Pioneer Day (July 24, 2008)

I always love being in Utah on July 24th. Why? It's pioneer day and it is only celebrated in Utah. It's kind of like the 4th of July. However, it's not as big. Pioneer day celebrates the day that Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. In Utah this day is celebrated with fireworks and big celebrations.

We left our house at around 4:00 pm and headed down towards Salt Lake City. We were going to meet Linda's family and then drive down to the Salt Lake City Cemetary. As we drove around the cemetary we saw graves of many important people of the LDS church including Gordon B. Hinckley, Spencer W. Kimball, Joseph Fielding Smith, Neal A. Maxwell and many other prominant figures of the LDS church. As we drove through the cemetary we took pictures and read many of the different tomb stones. It was really interesting.

After we were done at the cemetary we were going to drive to the Salt Lake City temple and walk around the grounds and watch the Joseph Smith movie. After we got there and were done walking around the temple we tried to get into the building. However, it was locked. It must've been closed because it was a holiday. However, we didn't think of that before. After we were done at the temple we went down to Texas Roadhouse and ate dinner. After dinner we went to Walmart and purchased some fireworks and then went to Linda's house to watch our mini fireworks show. It was a really fun Pioneer day!!

Thanks for reading my blog...I will hopefully be writing again soon.

Island Park Reunion

We left our house in Washington on July 9th. Our plan was to drive down to Butte, Montana all day and stay in a hotel for the night. In the morning we started out great. We weren't sick of each other...yet...and we were organized and comfortable. However, as many of you may know, it doesn't often stay that way. As the trip went on we got less and less organized and more and more irritable. Fortunately we managed to safely make it to Butte, Montana. We were finally able to relax, eat dinner and watch TV. Usually we get a hotel with a pool but we weren't able to do that this time. So, we stayed in a tiny room overlooking the baseball fields...lucky us. However, my brothers and my dad were able to go out to the baseball fields and stretch their legs and my mom and I stayed in a nice, quiet room...FINALLY!! We don't often get that in our house...if you can imagine.

The next day we took our time getting ready. It only takes about 2 hours to drive from Butte, Montana to Island Park, Idaho and we didn't have to be to our cabin until 4:00 in the afternoon. After we were all packed and loaded we made a "quick" stop at WalMart so we could pick up the things that we needed to eat while at the cabin. We finally piled back into our car and began to drive again. It went well at first. We started a movie that was 2 hours long (it should've been done as we pulled into the driveway of the cabin). However, we weren't that fortunate. My mom failed to look at the direction that my grandma sent to us so we got some off of mapquest. However, as many of you may know, mapquest is often not reliable. So, we spent about 3 hours driving down EVERY street in Island Park except the right one. At one point during our adventure we found a cabin that looked almost exactly like the one that we were supposed to be at. So, my mom got out of the car and started investigating...unfortunately, this wasn't the right one. Luckily, as we were driving down one of the street we passed my aunt Linda in her car. We were able to follow them up to our cabin. At this point my parents were very flustered. We had been lost for about 2 or 3 hours. They had to back up the boat (not an easy task) and turn around many times. We finally arrived at the cabin and unloaded all of our stuff.

Our Island Park Adventure:

30 people, 1 cabin, 3 nights...CHAOS (it actually wasn't as bad I imagined it would be)

Kevin...then Laura in the hottub

Scattegories and movies every night

Old Faithful

S'mores

Kayaking...FUN!!

"don't go in the lake, there's leeches in there!"

eating fish that the kids caught and my dad cooked...YUM!

going on walks around the cabin

and finally....growing together as a family

Summertime!

The last week of school was a sad time for me. I've never felt like this about school before. I have made many friends through the ORCA program. This program is nice because we become so close. However, the last week of school was also a busy time for all of us. On a couple occasions during the last couple weeks of school I've had to survive on no sleep. On Monday our history papers were due (I didn't get any sleep the night before), on Tuesday we had our zoology final and on Wednesday we had our math final. On Wednesday, after our math final, we had a potluck. ORCA has one of these at the end of every quarter. Everyone brings a dish to share and we eat and play games all day. A group of about 10 of us played apples to apples. Others played frisbee and soccer.

On the last day of school (June 12th) ORCA went on a whale watching trip. We met at Everett Community College at 9:45 in the morning. Once everyone was there we boarded vans and the teachers drove us down to the boat. The cruise was so much fun. We played games (apples to apples) and just hung out while we scanned the ocean for whales. Fortunately it was a very good time to spot orcas. At about noon we spotted j-pod. J-pod is composed of about 25 orcas and we were fortunate enough to see many of them. We saw Ruffles, Granny, Oreo, Cookie, and many other orcas from j-pod. Granny is currently the oldest orca in the world. She is 97 years old. I was excited to see them. In class we always talk about Ruffles and how it is is easy to tell him apart from the rest of the group (the outside edge of his fluke looks like a ruffles potato chip), but it is more fun to actually experience this. The picture at the top of this blog is of the fluke of one of the orcas we saw. They also breeched (jumped out of the water) but they were too quick. I couldn't take the picture fast enough. We were in Canada when these whales were spotted. Once the first whale was spotted everyone moved to that side of the boat and it felt like we were going to flip over, but we didn't.

