Happiness is a hammock in your backyard

OK, so it's me again with the overcelebrated holidays! We're gearing up for the 4th of July and I'm super excited about it! We were planning to go to the lake like we did last year, because the kids can play in the water all day and then at night we can watch the fireworks from there, but this year Shawn is on call all weekend and he didn't want to be running back and forth from the lake to the pharmacy all day.

SO, we're gearing up for another fake vacation! :) Starting tonight we're going camping in our backyard! Woohoo! We're putting up the tent, we're going to cook on the grill, make smores at night and we're going to have a great time back there all weekend. I'm the master of pretend vacations. I can turn anything into a vacation or a holiday.

Anyway, yesterday as I was planning what I wanted to do for our weekend, I decided that if we're going to spend the weekend in the backyard I want a hammock. I've wanted one for years and every summer I say that I'm going buy one but I never do. So yesterday buying a hammock became my project for the day.

Unfortunately, no one mentioned my project to the stores because there were no hammocks to be found!! We literally drove all over town yesterday afternoon trying to buy a hammock, and everywhere we went we were told that no one can keep them in stock. They come in and people snatch them right up. Bummer.

We looked and we looked and we looked until we were tired and cranky and we were tired of looking, so we went home with no hammock. Last night I resigned myself to the fact that we just weren't having a hammock for our backyard camping adventure. But I can be REALLY stubborn sometimes! I woke up this morning and decided that we ARE having a hammock in our backyard if I have to make the darn thing myself.

Fortunately I didn't have to. I started calling around to stores this morning and I finally found a Fred Meyer that had one left in stock that had been sitting in the back because the box was totally torn up. I told them to hang on to it and we drove right over and picked it up. Fortunately because the box was so messed up it was even on sale! Woohoo! There's nothing I love more than finding something slightly damaged that I can get a bargain on.

So I came home and put it together in the shade under our big tree and the kids and I jumped into it. Pure HEAVEN! Why didn't we buy one of these a long time ago? I made lemonade and we all went out there with a book to read and we snuggled in the hammock and read our books and drank our lemonade for quite a while. Now THAT is the way to spend a summer day. I think I'm going to sell our bed and replace it with a hammock. Ok, not really.

Anyway, I hope to spend the rest of my summer snuggled with my kids in the hammock reading a book and drinking lemonade. Is there anything better than that? I think I've found my new happy place. :)