Aww...February means Valentine's Day!
With all my yearbook deadlines under my belt, school has became considerably easier. In Minecraft I made a new world in Survival mode, and I've gotten really far in it. The only real potholes have been the occasional homework assignment that was exceptionally hard. But the ultimate challenge for me this month was...Valentine's Day!
Of course, Valentine's Day is all about love, and that's good. But for me, that's kind of akward. Why? Because in middle school, everyone expects you to love someone and get chocolates for them or whatever. But I'm not the kind of guy who's willing to do that sort of thing at this age, for reasons I can't put into words. But luckily, I managed to avoid a situation that would've had me pathetically at a loss for words and quickly getting cold feet.
Ben and Eliza apparently didn't encounter any problems with their Valentine's Days. Eliza made some valentines by hand, and Ben found these Minecraft-themed valentines on the Internet, and he printed them out. And of course, Blake had Valentine's Day at his preschool. But the major perk was that I got to go on a Scout campout!
See, we were going to Borges Ranch. Once we got there, we went through the whole procedure of setting up our tents and whatnot. Luckily, there was a fair amout of daylight left, so we set up our tents without any darkness problems. Then Josh and Michael cooked our dinner. One really memorable event was when I pitched in. See, Josh had brought some barbecue sauce for the beef sliders he was cooking, but he forgot to bring a can opener. Luckily, I had brought my pocketknife. But since I don't use it much, the can opener had somehow broken into its closed position, and none of us could get it out. But Josh had a genius idea. He opened the blade of the knife and repeatedly poked holes in the top of the can. And you have to admit that is one way to open a can.
After that mishap, dinner got cooked. The sloppy sliders were served on hamburger buns, and I got 2 of them. After dinner we lit a campfire. First we retired some flags. Adam said he thought it was kind of sad to see the nation's flag burn. I thought showing a flag that much respect as though it were extremely valueable was like idol worship (which goes against the 10 Commandments), but Adam's dad explained that god wanted us to show respect for the flag. So I can live with that.
The second thing we did around the campfire was-you guessed it-s'mores! Brother Crow had brought s'more stuff from the Scout closet in our church, plus some variatitions. There were oversized marshmallows, chocolate graham crackers, Reese's peanut butter cups, and Hershey's cookies 'n cream chocolate bars. I got a total of 3-2 with peanut butter cups, and 1 with cookies 'n cream.
After that I decided to go off to bed because I was so tired. I was sleeping in a tent on my own this time (everyone else had their own tents). The thing about the sleeping bag I have is that it gets really cozy, so it takes willpower to get out of it in the morning.
The following morning, we woke up to a large amout of dew that had gathered on our tents. If your tent gets all wet and you leave it all packed up for too long, it'll get all moldy over time. Whenever my tent gets wet like this, I always hang it on chairs in the garage to air out when I get home. And by the time I hang up the tent, it'll only have been packed in its stuff sack for a few hours, so no mold here. But my dad knew some people who forgot to air out their tent, and they had to throw it away because of the mold. No joke!
Anyway, we had to get up a little earlier than usual so we could cook breakfast in time for the big event. You'll hear about that in a minute. Me, Solomon, and Kyle were in charge of cooking the breakfast. We had ham, bagels, and eggs. And yes, there was cream cheese to put on the bagels. But I tried a better combo. I put cream cheese on the top half of my bagel, then sandwiched some eggs and ham between the 2 halves. It actually tasted better than it sounds.
After that we packed up all our tents and stuff and headed on out. Now, I've already mentioned a big event. Well, now I'll tell you what it was. Concord was holding a big tree-planting event, and my Scout troop took part in it. It wasn't bad at first. The holes were pre-dug, so all we had to do was flatten the bottoms a bit. Then a truck came over to give us a tree to plant. We took it out of its pot, loosened up the roots a bit, and put it in the hole. Then we filled it in.
But then the torture started. There were these big piles of tan bark we had to spread out, and it was hard. But that's partially because we were all tired from the busy day. After a while, though, we got it all done.
I'd been under the impression I'd be home around noon, but we finished early and I got home at 11:00. My dad was off with Ben, and my mom was taking Eliza to ballet. So for a while I was just stuck in the backyard. But on the bright side, at least I had Lily to keep me company.
That same weekend, Eliza was supposed to visit Virginia with my dad like I did a few years ago. But the plane flight there was cancelled due to mechanical problems. So their flight had to be rescheduled. Eliza was sad about the whole thing, and my dad had to wait for several hours to book another flight for next weekend.
So...that pretty much sums up what February 2014 was like for me. I guess this isn't starting to sound very family-ish with me purely stating my own opinions, but Mom did that too.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Point Reyes
Okay, first of all, this is Ethan again. Since Mom's been too neglectful toward the blog, there's a good chance I'll be doing all the blog entries. And I'd better remember to tell my mom to clarify when she's doing the writing. So for now, just assume it'll be me every time.
Okay, so this post isn't really about something recent. It's about something that happened a couple months ago. It's about the weekend I went to Point Reyes with my dad, Ben, and my Boy Scout Troop. I'd been on backpacking trips there with my family several times when I was younger, so I knew what to expect.
