Jeff's Piano Recital

Last week on Friday our new piano teacher Jeff held a recital in a church in Dublin. We had our rehearsal on Tuesday so we knew what we were doing and had heard each other pieces. It was different from other recitals like Mrs. Palmer's where she just sat up on the stage calling out names and making us bow. In Jeff's recital he told us to just recognize the crowd clapping with a nod but some kids still bowed. He also didn't announce everyone's name but just told us to look at the sheet and come up when it was our turn and just start playing. It was a lot more fun than Mrs. Palmer's recital because the pieces were more interesting and played with a lot more energy. In Mrs. Palmer's recitals people would just go up and play their Minuet or whatever but in this recital there were cool Christmas songs. Also, in Jeff's recital there weren't just pianists but also singers who were very good. I have to say though, I liked Mrs. Palmer's receptions more but that was because she made everyone bring something unlike Jeff who brought everything. So my main point in this is that I like our new teacher more than our old one.

What I'm Thankful For

The first thing I'm thankful for is being able to play tennis. My parents spend a large portion of their money on my tennis which I'm very grateful for. Even when they're having financial problems they'll still spend a lot of their money on tennis lessons and tournaments. During the summer I went to all three of Peter's camps which are all very expensive. The next thing I'm grateful for is having food on the table. In a lot of places homeless people are starving and I'm grateful that we always have a gourmet meal on the table. I'm also grateful that Obama got elected president because I think he'll be able to help the economy and make more job openings in America. Another thing I'm thankful for is being able to do lots of traveling. Even though the 7 wonders idea is kind of out we still plan to do lots of traveling in the next year. We've been to too many places for me to remember so I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful to be able to play piano even though sometimes I don't like it I think it will help me in the long run.

The First Seven Wonder

We had to get up at three to go to the airport to catch a flight to Washington D.C.  I've always hated getting up early but it was especially bad because I'd just been at a friends birthday party (his name's Alex and we went to see an Ohio State soccer game and I got back around midnight). I got about 3 hours of sleep.  We got business class once again going to Rome but long flights still aren't fun.  When we were landing in Rome I didn't know what to expect but there was a beautiful ocean and it was really nice and sunny out.  It was really confusing trying to find out how to get to our apartment.  We were originally planning on taking the train and then the metro or something but that was to confusing and expensive so we just got a taxi.  The actual city was a lot like Paris except not as nice (it's more crowded and lots of graffiti).  The driver's were also very dangerous.  There were lots of scooter and motorcycle riders that would go in between cars passing them by inches.  There was obviously lots of honking and yelling.  When we got to our apartment we had to wait for a while because we showed up two hours early.  We visited the Vatican and St. Peter's cathedral which wasn't fun, not because it was boring but because we were really tired.  We went to bed around 4 and woke up really early in the morning the next day.  The second day was the day we decided to see the Colosseum and the ancient ruins.  We got an early start and it was a really nice walk even though day got really frustrated because we couldn't find it.  When we got there we were on a balcony looking off at all the ruins imagining what it would have been like to be living in them 2000 years ago.  We walked through the ruins and it was amazing.  There were scientists studying certain parts so we watched the for a while.  It was really big but I'm not going to go into lots of details on this because I'd rather focus on the reason we came to Rome.  It was huge.  We could see it from the balcony rising up a lot higher than any of the other ruins and when we were right next to it looking up, we couldn't believe it was built thousands of years ago.  We started on the ground floor and walked all the way around.  There was a cross marking where Cesar used to sit.  You could look down and see where the trap doors were and where they would set lions on the gladiators.  Part of the underground passages were covered by a flooring that was supposed to show you what it used to look like when the gladiators were fighting on it.  It was just a wood covering with sand on top.  Then we moved to the second floor where you could look down on the passages which was really cool.  We didn't really spend a whole lot of time there though because we were all hungry and tired so we took the metro home.  The metro's in Rome aren't nearly as nice as the metro's in Paris.  On the last day of our trip we visited a lot of places but I'm just going to write about the Pantheon.  It's an ancient building but it's still in one piece so you can walk inside of it.  Before we went in we got gelato (ice cream) which was good but not as good as the ice cream in Paris.  Inside there was a big dome that had an opening but there was no glass covering it so when it rains it just rains right into the Pantheon.  It's supposed to being pretty cool.  There's lots of drains so it never floods or anything as far as I know.  It was a short trip but we saw a lot and learned a lot so we all thought it was plenty of time and were eager to get home.  It was nice but not as nice as Paris.

The Obama Rally

Today we went into Columbus so we could see Obama speak live.  When we got to the area where the rally was taking place there was a long line of people that were heading somewhere that we couldn't see.  We finally found a place to park and started walking towards the line.  On our way there were tons of vendors selling shirts, pins, and hats.  Above all the noise you would just here some guy yelling, "hats and shirts!, shirts and hats!"  It was a big line but it moved quickly and soon we were in.  There was already a large crowd gathered up where Obama was going to speak and if I would have known how many people were going to be there I would have wanted to get a spot in the crowd then but since we had an hour and a half we found a nice shady spot and waited there.  There were a few volunteers handing out free water so we didn't get hot and thirsty so it wasn't all miserable waiting.  Before the future president took the podium there were various people talking such as one of the senators and the mayor.  They were just trying to get the crowd going.  When Obama came everyone went crazy and started waving signs in the air but I couldn't see a thing because of the massive crowd.  There was some kind of construction vehicle that a bunch of people were standing on and mom told me to go over and get some good pictures for her blog.  I found a spot on it where I could see Obama clearly and it was much better than being in the crowd.  I got one really good picture of the huge crowd and the American flag in the background and I think mom nominated that one to go on her blog.  We didn't watch the whole thing so we didn't have to worry about the crowd but he was done soon after we'd left.  My favorite part of the whole thing was the secret service agents.  They were all dressed up in a suit with dark sunglasses.  They had guys on the roof with giant binoculars looking for potential problems.  It looked like a cool job to me.  When we left we went to the closest fast food restaurant (Wendy's) and all ate big meals because we were all starving.  We then went to Easton (a shopping center) and watched a movie about religion.  It was pretty much about some guy talking about how stupid religion is.  It was rated R but Isabel still watched it because there was just a little cussing.  Those were the highlights of our day.

The Davinci Code

What's been happening in the book I'm reading, the Davinci Code, is Sophie Neuveu, an agent in cryptology, left a message for Langdon telling him he was in grave danger and to meet her in the bathroom and to make sure Fache didn't follow him. He did what he was told and met her in the bathroom where she told him that Fache thought he was the one that murdered Sauniere and that they had to break out of the Louvre and get him to the Embassy, where he could have a fair American trial, if he got to the embassy he was considered on American ground where he would be safe for the time being. They were following Robert Langdon with a tiny tracking device to make sure he didn't try to make a run for it. They put the dot in a bar of soap and and broke the glass, immediately the sirens started to blare and they threw the soap onto a passing truck. Fache called for all the agents to follow the truck giving Langdon and Sophie time to escape. When they were about to escape Langdon figured out the code Sauniere had left which said:

Leonardo Da Vinci!
The Mona Lisa!

