GT: Best Summers (Not necessarily this year...)

My summer vacation was pretty quiet. Like a silly goose, I decided to teach summer school for the month of June, so that was an unnecessary punishment. The highlight was that I taught STEM, which was basically logic puzzles and crafts with students. The family and I took a weekend trip to Los Angeles to visit family and had a day trip to Catalina island, which was awesome. I highly recommend that little excursion, even if they aren't having the "Catalina wine mixer!" Just after the 4th of July we went up to Flagstaff for a little heat relief, we stayed in an old cabin, so that was cool. Other than that, I did some projects around the house, and saw several movies.

I made a trip around the entire globe this summer, which if you ever wondered it took 42 hours in an airplane sitting like a sardine in basic economy seats.

My best summer experience was riding in a Catamaran on the Aegean Sea with a group of 25 teachers!

My favorite summer memory happened in June. I was 9 months pregnant with my second child. I took my son to Disneyland. For some reason, I wanted to go into labor at Cinderella’s castle as I love attention! And I thought labor wouldn’t be too bad at the happiest place on Earth! It wasn’t meant to be… I ended up having my little princess at a naval hospital with less attention and no media coverage. I still felt very blessed!

We went to Disneyland and it was amazing. The storm troopers harassed my family daily and my sons were thrilled.

When I was young, my dad and I were on our family land. We hiked to a high area and he showed me all of the land our family owned. He pointed out the borders to me and asked me to not trespass on the parts that weren't ours. Later, I got talking to my uncle, and he more or less explained to me that it's a rite of passage to go on the land. I told my friend, and we decided to ditch our baby-sitter and sneak out there. We got caught intruding, but luckily my dad showed up to bail us out. He sent my friend home, and I was in big trouble for deliberately disobeying him.

I spent two summers in Europe. I visited England, France, Spain, Tunisia, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Lichtenstein, Germany, and The Netherlands.

We were in California and experiencing 107 degree temperatures. When a local said it is unseasonably hot, we were able to respond, "Well it's 117 back in Arizona, so we will take it and enjoy!"

My family and I went on our first cruise to the Caribbean. For several days, my spouse and I only saw our kids at our daily dinner at 8pm. Several times, our kids said that our dinner was getting in the way of their fun. My bad.

Every summer when I was a kid, we would take a family vacation. We always drove with my siblings and me in the back seat. My dad loved antiques and wanted to stop at every antique store, flea market, garage sale, etc. to see what they had. As kids, we got so bored waiting for his "quick 5 minute stop," so we would scan the roadways ahead looking for the signs. As soon as we saw a sign for one of his "quick stops" we would try to think of different ways to distract him. We'd say "look over there!" and ask big questions to distract him. We would even have fake arguments, so he would have to deal with us. More often than not, we did not succeed, but we sure did try! Of course, now we all love to make those stops and would love it even more if we could do it with our dad. But back then, we made it our mission to stop the antiques stops!

Many summers were spent driving 14hours to see my grandparents who lived in Alabama. We'd get up at 4:30 a.m. and arrive some time at night, depending on how many rest stops and food breaks we had along the way. We'd stay for 2-3 weeks. I loved: the loud conversations we had as we all made breakfasts/lunches/dinners, the laughter, staying up late, playing cards with my grandparents and their friends, harvesting veggies from their enormous garden, making jelly, fishing in random spots, walking to town, etc. It felt like wearing a different life; I even had a different name when I was there.

On July 15 we decided to get married in Las Vegas! We had a lovely, Elvis & drama-free ceremony with just the two of us. All we had to worry about was my hair and our vows.

I got to see my third space shuttle (Discovery)! I almost cried when I first saw it. Also saw an Air France Concorde, the Enola Gay, and an F14 Tomcat. I was flyin' high!

During college I spent my Summers working at Yosemite; living in a tent that had wood floors; walked uphill to the showers and bathrooms. For a city girl this was def roughing it!

I went to a Barbie Rave this summer. I danced so much my shoes fell apart and I had to ask around for tape so that I could continue to party! It was so fun!

I traveled under the sea, flew the Millennium Falcon, and rode on Jingles the horse!

Relaxing on the beach is the best summer story.