I'd actually gone to Point Reyes with my Scout Troop the previous year around the same time of year. Last year, I went on the trip right after I'd spent the whole week working on a big report for school, so I was eager to take a break from it all on this campout. I'd been working hard for school prior to a campout this year, too. But this year I'd spent a couple weeks working on Yearbook stuff. Now that my pages were uploaded and ready to go, I had a campout to look forward to.
We had invited the Teachers and Priests, but they had their own thing going on, so it was just the Deacons. The gang was all here: Adam, Josh, Ben, Solomon, Michael, Kyle, and me. Ben technically wasn't a Deacon at the time, but since he's the only eleven-year-old Scout in our troop, we figured we might as well take him along. Plus, Ben's been really into Boy Scout work lately, so we knew he'd enjoy it. The adults were my dad, Brother Crow, Brother Hopkins, and Brother VonSavoye (I'm pretty sure I spelled that right).
Since we drove in after school on Friday, we didn't arrive until after dark. It's technically a better idea to arrive at your campsite so there's plenty of daylight to set up your tent and stuff easier, but this was an exception. Once we'd assembled all our gear onto our packs, we strapped on our packs and hiked to our site. The hike was about 2 miles, and I think it took us about an hour. The first half or so was mostly uphill, so we didn't exactly start out strong, but once we started going downhill about halfway toward the campground, it was a breeze.
Despite the dark, we managed to find our campsite and set up our stuff okay. After a bit we went down to the beach to have a campfire. Once we lit the fire and got it going, we ate dinner. Adam was in charge of bringing hot dogs to roast over the fire. I'm not sure who exactly brought the roasting sticks, but the roast was a success(I think I ate 3 or 4 hot dogs. That's the best thing about Boy Scout campouts-Mom isn't there to stop you from gorging yourself.). And Michael was in charge of bringing graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows. I'll bet you can guess what they were for.
After that we had a little campfire ceremony. I know Mom posted how on our family's previous Point Reyes campout, we'd seen some people who were doing some kind of Buddhist meditations on the beach when we went down there. Mom was impressed that the people stayed entirely focused on their meditation, despite the loud noises of Eliza's and Ben's bickering. Well, a good part of our campfire was religious, but there was no one to disturb us. If there was, I'm not totally sure we would've stayed focused the way those Buddhists or Muslims or whatever they were did.
After a good night's rest, we woke up to a cold morning. The weird thing about camping is that if you arrive when it's dark, you get a whole new view of the area in the morning. Soon after everyone got out of their tents, Ben and I made breakfast for everyone. I was in charge of breakfast, and I got a bunch of Pop Tarts, because I knew Adam loves those. The flavors I decided on were S'mores and Blueberry. You should've seen Adam's reaction when he got wind of the fact we'd be having that for breakfast. Other than that, I'd also brought Mountian House eggs and bacon. You know, the dehydrated food where you just add water to make it edible.
The next little while was a drag. After we took down all our tents, the younger scouts did some of their Trailhead stuff. Since I'm done with all that, I was just sitting around with nothing to do. But after a while, everyone finished up. Then we went down to play on the beach. I just rolled around on the sand dunes for the first half hour or so, but what's kind of amazing is that I got zero sand in my underwear. Then I joined the others to play around on the wet sand. Adam, Kyle, and I all ran around, chasing and throwing sand at each other. Solomon even built a sand castle. Towards the end of our stay on the beach, Adam, Kyle, and I worked together to dig a really deep hole-so deep I could stand up to my knees in it.
Once we got back up to our campsite, we did the final packing and ate a few snacks Brother Hopkins had packed. Then we made like a baby and headed on out. I first heard that joke over the summer, around the time when Mom would still cross her legs whenever she heard the joke, and I think I know why. When babies are born, the usual case is that their head comes out first. That's what the "head on out" joke is referring to. The reason Mom would cross her legs when she heard the joke is because hearing it would kind of make her think, "Oh no! A baby's coming!" But after a while of me telling the joke she became immune.
Anyway, once we'd packed up all our stuff, we went back toward the cars. On the way home we stopped for pizza. And man, talk about a wonderful afternoon. I guess it would be a bit unformal for a bunch of dirty, sweaty boys to walk into a store for pizza, but that's just what we did. A nd something happened in the store. You know how a lot of pizza places have tvs all around so you can watch football or something while you're waiting for your order? Well, after I'd just finished eating my fourth or fifth slice of pizza, a commercial came on for The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug. Boy, did the preview get me fired up! I heard Solomon mutter, "No way I'm gonna see that," but I was thinking the opposite.
So about a month later, I went to see it with my friend Dominic. His mom and sister took him to the theater where we'd meet. While Dominic and I saw the Hobbit, his mom and sister saw Frozen(or at least, that's what I kind of got wind of). I do feel a little bad for them, since the Hobbit was about an hour longer than Frozen. So they just had to wait a while before we came out. In fact, his sister Hannah came into our theater to see if the movie was over yet. And, coincidentaly, it was when the credits started! Anyway, both me and Dominic liked the movie. But I'm not sure if poor Solomon would've.
