Spring Break in Washington

The Saturday before Spring Break, we loaded in the car and set out on a 16-hour drive to Washington to visit my Dad’s Grandpa.  We drove and drove and drove some more. We had to get fast food for lunch, and let’s just say I was ready for some home made food for dinner.  And I got it!  Uncle Mark and his friend Oscar live in Oregon so we got to go to their apartment and then to the park for dinner.  We had grilled chicken, mixed veggies, and cookies for dessert.  It was delicious!  Afterwards we got to play in the park.  They had a bunch of seesaws, and Neil and Isaac thought they were so fun!

While we were in Washington, we got to go to the ocean.  When we went to the sandy beach, we were wading in the water when Mark found a Sunflower Starfish.  The only reason I knew what it was was because I’ve watched a Planet Earth nature show on it.  It was pink on the top and bright orange and purple on the bottom.  It was about the size of a dinner plate.  We would have taken a picture of it, but we were way out on the beach, and the sand was so muddy that our shoes got stuck sometimes, so Dad stayed up at the top of the beach with the camera.  While we were there, Mark also found a really cool crab.

We also got to go over to Seattle by ferry.  It was really fun to go out on the back deck and see all the waves it was making.

We also went to the rocky beach and chucked rocks in the water.  Well, the other kids did.  I still had my flip-flops in the car trunk from going to the sandy beach a few days earlier, so I put them on and went looking for shells.  Man, the ocean is cold in April!! Really cold!!  After a while your feet get numb, and then it is a whole lot easier.

Fresh crab.  Delicious!

Along with going to the beach and riding on the ferry, we also got to go to the temple and have an Easter egg hunt with Uncle Paul and Aunt Chris’s family.  It was so much fun!  I’m glad we got to go.

Have a great week, I’ll post again next Sunday. 

Squirmy de snake, and other animals

Sorry it’s been so long since I posted.  I‘ll be sure to do it more often.

Last year in our garden there was a little snake that lived behind the hedge, but when he finally came out of hibernation this year, he wasn’t so small anymore.

A few days after we rediscovered Squirmy, Mark and I went down to visit some horses that live down by the cow farm.  I had a photography assignment to take some pictures of animals, so I took the little camera with us.

Mark and I were coming back from visiting the horses again the next day.  We were riding our bikes up the street when this big doe ran across the road.  Just then two cars started coming down the street, so the deer made this spectacular leap for the fence.  She must have misjudged how big it was or something because she hit it instead of going over it.  But the speed from her jump rolled her over the barbed wire and she landed on the other side.  The doe kind of had this dumbfounded look on her face when she landed on the ground.  It looked really funny.  Then the deer just jumped up and kept running.  It was pretty cool.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have the camera with me.

Hope you guys have an awesome week, I’ll post again next Sunday.

Calligraphy

Wow, its been a while since I wrote. 

This year I am taking a calligraphy class.  My teacher took over the class form the old teacher, and didn’t know tons about it, so my mom came and taught the class for three weeks.  At the end, we had to write a quote in calligraphy with proper technique and sizing.  I wrote “Hakuna Matata”.  I’ll post pictures as soon as I get it back.

Thanks a bunch Mom!  You are awesome!

I am soooo funny!!

I Kinda Chopped My Hair Off……

 

Birdie Bedlam

Yesterday I was unloading the dishwasher when Spencer heard a scratching noise in the wood burning stove in the front room.  He opened it and two grey and brown birds burst out.  He yelled “There’s birds in here!!!”  I ran in, and they were pecking and flapping at he windows, trying to get outside.  I pulled the blinds up, and one of the birds flew into the living room.  I tried to catch him, but he kept climbing over my fingers and going for the window.  I finally went and yanked the front door open and sort of guided him outside.  His mate flew in a box in the living room.  I reached for her, but she flew out and started climbing on the blinds.  I held up the blinds and told Rachel to grab her.  Rachel was like “Will it bite me?” “No!” I said, “Just pick it up!!”  Rachel picked her up, and she just lay there, belly up in Rachel’s hand.  “Awww!!”  She liked it now that it wasn’t moving.  We took her outside and she flew off squawking like the devil was after her (then again, she probably thought he was ).  At least they were only there for one night.  Neil opened the stove the day before, and there were no birds there, so they couldn’t have been there very long. 

Hope you all have a great week, and that the birdies stay out of your chimneys!

Heber Valley with 17th Ward

We met at the stake center with all the other wards at 8:00 on Monday morning.  After we talked to each other for about an hour and a half while we waited for everyone else to get there, we FINALLY loaded the buses at 9:30.  We got there and got our bunks all set up.  I was on the top bunk over Alisa. 

On the first night we were there our ward picked a tree around the amphitheater and sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.  It was very nice and all the other wards songs were beautiful too.

On Tuesday (I think) we went to the Challenger Course.  There were a bunch of different stations that had activities that related to life.  First we did the spiders web.  It was a giant fake spider web that was strung between two trees.  You had to get every member of your group through one of the holes without touching the tree and without touching the lines.  I think we got everyone through. 

We also did shark island.  It was a rope swing in between two aspen trees.  You were on a pretend sinking ship and you had to get the rope and swing to the door mat that was the safe island. 

My favorite thing on the Challenger Course was the high course.  First you had to climb up a fifteen foot pole with notches in it, then walk across a high wire, holding on to another wire for balance.  When you to got to the end of the high wire, there was a little platform in a tree.  A lady there would hook you up go a rope, take you off the other rope, and you would zip down the zip-line!  It was fun.

On Wednesday we went to the lake and did canoeing.  I had a canoe with Vickie and Betsy.  It was really fun!

On Thursday we had ward time and made really cute duct tape purses. 

And on Friday we had testimony meeting. 

And on Saturday, we cleaned up and went home.

Next week I will post about Girls Camp with the New Ward.