That Old Familiar Feeling

Dread.
The end of July is nearly upon us and I have the feeling that with at least one kid going back to school in about two weeks, summer has passed us by. We are taking all the kiddies to Universal for a few days next week, but I find it difficult to get enthused about standing in long lines in the glaring sun waiting to "experience" Harry Potter.
On the bright side, at least we will all be together for those few precious days.
I know that it will sound completely ridiculous to most people when I say this, but with the prospect of only having 6 children living under my roof come this time next month, I am feeling like a bit of an empty-nester. There is going to be an empty seat in my 8 passenger SUV, for the first time in over 4 years. And the fact is that with my son's departure, the time clock for my daughter's departure ticks that much louder.
I always have these idealized visions of summer and they never come true, though we get closer some years more than others. This year I just feel cheated. There was summer school for my son, which hampered traveling until mid July and there was summer school for my law-school hubby, who successfully completed L1 and got a good jump on L2 with his courses also through mid July. The problem there is that he lives in our "vacation" home while attending school, which makes it difficult to use it for vacationing with the kids, especially during finals.
So, I am left with the remaining 17 days of summer to get the most out of them and to accomplish whatever it was that I hoped to, back in June, when we should have had all the time in the world.