Okay, so this post isn't really about something recent. It's about something that happened a couple months ago. It's about the weekend I went to Point Reyes with my dad, Ben, and my Boy Scout Troop. I'd been on backpacking trips there with my family several times when I was younger, so I knew what to expect.
I'd actually gone to Point Reyes with my Scout Troop the previous year around the same time of year. Last year, I went on the trip right after I'd spent the whole week working on a big report for school, so I was eager to take a break from it all on this campout. I'd been working hard for school prior to a campout this year, too. But this year I'd spent a couple weeks working on Yearbook stuff. Now that my pages were uploaded and ready to go, I had a campout to look forward to.
We had invited the Teachers and Priests, but they had their own thing going on, so it was just the Deacons. The gang was all here: Adam, Josh, Ben, Solomon, Michael, Kyle, and me. Ben technically wasn't a Deacon at the time, but since he's the only eleven-year-old Scout in our troop, we figured we might as well take him along. Plus, Ben's been really into Boy Scout work lately, so we knew he'd enjoy it. The adults were my dad, Brother Crow, Brother Hopkins, and Brother VonSavoye (I'm pretty sure I spelled that right).
Since we drove in after school on Friday, we didn't arrive until after dark. It's technically a better idea to arrive at your campsite so there's plenty of daylight to set up your tent and stuff easier, but this was an exception. Once we'd assembled all our gear onto our packs, we strapped on our packs and hiked to our site. The hike was about 2 miles, and I think it took us about an hour. The first half or so was mostly uphill, so we didn't exactly start out strong, but once we started going downhill about halfway toward the campground, it was a breeze.
Despite the dark, we managed to find our campsite and set up our stuff okay. After a bit we went down to the beach to have a campfire. Once we lit the fire and got it going, we ate dinner. Adam was in charge of bringing hot dogs to roast over the fire. I'm not sure who exactly brought the roasting sticks, but the roast was a success(I think I ate 3 or 4 hot dogs. That's the best thing about Boy Scout campouts-Mom isn't there to stop you from gorging yourself.). And Michael was in charge of bringing graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows. I'll bet you can guess what they were for.
After that we had a little campfire ceremony. I know Mom posted how on our family's previous Point Reyes campout, we'd seen some people who were doing some kind of Buddhist meditations on the beach when we went down there. Mom was impressed that the people stayed entirely focused on their meditation, despite the loud noises of Eliza's and Ben's bickering. Well, a good part of our campfire was religious, but there was no one to disturb us. If there was, I'm not totally sure we would've stayed focused the way those Buddhists or Muslims or whatever they were did.
After a good night's rest, we woke up to a cold morning. The weird thing about camping is that if you arrive when it's dark, you get a whole new view of the area in the morning. Soon after everyone got out of their tents, Ben and I made breakfast for everyone. I was in charge of breakfast, and I got a bunch of Pop Tarts, because I knew Adam loves those. The flavors I decided on were S'mores and Blueberry. You should've seen Adam's reaction when he got wind of the fact we'd be having that for breakfast. Other than that, I'd also brought Mountian House eggs and bacon. You know, the dehydrated food where you just add water to make it edible.
The next little while was a drag. After we took down all our tents, the younger scouts did some of their Trailhead stuff. Since I'm done with all that, I was just sitting around with nothing to do. But after a while, everyone finished up. Then we went down to play on the beach. I just rolled around on the sand dunes for the first half hour or so, but what's kind of amazing is that I got zero sand in my underwear. Then I joined the others to play around on the wet sand. Adam, Kyle, and I all ran around, chasing and throwing sand at each other. Solomon even built a sand castle. Towards the end of our stay on the beach, Adam, Kyle, and I worked together to dig a really deep hole-so deep I could stand up to my knees in it.
Once we got back up to our campsite, we did the final packing and ate a few snacks Brother Hopkins had packed. Then we made like a baby and headed on out. I first heard that joke over the summer, around the time when Mom would still cross her legs whenever she heard the joke, and I think I know why. When babies are born, the usual case is that their head comes out first. That's what the "head on out" joke is referring to. The reason Mom would cross her legs when she heard the joke is because hearing it would kind of make her think, "Oh no! A baby's coming!" But after a while of me telling the joke she became immune.
Anyway, once we'd packed up all our stuff, we went back toward the cars. On the way home we stopped for pizza. And man, talk about a wonderful afternoon. I guess it would be a bit unformal for a bunch of dirty, sweaty boys to walk into a store for pizza, but that's just what we did. A nd something happened in the store. You know how a lot of pizza places have tvs all around so you can watch football or something while you're waiting for your order? Well, after I'd just finished eating my fourth or fifth slice of pizza, a commercial came on for The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug. Boy, did the preview get me fired up! I heard Solomon mutter, "No way I'm gonna see that," but I was thinking the opposite.
So about a month later, I went to see it with my friend Dominic. His mom and sister took him to the theater where we'd meet. While Dominic and I saw the Hobbit, his mom and sister saw Frozen(or at least, that's what I kind of got wind of). I do feel a little bad for them, since the Hobbit was about an hour longer than Frozen. So they just had to wait a while before we came out. In fact, his sister Hannah came into our theater to see if the movie was over yet. And, coincidentaly, it was when the credits started! Anyway, both me and Dominic liked the movie. But I'm not sure if poor Solomon would've.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
A New Year (by Ethan)
Well, it's now 2014, but since the new year only just started, we've had a hard time adjusting. What I mean is that on our school papers and stuff, we accidently write things like 1-15-13 instead of 1-15-14. But I know sooner or later we'll get used to it.
