Trips this year

Since I didn't blog from January on, there are a lot of things we did that I didn't get to mention.

Starting in February. We went hiking. I took a ton of pictures. Unfortunately, most of them either weren't very good, or were of Kira posing randomly. Here is one I got that I do like

 I call it "Up". (Sorry, that's an inside joke that only Kira will get)

 We went skiing in Colorado over our winter break. I didn't get many pictures (I didn't really want to drop my phone in the snow or take off my glove in the freezing temperature to unlock my phone) but I did get this one of the scenery on our way up the mountain.

Colorado is really pretty. 

Only about a week or two after Colorado, my grade went to Yosemite. It was a long bus ride there and a longer bus ride back, but it was worth it. Yosemite was beautiful. We went on long hikes every day (we went from Sunday to Friday), and on Thursday, we went on a challenge hike. On Wednesday, we went cross country skiing. (Warning: Here come a lot of pictures)

This was a picture from one of our first hikes. I think it was on Tuesday. The water fall was called Bridle falls (or maybe it was Brindle fall, one of those). Unfortunately, you can see my thumb in this picture. I took a lot of pictures with my thumb in them with this camera. 

Anyway, on Monday, we went into the spider caves. It sounds like a cave crawling from floor to ceiling with spiders (or at least that's what I expected) but it is not. It is a small cave that you have to crawl through in pitch blackness. We had the person in front of us guide us, and we had to guide the person behind us. I don't know why it's called the spider caves. Maybe because you have to crawl like a spider.

  

This was a picture from our skiing day. My hiking group loved to have snowball fights. We picked up old, melting snow up as we hiked. So it was no surprise that we had a huge snowball fight during lunch.

This was just a tiny waterfall we passed sometime on one of our hikes. I think it was the Challenge hike.

I think I took this picture on the bus rid back from the skiing place. 

Towards the end of our Challenge hike, we got so high up, there was fresh(ish) snow. 

Yosemite falls! I don't know how to turn this picture, Sorry it's sideways!

Random pretty picture of Half Dome. I think this picture is my favorite that I took in all of Yosemite (which is why it is so big). I don't know where I was when I took it though.

In April, we went to DisneyLand! My favorite ride was Tower of Terror, but I also liked California Screaming. Tia likes roller coasters (like me). Kira doesn't, but she enjoyed the character themed slow rides. I also liked the Ariel theme ride, Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

I went back to Disneyland in May for a Band trip. Our school's band and orchestra went to Disneyland for 2 days to play in a workshop. We got to learn easy music and record it to the Disney movie it came from. We played the background music at the end of the Lion King, from Atlantas, the song "When you wish upon a star", and background music from Cars 2.

We got Mickey Mouse ears from the Band trip!

In June, Tia and 5 other of my friends went to Girl Scout camp together. We did a high ropes camp, so we did high ropes every day. On the first day, we did a tour of the camp. On the second day, we hiked to Inspiration point (a very pretty view) and played some games. Next, we had Challenge course, where we balanced ourselves on a wobbling platform, swung on a rope and landed on a block, and did a low tightrope walk (with ropes to hold onto). After lunch, we did high ropes. I did another tightrope (with ropes to hold onto). The next day, we did Double Trouble on the ropes course. In that element, you tightrope across (holding onto one very wobbly rope the whole way), and switch ropes with your partner halfway across. Tia and I were partners. However out of all the elements, my favorite was the Leap of Faith. You jump off a tall tree (attached to a rope of course) and trust your group to lower you to safety.

I don't have any pictures yet from this year (they need to be developed), but this is the picture of our tent from last year.

Oh yeah, we had to set up tents this year and ours didn't have any poles!

The weekend we got back from camp, we went to Seattle Washington celebrate our Grandma's Birthday! We came on Saturday and went out to dinner with our Grandparents. The party was on Sunday, and Grandma got an iPhone. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from our trip except one of Tia and our Uncle playing Ping Pong in the backyard. 

Sorry that whole Blog post was ridiculously long! Next year, I'll try to blog as we do trips and Vacations so I don't pile them into one post.

Stand up Paddle boarding

I got the pictures from the stand up paddle boarding and kayaking day.

Stand up paddle boarding.

This is my favorite picture.

