Well, here we are once again in the midst of summer here in the southwest. It not only gets hotter. It's as if the Earth moves a few hundred thousand miles closer to the sun. This, of course means that Annika and Trevor don't feel like going outside unless there is a pool involved. So, the other day Cindy arrived on the scene with a few backyard hydrologic novelty items. That's water toys to you and me. A Slip n' Slide by WHAMO! and something else that can only be described as a neon water snake. (I guess?) A contraption which, when hooked up to the garden hose, emits water in a sprinkler type fashion. Well, the thrill of this "water eel" wore off quickly and I was asked, no commanded to retrieve the Slip n' Slide from its box. I could feel their anticipation growing as we plugged in the hose and completed our final setup. Not knowing if my kids had ever used one before, I gave some quick instructions that were lost in the excitement. Annika was first. She didn' t run very fast and therefore didn't get very far. But the giggles were there and that's all that mattered. Trevor preferred the knee slide technique as if he were some rock star. Both had a blast and by the end of the session, were proficient sliders. Of course Dad figured he'd give it a shot. I, like any other Dad in the whole world, wanted to show the kids how we old timers used to do it "back in the day". "Old School", if you will. So I got up the nerve and dove onto this flimsy piece of 2 millimeter plastic and flew straight to the end. Only once I came to the end it wasn't the end. My jelly-like mass hurled itself over the bumper and into the grass to the delight of my two young spectators. I am glad they got a laugh out of it. I, on the other hand have found out that throwing myself chest first onto the ground is not like it was when I was ten. I think I'll leave it to the professionals from now on. Go Annika and Trevor!

Last school year, Annika took a standardized test called the TerraNova. This is a national test and the results are based on a National Average, not local or state. Well, the brillian Miss Annika received a 99 percentile in Math and 91 in Language. Yay Annika. She will be working at NASA any day now.

I thought this place would be AWESOME. However, I was mistaken. Sort of the feeling I would expect most kids would get upon entering Epcot Center today. It was created 20 years ago about what the future would be like and now is completely outdated and lame. This was my experience at the Science Center. Now, what about the kids? you say. Their opinion was not too much different. Aside from the top level that had exhibits on geology and weather, they were totally unimpressed. They got to make spinny tops on one level but aside from that - it was fairly lame. They did have a pretty cool weather exhibit that had heat and rain and tons of fans to make wind to simulate tornadoes and hurricanes. (that was on the geology floor). THey also learned about different types of rocks and clouds.

I dont think we will head back, but at least we got out for a bit and escaped the terrible heat.