January has been going more or less the same as every year. We're still basking in the aftermath of Christmas, enjoying all the stuff we got. Blake's spent hours parking all his die-cast cars in his new garage, Eliza's customized her Saige doll with all sorts of accessories, Ben's mastered all the tricks in the magic set he got, and I had to chage the batteries in my Lego crane just last night.
Lily's still here. Although she's 2 years old, she's still practically a puppy. Ah, Labs....they stay puppies for years. See, I used to like to give her a hug around the neck and hold it there. But my mom said Lily didn't like that and had a kind of "Help!" expression on her face. I don't hug her as much as I used to, but I'm sure Lily's fine with that.
Remember how I told you how the TouchCube Ben got for Christmas refused to work like it was supposed to? Well, he exchanged it for a 9x9 instead. But it took him a long time to solve-longer than any of his other cubes!
I've been re-adjusting to the overwhelming world of 8th grade. Within a week, though, I was more or less used to school again. As if that wasn't enough, I've also been real busy with Scout stuff. See, I'm currently working on the Computers merit badge, and I've been doing all sorts of PowerPoints for random requirements. In fact, the main reason I've been doing all these blog posts is for one of those requirements. However, I'm kind of developing a habit of blogging, so maybe I'll keep doing it for a while. Ah, well.
A few nights ago, my mom discovered something cool! Sister Clark posted on Facebook a link to a website where you can watch Frozen whenever you want-and my mom bookmarked the site! This was after Eliza and Blake went to bed, so then I was scheming to spill the beans to Eliza after school the following day, because I had a pretty good idea of what her reaction would be when she got wind of the fact that we can now watch Frozen whenever we want. But that afternoon she was at her friend Xiana's house, and Xiana was watching Frozen on her tablet or something. And that was the end of that.:(
January has been going more or less the same as every year. We're still basking in the aftermath of Christmas, enjoying all the stuff we got. Blake's spent hours parking all his die-cast cars in his new garage, Eliza's customized her Saige doll with all sorts of accessories, Ben's mastered all the tricks in the magic set he got, and I had to chage the batteries in my Lego crane just last night.
Lily's still here. Although she's 2 years old, she's still practically a puppy. Ah, Labs....they stay puppies for years. See, I used to like to give her a hug around the neck and hold it there. But my mom said Lily didn't like that and had a kind of "Help!" expression on her face. I don't hug her as much as I used to, but I'm sure Lily's fine with that.
Remember how I told you how the TouchCube Ben got for Christmas refused to work like it was supposed to? Well, he exchanged it for a 9x9 instead. But it took him a long time to solve-longer than any of his other cubes!
I've been re-adjusting to the overwhelming world of 8th grade. Within a week, though, I was more or less used to school again. As if that wasn't enough, I've also been real busy with Scout stuff. See, I'm currently working on the Computers merit badge, and I've been doing all sorts of PowerPoints for random requirements. In fact, the main reason I've been doing all these blog posts is for one of those requirements. However, I'm kind of developing a habit of blogging, so maybe I'll keep doing it for a while. Ah, well.
A few nights ago, my mom discovered something cool! Sister Clark posted on Facebook a link to a website where you can watch Frozen whenever you want-and my mom bookmarked the site! This was after Eliza and Blake went to bed, so then I was scheming to spill the beans to Eliza after school the following day, because I had a pretty good idea of what her reaction would be when she got wind of the fact that we can now watch Frozen whenever we want. But that afternoon she was at her friend Xiana's house, and Xiana was watching Frozen on her tablet or something. And that was the end of that.:(
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Boy Scout snow campout (by Ethan)
The week after Christmas, my dad and I went on a snow camp out with the Scouts to Grover Hot springs-in the snow! We weren't really expecting a whole lot of snow, but we got some!
On the way up we stopped at a frozen lake. Josh wanted to explore it, but we weren't sure if it was safe. But Tyler and Isaac threw some rocks on the ice to test its thickness, and the rocks just bounced. So we knew it was safe.
For the next hour or so we played around on the ice, throwing balls and even trying to break small parts of the ice. Towards the end of our stay on the frozen lake, I decided to go up the hill (in case you don't know, the road we were driving on was above the lake, but we went down a hill to get to the lake) just so I could sit on a rock and relax for a bit. But then Solomon threw a snowball at me just for fun. It missed, and within a minute everyone was throwing snowballs at me. I had to duck to avoid a few of them, but none of them hit me. And all I was doing was just sitting there, taunting them.
After a while we got back on the road and drove the rest of the way to our campsite. Once we got there, we set up our tents and then played in the snow for a bit. We were supposed to go down to the Hot Springs pool to pass off some Swimming Merit Badge requirements for the younger scouts. But when we drove there, we got a nasty surprise.
