Labor Day In Seattle

Looking up from the bottom of the Space needle

View from the top

after we went up in the space needle

butterfly house

In The dinosaur exhibit

Giant checkers

They can also be used as hats...

Giant table

This Monday, September 1, 2008 we went to Seattle for the day. We started at the Science Center. We looked through all of the "normal" exhibits, the ones that are always there. After looking at the "normal" ones we walked down to McDonalds for lunch. After lunch we walked back to the Science Center. This specific week is Bumbershoot so the street were particularly crowded. Bumbershoot is a festival that happens in Seattle where bands come and perform and there are other things to do and buy. When we went back to the Science Center we went to the "special exhibit". Special exhibits are only there for short periods of time. Right now the special exhibit is "Speed: The exhibit". There were a lot of things for the kids to do. There were remote control cars to race and many other things. After we spent a little time in that exhibit we went to see an imax movie. We saw one about Mt. St. Helens' eruption. It was only 30 minutes long but it was still really interesting and informative.

After we watched that movie we left the park and headed to the space needle. It costs 80 dollars for my family to go up in the space needle but I think it was worth it. When you get in the elevator a lady is in there with you and she tells you all about the space needle. She is right in front of a wall of windows. It was so pretty. As we rose higher and higher we saw the beautiful city of Seattle shrink beneath us. Once we were up there we went outside and walked around the entired thing twice. It was so pretty. When we were done and we decided to go back down we got back into the elevator and it felt like we were flying into the city. We got closer and closer until we were back on the ground. It was so cool. After we were done with that we got back in the car and went to get ice cream at a malt shop in Pacific Place. When we were done with our ice cream my family took me up to the appartment that I'm living in right now. I'm living as a nanny in Seattle so we thought it would be easiest to drop me off that night instead of coming back Tuesday morning. We had a really fun time in Seattle.

Josh's Baptism

Josh

Dad and Josh before the baptism

Family picture

Grandma and Josh

Grandpa and Josh

Last week was a very busy time for us as we prepared for Josh's baptism. My grandma Pat and aunt Linda came in on Wednesday, August, 27, 2008. My grandpa Ron came in on Thursday, August, 28, 2008 and my grandpa Wiser came in on Friday, August 29, 2008. On Friday I had to work for a little while but while I was at work my family went to the grocery store to buy food for the baptism. My aunt is an amazing cook. My mom calls her the "kitchen Nazi". So, she's the one that decided what food we should have at the baptism and cooks it all. We had chicken salad sandwiched, fruit with dip, vegetables with dip, raspberry punch, and her homemade salsa and chips along with a cake from Costco. That night my grandpa Ron took Josh to an Aquasox game for his birthday. Aquasox is the Everett baseball team. However, they had to leave the game early due to the rain. That night my dad went out to dinner with Jackson and my grandpa Wiser. They went to Applebees. That left me, grandma Pat, aunt Linda, and my mom to stop by the church and put everything in the fridge and set up the tables. Then we drove to Lynnwood and went shopping and then we went to Olive Garden for dinner. It was really good. We spent the next day getting ready to leave for the baptism at 10:00 am. When 10 rolled around we all piled into the cars and drove to the baptism and started preparing everything. Once the baptism started it was great. However, half way through I realized that my mom didn't put my name on the program. I was supposed to play a musical number before he got confirmed and my mom didn't put me on the program. But she fixed that for me. They just announced me during the program. When we were all done we got to talk to everyone in the Young Womens room while we enjoyed the wonderful food that Linda prepared for us. It was a great experience. Everything about this was amazing. I'm excited that Joshua decided to get baptized and that he is living according to his standards.

Fall 2008 Class Schedule

I just got my class schedule for the Fall Quarter at Everett Community College. It's probably going to be a difficult quarter for me. Here is the list of my classes.