They figured they had enough time to go take a look before Fache got back so they went back to look for clues on the Mona Lisa. Written across the paintings protective glass, there was another puzzle that led to another painting. Before she could figure it out though, a security guard came in and told Langdon to put his hands up and get on the ground. As all of this was going on, Sophie managed to get to the painting and found a key that earlier in her life, Saunier (her grandpa) had told her unlocked unbelievable secrets. She pocketed it then turned and used the painting as a hostage, she told the security guard that if he didn't drop his walkie talkie and gun, she would smash her knee through the famous Da Vinci painting, horrified, he dropped his gun and radio and as they ran out of the room they took them. They left the museum and got in Sophie's Smart Car. The cops saw them but they managed to loose them in the maze of streets. Now they're trying to find a safe place where they can try to find out what the key will unlock.

Homeschool Acivities

Since we haven't been able to see our friends every day due to home schooling we've been doing various activities in home schooling.  Two days ago me and dad went to chareoke night where we ate wings and watched people sing.  It was fun but it seemed like I wasn't really in the conversations, you know just sitting there but it was funny watching some of the kids.  Yesterday we had park day where pretty much the same kids met at a park and just hung out.  It was kind of boring but I was more in the conversations.  They're going to have other activities including skatepark day which I'm looking forward to.

The Davinci Code

Although I haven't read a lot of it, I've been reading the Davinci Code which so far has taken place in Paris so going to Paris has helped me understand it a bit better. It's kind of confusing for me but this is what I think has been going on. Oh, another thing I'm not good with is names of people in books, I only remember 2 so I'll use nicknames. In the beginning there's a man trying to get away from a person trying to murder him. The murderer is some Christian crazy person (goes as far as wearing a belt that burns into his skin to simulate the pain Jesus felt when he died on the cross). The other man holds some kind of secret the murderer is trying to figure out. The victim runs into one of the galleries and rips of a random painting from the wall. In modern museums, they don't use lasers or anything to guard the paintings but when someone rips a painting of the wall, bars come down around the gallery blocking his/her exit. By doing this, the victim was trying to seperate himself from the murderer. He just aimed the gun through the bars and asked him the truth about whatever secret it was (it hasn't said the secret yet) and he lied so he got shot. He got shot in the stomach which makes it so he dies very slowly (over a 20 minute time period) and very painfully. Before he died he positioned himself to look like a star and drew a star on his chest with the blood from his wound. He also had an invisible ink pen which can only be read with certain light. Proffesor Langdon was planning on meeting him the next day so the police (not actually the police, more like the FBI in France) had him get out of bed to meet Fasche, the head of the secret service. They met at the Louvre where Fasche met him and took him to the crime scene. The star stood for a feminine god, it was one of the first symbols ever used. They paint it on American airforce planes. Right at the end of the chapter I was reading, Langdon read the writing the man had left and the last thing he said was "What the hell." so I'm guessing this is where the story starts, trying to find out what the writing meant.

Paris Compared to Granville

In this blog I'm going to write a compare and contrast about Granville and Paris. I'll start by saying that everything in Paris is small. Stores, appartments, restaurants, cafe's, pretty much anything, but still I'd rather live there because of the location. In Granville, everyone pretty much has a big house, if you don't have one you're considered 'poor' although I doubt that anyone living here is actually poor. In France they're a lot more earth freindly for instance, instead of driving a Hummer, like about 10 people in G-ville, everyone either drives a small scooter, motorcyle, or smart car. It's rare to even see a car as big as a Mini Cooper. People in France seem to also be a lot happier and nicer. We went to get our portrait taken by a drawer on the side of the road by the Pompadue (no idea how to spell it) and although he probably doesn't make a lot he seemed to love what he did and was really enthusiastic. This was a short blog because the main point is bigger isn't alway's better. I now want to get a small motorcycle when I'm older instead of a big car and want to be more eco-friendly. One thing I don't want smaller is a bathtub (certain things need to stay big for me.)

Last Day in France

Mom was sick today so we decided to just go get souvenir's and walk around, shopping day sort of. We took the metro to this church that's way up on a hill and when you walk to the top of it you can see all of Paris. It was a bit surprising because it's not a big hill and almost every building in Paris seemed to be higher than it but it gave a good view. Not a whole lot happened because dad wasn't really feeling good either but we got some gyro's from a vendor (Greek food) and ate them by the Seine where we watched cruiser boats go by. We were thinking abou taking a cruise ourselves but the girls talked dad out of it (I wanted to go but there's two of them and one of me so it's hard to win votes). I got my souvenir by a painter working by the modern art museum. I got it to look funny and I liked it, Amelia got a serious one. After that we went home and hung out the rest of the day. Yesterday we flew home, we got business class again so it wasn't so bad. I finished an entire book and slept for a while. We got stuck at the Chicago airport and we got home late.

Versailles

Today we took an hour long metro ride to the palace of Versailles which used to be the biggest power berore the French Revolution. It started when Louis XIV wanted to get away from the city so he moved his palace to Versailles taking the whole French government with him to live in the castle. When he died Louis XV took over and ruled until he died and he was probably the least significant ruler becuase nothing happened to him. Louis XVI ruled and married a woman called Marie Antoinette. She wanted to live in the country so she built a village right near the palace and pretended like she lived there and had a simple life. Louis XVI built a canal to remind him of Venice. When the French Revolution started they both got beheaded. When we got there there was a huge crowd of people heading towards the castle which couldn't be good. Of course there had to be like 7 switchbacks before the final stretch and the guy was yelling that it was a 2 hour wait. Mom and dad held our spot in line while me and Amelia went and got drinks and a sandwich. After that me, Isabel, and Amelia went and sat on the wall. When we finally got in it was an elaborate room which mom would describe as gawdy. The first king to rule there (Louis XIV) called himself Apollo after the sun god because he said he brought everyone light or something. The first room we saw was the cathedral where there was a big throne where I assumed the king sat. The first thing we walked through were the art galleries which had a lot of war pictures and paintings of the king. They were all different colors and seemed to all have a different mood to them like some might be light and some were dark. It seemed like the rooms went on forever but then again it was said to be the most magnificant palace in France. There were great chandeliers everywhere and marble staircases, gold railings. Mom said she wouldn't want to live there becuase of how big it was but I'd be more than happy to take it. I can imagine myself on a skateboard or go-cart or something driving or riding down the halls and all that. Nobody would even find out because the chances of 2 people running into each other in such a ginormous house are very minimal. Upstairs is where all the royal bedrooms were. Of course they had other rooms but I'd describe them all as the same thing, elaborate. The king's room was kind of dark but lined with gold and a huge canopy over his bed where he could completely close himself in. There were big feathers on top of it and royal chairs were for some reason facing the bed. He also had a second bedroom where he'd put on a show for the other people in the castle of him waking up in the morning. I thought that'd be a pretty boring show watching him go through his morning routine but I guess it was some kind of ritual. The queens room was even more elaborate I thought, maybe because it was lighter but it was pretty much the same thing. I was surprised that the king and queen wouldn't sleep together like most couples but back then I guess it was more of a delicousy maybe to have your own bed, of course I'm just making an obsevation and a guess. There were rooms lined with statues and chandeliers and war paintings. Finally, we got to the gardens outside. It was pretty hot out because there was barely any shade at all but it was beautiful. Everything was semetrical and there was a lake of in the distance from the palace. You could rent one but the line was too big and they were coming in too slow. We got Panini's for lunch which are a lot like baget sandwich's but on a different type of bread. We also got there on the day that they had the water fountain show which had different statues spurting out water. I would go into detail about all of the elaborate statues but that would take far too long. It would have been a lot nicer though if the guards wouldn't have been blowing their whistles for people to get off the grass.

