The Little Lentz: Summer!! (June, part I)

Summer of 2012 - I'm not sure why this one was so much better than any other summer. Maybe it was because we had been outside in the yard most of the spring and were ready for freedom from the school-night routine. Maybe it was because Ellie was ready to be done with homework. Maybe it was because we had so many fun things planned. Maybe it was because we spent it together and with some of our favorite people. Or most probable - it was all of the above. And it was one I am still thinking about on the first day of October when I write this.

The first week of June we had to hold on to the routine. We watched our garden and before school and after school almost every day we went out to see what was coming out to meet the summer. Our first little harvest was lettuce and strawberries. Our first strawberry was so pretty and unfortunately the birds got to it before Ellie could - so Kevin built a netting around our berries so we could enjoy them instead of the birds.

That same night (June 3, 2012) Ellie lost her 9th tooth. It was the easiest one yet. She was in bed and with a little wiggle it came right out. She called for me and I couldn't believe it, I didn't even realize it was that loose.

On June 5th, I had to go out of town for work. I really hated to leave Ellie on her last week of school, but I knew she was in good hands with both Kevin and Garred. The worst part for me was I missed her award assembly on June 7th. Not all kids get an award and Ellie received two. The first for achieving the national fitness level and the second a Certificate of Excellence for outstanding academic performance. Basically, she had all A or A- throughout the year and she achieved a 99% on her Iowa test. If it wasn't for the A- she got in computers she would have received a scholarship for the next year at Challenger. (She missed it the prior year by 1% on the Iowa test.) I am so proud of her and her accomplishments at school.

She loved the second grade. She really enjoyed her teacher, had good friends (Alex, Anja, Alyssa, Ayliya, Olivia, Claire, Grace, Parker to name a few) and was a great student. In second grade she read a lot of books including all of the Dork Diaries, Little House on the Prairie, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Winnie-the-Pooh, Sarah, Plain and Tall, Charlotte's Web and A Lion to Guard Us. She learned all of the state capitols and about all of the continents. She learned to diagram sentences identifying the subjects, objects and pronouns. She wrote short stories and gave class speeches. She took second place in her class spelling bee. In math there was multiplication, division, estimating, arrays, and so much more. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of what was captured in second grade but she did it and she was amazing!

After school Kevin and Ellie took a little break to celebrate with some fishing (they ALMOST caught one) and then home to pick a couple more strawberries from the garden. They sent me pictures and I was happy they were outside having fun.

On the last day of school I flew home from San Francisco in time do laundry and pack and pick up Ellie. It was the first time I wasn't at the last day of school extravaganza. I felt a bit bad, but I was a wiped out from my early trip home and we had summer plans I had to make sure we were prepared for.

Our summer fun literally started as soon as school ended. Kevin got home from work and we got all of our stuff together and in the car and we headed to the airport. We didn't waste even a second adjusting from school to summer. We took ourselves to California to meet up with our friends the Vanderlinden's and to kick off summer the right way, on vacation!

We met up with them the next morning in Ocean Beach so we could enjoy a relaxing day at the beach and of course so we could eat at Hodad's. This was Ellie's first visit to Hodad's and although she doesn't yet have an appreciation of how amazing the cheeseburgers really are - she did love the chocolate shake.

After lunch we walked down to the beach and weren't really prepared for the amount of fun that was about to be had.

The girls started quite timidly with the water - just letting it get to their toes. Then they got a bit braver and let it get below their knees. They would run in and out of the tide.

Pretty soon as you can tell by the dampness of their clothing they were up to their necks in the water, surfing from the side taunting the water to hit them. It did take Brooke and Reagan both for a good tumble when they weren't expecting it.

Ellie pulled a bunch of seaweed out of the water and I showed her how to pop the little bubbles on it. It was heavy so she got Paige to help her. A few minutes later I was helping and then when we were all done, she got Kevin to help.

After the water and seaweed they moved on to the sand. They made sand castles.

And before we left, they were all literally up to their necks buried in sand.

Up to your necks in water and then up to your necks in sand is a perfect recipe for a quick trip to the closest tourist store for clean and dry clothing. Please note they are all in different clothing than when they arrived.

And they weren't the only ones who walked away in something new. At some point while playing in the sand Ellie thought it would be funny to bury one of Kevin's flip flops. But after two hours of playing at the beach she forgot where she buried it and it was nowhere to be found.

Thank goodness the same store that provided new clothing for the girls also provided Kevin with a brand new pair of $3 flip flops. Not quite the same quality as the $30 pair we left behind - but - they worked. It was pretty funny and one of those times where I wasn't sure if I should just laugh or be upset. I struggled somewhere in the middle but thankfully the other adults all just laughed. Because looking back, it was super funny and I assume watching the four adults search the sand was just as funny. The fact that it got lost was purely accidental based on all the fun they were having at the beach. And really, who should be upset about that?

We ran back to our hotel to clean up and a short hour later we were back with our friends enjoying Old Town, San Diego. We walked around the shops and Ellie bought a mini tea set she was excited about. She had wanted a mini doll earlier in the day at one of the antique stores but after the beach we forgot to go back and buy so she was excited to get the tea set instead. She loves "little" things.

Then we dipped candles, looked at some butterflies, checked out some rocks and decided we had worked up an appetite.

At dinner, the girls got their own serenade. I can't remember what he said in the song, but it had the girls giggling which in turn had us laughing. It was pretty much a perfect first day of summer.

The second day of summer was a bit cleaner, but no less perfect. We met our friends in the morning at the San Diego Zoo. We started with a family picture - one of my better shots, don't ya think?

