Seventeen.

Seventeen glorious, perfect summer weekends between Memorial Day and the first day of fall.

Summer is by far my favorite time of year for many reasons. For starters: I love hot weather, I love the beach and I love race/running season. After Northeast Ohio’s dreadful, polar vortex filled winter; I am already in full summer mode and it’s still technically spring.

Being my normal neurotically organized and planner obsessed kinda gal, I came up with a 2014 summer bucket list.

Here’s what I got so far:

•  Go to Put-N-Bay for Christmas in July weekend (July 25, 26, 27)
•  Go to Cedar Point (In progress – planned for June 13)
• Go to the zoo
• Go for a long hike and pack a lunch to eat on the trail
• Go on a 50+ mile bike ride (I’m thinking I may want to attempt a 100-mile ride, but we’ll see)
• Go kayaking or canoeing (or both)
• Go camping in Madison, Ohio (I found a cute, really decently priced cabin online)
• Go fishing
• Play volleyball on the beach (We play in a Friday night bar league, but that doesn’t count)
• Workout at the beach/run on the beach as the sun rises (This weekend the fiancé and I ran at the beach, but the sun was already up so this one gets a half tally for just the workout)
• Go on a boat or jet ski
• Attend/have as many bonfires as possible and drink adult beverages around said bonfire (tally = 1)
• Sky dive (Special on Groupon/Living Social – stay tuned on this one. It’s still pricey, but I think it’ll be worth it. Just gotta convince the fiancé first)
• Go to a drive-in movie
• Try golfing (NOT mini golf)
• Have a luau party (Don’t judge me – I love a good luau)
• Go to an Indians game and sit outside on a patio at a bar before (or just do this and watch the game. Possibly attend a game with fireworks afterwards)
• Visit a lighthouse (This one gets a half tally since this weekend we did hike right up to an old lighthouse, but it was boarded up so we obviously couldn’t go inside)
• Make a long weekend trip to St. Louis (One of the fiancé’s best friends lives there)
• Stay a night at The Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake and go to as many wineries as possible (This one may be tricky, as it is full most of the summer + pretty expensive)
• Go to the beach as much as possible (tally = 1)
• Make homemade pizza on the grill or bonfire
• See Tim McGraw in concert (I’ve seen him every summer since 2008 – AND we are going June 8. Woooo)
• Grill out at the beach/eat dinner at the beach as the sun sets
• Make breakfast outside over a fire or the grill (Think eggs, sausage, pancakes even)
• Run as many races as possible (In progress, of course)

I’m sure we will add to the list too. We’ve got paddle boarding, my first triathlon, throwing a wine tasting party, wine tasting events, party in the park, family reunions and a whole bunch of other great stuff already lined up and planned. It’ll basically be us trying to fill in activities on the list between everything else. I absolutely LOVE this time of year and I couldn’t be more excited!

PLUS: My nephew was born this past weekend! Meet Alexander:

Double PLUS: We booked a date and venue for our wedding! BUT we are kind of keeping it a secret until our wine tasting party/engagement party at the end of June. (HINT: It’s pretty far off on the calendar, which is what we wanted.)

Triple PLUS: One of my brothers is interested in starting to run with me! We’ve already talked about possibly running some longer races together, which makes me very happy and excited!

Only one more week until my first triathlon! I’m still scared to death over the swim portion, but I keep telling myself the hardest and scariest part will be starting and getting into the water. Once that is over it’ll be all down hill from there.

“If your dreams don’t scare you – they aren’t big enough.”

I’ll leave you with a picture of the future hubbs and I hanging out at the beach Sunday morning. We did a two mile run with varied HIIT on the bike path and then explored the coast after with a beach hike.

Today’s workout: 11.5 mile bike, 1.5 mile run, ¼ mile swim.

What’s on your summer bucket list?