2022 Summer Bucket List — (2024)

Going a little old school today with my blog post. Remember when everyone used to publish their seasonal bucket lists? I always thought they were so fun, and they definitely pushed me to seek out more adventures and memorable experiences than when I didn’t make one.

Now that things are opened up again and basically back to usual around here post-pandemic, I wanted to take advantage of this chance to have a more “normal” summer again. The last time I made a summer bucket list was 2017, when I only had one child, we were just moving into our first home, and I was coming off a stressful start to my year.

Ironically, many of the items on this list are the EXACT SAME as what I planned on 5 years ago, except now I have two more kids in tow, live in a totally different part of the state, and am running a flower farm on top of everything else. Since summer is (obviously) the busiest time for us on the flower farm, I don’t know how many of these we’ll be able to get to. However, I also know that it’s really important for me to plan for fun, otherwise I’ll tend to just work, work, work.

Summer Bucket List 2022

• Go on a family hike
  • I’ve been meaning to go on a hike ever since we moved here (back at the end of 2020), but we’ve just been so busy with flower farming and house projects that we haven’t taken the time yet. We (once again) live right by several canyons, so we’ll have plenty of options.
• Hawaii trip
  • Our most exciting bucket list item for the summer is our big Hawaii trip, which has been in the works for years now. Just a few more weeks to go until we’re all on the beach!
• Sign two older kids up for swim lessons
  • I’d wanted to sign up the two older kids for swim lessons last year, but they weren’t being offered due to the pandemic restrictions. Now all the sessions are once again open, and the kids have literally been asking me every single day when their swim lessons are going to start.
• Try out a new local restaurant
  • We don’t have very many dining out options here, both because we live rurally and because very few places that are around don’t have any gluten-free options for Matt. However, there are still some places where we could probably accommodate his celiac (like a new place that just opened a few blocks from here that serves breakfast food), so we just need to go and try some out.
• Make sure Raven finally sees some fireworks!
  • My oldest is 7 and has literally never stayed up to watch fireworks. We did try a couple years to wake her up to watch them, but she is such a sound sleeper once she finally falls asleep that we haven’t had any luck. This year we’ll probably just have her stay up one of the nights they’re going so she can finally see what all the fuss is about 🙂
• Take kids bowling
  • Our kids have never been bowling (even our oldest), and bowling is one of the very few entertainment options that our county actually has, so we may as well take advantage!

• Establish a weekly library day
  • Now that the flower farm is basically planted out, I should be able to get into much more of a ‘schedule’ with farm chores and bouquet making, which means I should be able to establish a better weekly routine. Our local library is tiny, but our county allows you to take out books from two of the other county libraries too, so I thought it would be fun if we could rotate between the three and try and get in the habit of going once a week.
• Get a haircut
  • I haven’t had a haircut in six months, and the last one I had was me handing Matt a pair of scissors and telling him to just chop off three or four inches because the split ends were so bad. Now my split ends are really bad again, but I probably should go and pay for a proper haircut this time, or at the very least make Matt watch a few YouTube videos 🙂
• Read 10 books
  • I’m really excited about the Summer Reading List I compiled for this year, and I’m especially excited because I seem to finally be out of the reading slump I’ve been in since 2020. I might not have the time to read I once did, but I should definitely still be able to read at least 10 books this summer if I prioritize it.
• Visit a splash pad
  • There were a ton of local splash pads where we used to live, and we had so much fun going to different ones and trying to visit them all. I actually have no idea if there are any splash pads in our new county, but I’m going to find out! (If there aren’t any here, I’ll just make sure we visit one up north next time we make a trip to Sam’s Club or something.)
• Take a day or weekend trip to Capitol Reef
  • We don’t live far from this lesser-known national park at all (only about an hour and forty minutes), and we’ve already been a couple times since moving here. I would love to make it a third time this summer!
• Attend a local festival or fair
  • There are several fun festivals and fairs in our county in the summer, and I want to make sure we go to at least one. We missed one of the biggest ones at the end of May (the Scandinavian Festival), but there are still a few more we could try and squeeze in.
• Visit a children’s museum
  • It’s been a really long time since we’ve been to a children’s museum and we’ve never taken any of our kids to the big one in Salt Lake, so I’m hoping we can make a day trip of it one of these days, maybe in July or August since June is already pretty packed.

I’d love to know what’s on YOUR summer bucket list this year! I’d love additional ideas 🙂