Check the List

Last May, Ane and I put together a list of things that she wanted to do this summer. I have actually kept this list in the kitchen since it was made, and decided to check it since I knew that we had just completed a big one off the list.

1) Go to the zoo. We went to the San Diego Zoo while we were on vacation. We saw Ane’s new favorite animal, the panda bear, and met up with our wonderful “zoo friends.”

2) Go on a roller coaster. Ane did this a few times while on vacation, but she doesn’t like “dark” roller coasters. The first one she went on – and probably the most intense one – was the Sierra Sidewinder at Knott’s Berry Farm.

3) Go to Disneyland. Spectacularly done.

4) Visit family. We spent time with Ressis and the girls in June, and visited Disneyland with Nana and Papa in July. We had tenatively planned on visiting the Captain, Q-Bee and Belle and meeting baby Berry right before school started – but we kind of had our plans upset.

5) Play in the pool. Again, kind of limited by Tad’s broken leg, but Ane has gone over to Big Jay and Little Mo’s house once to play in their wading pool – and, of course, we swam in the Never Land Pool at the Disneyland Hotel while we were there.

6) Go to tea. Finally did this last week. Because Ane has been making a pretty decent effort to be nice to Tad – and because she held up heroically when he actually broke his leg – I made plans to go to tea. She wanted Grandma to come along, and Auntie tagged along at the last minute. Our local favorite tea room has changed hands – the business was sold intact, but the name was changed, as well as some of the decor and details – but the menu and ambience are still there. Ane behaved pretty well – she enjoys the kids’ peanut butter and jelly sandwich tea with a pot of hot chocolate.

7) Go shopping. Ane only included this on the list because she loves to shop. Suffice it to say, we have shopped a LOT this summer.

8 ) Read Little House in the Big Woods. We finally finished it last Friday! It took a while, because Ane does enjoy the My First Little House series quite a bit, and her attention span would wander sometimes during long chapters with not enough pictures in it. Right after we finished it, Ane asked if we could read it again. I told her we should really go on to the next book. She thought about it, and asked if we could wait for a while. I told her, “Sure we can.”

9) Go to the beach.

10) Go to a baseball game.

We haven’t done either 9 or 10. The beach has been out for a while, considering Tad’s cast and the unseasonally cool weather. That might be the one thing we don’t manage to do before school starts – but for understandable reasons. A baseball game, though, we might be able to swing. I haven’t promised Ane anything, and I need to check the weather forecasts, but there is a chance we could make an Everett Aquasox game before school starts. We’ll see.

Still, we have an 80% success rate for our summer plans! Not bad.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 1:57 am and is filed under Children, School Days, Vacation Tales.
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