Apr 12, 2012

41 Summer Activities To Try

For fun I like to make lists, yes I am very exciting. But for some reason I find making lists highly entertaining and for some reason they comfort me. If I am stressed I can make a list about something and I feel better. Or I make lists for cleaning or to do lists, for some reason drawing a big line over something I accomplished makes me feel super productive. In this case, we were lacking date nights and family activities to do. 
{Summer 2010- Lagoon}

Some of them aren't huge activities, they are just small ones that will take a minute to do. Some can be done as a family (meaning with A-Cakes) and some are more for date nights. But here are all the fun things that I want to do this summer
  1. Go Garage Sale Hunting- Drive around and look for garage sales, they aren't hard to find, and find some new treasures. I found a ton of baby stuff last year this way. 
  2. Go swimming.
  3. Go to the zoo
  4. Go to the Aquarium
  5. Go to Lagoon- Lagoon is a amusement park in Utah. 
  6. Visit a Farmer's Market- I haven't ever done this, but it sounds fun. 
  7. Have a campout- either in the mountains, or set up a tent in the back yard or the house. If you do it in the house you can roast marshmallows over a gas stove top or a candle. 
  8. Have a movie marathon- I want to watch Harry Potter, we probably can't watch all of them in one day, so we will probably have two or three of these. You can also do like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or you can make a girls day of it with your moms, friends, sisters, or your daughters and watch some of my favorites (Pride and Prejudice BBC version, Anne of Green Gables, or Gone with the Wind) Don't forget the treats, and perhaps your pajamas. Don't forget the popcorn.
  9. Picnic in the park- You can make sandwiches or get subway or some fast food and eat it in the park, your kids will have lots of fun playing on the playground. I love picnics for dates, last year we  brought Where's Waldo books and I Spy books and looked at them at the park with our picnic. 
  10. Have a sleepover in the living room- A great family activity for all of you to do, or just you and the hubby. I think we will invite A-Cakes to our sleepover for a bit, but she goes to bed early and then we will just let her sleep in her own bed. 
  11. Go on a hike- I'm not a huge hiker, I am more into mountain strolls, or nice shady, not uphill hikes, so that is what we will do. 
  12. Go to the mountain and roast hot dogs and s'mores over a fire-You don't even have to stay the night, pack it up when it gets late. 
  13. Go star gazing- Drive a little ways away from the bright lights of your town and lay a blanket down and star gaze. We did this all the time when we were dating, we loved it. We had to stop cause I got eaten up by mosquitos (seriously I got 11 bites in one night and Jeremy got none, mosquitos love me, but in all fairness to them, I have rare blood type) Bring Bug spray
  14. Have a candlelight dinner- This is probably more for a date, but I remember being a kid and on a few rare occasions my mom would let us all have a candle-lite dinner and it was so much fun. 
  15. Make a new dinner and/or a dessert together- I love cooking with Jeremy, we have a ton of fun doing it together. It makes cooking way more enjoyable. Once for a date we seen a movie and then came home and made a big giant chocolate chip cookie and then decorated it with frosting. You can make Thai Coconut Chicken Bowls, Chile Verde Burritos, or Magic Cookie Bars
  16. Board game night- a family thing, or invite friends over to play with you. Or you can make it a date night thing. We love playing Rummikub together, some other favorites are Skip-bo, Phase 10, and Quip It. Make it a great date night by making it a strip board game, strip uno or something. 
  17. Go get sno-cones
  18. Ice Cream run-or frozen yogurt
  19. Thrift Store- Go to your local thift store and you each get $5.00 to spend on something. 
  20. Dollar Store Shopping- I love love love the dollar store, I seriously have no self control there, how can I talk myself out of buying something if its only $1.00?? Kids will love this cause they can each get a few things and it costs you next to nothing. 
  21. Wheeler Farm- I want to take A-Cakes here, it has lots of pretty flowers and cute animals that she can look at, and its free. 
  22. Build a pillow or blanket fort
  23. Blow Bubbles
