Summer and Levi

My Dad has a cousin from his Mom's side that he likes to connect with and who used to live in Utah for a time named "Cousin Rhonda". Throughout the years, we always liked to catch up with her and her family. She has a daughter that is a few years older than me named Jennifer and she now lives here in Utah in the Sandy area. She's a Facebook friend of mine and at one of Adam's races, her and her husband, Brad showed up to watch. We got to catch up a bit and discovered that she had a 10 year old boy and I had an 8 year old boy. Her son's name is Levi and last year, she invited us to come to her house, she has a pool in her backyard! It even has a hot tub in one section. So nice!
One day, Jennifer reached out to me and asked if I had any daycare plans for after school got out. I had registered him to attend a local rec center "summer program" but I wasn't very excited about the prospect of high school kids watching my and 13 other kids at the same time. She said that she was taking a break from school and work for the summer to hang out with and watch Levi. She asked if I wanted to have her watch Trace too. What?! How exciting! She agreed to watch him for the same price as the rec center, I just couldn't be happier. As the summer began, Trace and Levi discovered they were the very best of friends, even referred to themselves as long-lost brothers! Jennifer did so many fun things for the two boys during the summer! They went to the library, the movies, read books, did computer math games, made yummy treats, attended the big military air show and of course, swam in the pool almost every day! As Trace would arrive home each day and tell me about the fun they had, I'd be jealous of all the fun I missed out on while I was at work! They even got season passes to the local water slide park and went there once a week. So incredibly fun! There were even a few days that Levi was out of town or spending the day with his father or brother and Jennifer took Trace a couple times and just hung out with him all day! One time they made cookies, they went to breakfast and she even took him bowling one time! I felt so lucky have her take such good care of him while I had to go to work. She's truly been a huge blessing in our lives, especially at a time when Kevin isn't able to do his job and in need of someone to watch Trace while he attends physical therapy and doctor appointments. I'm going to be so sad when the summer is over and the boys have to both go back to school! Play-dates will have to be made!