Orsay Art Museum and the Catacombs

The Orsay is a famous art museum across from the Louve which has a lot of Monet's paintings especially. We walked there which was relatively short and when we got there there was no line or anything. It used to be an old train station and I liked the setup a lot more than the Louve. For one thing, there's too many people so sometimes you can't even see the paintings very well but at the Orsay, I think the art is just as good and there's no one never a crowd around one painting. I like how at the Orsay there's this big elaborate clock right in the middle of a wall which makes it feel like an old train station. My favorite work of art was the Polar Bear statue. It was probably really easy to make and everything but I just liked the smoothness and how real it looked. Another thing I liked was a sculpture of a Roman gladiator with his foot on another's neck looking up at the king to look for the thumbs up or thumbs down. If you didn't already know this, a thumbs down would meen that he'd have to kill him and a thumbs up was to let him live. Most of the time I think he gave a thumbs up but there were also a lot of thumbs down. There was a sculpture that one of Rodine's students had made because she'd loved him. She wanted to marry him but he decided to stay with his wife so she made a sculpture about it. There was her, a beautiful girl with a miserable look on her face and Rodine kind of looking like he was thinking if he'd made the right decision and then Rodine's wife looking like a witch dragging him along. She later went crazy and ended up in a mental institution. The Monet paintings were also interesting to me because he'd do the same painting about 5 times but in different colors according to his mood. I left out a lot of paintings I liked but there are too many to go into detail about. When we were done looking through the museum (dad made sure we 'bagged it' meaning we see every single painting in the museum) we hopped on a Metro to go to the Catacombs where we wanted to see lots of bones. When we got there there was a huge line so we were worried we wouldn't be able to get in but we barely made it. The descent seemed like forever so we had to have been really far underground and it was pretty dark with a creepy vibe. All I can say about most of it is a bunch of tunnels without any bones for a long way. It made for a really good picture though. When we got to the bones there were millions of them stacked neatly together. There was every bone there including a bunch of skulls. I touched one and it just felt like a rock. I'm pretty sure Isabel touched one too. Amelia was to chicken to even go near one. Unfortunately the camera wasn't charged so we didn't get many pictures at all before it died but it was amazing. There were also a few skull and crossed bones. It looked just like the ones on a pirate ship flag. It was a lot more fun than the sewer tour but much more creepy. Today we didn't go anywhere because I was sick and still am a little. I finished my whole 343 page book in 2 days which wasn't a surprise because it's my favorite series about the Olympian's of Greece. I did get out a little to go to the bookstore and out for an ice cream cone but that was later in the day when I was well rested. More tomorrow!

Le Louvre

This is one of the most important things to see in Paris mostly because of the Mona Lisa but it's the largest museum in the world. We walked there and it didn't take as long as I had expected. We got there before the crowds I think because there was hardly anyone there. I was feeling terrible when I went in and for the first part of our visit because I hadn't had a good breakfast and was really thirsty. I was feeling dizzy and spent a lot of time sitting down looking at the art. I know that it was because of hunger now because after we had lunch I was feeling fine. The first part was mostly sculptures of naked people and animals. They all have some kind of meaning which I understood in a lot of them. There was one famous sculpture we saw that was of Venus (or Aphrodite, Greek's called her Aphrodite and the Roman's called her Venus) and was famous for how her body was twisted kind of as if she were dancing. Both of her arms were missing but there was still a huge crowd taking lots of pictures. Aphrodite was the god of love. After we saw this we got lunch at a cafeteria because my head was still hurting and mom and dad ranted about the prices. I don't blame them because it came to about 64 euros which is over a hundred bucks in the states and it was just a little cafeteria. We then went to see the Mona Lisa. I appreciated the art a lot more then because I was feeling a lot better. Some of the statues were amazing. One of my favorites was the sphinxes which looked like they'd come from ancient Egypt and looked like a cat ready to pounce. Another was the lions just because of how much detail the artist added and how realistic they looked. Most of the rooms in the Louve are elaborate with gold everywhere and really good paintings. I recognized some of them like Icarus falling from the sky after his wax wings had melted due to him flying to close to the sun and his father watching. Another statue I liked was an angel-like figure standing on a ship which was made after a big naval victory. It haded tons of detail in the expression and how her shirt was kind of sticking to her because of the water. When we finally got into the room where the Mona Lisa was being held there were huge lines and the painting was behind bulletproof glass. The eyes of the painting are supposed to follow you wherever you go in the room but I couldn't really see because it was behind thick glass. The reason for this was because the Mona Lisa was stolen and not found for 2 years so they probably didn't want this to happen again. It's probably worth over a billion dollars. It's so famous because of how the colors mix and other small details that are apparently unique to the painting. There were tons of other paintings in the Louve that were similar and some that I thought were a lot better but critics probably see some kind of style that they've never seen before. We were going to go to a different museum but instead decided to go see some of the rooms they'd recovered from Napoleon's castle. I would love to live in a place like that. There was gold everywhere and it was all really fancy. His bed was also elaborate. The ceilings were painted with colorful images that gave the whole place a happy vibe. After this we went and some some more statues and my favorite one we saw then was the one with a man with his hand stuck in a tree trunk with a lion biting his thigh. The story behind it was a myth about a man who was a great olympic athlete and he made a bet that although he was getting old, he was still strong enough to break a tree trunk in half with his bare hands. He tried and ended up getting it caught in the tree. He couldn't get out so wolves came and ate him. There were also a lot of statues of horses and unicorns. When we got upstairs to look at more paintings there were lots that I liked but none that are famous that I could pick out. We kept looking at paintings until the PA told us they were closing. We then headed back to our appartment with a plan of picking up an ice cream on the way. I got a three flavor cone which was huge with whipped cream on top. It was way better than anything I'd ever had in the states. When we all finished our ice cream we went and climbed all over a sculpture in a sitting area for a while before heading home. Tonight us kids picked up dinner by ourselves again. We got a couple of pizza's and some Pan du Chocolat's. A Pan du Chocolat is a croissant with a small amount of chocolate in it.