Since I don't have any pictures of me kayaking, here's the next best thing. A picture of me stand up paddle boarding being photo bombed by a kayak paddle!

During my the stand up paddle boarding trip, I completed two goals. One, I didn't fall off my paddle board. Two, I touched a bee and did not get stung.

And I still need to get my camp pictures.

I'm home!

I'm back from camp! I got home yesterday afternoon. This is not my official blog post about my time because I do not have the pictures (I brought a disposable camera, but I haven't had the photos developed yet)

At camp, I made friends, tie dyed, made s'mores, had a cookout, built fires, rock climbed and zip lined, and did archery.

I'm sad to leave camp, but I'm happy to be home (and so is Buddy).

He gets sad when I leave. Fortunately, he didn't get sick this time (he has a nose problem and stress doesn't help), so he didn't have to take his pill.

Apparently, Motormouth thought I abandoned him.

I'm at Camp!

                                                                                                                   

To: Home 
From: Me (The extremely amazing)

Dear people reading this (hopefully including Mom, Dad, sisters, Buddy, Noel and Coale (don't make them read it if they don't want to sisters (hey I'm doing parentheses in parentheses in parentheses (Cool!) and another one), Chelsea. I'm at camp right now. My mom knows how I made a blog post while I was at camp. I am (hopefully) in a tent with my friends.

Yeah I know it's blurry but I like this picture (because I'm actually smiling, not fake smiling for the camera).

Tell Buddy I miss him, he's probably upset. How have the kitties been at night? Has Buddy taken his pill nicely (if he needs it, which he hopefully won't)

Speaking of Buddy, here's a picture of him I got the other day.

I'll be home in... (doing math in head) 3 days (counting today).

Does this count as my letter home, we don't need to use a stamp, or paper or send it and hope it comes before I get home…

I'll probably write one. If I remember to bring paper, envelopes, and (real) stamps.

P.S.
Like my stamp?

Last Day Before Camp!

Today was my last day at horse before going to to an overnight summer camp with my friends from school. Today's horse section of the day was crazy. I had to exercise them in the morning around the time the horses would get their buckets (grain) and Motormouth would get his food. I lunged Sedona and then Wings. I took Sedona back to her stall first, which was a big mistake. Wings thinks she has to be taken first, whether it's for her bucket, for exercise, or for hanging out in Sedona's stall. She was whinnying loudly and she got herself stressed out. She was pacing in front of the gate and she pooped. While I was taking Sedona back, I thought she was hurt she was being so loud and upset. After I got her back to the stall, I didn't have any buckets (or cat food) ready, so I had three hungry and impatient (and very loud) horses (and cat) waiting. Fortunately, after everybody got their food, everybody was happy, quiet, and non-moving while they ate so I could clean the stall with them out of the way.

Wings

Motormouth

Afterward, I had time to groom Sedona. I brushed out her mane.

Tomorrow, I leave for camp. I should probably finish packing, or eat lunch… But I won't be at a computer for at least 6 days. 

Buddy always gets so sad when he sees my suitcase or when I leave for camp or vacation.

Camp!

I went to camp from a couple weeks ago. In this camp, you spent the night, rode horses, did archery, did art, completed challenge courses, tried high rope courses, stand up paddle boarded, and kayaked.

There are no pictures from camp because I didn't bring a camera.

                        

I came to camp with 3 other good friends from school. Luckily, we all got in the same tent, so we were able to sleep and hang out together.

I was in a horse back riding program. The first horse I rode wanted to go fast. He wanted to walk out and be faster than the other horses. That was a problem as we were third in line (there was a line of us walking our horses) and the two horses in  front of us were moving very slowly. On our next horse ride, we went on a trail ride. The horse I was riding wanted to trot and touch the horse in front (the touching the horse in front was according to one of my friends).

When we did the "paddle section of our trip we went to a harbor where we divided our time paddle boarding and kayaking. I think I liked stand up paddle boarding best. In our stand up paddle boarding time, we learned how to turn, paddle, and we played a game in which we switched paddle boards with a partner. In our entire lesson, I fell off twice. When we kayaked, we learned to paddle, turn, stop, and we did a relay race. During our kayaking lesson, we saw a seal barking at some people who were trying to get in their boat.