Sweet, Sweet Summertime

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Every year around this exact time, without fail, I put together a summertime inspiration post. It's never planned, but I suppose when June rolls around I start to get really giddy about the season and feel an instant desire to barf my joy onto the blog via images that, in my sun-kissed mind, define the season.

It's easy to fall into the blogger trap of constantly talking about seasons, but I can't help but feel the most inspired this time of year. I admittedly view summertime in a way that's drenched in idealism, speckled with broken memories of sticky, barefoot childhood Junes and Julys, or of my young adult years packed in vans full of other ready-for-anything kids with messy hair and rainbows in our eyes following hippie bands around the country during the summer months, or just of ideas in my head of what summer should be. In reality, the majority of my summers are spent inside working on this computer, and when I'm outside, I'm chasing around a toddler (now with a baby on my hip as well), usually covered in sweat and in dire need of a sparkling water and some freaking air conditioning, man. But there's something distinctly summer about that too - whether it's counting down the minutes until I'm done with work for the day so I can get outside and smell the flowers on my deck, or watching my kids relive the wonders of my own childhood summers.

The images you see here remind me of summertime's sweetest moments - whether from my past, my present, or the made up summertime dreams that dance around in my mind. This, to me, is the most wonderful time of year, where the days are blissfully long and anything seems possible. Happy summer, friends.

 *Essley in Arizona, not at all in the summertime but it'll do. 

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