A Gothic Cathedral (go down the page a bit and you'll see more pictures of it)

We finally took the trip to Notre Dame today. We'd passed it tons of times but we were actually going to the top tower and inside the church. The line was kind of big and we couldn't use our museum passes to get in so we were stuck in the line. There was a street performer that was really funny. He had a mask on and he'd hide behind stuff so we could see him but pedestrians couldn't so he'd scare them. It was funny to watch the French's reaction when he jumped out, they were all completely scared. One guy yelled really loud and ran into the street. When we got in Notre Dame it was a 400 step walk to the top and a little less to the middle. The middle was neat because you could see the gothic gargoyles and grotesques. Grotesques's are the same thing as gargoyles but aren't used as drainage system's so they're just there to look good. It was really cool to see because they all sent a different message by what they were doing. We could also see the Flying Buttresses really well because we were right above them. They are the things that hold up the church. Without them the top would collapse. The view was pretty good but not nearly as good as the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. I think these are the 3 tallest things in Paris. The next thing we went to was the giant bell. We climbed up just a few wooden steps to get here. I didn't know why but one of Notre Dame's bell was ringing but this one didn't. It looked like it could because it wasn't cracked. I thought while looking at this that this bell dates back 900 years ago when Notre Dame was built. It was built by mostly citezens who knew they wouldn't live long enough to see it themselves but their (lots and lots of greats) grandchildren would. It took 200 years to build. Next we went to the top where we could get a good view of the city and the awesome architecture below us. There were tons of gargoyles at this height and statues that we could see. We only had 5 minutes at the top even though it wasn't crowded so our visit was pretty short. The next thing we did was go into the actual church where they were giving a service. It looked just like a normal church and they were roped in so no one would bother them. We walked around the whole place and saw tons of different stain glass and statues. They were all gothic architecture like in one of the sculptures it showed death (a man with just a skull) killing a sick man, or at least that's what it looked like to me because he was holding some kind of vile which I'm guessing represented poison. It was really dark in there and it looked ancient. When we were done visiting Notre Dame we went to an underground place where there was tons of old architecture. They were stones with arches, stairs, doorways, etc. It was ancient Rome! It was really cool but it was really small because not much of it survived I guess. It was here that civilization ever began in France so Notre Dame is pretty much in the middle of France.

Military Museum

We decided that since we're visiting so many different places and leaving out a lot of details, me, Amelia, and Isabel are going to divide up the writing of what we do each day. For instance, Isabel's blogging about the sewer, Amelia's blogging about the sculptur museum, and I'm going to tell about the Military Museum and Napoleon's tomb. The outside of the museum is kind of midevil style. They have motes and canon's lined up around the perimeter. The motes just had grass at the bottom of them but in midevil times there was sewage and such to discourage the enemy from crossing into the castle. The museum's an old military academy so it's also military style. When we first walked in there was a big courtyard with canon's around the perimeter once again. The first thing we went to see was midevil armor. It was interesting looking at the designs and eyeholes and everything. Some of them had more architecture involved going into detail with a mustache, nose, ears, and other normal body parts engraved in the metals. They had tons of armor, two exhibits full and also an armory. It showed what the room was like where the knights would gear up for battle or prepare for a joust where two knights ride on horses at each other with long pointed spears trying to knock the other to the ground. It also showed the horse armor and I thought about how hot people and animals would get after wearing the bulkey suits for a long period of time. I wouldn't want to do it but it was considered a great honor to be a knight. It showed children's armor making you assume that they were probably taught to fight from a really young age. The next thing we planned on going to was the WWI and WWII exhibits which we were quite excited about given the fact that they had tons of different tanks. It was actually going to be the highlight of my trip but it was unfortunately closed. There were a couple of tanks sitting in front of the museum that we looked at and could tell that these were some of the oldest tanks to be used. One didn't even look like a tank but more like a big metal thing on wheels that you pushed and it would give you a certain amount of protection. I'm sure there's a real way to use it but I'm just guessing that's how by looking at it. I tried to lift it up but didn't feel it give at all. It might have been bolted to the ground but you'd probably have to be strong to lift it. The other tank was a little more modern probably used during WWI. It was actually a vehicle that you could drive and it actually looked intimidating. It had a big long gun in the front showing a technical advance from the other. The next exhibit we went to was Napoleon's tomb, obviously where Napoleon was buried. Napoleon was a military leader who lived during the French Revolution. He grew up in Corsica which is an island of the coast of France. He was somewhat a dictator but was one of the great military leader's of history kind of like Hitler but a lot older. I thought that it would make sense for him to be buried under the Arc de Triomphe because that's the memorial built in his honor but he was actual buried in the museum in a bit tomb shaped like a U on the top and kind of rectangular. It's in a huge room with the ceiling raised up really high and lots of good architecture and paintings. There are angel statues all the way around the tomb and a big seal under and around it. There's a giant cross at the back of the room with other stuff in the distant. He died when he was banished to an island after being charged for resistance against the enemy. The last word he was thought to have said was Josephine, his first wife.

The Eiffel Tower

Yesterday we went to the biggest attraction in France, the Eiffel Tower or Le Tour Eiffel. We got up late and walked the whole way. It was a really long walk but there were sights we saw on the way. The most famous thing we saw was Notre Dame which we didn't go inside of or anything because we wanted to save it for later. When we got to the park next to the tower the first thing we noticed were how many people there were waiting in line to go to the top. We laid down for a while because we were tired from the walk and then waited in the long wait. On our way to the tower we had also gotten bagget sandwiches which I forgot to mention. The way it works is, we walk the first 2 floors and then they take us to the top from the second floor. The lazy people take an elevator all the way up but that costs more. It wasn't a bad climb and they had lots of interesting facts about how it was built and such. The most interesting fact to me was that 2 aviators tried to fly through the tower and both died but another guy made it. I didn't see how you could really crash because there was so much space but I guess it's hard to fly that low probably. The Eiffel Tower was built for the world fair by a guy named something Eiffel. I imagined it would take a really long time to build and was a bit surprised that they'd be able to build it for a fair. When we got to the first floor, we thought it was a really amazing sight but reminded ourselves that we were not even 1/3 of the way up. It also had a little restaurant and a place where you could look through the middle of the tower. The people looked like dolls. The same thing happened with the second floor, we thought it looked like the best view possible. We were already the highest thing in the sky other than the top. We had to wait in another line to go to the top and it cost extra but we knew the view would be amazing. When we got up there it looked like we were looking down on the earth from heaven. We could see the whole city and it looked beautiful. There were bars around the whole thing but we could slip our heads through for a better look. When we were done with the whole Eiffel Tower thing we went and got more baget sandwiches and ate them in the park by the Eiffel Tower. We also got chocolate crepes which are my new favorite food. Obviously we weren't going to miss the tower getting lit up at night. We were hoping for fireworks but instead the tower flashed. It was lit up goldish and the flash was white and there were tons of them giving the tower a sparkling look. It was magnificant. The only problem was that it didn't show up on the camera very good so I can't really post how it looked. We took the Metro back because it was so late and went to bed early. Today we planned on having a more laid back day and decided that going to the Luxembourg Gardens was a good idea. We also walked to this and got to cross the Seine River. First I'll tell you about the walk over. We stopped at the huge modern art museum and went in to check it out. What's cool about it is that all of the heating pipes and all that are on the exterior instead of the interior. It has about 5 floors and escalator's all the way up. Dad and Amelia were fascinated but the rest of us were kind of bored. I probably sound stupid saying that but I'm just telling the truth. Although there were tons of famous paintings, it didn't really inspire me. When we were done we had wraps and fries for lunch and then headed for the gardens. I liked the garden's because there are tons of people but it's still relaxing because there's a bunch of people reading and sleeping. We got ice cream or glace before going in and it was the best ice cream we've ever had because it actually tasted natural. In the garden's there was a huge play set, some stands and a pond in the middle with toy sailboats in it. We didn't get a sailboat but just sat there watching, enjoying the day. We also watched some tennis that people were playing and dad thought they looked as good as pros even though they weren't hitting nearly as hard. I've got to hand it to the guy, he's got amazing reflexes. There was an old man and a young guy and I thought the old man was better because when we thought he was done because of some amazing shot by the other guy, he would hit a winner back. We once again took the Metro home and stopped at a restaurant and got drinks. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant and that's it.