See, there was actually a quarter-mile road from the campsite to the pool, and that was blocked off by a gate when the pool was closed. The gate was closed when we tried to drive there, with a note taped to it. The note said the pool was closed for the day because of "unforeseen illness." But we decided to walk there anyway just to check it out. When we got there, we peeked over the fence and saw that the hot tub was mostly drained out. So here's what must have happened.
I think that some kid who must've felt sick probably barfed in the hot tub, so the crew would have to drain it out to clean out all the barf. I guess they figured the hot tub was basically the whole reason people would want to come, and seeing the hot tub practically empty would've killed the mood. As far as I know, the big pool was full of water, but it wouldn't really have been the same as the hot tub.
After the pool thing we just went back to the campsite to get dinner going. Brother vonSavoye was in charge of dinner, and he was going to make Dutch oven meals. With Dutch ovens, cooking food takes a while, so we just had to wait. Fortunately I'd brought up some books to read, so I was able to keep myself occupied. At one point, Isaac was playing a joke on me by repeating what I was saying. Like this:
me:Hey there, Isaac!
Isaac:Hey there, Isaac!
me:Wha?
Isaac:Wha?
me:Stop copying me!
Isaac:Stop copying me!
[this is where it backfires]
me:I'm an idiot!
Isaac:You're an idiot!
After dinner we had a campfire ceremony, then went to bed. I was just glad to crawl into my really cozy sleeping bag. It felt a little cold at first, but I had brought an extra blanket with me to keep warm. And in the morning when I woke up, the sleeping bag felt so warm and cozy it took some willpower from me to get out of it!
Me, Michael, and Kyle were in charge of breakfast, so it wasn't long before we got to work. We made pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage. Everyone loved it.
After breakfast we packed up our stuff and went to see if the pool was open this time. It was. But do you want to know what the best part was? Since we'd tried to get get in the day before, the people let us in for free!
Once we were in there, we changed into our swimsuits and went out there. The people who needed to get Swimming Merit Badge requirements done went into the big pool, while the rest of us went into the hot tub! Boy did it feel so good after a day in the cold snow. Solomon liked it so much, he said,"Tell me again why we're leaving so early?" And who could blame him? I spent the next hour or so relaxing in the hot tub.
After a while we got into our cars and drove home. About halfway down the mountain we stopped for lunch. See, Eliza's birthday was just a few days before, and she'd had a big lunch party. My dad had brought leftovers from her party to our camp out to eat for lunch. The leftovers were some cheese and turkey sandwiches. And we brought some chips, too.
On the way up we stopped at a frozen lake. Josh wanted to explore it, but we weren't sure if it was safe. But Tyler and Isaac threw some rocks on the ice to test its thickness, and the rocks just bounced. So we knew it was safe.
For the next hour or so we played around on the ice, throwing balls and even trying to break small parts of the ice. Towards the end of our stay on the frozen lake, I decided to go up the hill (in case you don't know, the road we were driving on was above the lake, but we went down a hill to get to the lake) just so I could sit on a rock and relax for a bit. But then Solomon threw a snowball at me just for fun. It missed, and within a minute everyone was throwing snowballs at me. I had to duck to avoid a few of them, but none of them hit me. And all I was doing was just sitting there, taunting them.
After a while we got back on the road and drove the rest of the way to our campsite. Once we got there, we set up our tents and then played in the snow for a bit. We were supposed to go down to the Hot Springs pool to pass off some Swimming Merit Badge requirements for the younger scouts. But when we drove there, we got a nasty surprise.
See, there was actually a quarter-mile road from the campsite to the pool, and that was blocked off by a gate when the pool was closed. The gate was closed when we tried to drive there, with a note taped to it. The note said the pool was closed for the day because of "unforeseen illness." But we decided to walk there anyway just to check it out. When we got there, we peeked over the fence and saw that the hot tub was mostly drained out. So here's what must have happened.
I think that some kid who must've felt sick probably barfed in the hot tub, so the crew would have to drain it out to clean out all the barf. I guess they figured the hot tub was basically the whole reason people would want to come, and seeing the hot tub practically empty would've killed the mood. As far as I know, the big pool was full of water, but it wouldn't really have been the same as the hot tub.
After the pool thing we just went back to the campsite to get dinner going. Brother vonSavoye was in charge of dinner, and he was going to make Dutch oven meals. With Dutch ovens, cooking food takes a while, so we just had to wait. Fortunately I'd brought up some books to read, so I was able to keep myself occupied. At one point, Isaac was playing a joke on me by repeating what I was saying. Like this:
me:Hey there, Isaac!
Isaac:Hey there, Isaac!
me:Wha?
Isaac:Wha?
me:Stop copying me!
Isaac:Stop copying me!
[this is where it backfires]
me:I'm an idiot!
Isaac:You're an idiot!
After dinner we had a campfire ceremony, then went to bed. I was just glad to crawl into my really cozy sleeping bag. It felt a little cold at first, but I had brought an extra blanket with me to keep warm. And in the morning when I woke up, the sleeping bag felt so warm and cozy it took some willpower from me to get out of it!
Me, Michael, and Kyle were in charge of breakfast, so it wasn't long before we got to work. We made pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage. Everyone loved it.
