Summertime is a time for lazy teens to sleep until one in the afternoon every day. It's a time for teens to party hard and party very, very late. It is a time to do absolutely nothing at all except lay around and do nothing at all!

That is the consensus among many adults about what teens do during the summer, and most of the time, they are absolutely right. Here are some stories of what a few teens did this past summer to counter that perception.

Sean Eyssautier, 17
This summer, Sean was probably one of the hardest working teens you will find anywhere. He worked at Johnson's Nursery Inc. Working upwards of 50 hours a week, for $7.50 an hour, he dutifully fulfilled his tasks, which included setting up irrigation systems, weeding, trimming, hedging, and setting up holding areas. He earned between $5,000 and $6,000 this summer.

Sean did take a break, however, to take a trip to New York. This trip was comprised of members of all five area Catholic churches in Menomonee Falls. They went to a city in New York called Lyons. While there, they did projects such as fixing houses and building other things for people in need. The rest of his time here at home was spent practicing tennis and hanging with friends.

"Even though I worked a lot, it didn't ruin my summer at all," Sean says. "I still got to hang out with my friends and do stuff I wanted to do."

Heather Hacker, 16
Heather began her summer by finishing up her season on the Menomonee Falls girls varsity softball team. Soon after her season ended and getting her license, she left for Benshein, Germany on June 13. She traveled with her mom, several teachers and many German students. This trip had been planned the previous September.

As part of the trip, during the school year, several students from Germany had traveled here to stay with some of the students for a couple weeks. While Heather was there, she attended school with Rolen, her exchange partner, and generally lived a "German lifestyle."

They also toured many cities, Berlin, Munich, Regenfburg, and Nurnberg to name a few, and castles. On one night, Heather and the rest of the group stayed in a ski lodge on a mountain.

"It was really hard to get to the ski lodge. The trail to get there was almost straight up, but it went back and forth. I fell a few times," she remembers, laughing. She was also able to visit Switzerland and Austria. She got back with the rest of the group on July 6. When she returned, she played in softball tournaments almost every weekend. When she wasn't doing that, she was dancing with her German dancing group, Donaufchwaben, or just hanging out with friends.

Megan Ciborosky, 17
Megan is a home schooled student that spent her summer preparing to go to college. She finished up her classes, took the necessary tests and will attend Bob Jones University in South Carolina. She visited the campus over the summer to get a feel of the college.

While she was there, she filled out all necessary medical information and had to get a couple of shots, a physical and a TB skin test. At home, she spent most of her time working at the Milwaukee Art Museum, in the restaurant, or supporting her brother in Little League.

"I'm really excited to be going to college, but I'm going to miss everything here, too," she said.

Adam Cichanski, 17
This summer, Adam concentrated a large portion of his time on the sports that he plays for Menomonee Falls High School. Baseball started even before the summer began, and during the summer, he played or practiced with the JV team. He arrived around 10:30 a.m. for batting practice every game day.

He also played basketball with the high school summer team two nights a week on Tuesday and Thursday, or a doubleheader on Wednesday. The teams were comprised of last year's players on freshman, JV and varsity.

Practice for Adam happened to be right after summer weight lifting at MFHS. Going to these lifting and conditioning sessions daily was important for Adam in order to prepare for football. Football practice started Aug. 7. His last couple weeks of summer were spent having two-a-days in the morning until 1 p.m.

"It was tough to be able to keep up with all my sports, but it was a lot of fun because I love to play each of these sports," he said. When he wasn't drowning in sports obligations, Adam worked as a bus boy at the Silver Spring Country Club, in its restaurant. He also found time to spend time with all his friends.

Justin Waltho, 16
Justin spent most of his time this summer hanging out with friends but he did take two major trips. Both of them involved the Brookside Baptist youth group. First, early in the summer, he and many other teens took a weeklong trip to Northland Bible College in Northland, Wis., for a teen camp. While there, he met new people from all over the United States. Along with memorizing Bible verses and hearing preaching, his activities included paintballing, football, a rifle range and water slides.

Justin also took a mission trip to St. Vincent, in the Caribbean. An interesting fact about the island is that most of the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" was filmed there. He and the rest of the group from Brookside left on July 26. They drove to Chicago, took a flight to Atlanta, then to Puerto Rico. They spent a day sightseeing in Puerto Rico and then spent the night in a local church. They then flew in to St. Vincent and ran a week long VBS (Vacation Bible School), which 350 kids attended daily.

"It was absolutely insane! The ratio of teen workers to kids was ridiculous. We were able to manage though and it turned out great," Justin said. They were also able to hold a youth rally for the teens in St. Vincent. They arrived back on Aug. 4.