Political Science~ Josh Searle
Statistics~ Wendy Houston
Chemistry~ Mark Kontulis

In ORCA you keep the same teachers for the core classes so I've had Josh Searle and Wendy Houston before. They are both okay teachers. Wendy Houston is an annoying test grader though. My friend used "is" instead of "are" and she got marked down three points. I personally don't think that's right. She's not an English teacher she's a math teacher. Josh was a good english teacher...I don't know how he will be at teaching political science though. I haven't had Mark Kontulis as a teacher yet so I don't know how his class is going to be. The reason that I haven't had him as a teacher is because we only have two classes at the ORCA building and we have the option of taking a class at main campus so I decided to. If I decide to become a biologist then I will definitely need chemistry so I thought I would get it out of the way now...before I get into college. Luckily, some of my other friends from ORCA are taking this class too...so I won't be completely alone. I hate going into classes and not know anybody. Hopefully it will be a good year. I don't start school until September 22nd so I have awhile to relax before then...luckily. I will keep you posted on my new school year...when it starts...haha

Our SHREK-tacular adventure

This summer my mom's, cousin's friend came up from New York. She came up because she was in a production of Shrek the Musical at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle, WA. We were priveledged enough for her to give us 6 tickets to the show. So, on Wednesday we drove down to Seattle around 4:00. We ate dinner and then went down to the theater for the production...it started at 8:00 pm. It was so good. Everyone was great. Danette (my mom's, cousin's friend) played multiple parts. She was the magic mirror assistant, flutterbell (a fairy), one of the dancing toys and she had other dancing roles too. The only bad part of the production was that it was 3 hours long. Most of us were fine with the length of the play but Jackson started to get tired towards the end. The cool part was that we saw the production before anyone else did. So we probably saw a lot of stuff that won't be incorporated into the final production. We stayed in a hotel because the next day I was scheduled to go stay with Danette and work as her nanny for three days and then come back on September 1st.

So, the next day we drove down there and met Danette at about 10:00 am. She lives in an appartment in Seattle. I get my own room and bathroom. I have to babysit her daughter, Ellery, from about 12:30 pm until midnight. She has rehearsal from 1-6 and then a production every night from 8 until 11 and then they have notes after. The baby is really good though. Since Danette is in the production I've been able to meet some cool people. I met the wicked witch from the play and I met one of the "dressers" from the play when I walked up to the theater today. It was cool. Fiona from the play apparently lives here too but I haven't met her yet. Hopefully I will. I've only been here 1 1/2 days. I have 1 more day until I go home and then I come back on September 1st for about 2 weeks. I'm really excited that I have this job. And I start another job on Monday as a desk assistant at the school the my mom works at. This should be exciting. I'm really excited to have some money...FINALLY!!!

I got my license!!!

I had my drive test today. I was so nervous. I could hardly sleep last night. My test didn't start until 10:30 but we decided to leave at about 9:15 (it only takes about 30 minutes to get there) and practice for a little while. Well, when it was finally 10:30 the instructor and I got in the car and began the test.

Here's what she had me do:

- parallel park (I failed it. It's really hard to parallel park a suburban if you aren't used to it)

- back around a corner (when do you ever have to back around a corner?)

- hand signals (left turn, right turn, and stop)

- park on a hill (I did this perfectly)

- and many, many more things

The test only lasted about 15 minutes...it was the longest 15 minutes of my life! Well, when we were done with my test she went over what I did wrong as I "listened". Then, they failed to tell us before the test that we had to take a number and wait to be called to sign up for a license and take the picture (my picture is horrible). So, we picked a number. Ours was 361 and they were on 343. This was going to take forever! We decided to take this opportunity to go to safeway (it's right next door) and buy stuff that we need for home. When we got back from Safeway they were only on 346 or something like that. I got done with my test at about 11:00 am. When we finally left the DMV it was about 12:30 pm. It was horrible. It probably wasn't a smart idea to make an appointment for a drive test on a Saturday. They are always busiest on Saturdays. However, I am really glad that I passed and that I now have my license...NO MORE TAKING THE BUS!!!

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