After breakfast we packed up our stuff and went to see if the pool was open this time. It was. But do you want to know what the best part was? Since we'd tried to get get in the day before, the people let us in for free!
Once we were in there, we changed into our swimsuits and went out there. The people who needed to get Swimming Merit Badge requirements done went into the big pool, while the rest of us went into the hot tub! Boy did it feel so good after a day in the cold snow. Solomon liked it so much, he said,"Tell me again why we're leaving so early?" And who could blame him? I spent the next hour or so relaxing in the hot tub.
After a while we got into our cars and drove home. About halfway down the mountain we stopped for lunch. See, Eliza's birthday was just a few days before, and she'd had a big lunch party. My dad had brought leftovers from her party to our camp out to eat for lunch. The leftovers were some cheese and turkey sandwiches. And we brought some chips, too.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
picking up the slack (by Ethan)
I feel you're most displeased by the lack of progress on this blog (catch the Darth Vader quote?). I am terribly sorry. The reason there hasn't been a post on here in a while is probably because my mom's been a bit busy. But then again, what do you expect when you've got 4 kids and a dog?
But enough of that. We have to go on.
This post isn't really about one particular topic. It's really just summing up the way the wind is blowing in our family. I think the previous post was about Ben's birthday, and that was back in July. So we're WAY behind.
So here it goes.
After Ben's birthday, July went along pretty smoothly. We went to see Planes (all Disney did was strap wings onto Cars), hung out around the house, and just enjoyed our summer. I actually don't remember a whole lot, so once again I apologize.
August saw a bit more fun. I went to Scout Camp at Camp Wolfeboro like I did last year, and I got my second serving of awesome Boy Scout activities. One really memorable thing was the fact that by our campsite were some cliffs. Several times that week, I was laying down, relaxing in the sun, and maybe eating chips out of a bag-(hold your breath) with my feet dangling off the edge of the 30-foot cliff!
And the food there was pretty good. In fact, when I got home I said I liked the Camp food better than my mom's food. I admit I stretched the truth a little, but the Camp food was pretty good. At best, it always balanced out. In fact, the day after I got back was a Sunday, and when I got wind of the fact we'd be having enchiladas for dinner (a food I do NOT like), I said (in what I guess was a mean voice), "I liked the Camp food better!" And I'll bet you can guess what my mom's reaction was.
Anyway, like 2 weeks after that, we went to Sunriver again. It was as great of an experience as ever, with a week of bike riding, swimming at the SHARC, bike riding, reading books, bike riding, maybe even playing with toys we brought, and bike riding. Oh, and I went to the nearby city to see Percy Jackson:Sea of Monsters. I really loved going to the SHARC for several reasons. Number one, I'm practically amphibious. Number two, on the bike trail leading to the SHARC, there's a big hill that I simply loved to ride down. Riding downhill just felt so great!
Other than that, we just relaxed around the house at home.
Okay, so September was the month when we got a whole lot busier. School started, of course, and I can't tell you how good it felt to see all my friends and even meet some new ones. Blake actually started going to preschool, which I guess is a real big step. I can, believe it or not, remember what preschool was like for me. Eliza entered second grade. Ben started middle school at his Anova school. But I will say there was something new for me: My mom installed a new program onto her computer. It's a game that's popular among boys my age. It's a game that I'd strongly recommend to Lego fans. It's a game where you can do anything you want. It's a game where square-headed Creepers reign supreme.
MINECRAFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah the fun I started to have this September mining for gold, fighting off zombies and skeletons, and making cool stuff.
Then comes October. Not much here, except-Halloween! I know that sounds great, but we all know the main attraction of Halloween is Trick-or-treating, and the thing is, this year my mom prevented me from going because I'm "too old." Even when I said a huge amout of my classmates were going, she mantained her point. It honestly wasn't any comfort that I got to watch a movie at home on the big night. I liked the movie I watched and all, but I still felt sad that I was neglected out of a fun event just because I got older. I mean, what's the point of a major holiday when you're basically too old for it?
I guess I'm starting to have a "rebellious teenager" sound, so I'll stop there.
(plus I've already made my point)
November again was seemingly uneventful, but it was when things at school really started to get harder. I'm on the yearbook staff at school, and November was the month when I started having to do some serious work. Before that I simply learned how to use the design software and got some layouts done, but now I was rushing around doing interviews and taking photos. I can't tell you how much pressure I was under and every day I looked forward to getting home and playing Minecraft to let off some steam. But after a while I got everything done, and just in time for Thanksgiving, too. Thanksgiving was more or less the same as usual-relatives coming, a huge dinner with all manner of delicious food, and lots of talk. Gossiping may be fun for the women, but not for me. So I just spent some of the time out in the garage watching the Hunger Games movie to gear up for the new one. One really memorable and funny thing happened on Thanksgiving. Grandma Joan brought a turkey to cook and eat (the Thanksgiving tradition), and when she brought it I helped carry it inside. It wasn't wrapped in plastic, just sitting in a pan. Since it was so heavy I carried it real low, and just before I lifted it to put on the counter, Lily jumped up and got a bite out of the turkey! It wasn't a very big one, though.