Paris (Day 1) Some of the pictures are at the bottom of the blog:)

We've been in Paris for about 2 days now so I'm going to start from the very beginning. We got to fly business class which was pretty awesome because we were treated like royalty. Of course it's a step down from first class but it's pretty much the same thing. It's a lot nicer than coach. The chairs recline almost all the way back so it's supposed to be easy to sleep and they gave us food all the time and drinks whenever we wanted them. We had our own personal T.V. and I watched the movie I Am Legend which was really good. It's about the last man on earth and all the food's gone. He has to hunt elk using a machine gun and protect himself against the evil human things. At first he had a dog to keep him company but then they kill his dog so he's alone. Later in the movie more humans come and think there's a place where tons of other human's are. The evil people attack right when he finds the cure to make them back in to normal people but when they keep coming he tells the other two to get in the safe so he blows up the creatures along with himself and no he doesn't come back to life or anything. The other two humans figure out there is a civilization with others so they take the potion (the cure to make the savages normal) and it's all happily ever after and everything. When we got to the airport it seemed really different because there were little tubes connecting you to different places and they ran on top of each other side by side and all that and they were moving walkways so you could just stand there and enjoy the view. The tubes were transparent all around so you could see all around you. The baggage claim seemed to be taking forever but they'd really just left them in Chicago. They were supposed to be delivered to our appartment today but they're still not here yet and are way overdue. My mom doesn't think they'll be able to find us because we're on a small street in a tiny appartment of many and I couldn't imgine finding it myself. We then got on the Metro which is a really fast train that takes you all over Paris. Of course there are so many trains that we sort of got lost and when we got out it was raining so it sort of sucked on the walk to our hotel. We were all mad at dad because we'd told him to get a taxi and he completely ignored us. When we finally got to the hotel we didn't have anything to change into because we didn't have our bags and we were really tired because of the time change. We were forced to stay up for an extra 12 hours so we got outside and went to the Arc of Triumph or the Arc de Triomphe. It was a lot bigger than I'd expected and we went under it. They had some fire going but we didn't stay long enough to find out why. On our way home we stopped by a bakery and got a few sweets and a Baget, the French bread. When we got back we didn't have any dinner for some reason but we were all tired and happy to go to bed. We also had a view of the Eiffel Tower which was pretty cool and we also had a view of it from the Arc of Triumph. Today we got up really late and went to our appartment. We went to lunch and ordered some stuff in French. I had an Italian bread with noodles, meat, and sauce in it which was really good. Isabel got a Crepe with cheese and eggs in it and I had a bite of it and it was way better than the ones we had in French class on food day. After that we went back to the appartment for a while and left again later leaving mom who was going to wait for our bags. We were trying to find a dry cleaning for dad but didn't find one and we stopped by McDonald's to get some juice because we were thirsty. Us kid's went in to get it and I did all the ordering and didn't even mess up. Now we're waiting in our appartment for the bags which still haven't come. Au Revoir.

The Old Man and the Sea

For one of my requirements this month, mom and dad are making me read the Old Man and the Sea. They got the idea from a South Park episode that I was watching and the teacher required them to read the Old Man and the Sea. They ended up hiring a bunch of Mexicans to do it for them and it was really funny but they wanted me to find out why the joke was so funny by actually reading the book. I've read to the part where the boy had to go on a different boat because the old man is unlucky and hadn't caught anything for a really long time and he went out one day and his hook caught a fish which just steadily kept on pulling the boat. He spends a long time in the boat and has a lot of memories come to him such as when he beat the record holding arm wrestler in arm wrestling and memories about him and the boy on the boat. He always talks to himself and keeps on saying that he wishes the boy was there. He's going farther and farther out to sea and has to catch his food on other hooks while still holding the line. The fish has already jumped out of the water as if to show him what he's up against and it just keeps pulling him. So far I wouldn't really recommend the book because not much really happens. There are a few memories which are kind of entertaining but all that's really happened so far is that he's sitting on a boat determindly trying to catch a giant fish that's pulling him further out to sea every second.