Our school has grown really close. We've already decided to have a lot of ORCA parties. The Saturday after school got out we went to my friend Andrew's house and we had a BBQ and hung out. Everyone brought food to share. After we were done eating we walked over to Forest Park and played capture the flag in the woods. My team won! A group of kids from my school are planning on going to the drive-in movie theater in Snohomish on Friday. However, I can't go because I have other plans. The party on Saturday was really fun...hopefully more parties are being planning for the Summer.

This weekend I am going to Youth Conference with my church. I am on the committee so I get to go up tonight (one day early) so we can set up before they get there. I am on the dance committee with 2 other youth and a leader. It should be fun. We went up to the camp a couple weeks ago to look at the lodge and it is really nice. We have a lot of ideas on how to decorate it. At youth conference there is going to be a dance, activities, a testimony meeting and a service project. I'm excited because I get to see some of my friends from the stake that I don't get to see on a normal basis.

On the Monday after we get back from youth conference I have to get two of my wisdom teeth out. I'm not looking forward to that. However, I want them out because they are coming in already and they hurt really bad. Then the next day I have to drive to the airport with my mom to get Tanya (she's coming up for a week). I am getting my haircut and my mom doesn't want to drive all the way home to get me...she just wants to go to the haircut on the way home from the airport.

In July my mom's side of the family is going to Island Park, Idaho. We are staying in a big house all together. It should be fun. I am really excited to see everybody. After we drive to Idaho, we are going to complete the drive to my grandma's house. We will stay at her house for a couple weeks and then drive back to our house in Lake Stevens, WA.

I think I have other things going on this summer but I will update on those things at a later date. Thanks for reading my blog.

I have a blog!

Welcome to my blog! I am going to start by introducing myself to you. My birthday is January 13, 1991. I am 17 years old. I have three brothers: Zachary, Joshua, and Jackson. All three of them play baseball. I am required to go to at least one of each of their games every season and they are required to attend my piano recitals. My brothers also enjoy riding scooters and playing basketball outside. Zach is currently finishing up his 9th grade year. He is going to be in high school next year! Josh is ready to go into 3nd grade. He just qualified for the Highly Capable class and he really likes the teacher he is going to have. Jackson is preparing to go into Kindergarten. He just finished his 3rd and final year at one of his preschools and he is going to finish up his first and last year at his other preschool. My mom is very creative. She figured out how to make her own website so now she sells her vinyl creations on line at iloveletterz.com. My dad is an engineer at Boeing he is very good at math so, on occasion, he helps me with math problems that I get stuck on.

I am currently working on completing my junior year at high school. I attended full-time running start for my junior year. I am in a program called Ocean Research College Academy (ORCA). We generally study marine based sciences but we also study terrestrial animals in our zoology class and we have regular english, history and math classes. My first year at ORCA has been a blast. I made some really great friends and I learned a lot from our four different teachers. We have the same teachers for two full years so you become really close to them. At the beginning of this school year we went on a retreat to Deception Pass. This was great because we were immediately thrown into a group with people we've never met before and we were "forced" to become friends. We also went on a retreat in the Spring. This time we went to Forks, WA (home of the vampires) and we investigated two different beaches, Tongue Point and Hole in the Wall. For our last day of school this year we are going on a whale watching trip. Hopefully we will get to see some whales. I am partially excited for Summer to start but once it does start that means I won't get to see my friends for a whole summer. I am planning on attending ORCA next year as well so I will be able to see my friends then. We have bonded and created friendships that will last forever.

However, ORCA can be challenging too. The teachers at ORCA give a lot of homework, much more than normal high school. This is to be expected since it is college, it just took some getting used to. This past week we have had major projects due. On Tuesday we had a paper due for a book that we read in English. Monday night I got 30 minutes of sleep. Friday we had a final English paper due. I didn't get any sleep on Thursday night. One of the hardest things I have encountered while attending ORCA was pacing yourself. You get the syllabus at the beginning of the quarter and you think you have "so much time". Then, you realize the paper is due tomorrow and you haven't even started researching for it. I'm not that bad but I do procrastinate.

Piano is one of my hobbies. I just recently had a piano recital. I played "The Phantom of the Opera" and "My Heart Will Go On". I think it went pretty well. Generally when I perform in front of people I freeze and forget the notes. I also forget to breathe which could be a problem. However, I think I did OK. My friend Maddy came to this recital and she said I did fine. My parents, my teacher and a lot of people at the recital said I did very well too. Now I am focusing on gathering songs to play at Josh's baptism at the end of August/ beginning of September. I will be playing two different instrumental church songs.

Thank you for reading my blog. I will try to write one at least once a week. Next Friday I will be done with school so I will be better at keeping you up to date.