I was lucky to go see Catching Fire with Granny. It was a truly memorable experience with convincing special effects, an interesting plot, and dazzling action scenes. My parents also went to see it, and they liked it too.
And finally, December! As is the case every year, there were a lot of things that led up to Christmas-Church parties, school potlucks, caroling, and of course Christmas Eve itself. During the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I had quite the job looking for ways to entertain myself. I got out all sorts of things from the closet to keep myself entertained until the big day. But perhaps the best pre-Christmas treat of all came a few weeks after Thanksgiving. The day my family went to see a certain movie, Catching Fire got a serious rival in the competition for my favorite 2013 movie. That movie was-Frozen! I probably liked it even better than I liked Wreck-it Ralph, and that's saying something.
It took a long while for my parents to wake up so we could open our presents, but Santa didn't disappoint! Lego Technic Mobile Crane MK II for me(it consisted of over 2000 pieces-building it took me all day!), a Rubix Touch cube for Ben (even though it refused to charge properly-bah!), American Girl Saige for Eliza(apparently Saige would only be available in 2013, so she was happy to have an item that was basically limited edition), and a car garage for Blake(boy, does he love parking all his cars in there!). Oh, and a new Frisbee for Lily because I accidentally threw her old one over the neighbors' fence. Boy, does she love Frisbee!
So, that should just about sum up the last few months in the Smith family. Now we're ready to start a new year!
But enough of that. We have to go on.
This post isn't really about one particular topic. It's really just summing up the way the wind is blowing in our family. I think the previous post was about Ben's birthday, and that was back in July. So we're WAY behind.
So here it goes.
After Ben's birthday, July went along pretty smoothly. We went to see Planes (all Disney did was strap wings onto Cars), hung out around the house, and just enjoyed our summer. I actually don't remember a whole lot, so once again I apologize.
August saw a bit more fun. I went to Scout Camp at Camp Wolfeboro like I did last year, and I got my second serving of awesome Boy Scout activities. One really memorable thing was the fact that by our campsite were some cliffs. Several times that week, I was laying down, relaxing in the sun, and maybe eating chips out of a bag-(hold your breath) with my feet dangling off the edge of the 30-foot cliff!
And the food there was pretty good. In fact, when I got home I said I liked the Camp food better than my mom's food. I admit I stretched the truth a little, but the Camp food was pretty good. At best, it always balanced out. In fact, the day after I got back was a Sunday, and when I got wind of the fact we'd be having enchiladas for dinner (a food I do NOT like), I said (in what I guess was a mean voice), "I liked the Camp food better!" And I'll bet you can guess what my mom's reaction was.
Anyway, like 2 weeks after that, we went to Sunriver again. It was as great of an experience as ever, with a week of bike riding, swimming at the SHARC, bike riding, reading books, bike riding, maybe even playing with toys we brought, and bike riding. Oh, and I went to the nearby city to see Percy Jackson:Sea of Monsters. I really loved going to the SHARC for several reasons. Number one, I'm practically amphibious. Number two, on the bike trail leading to the SHARC, there's a big hill that I simply loved to ride down. Riding downhill just felt so great!
Other than that, we just relaxed around the house at home.
Okay, so September was the month when we got a whole lot busier. School started, of course, and I can't tell you how good it felt to see all my friends and even meet some new ones. Blake actually started going to preschool, which I guess is a real big step. I can, believe it or not, remember what preschool was like for me. Eliza entered second grade. Ben started middle school at his Anova school. But I will say there was something new for me: My mom installed a new program onto her computer. It's a game that's popular among boys my age. It's a game that I'd strongly recommend to Lego fans. It's a game where you can do anything you want. It's a game where square-headed Creepers reign supreme.
MINECRAFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah the fun I started to have this September mining for gold, fighting off zombies and skeletons, and making cool stuff.
Then comes October. Not much here, except-Halloween! I know that sounds great, but we all know the main attraction of Halloween is Trick-or-treating, and the thing is, this year my mom prevented me from going because I'm "too old." Even when I said a huge amout of my classmates were going, she mantained her point. It honestly wasn't any comfort that I got to watch a movie at home on the big night. I liked the movie I watched and all, but I still felt sad that I was neglected out of a fun event just because I got older. I mean, what's the point of a major holiday when you're basically too old for it?
I guess I'm starting to have a "rebellious teenager" sound, so I'll stop there.
(plus I've already made my point)
November again was seemingly uneventful, but it was when things at school really started to get harder. I'm on the yearbook staff at school, and November was the month when I started having to do some serious work. Before that I simply learned how to use the design software and got some layouts done, but now I was rushing around doing interviews and taking photos. I can't tell you how much pressure I was under and every day I looked forward to getting home and playing Minecraft to let off some steam. But after a while I got everything done, and just in time for Thanksgiving, too. Thanksgiving was more or less the same as usual-relatives coming, a huge dinner with all manner of delicious food, and lots of talk. Gossiping may be fun for the women, but not for me. So I just spent some of the time out in the garage watching the Hunger Games movie to gear up for the new one. One really memorable and funny thing happened on Thanksgiving. Grandma Joan brought a turkey to cook and eat (the Thanksgiving tradition), and when she brought it I helped carry it inside. It wasn't wrapped in plastic, just sitting in a pan. Since it was so heavy I carried it real low, and just before I lifted it to put on the counter, Lily jumped up and got a bite out of the turkey! It wasn't a very big one, though.