Huckleberry Finn Writing Prompts

I read the book Huckleberry Finn in March and this is my report that I did for it. There are about 4 different writing prompts in it so if it suddenly goes onto a new topic from the book that's why. Hope you like it!
Violence and greed are motives in Huckleberry Finn and are of great importance in the book. The two greediest characters were the Duke, and the King. They told Huck and Jim that they were a Duke and a King and made them treat them like royalty. They had to give up their beds and sleep on the floor. They came across these two men when they saw them running away from a group of people and let them stay on their raft for safety. Huckleberry Finn knew that they were frauds all along but didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to cause problems on the raft. They would go from town to town tricking people to get their money.
The first thing they did was rehearsed a play, Romeo and Juliet, and tried to make it good and everything but when they put it on for the town everyone booed and didn’t like it. After this attempt failed, they started putting on stupid shows and scamming people for their money. In one of their shows they got the Duke naked and had him run around the stage and do some kind of dance and they put this show on for 3 days. They attracted customers by saying it was men only show which would hopefully attract a lot of guys that thought they were going to get to see naked girls. It did and they only did it two nights, the third night, they knew they would have food thrown at them so pushed off on the raft. Another thing the king did was pretend to be a poor old man and told them about all of the things he’d been through but really he hadn’t. He said he had been the king of France but then came to the U.S. In the end it all came back to haunt them because one town caught them and put tar and feathers on them and then threw them in the lake.
Violence was also a big part of the book and made it more interesting to read because you never knew when someone was going to get hurt or die. In one part, Huck stayed with this one family who was in a feud with another and would shoot each other whenever they crossed paths. It has been going on for a long time and no one really know what it’s about. Even the kid that was Huck’s age was involved in the feud and got killed in the end. The daughter of one of the families was going to marry a boy from the other so they went out to stop them from marrying and ended up getting in a big fight that killed a lot of the other family members too. In another part of the book there was a ship wreck and Jim and Huck stopped to get treasures out of the captain’s room. When they got aboard there was a bunch of robbers on board that were getting ready to shoot a man. When they found out that Jim and Huck were aboard they tried to catch them to kill so they wouldn’t get the treasures. They couldn’t find the raft so they were stuck on the ship with the robbers with no escape. The raft ended up being at the other end of the ship and they got away safely.
I am not at all surprised that religious people would maybe think that Huckleberry Finn is a bad book and should be banned. For one thing, although it doesn’t have much to do with it, Mark Twain was an atheist so he sometimes made it sound like god wasn’t real in the book and they might not want kids reading this. In the very beginning, the lady he was staying with was trying to make him civilized and religious and he wanted to be with Tom Sawyer in hell. He never told the lady this but Mark Twain wrote about him thinking it all the time. Some parents might not want their kids reading about a boy that wants to go to hell. In another part of and the story, Jim got captured and Huck thought he would start being a good boy because he decided he didn’t want to go to hell but ended up deciding that saving Jim was more important than going to hell.
The whole time in the book, Huck was doing things that many would consider unholy. He was always rebellious and didn’t obey the people in charge of him. He felt bad about not turning Jim in but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Although now it would be good for him to not turn someone in for slavery, back when this book took place it was considered a sin to smuggle away someone’s slave. I think Mark Twain put this part of the book in to show that friendship is more important than supposedly going to hell.
I would defend Huckleberry Finn against being a racist novel because Mark Twain only used the word nigger because it was back when slavery was going on and calling someone that was just like calling them African American. Even Jim (who was black) would call other slaves the word and even himself one. It didn’t even seem like it was an insult then. The bad treatment of slaves in the book was also justifiable to write about because that was the reality back then. When they were trying to get Jim out of the shed he was being held in, Jim said that they knew better than him because they were white. This came up when Tom Sawyer was complicating thins trying to get him out and Jim questioned it and Tom Sawyer tried to explain it so he said they knew better. Slaves didn’t think that whites were better than them during the Civil War obviously so I don’t think he actually thought white’s were better but they were his friends. It also might be justifiable because Mark Twain was raised in the south.
All in all I think it was a great book and that it shouldn’t be banned and kids should be aloud to read it. It has good life lessons and is a suspenseful book that I enjoyed reading. One life lesson it gives is that you should never scam people for their money because your deeds will come back to haunt you. I learned this because although the Duke and King made a lot of money with their ridiculous shows, they ended up regretting their deeds in the end.

A Boy at War (Pearl Harbor)

I recently finished a short book based on a boy living in Hawaii and was there when Pearl Harbor happened. I think it's a fictional book but is obviously based on an event that really happened. There's a boy who's dad is in the navy so they're always traveling and are now living in Hawaii. His dad's ship is the Arizona, the one that took the most lives and damage during Pearl Harbor. He met a boy that's Japanese and he even goes to his house which is in a part that he's not supposed to go. Eventually his dad finds out he's friends with him and tells him that he can't be anymore. They end up sneeking to go fishing in Pearl Harbor which they're not supposed to do. They found a small boat hidden in some bushes and went out in the Harbor. After a few minutes of fishing an airplane comes in and drops a bomb on one of the ships and this keeps happening to all of the ships and there are a lot of airplanes but they think it's just a movie being made or something so are just kind of laughing. When they see the red circle's and figure out that the Japanese are attacking the main character attacks the Japanese boy out of impulse. When they're separated finally a Zero (the Japanese fighter/bomber during world war 2) starts shooting bullets at their raft and the other boy with them, the one that seperated them, get's a huge pencil size splinter in his chest. The main character (I forget the names, that's why I'm saying main character and such) get's shot in the back. When they get back to shore, the guy that has the splinter get's rushed to the hospital but there are tons of people scurrying around on the dock so it was hard to get him in an ambulence. The boy that got shot in the back stays because he isn't very hurt. He wants to go see if his father's okay so he get's in a raft and a sailor get's in and tells him to row to his ship. When they get there they have to stay on it in case the Japanese came back. They didn't so they pushed of and looked for survivors. The one's that survived were usually in terrible condition either by oil or from serious burns. When the raft was full and they got back to shore, they needed extra people to help with all of the confusion so they gave the main character a hat and machine gun and held back the people scurrying to get in. He then snuck away and got in a truck and headed for home to see if his mom and sister are alright. They run out of gas going through a corn field but he finds an abandoned jeep which he takes and on his way out sees a man with a parachute. At first he thought it was a Japanese paratrooper but then finds out it's just a guy that had to ditch his plane. When he get's back to the house he hides his gun and goes in to find out if his family's okay. After that all that really happens is that his father ends up being dead and they leave Hawaii for the mainland. I think it was a good quick read which gave good facts about what happened during Pearl Harbor.

Muse Article Summary: Octopi

Today I read an article about octupuses also known as octopi and was fascinated by how smart they are and what they can do. They've got over 200 suction cups on each arm and some scientists are thinking that they can have a mind of their own. They think that the octopus doesn't know how long it's arm actually is and that the arm can know things that other arms doen't know how to do. Their brains are roughly only the size of three walnuts but they are one of the smartest animals on earth. Most scientists would say that some kind of sea turtle is smarter which may be true but octopi are really smart creatures. For example, there was an aquarium and fish were mysteriously disappearing and they found out that the octopuus was actually getting out of it's cage and crawling all the way over to the holding tanks of the fish and then crawling back to it's cage. This is considered natural behavior because octopus are known to go from tidepool to tidepool crawling all the way. If they're out of the water too long, they will dry out and die so it isn't like they can live out of the water. In another case, a woman was feeding them and the shrimp were a little bit old and she went down the line of tanks feeding them and when she got back to the first one, it looked her in the eye and while maintaining eye contact it put the shrimp down the drain. In another case, a person locked the octopus in it's cage so it wouldn't crawl out anywhere and it remembered her face and whenever she passed by it's cage from then on, she got an accurate shot of water right at her. That proves that they have good memory. One of the pictures it showed was of an octopus with a huge shark in it's mouth and although it was a really strong animal, it couldn't escape from the octupus' amazing grip. They ran a test to see if they could find their way around and what they did was put a crab in different parts of the tank in a maze and at first they had it climb a wall and somehow they had the octopus momorize it's way to the crab then see if it could find it's way through the maze and it did.

