Hot Family Fun in the Summertime

This week I chose the following writing prompt from Mama Kat's writing workshop, "What does summer mean to your family?"

Since we lived overseas, Summers always meant two blissful months back in the good ole' US of A, Tucson Arizona to be exact. This included lots and lots of fabulous shopping excursions to the mall and to our favorite store, TARGET, lots of yummy American meals, numerous theater trips, a few concerts, drives to California, annual doctor visits, baseball games, scrapbooking, many lazy hot afternoons at the pool, BBQ's in our backyard, vegging out in front of the TV and catching up on all the shows we missed during the year. My mom would say that we were playing 'house' during the summer. As teachers, my parents had the summers off to do whatever they heck they wanted, and up until college, I didn't work during the summers either so we were all free to relax and enjoy being back in the states.

Now being in Arizona during the summer, I certainly cannot forget how summer means that it's f-ing hot! I mean, when I say it is hot there in the summer, that really doesn't begin to explain just how hot it is. We are lucky when it's just 100 degrees out because it's usually 110 or higher! Ugh! You could literally fry an egg on the pavement! I don't know how I put up with it for so long... Well, I'll tell you what we did, we cranked up all the air conditioning units in the house, drank plenty of frozen slushy drinks, and spent a lot of time in pools. I am so excited to be spending this summer in my new much COOLER home, Los Angeles.

Of course Summers also meant wonderful reunions with my sister. My sister is 12 years older than me so throughout my middle school and high school years, she was living in the states while we were overseas. I cannot tell you just how excited my parents and I would get on that last flight home knowing Tonya would be at the airport to pick us up. All school year long, we would write letters to each other counting down the days till we would see each other again. Seeing her was definitely the highlight of our summer.

Needless to say, Summers were a very very happy time for us all and I miss having them here this time of year most of all.