Summer Summer Summertime

Finally, summer has arrived. Now I can’t believe it is half gone. Yes, I am a half empty kind of guy when it comes to summer. This is probably one of the most anticipated summers in my life. Now you are expecting a big event announcement right? Well, nothing big here, I was just so sick of winter, rain, cold gloom filled days. I was tired of shoveling snow. I was tired of Jack Frost. I was slightly irritated that Punxsutawney Phil missed the call.

But now its here, and like I said, already half gone.

Everyone knows that we are huge Disney fans, and anyone that knows me fairly well knows my love for Star Wars. Star Wars defined my childhood. I was obsessed. Some may say I still am. With these two prominent aspects of my life, it was only fitting that we traveled to Anaheim to be in Disneyland for the opening of the all new Star Tours Ride. It was EPIC. Yes, E. P. I. C. EPIC! I should clarify that we are not the type of fans that dress up for these types of events, at least not in authentic Chewbacca costumes or anything like that, but we did coordinate the entire family into star wars type T shirts. I was sporting my Boba Fett T, Rebecca glistened in her newly purchased Princess Leia shirt, Tierra fancied a Boba Fett shirt also, and Eli sported the Stormtrooper wear. Haylee opted out. She just doesn’t get it yet. The ride was awesome. I highly recommend adding it to your bucket lists. I am not going to outline our Disney trip (your welcome Unca Lin), but I will mention that this was our last trip for quite some time. We are saving up for a family exodus to Disney World in late 2012. We are anticipating extreme withdrawals, but have already lined up counselors that deal with these types of problems.

Upon returning from the Mouse’s House, I was sent to Florida to help fight wildfires. I had never been that far, but have always been curious what and how things burn down there in the swamps. Now I have seen it with my own eyes, but still I have a hard time believing it. It just goes against everything I know, or thought I knew about fire behavior. I mention this experience only because it was just that, an experience. Never-mind the fire hazards, I had to watch out for gators. It was awesome to see gators in the wild, even if they did want to sample my calf muscles. We were fighting fires on a Panther refuge, and were suppose to be protecting known Panther dens. Also a first for me.

Another cool thing is that I was able to sneak in a baseball game while there. A huge rainstorm moved into the area one night, so they pulled us off the line early and sent us to our hotels to “rehab.” Well, the Marlins were in town, playing my Angels no less, so my rehab consisted of driving to Miami, eating a hot dog, drinking a Sierra Mist, and watching the Angels kick some Marlin butt. Sweet it was, indeed. I feel bad for the Marlins because they play in the same stadium as the Dolphins, and there is absolutely nothing that indicates that the Marlins even exist. Everything is Dolphins. I experienced my first rain delay, which made for a late night and an early morning the next day on the fire line. I got back to the hotel about 1 am and fire line shifts start at 530 am. Totally worth it.

So that brings us to now. Heat wave and all. The only thing I am not liking about summer is that we do not have central air. Give up one trip to Disneyland to get it you say? No.

The kids are loving the summer, though they love school too. Tierra is “training” to run a 5k this weekend in Farmington. I am not sure where she got the running gene, because it sure is not part of my DNA. Eli is excited to turn 6 because he gets a “friend” party. I can’t wait until he is old enough to have sleep overs so I can take him toilet papering. Haylee loves having her siblings home all day long so she can torment them as she pleases. That is definitely a prominent gene of mine.

We hope your summer is going awesome too.