  24. Have a Nintendo Night- We love having Nintendo 64 nights, yes we still have an old N64 and it is so fun to play all those old games. We have nights where we invite Jeremy's family over to play and we take turns playing Mario Kart or Mario Party and games like that. You can have wii parties as well. Sometimes we go to my MIL's house and everyone plays on her Kinect (bowling and stuff) and that is a blast.
  25. Have an 'Un'-Birthday- It doesn't need to be anyone's birthday to bake a cake, put up some streamers, light some candles and sing 'happy un-birthday to you.' When I was 16 I baked myself a cake and forced my family to sing to me. They thought I was crazy at first, but they agreed to so they could get cake, we ended up having a ton of fun and it was just silly to sing to someone when its not their birthday. Plus, as I said before, you get cake. 
  26. Go to a restaurant just for dessert. 
  27. Make Lemonade
  28. Go to the mall- I want to go to this new mall they opened up called City Creek Mall, and the Gateway, both are in Salt Lake City, and it is fun to go downton once in a while, we don't go there too much. 
  29. Have a 'Drive in movie' with our laptop- I want to go to a park or somewhere and watch a movie on a blanket with our laptop under the stars. 
  30. Go to the planetarium.
  31. Recreate our first date- Maybe we will do this for our anniversary in May. For our first date we went to the nicklecade (where somehow I won at airhockey, I am still super proud of it, my one time I won) and then went back to Jeremy's apartment and made chicken and artichoke pasta and then watched 10 Things I hate about you.
  32. Try out a new restaurant
  33. Put together a puzzle
  34. Have a Italian or Mexican or Chinese night- Decorate your house or kitchen to look like that country, then make a meal with that country. You can get chopsticks or play mexican music. When I was like 11 I asked my mom if we could have a 'Japanese night' and we all sat around our coffee table on pillows and ate our dinner ( I am sure my mom had no idea what to cook for Japenese food, so I am sure it was just chinese food). 
  35. Go house or apartment hunting- We are moving, yet again, sometime this summer, so we are going to be looking for a house or an apartment soon, I find doing this to be fun, if we were moving to a house it would be more fun though.
  36. Make homemade popsicles- I do this a few times a year, I have popsicle molds and I usually just fill them with juice or lemonade- Try limeade, it is delicious. 
  37. Water Balloon fight
  38. Feed the ducks- We used to live in an apartment that had a small canal by it with a little trail running along the canal, the canal had a little family of ducks (baby ducks!) and they were adorable, we would bring them bread and feed them. I think A-Cakes would love doing this. 
  39. Walk along the Jordan River Parkway- It is this pretty little trail that runs along the Jordan River here in Utah, that might coincide with feeding ducks
  40. Invite people over for dinner- I love making dinner for people, I usually invite people over for dinner several times a year. Crock pot dinners like Pulled Pork Sandwiches are my favorite to serve, its less stress. 
  41. Murder Mystery Night- I have wanted to host one of these for like over a year. I want to buy a murder mystery game, like the kind you listen to and you all dress up like your character and you eat dinner and stuff. I really really want to do it. I need to find a good game though, you have to buy them in game stores and they are like $50.00 which I am kinda cheap so I won't spend that much, or online. I did buy one online once, but I guess the seller found out all the pieces weren't there, so they refunded my money. Seriously though, this is my like dream to host one of these. I want it to be like 20's gangster flapper one, and we all eat spaghetti and talk in accents. 

3 comments:

Trevor, Deidre & Mckinlie Edwards said...

Vanessa- I LOVE these ideas. We struggle finding things to do so I'll have to try some of these.

Six Sisters said...

Great ideas with summer just around the corner! We are so glad that you linked up to our "Strut Your Stuff Saturday." We hope you'll be back soon! -The Sisters

Alison @ Oopsey Daisy said...

I LOVE all of your ideas! :) I am making a general list for myself too! It's nice to take advantage of the time with our kids!! Thanks for sharing at oopsey daisy!