I was lucky to go see Catching Fire with Granny. It was a truly memorable experience with convincing special effects, an interesting plot, and dazzling action scenes. My parents also went to see it, and they liked it too.
And finally, December! As is the case every year, there were a lot of things that led up to Christmas-Church parties, school potlucks, caroling, and of course Christmas Eve itself. During the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I had quite the job looking for ways to entertain myself. I got out all sorts of things from the closet to keep myself entertained until the big day. But perhaps the best pre-Christmas treat of all came a few weeks after Thanksgiving. The day my family went to see a certain movie, Catching Fire got a serious rival in the competition for my favorite 2013 movie. That movie was-Frozen! I probably liked it even better than I liked Wreck-it Ralph, and that's saying something.
It took a long while for my parents to wake up so we could open our presents, but Santa didn't disappoint! Lego Technic Mobile Crane MK II for me(it consisted of over 2000 pieces-building it took me all day!), a Rubix Touch cube for Ben (even though it refused to charge properly-bah!), American Girl Saige for Eliza(apparently Saige would only be available in 2013, so she was happy to have an item that was basically limited edition), and a car garage for Blake(boy, does he love parking all his cars in there!). Oh, and a new Frisbee for Lily because I accidentally threw her old one over the neighbors' fence. Boy, does she love Frisbee!
So, that should just about sum up the last few months in the Smith family. Now we're ready to start a new year!
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
My Birthday (by Ben)
First of all, I want to say that I am replacing my mom in this post. I guess she was getting busy. I turned 11 on my birthday, which was 2 July. In Summer School, I had a "party" in my class. Did I have a great time there? Really, I did, as much as always. It was a long story short. Here are some pictures in the evening party with my family. In these pictures, I have my puzzle cubes, even the new ones that I got as my birthday presents. Those are my QJ Megaminx, the V cube 3 (you know what a V cube is, don't you?) and the Eastsheen 4x4 (to replace my old and broken 4x4). There were several other things that I got for my birthday that I forgot. My cake had only one candle, though Blake, my little brother, insisted that I should have ELEVEN candles on it. That would be a big number.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Blake is THREE
Our little Blake turned three on May 6. He knew exactly what was going on and was soooo excited! Can you tell?
The night before his birthday we had the Hiatts and Grandma Joan over for dinner. One of Blake's gifts was stomp rockets. The cousins all took them right outside and got to work blasting them into the sky (and the trees, and the roof, of course).
The next morning, on Blake's very birthday, as we drove Ben to school I was trying to decide where to take Blake on a spontaneous outing. I inventoried the situation - clothes on, shoes on, breakfast eaten, dog in backyard - and decided we were free to do whatever as soon as we dropped off Ben. So we kept driving, stopped at TJ's in Lafayette to buy lettuce, and went to the Tilden Park Little Farm. I was reminded that this is my very favorite free kid outing in the Bay Area (that I've been to, anyway). Blake fed and admired the animals.
Blake got a kick out of seeing the farmer take two goats for a walk on a leash. He loved the "horn sheep" and insisted on giving it the last of our lettuce.
We saw an egg in the duck/geese/chicken/turkey (fowl?) area and asked the farmer what kind of egg it was. He was super friendly, gave us the egg and then even took us into the chicken coop to check for eggs there. He even gave us a carton to carry them home.
This egg was even still warm when he gave it to us. Kinda ewww if you think about it :)
The next morning we had a taste test - chicken eggs or duck eggs? The duck eggs won the most votes. Happy Birthday, Dearest Blake. I'm so glad and so sad that you are growing up!
The night before his birthday we had the Hiatts and Grandma Joan over for dinner. One of Blake's gifts was stomp rockets. The cousins all took them right outside and got to work blasting them into the sky (and the trees, and the roof, of course).
The next morning, on Blake's very birthday, as we drove Ben to school I was trying to decide where to take Blake on a spontaneous outing. I inventoried the situation - clothes on, shoes on, breakfast eaten, dog in backyard - and decided we were free to do whatever as soon as we dropped off Ben. So we kept driving, stopped at TJ's in Lafayette to buy lettuce, and went to the Tilden Park Little Farm. I was reminded that this is my very favorite free kid outing in the Bay Area (that I've been to, anyway). Blake fed and admired the animals.
Blake got a kick out of seeing the farmer take two goats for a walk on a leash. He loved the "horn sheep" and insisted on giving it the last of our lettuce.
We saw an egg in the duck/geese/chicken/turkey (fowl?) area and asked the farmer what kind of egg it was. He was super friendly, gave us the egg and then even took us into the chicken coop to check for eggs there. He even gave us a carton to carry them home.
This egg was even still warm when he gave it to us. Kinda ewww if you think about it :)
The next morning we had a taste test - chicken eggs or duck eggs? The duck eggs won the most votes. Happy Birthday, Dearest Blake. I'm so glad and so sad that you are growing up!
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