Didn’t school just get out? Isn’t the Iowa State Fair only a few weeks away? The 4th of July is over? Is it too early to start a countdown to football season? Did Governors Days really happen over a month ago? How much longer before the kids go back to school?

 

It seems like as soon as summer gets started, it ends just as fast. One minute we’re putting backpacks away and celebrating the end of the school year, and the next, we’re seeing back-to-school sales and starting to think about fall sports schedules.

 

Part of the reason summer slips by so quickly is its incredibly fast-paced nature. If you're anything like our family, summer becomes a whirlwind of baseball tournaments, road trips, family get-togethers, and endless late nights outside. We sit down in May and plan out the perfect summer—a bucket list full of lake days, amusement parks, ice cream stops, and quiet evenings on the porch—but somehow, the calendar fills up, the weekends fly by, and we realize we’ve only checked off a few of the things we’d hoped to do.

 

It’s a season that somehow feels both relaxing and exhausting. The longer days encourage us to squeeze in “just one more” activity before sunset, but by the end of July, we’re left wondering how it all passed in such a blur. Maybe that’s the charm and the challenge of summer—it’s fleeting, unpredictable, and crammed full of memories in the making.

 

Still, maybe that’s what makes summer so special. It doesn’t last forever, which makes us value each golden hour a little more. Every popsicle, every impromptu splash in the pool, every backyard s’more feels like something to hold onto tightly. So even if we didn’t make it to every event or cross off every item on our list, the moments we did have—big and small—add up to a summer well spent.

 

Be thankful Grimes, there is still so much to do locally and in the region. There is still time! Time for one more picnic. One more trip to the splashpad. One more visit to the pool. One more Saturday morning at the farmer’s market. One more visit to the library. Another chance to grab an ice-cream cone. One final trip to see the I-Cubs. Summer may be speeding by, but it’s not over just yet.