You will find that the changes in your body will happen quickly. My suggestion to you would be intensity training. This will get you ready for the summer as you mentioned. Intensity here means that you have to workout in one way or another every day. Start the cycle again.
Rest is as important as the other activities, so schedule it that way.
Your body is recovering from the work you put it through. It needs to repair itself, so rest is a big part of the equation. Get into the gym and use those machines that you mentioned. Most of them have illustrations that will show you how to do all the exercises on each machine. They are that simple.