My Thoughts on Homeschooling

Let me just start off by saying that all in all, homeschooling is a lot better for me than going to school. Yes, there are a lot of things that I'm going to miss, such as extracurricular activities like cross country and other things like school dances and seeing my friends every day. For me, the biggest good change is that I don't need to put up with all of the negative energy going on at school. I still get to see my friends, for example I hung out with my friend Jackson for a while yesterday. I also plan on lifting weights and playing tennis with Nick this weekend but I'm going to miss seeing them all the time. I hated getting up at 6 in the morning every single weekday and now I can sleep in until 11 every day. Going on all of these vacations is really making me want to do it again next year. You probably already know this but in the past few weeks, we've gone to Hawaii and Colorado and are going to France in a couple of weeks. I really can't wait for thatand we've been studying it a lot lately. We're reading 2 short articles about Joan of Arc every day and are doing a lesson of Rosetta Stone too. Mom and dad are already bribing us to do it again next year by saying that we'll go to Hawaii for 3 weeks. It's a short blog because there's not much I can say about it but I do want to keep homeschooling.

Scorpia

I've recently read a book called Scorpia and I'm going to give a quick summary and review of the book. Scorpia is about a terrorist organization which is called Scorpia who are working for a man that wants to get rid of the alliance between America and Britain. He's going to do this by having them send in a list of ridiculous requests to America such as they have to have no president and have to get rid of their military and they know that they'll never meet the requirements and they'll inflict the punishment on Britain. The punishment for them not meeting the requirements is that they'll kill tons of British school kids with a weapon called invisible sword. Invisible sword is that when the kids get their shots they have tiny gold spheres in them which have small amounts of cyanide in them so small that nobody could see them. The gold balls are unaffective if they just sit there but they are going to use sattelites to melt them and that will put a small amount of cyanide into their heart's, enough to kill them. Alex Rider is a spy who works for an organization called M-16. He goes to find out what Scorpia's about (this is before they know about Scorpia's plan) by going to the leader fo Scorpia's birthday party. He almost gets himself killed because he asks too many questions. One of the assasins working for him puts him in a room right near a canal which is due to flood. He ends up escaping through a narrow hole but he barely lives. This puts him against Scorpia right away but he is scheduled for a meeting with the leader who plans on trying to get him on their side. She shows Alex what M-16 did to his dad (they killed him) which gets Alex on Scorpia's side. He gets right to training on a remote island learning how to be an assasin. His first mission is to kill one of the leader's of M-16. She's really heavily guarded and he has to use a lot of clever tricks and gadgets to finally get to her but eventually he does and he shoots. She was being protected by an invisible barrier and he ends up setting off alarms and being captured. He's not really a killer because at the last minute when he was about to shoot, he had aimed the gun above her head. He then learns that his dad was an evil man and teams up against Scorpia again. He goes undercover and ends up finding out about invisible sword. They planned on setting off a hot air balloon which carried the sattelites that were going to melt the gold balls and Alex had to stop it. They ended up shooting it off and Alex grabbed onto a rope and pulled himself indide of it. Nile, the guy that tried to kill him earlier, tried to catch him and kill him but fell and died. Alex disabled the balloon and took an emergency parachute to the ground. All was well and nobody died. Since this was a relatively short summary I left out tons of details about the book and it's a lot better than I make it sound. I would deffinately recommend it and look forward to reading more from the Alex Rider series.

Skiing (day number 2)

This post is for a while ago but we've been so busy doing fun stuff that I haven't had much time to blog, bad excuse. We went skiing 2 days but the second day was way more fun for me than the first because I was aloud to go out alone and didn't have to wait for the girls and dad. I had mom's cell phone so we were able to stay in contact and I sort of knew the resort better than last time because we'd already been there. The first thing I did when I got there was head to the very top of the mountain which we were going to do yesterday but couldn't because we got there too late. You have to take up about 4 lifts just to get there because of how high it was. When I was going up the final lift to the top it was really windy and cold and it wasn't a lot of fun. When you got to the top you kind of have a feeling that you're no longer a part of the rest of the resort. It's completely different. Just getting your binding on can be hard because of how hard the wind was blowing. It's really fun though because there's no trees of anything, just a plain snow cap so you can go wherever you want. I headed to the left a ways but was afraid I would accidentally go into a double black diamond which I don't want to do because it has cliffs and other extreme terrain that I wouldn't be able to do so I started on my way down and kept on going down for about 30 minutes until I finally came to another lift. My plan was to spend most of the day in terrain park because I find that kind of stuff more interesting than just going down a hill. Dad had told me not to go down any black diamonds but when I went down the snow cap I couldn't avoid it but I did it good and only fell about once. I love the terrain park there because of how long you can just go down the hill on rails and jumps without having to go on a lift. I went down some how missing the superpipe a couple times but when I finally came across it and went in, it was really cool. It's not like it looks on T.V. When you jump into it you get going really fast and it's icy up the part going up so I was actually able to get air. In Ohio they just dug a hole and put snow in it and called it a halfpipe but for now on I'm just calling it a hole or trench. After a while I went to do a black diamond again since I had done it up on the top so I thought I could do it again and it did go okay with only a couple falls. They are officially my favorite kind of hill to go on, tied with terrain park. I love the challenge of steering around the moguls at high speeds and then if missing one ending up falling on your ass. Once I did this run I went to meet dad and the girls for lunch up about halfway on the mountain. We had packed a lunch so we didn't get one of them nice mac n' cheese bowls but it was still refreshing after all of the boarding. After lunch I mostly stuck to the black diamonds but my favorite was a run called the Outhouse. It was a super long black diamond with tons of big moguls and there was only one other person on it who took a break halfway down because of how long it was. It was a big confidence builder because it was an expert slope and I did it with very few falls. Near the end of our day it started snowing really hard and I had forgotten my goggles in Isabel's backpack so I went down the slope blind a few times but still got in some black diamonds. On my very last run, the park was closing and I was still way up on the mountain (about 20-25 minutes from the bottom) and it wasn't steep at all so I wasn't going very fast so a ski patrol guy gave me a lift down on a snow mobile. I wasn't lost or anything but I was scarred by the time I made it to the bottom the rental place would be closed and dad would get mad and as it turned out, the rental place was closing fairly soon. Later that day we had Beau Jo's for dinner and for some reason mom was a bit dissapointed in it that time. I thought it was amazing but I was also starving so anything probably would have. We're going home tomorrow and saying good-bye to Colorado. We're planning on coming back here next year for more skiing and hopefully moving here. Today we went to see Nim's Island and it was pretty good and we also had Mexican food for dinner. We also got dessert at our hotel.

