Love this list!! So good! I have really wanted to check out some food trucks- good idea!
Food trucks are such fun! Small menus but they do a few things REALLY well!
What a great “to-do” list! I’m doing a type of summer list, too. It’ll be up on my blog tomorrow. I’m so excited to GET OUT THERE.
I can’t wait to hear about your zoo trip. I LOVE zoos. LOVE them.
I need to check out your list! I definitely felt like a little kid making my “what I want to do on my summer vacation” list 🙂
OMG I so relate to giving yourself summer “assignments” as a kid–mine usually involved putting together scrapbooks or photo albums! 🙂 I’m trying to make a list of things I want to do this summer too–the time just seems to fly by otherwise!
Wasn’t that just the best thing ever as a kid – making the special list of things to do??? It was like a kid’s version of New Years resolutions 🙂
Outdoor concerts are great! We have an outdoor concert series at our botanical garden every summer, and it’s the most wonderful setting to enjoy a picnic and listen to music among the trees and flowers! 🙂 Farmer’s market is also on my list!
We’ve only really been to two outdoor concerts in the 5 years we’ve lived here! It’s just silly…. but it would definitely be up Elizabeth’s ally, so this is the summer to try it!
Hookie weekends are my favorite. I will be scheduling a few of these, too. I have started our list, but hasn’t gotten very far. I need to get back on it.
It looks like you have a fun Summer planned.
I think I’m personally looking forward to the hookie weekends the most! I don’t realize how much our family needs it until we have one… it’s just so relaxing.
Love your summer bucket list! I am planning on making ours soon- I better hurry, this is the last week of school!
Thank you! And hurry! Hurry! Hurry! (And hooray for the last week of school!)
What an amazing list of fun things to do this summer! I love the pools, splash pads, zoos, road trips and relaxation. I’m hoping to try a few new local restaurants, head to the pool with Olive, check out our Children’s museum, have some play dates and grill out a lot. Summer is always fun 🙂
New restaurants! That’s a good one to add. And splash pads are just such fun. PLUS they allow me to cool off too by getting those toes wet 🙂 No bathing suit required! HAHA!
Girl you need to link this up next week on my Party at My Place linkup party. I’m doing a Summer theme and this would be perfect. Opens at 6:00 a.m. On Thursday and since you’re probably up with baby boy then it will be perfect. Farmers Markets a weekly happy place for me during the summer months.