And then we were off to see the animals. Anyone that goes to the zoo knows that some days are just better than others with the animals and we were lucky to have an AMAZING day with them. The white wolf was howling. The girls would howl and he would howl back and then they would giggle.

The huge brown bear was literally doing the grapevine with his front feet, dancing back and forth right in front of us. The other brown bear was on a search for peanut butter spread out on his walls.

There was a new baby giraffe, only four days old!

There were baby cheetah cubs and we just happened to be RIGHT there when they were taking the cheetah from one location to another.

We saw the panda on the move, we saw the koalas getting cozy, the hippo was swimming in the water for us and one little monkey had us entertained for over 15 minutes. He was swinging and running and playing with a long piece of bark. Then one of the others came to take away his game and he would run and then run back. It was an awesome day.

Our little animals had a great time. There was a fake snake on a rock and I thought it was real. I totally jumped and screamed and Brooke thought that was the funniest thing ever. She had some good laughs on my behalf.

We ended the zoo day together with a zoo tour from the bus. When Brooke gets tired she likes to hold on to hair.

So while she was holding it, she and Ellie decided to do each other's hair during the bus tour.

After the ride and some shopping, our friends left, but I wasn't quite ready to go. I didn't get enough us time, so the three of us stayed behind and took a quick ride over the zoo and tried to stretch the fun out a bit longer.

I always hate to see fun days end but we had a bit of a drive to prepare for our third day of summer in.... ...Disneyland! In the morning when we were getting ready Ellie pointed out that Pluto is a dog that barks and is on all fours. Goofy talks and walks on two legs. She had us all asking why??

We got to the park a little bit ahead of our friends so we took advantage of the empty park and rode Star Tours and then we went to Captain EO. Ellie loves Michael Jackson and Captain EO turned out to be one of her favorite spots. She said, "It's better than just sweet!"

We then rode Space Mountain and I am happy to say that SHE LOVED IT. She has finally gone from not wanting anything to do with it to it being her second favorite ride (after Thunder Mountain Railroad but before Pirates.) I told her in a few more years she may finally be ready to love the Tower of Terror and she said, "That will never ever EVER ever be my favorite ride."

The rest of the day we rode everything we could with our friends. We went to Autotopia and Ellie didn't want to drive at first. I talked her into it and after she got comfortable with it, she had so much fun, but wasn't about to show it. At the end of the night she admitted how much fun she had but just didn't want to admit I was right. While we waited for our shuttle home (which didn't arrive) I made a video of her admitting it. It was cracking us up. We had such a great day!

This cute kid was in line all by himself and he started talking to me. He was there with his mom and her new husband (because his dad hit his mom and got deported) and they were with the smaller children. He wanted to ride more so he was alone, but had a cell phone so they could check in. Anyway, he was a terribly polite and cute kid and heard Kevin talking about his sore back and offered to help him out. He knew how because he went with his grandma to her place that helps her back and he did it for her all the time. Anyway, Kevin said it did actually help and even Kimese got in on the back action!

Over lunch we saw Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. We hadn't seen this before and we loved it. It was so funny and entertaining. I love Disneyland and how there is entertainment for everyone and there is entertainment everywhere!

Ellie wanted to make sure she saw Mickey Mouse and wanted to make sure he saw the shirt she wore for him. She was too shy to mention it, but I'm sure he saw it.

We got back to the hotel that night pretty much exhausted. Our shuttle didn't arrive when it was supposed to so Kevin tracked us down a taxi. It was another night I didn't want to end. I didn't want to leave the park but both Kevin and Ellie convinced me it was time to go and assured me there would be more fun tomorrow. I can't help it - I don't like fun days to end!

But of course there was more fun the next day. We went back to the parks and spent some of the day in California Adventure and some of the day in Disneyland. We again got there a bit before our friends so we went through the castle and took turns reading the story to each other.

Then we stopped so Ellie could make a wish.

We then spent a couple of hours with our friends in the morning riding Splash Mountain the The Little Mermaid and Soaring over California, but the rest of the day we split up to make sure the little girls could do little things and Paige could do big things with her dad and we could do our things.

Ellie wasn't too excited to split up but I was happy to spend time just the three of us.

Ellie was not excited about California Screamin' - until she rode it, and LOVED it!

We actually ran out of our normal things to do so we did some thing we had never done before. We went to the Aladdin show in the theater and finished up at California Adventure (well almost.)

Then we went back to Disneyland to do some shopping.

We stopped in the little theater in Disneyland where they show old black and white cartoons and watched a few.

We caught up with a few characters and then while eating dinner Kevin and Ellie ran to see Captain EO one more time.

We did go back to California Adventure for two last things. Yes, the Tower of Terror. Which took quite a bit of convincing and some focus on state capitals while we were in line. Ellie was so brave and I think she even liked it a little.

And finally, we caught up with our friends again to see the World of Color.

While we waited for it to start the girls were happy to be together again and made the most of their last hour together on the trip.

Brooke asked everyone that had fun to raise their hand. Of course we all did! Thanks for a great trip friends!!

That night when we got back to the hotel, we were again exhausted. Ellie took off her shoes and was shocked at the smell. "Oh, DO NOT smell my feet!", she cautioned all of us. But she wanted so badly to play with her new mini Minnie house that she couldn't stop to wash them, instead she just wrapped them in a blanket and started to play. We all got several good laughs at that.

On June 13th (the fifth day of summer) we had to head home, but before we did we spent some time in the morning swimming. Kevin got his usual mo-hawk. (Mo-honk this time,because that is what Brooke calls them.)