Summer is winding down

I'm always sad to see summer go. Not the heat, but that vacation feeling. I especially feel it when I'm in one of Montana's tourist towns. You notice a lot of out-of-state license plates and people have that tourist look that I love.

We recently went to Canyon Ferry Lake with our boat. It felt so summer-like because of all the people camping, swimming, riding around in boats. I spent many summers of my youth on a lake doing those same things.

Now my granddaughters are here for a week and we will be spending days on the lake, swimming, racing around in the boat and catching the last of summer. I bought something called Big Mabel to pull behind the boat and can't wait to get it out of the box. Tubing is always great fun and I'm looking forward to it. I used to waterski for miles in the summer. My parents were the original snowbirds so I also waterskied winters down south.

I think summers are especially poignant in Montana because they are so short. Usually it is a wonderful time because it gets warm during the day, then cools down at night. Perfect temperatures.

Then all of sudden you notice that it's getting colder at night, dropping to the 40s. The leaves begin to turn on the cottonwoods and aspens and before you know it, you have to grab a jacket, then a coat because you wake up to snow.

The hardest part is losing the color green. We have white for way too many months on end.

So it is always sad to see summer waning. But at least for another week, we will swim and boat and get dragged all over the lake on a Big Mabel. We already have memories from other summers with the grandkids. We'll add this one to the collection.

Hope you are all enjoying the last of yours. Tomorrow we unbox Big Mabel. This going to be fun!