Skiing Out West (sorry, we were too busy skiing to take pictures:(

We got up early today to go to Winter Park and ski. We had to get there early because it closes at 4 o'clock. The reason for that is because it can literally take hours to get out if you get lost. When we first got there we went to the rental place and it was a lot more proffesional than Snow Trails. Right when we walked in the door, they had our reservation ready and gave us our boots. At Snow Trails they just kind of hand you a board that they think fits you (I have my own snowboard now but used to rent) but here they ask for your height and weight and attach the bindings on after they look at your boots and make sure that everything's comfortable. We then looked at the map in amazment for about five minutes because there were tons of trails. I don't know how many but it would take me too long to count. When we first got on the lifts we could tell a difference between Ohio and Colorado, the lifts are faster but slow down when you're getting on or off. It only slows down the one chair and not the whole lift too which was convinient. They also had bars that you brought down onto your lap so we didn't have to worry about falling off. The actual slopes were much like Snow Trails except a bit more powdery. The scenery was also amazing. You could see only mountains off in the distance. We had to stick together so we wouldn't get lost and I didn't have my cell phone with me so I ended up having to wait five minutes every three minutes I skiied but I'm not complaining, it was still amazing skiing. There were also about three terrain parks (ramps and rails) and I got to go in two of them. It was really cool because they didn't only have metal rails but also wooden ones which I personally think are more fun. I was surprised because the kids weren't any better than me and if they were only by a little. I wasn't really trying to compare but I was just thinking about how my friends would say they were a lot better than us. Eventually Amelia's head started hurting so we went to a lodge that was halfway up the mountain and got mac n' cheese in a bread bowl with a powerade (there were 6 lodges throughout the resort just showing how massive it was). We also noticed that it was a lot better excerise than Ohio because the runs could be 30 minutes. We were planning on going to the very top of the ski resort which was way over 12,000 feet but it unfortunately closed at 3. After that it was near time to go so we headed back down the mountain which took us a long time because we were way up on the mountain at the time. At the bottom we had them hold our snowboards because we're going back tomorrow but brought our boots with us. In the car we drank all of our propel really fast because were were all thirsty from the exausting runs. I forget to tell about how I got lost, we were planning on meeting at a certain lift so I could go through terrain park but I got lost and was really far away from the lift so I went to where we decided our meeting place would be and I had to wait about an hour before they finally got to where I was. Later I had a turkey sandwich for dinner and the rest of the family had soup. Tomorrow dad said I can go off on my own because I'm going to use my mom's cell (I forgot mine at home because we were in such a hurry to leave). :)

Great Sand Dunes National Park

This blog is for yesterday because we got home so late.  We got up at about 8 o'clock and headed for the dunes.  We drove through Denver but when we got into the country, it was a lot prettier.  When we got there we had to go into the visitor center and learn how they were formed.  They were formed when the mountains eroded and streams carried the sand into the valley and piled up to make giant sand dunes.  They were about 750 feet high and we planned on climbing to the top.  It looked super easy and not very high but when you got on them, they shifted and it was steep so you had to crawl in a lot of places.  All of us kids ran ahead of the parents and the girls pretended to be super hero's and they'd have me cling onto the sweater that she wasn't wearing and they'd pull me to the top.  That was fine by me because it was hard work.  The sights were beautiful because we were surrounded by mountains that had snow on them and there were tons of dust devils everywhere.  The winds were really strong and could almost knock you off your feet.  It would also carry sand and it would feel like a thousand needles against your skin.  We'd then try to cover up and put our hands over our heads but this would just get sand in our eyes.  For about 5 minutes I was laying on the ground with tons of sand in my eyes with my hands over them, it wasn't fun.  After about 3/4 of the long hike, mom and dad stopped and waited for us while we went to the very top.  I was way in front of the girls the whole time and made it up about 5 minutes before them but they just had to beat me so they went about 5 steps farther to prove something.  I then ran down to where mom and dad were on a big drop off and did a front flip while dad to a picture of me doing it.  When the girls caught up with us dad jumped over the whole drop which was pretty cool and ended up landing on his face.  We all laughed while dad brushed of all of the sand.  We ran down some of it on our way back but ended up doing karaoke down most of it.  We made it down really fast and headed back to the car.  We all had sand in every crevice of our bodies so we went into the changing room to shake out our clothes and everything.  We stopped at a convenient store on our way back because we all had sand in our mouths too.  We wished we had brought a sled or snowboard because a lot of other people did it and it looked like a lot of fun.  It acted just like snow and was better than a normal sledding hill.  We also went up and down barefoot so that made it even more fun.  When we got home we went to bed right away and today we slept in until about 10.

Swimming and Rock Climbing

Today we got up, did all of our usual work, and debated what we were going to do with our day. It was between the recreation center and the tennis place and we decided that since we were already doing the tennis clinic a lot, we'd go to the rec center for our second time. Since the climbing wall didn't open until about 3, I was stuck in the pool but still had some fun. I like the little vortex thing because you don't have to swim to move so can just lazely go around in circles. I also like how the water's nice and warm so you don't have to worry about getting used to it (oh wait, isn't that a bad thing). We also went in the slide and did little tricks in it such as go backwards and do spins, the lifeguard couldn't see us so we didn't get in any trouble. I tried to go in the hot tub but they said I had to be 14, why 14, I think it should be when you become a teenager but I guess I could drown in the 3 foot bath. When it was about 5 til 3, I hurriedly got out of the pool and got my climbing shoes and harness on. Amelia and Isabel also went on the climbing wall this time and the first one to go was Isabel. She did the easy wall and made it to the very top. We were all proud of her because she made it. Amelia went next on the medium wall and did it really easily. I went on the hardest side there on my first try and got up pretty fast without any problems. It was weird because it was hard yesterday and simple today. Isabel also made it to the top of the medium wall even though she wanted to turn back, the guy showed her where to put her feet and she did it again. Amelia also went on the hard wall and made it to the top after a while. She had the same sensation as me, arms aching terribly. About an hour later you think it's stopped for good but then it aches for another couple days. I went on a couple more that are even harder than the hardest wall because you had to stay on certain colors and I chose a pretty difficult one. There was also a girl there, maybe about 18 who was really good at climbing and did it all the time and she went on the right side of the blank wall which is really hard and struggled a little on it, I made it to the top with a big struggle but I still made it. It was probably the hardest part of the walls there. The blank wall is the wall that doesn't have any of the other handholds and just has natural crevices. The holds could only fit the fingertips of your hands so I had to rely on finger strength mostly. We then went back to the house for a while and just hung out and went back to the airport to pick up dad from work. We then went to a pizza place called Beau Jo's which had the best pizza that any of us had ever had. It was a 5 pounder and the crust was freakin huge! It came along with honey to put on it so it also acted like a dessert. Since it's only about 5 minutes away from our house, me, dad, and Amelia walked home. Since we had been splashing around in the hot tub, the water level was so low that the jets were shooting water out of the water so we had to go bucket after bucket until it was completely full again. Tomorrow we're going to the sand dunes.

The Recreation Center of Evergreen

Today, I got up and there was a lot of snow on the ground so I went down to the town taking my usual pictures but it looked a lot better because everything was white.  It seemed like that was how Colorado should look.  By the time we left the house all of the snow was gone.  We went to the recreation center which is in downtown evergreen.  It has a water park, climbing wall, and other exercise machines.  I went to the climbing wall the first thing I got there.  I started out on the medium wall and made it to the top with no problems.  Next, I went to a harder wall that actually made you turn downwards a little forcing you to dangle and climb up with your hands.  After that I went on the hardest one there, in it, it turns you downward multiple times.  The guy handling the rope as I climbed up told me to go up the easy part fast because I was going to need my strength at the top.  He was right, when I got to the top I ran out of handholds so had to jump for one.  The first time I clung on to it but fell and finally about the third or fourth time, I got it and pulled myself up.  I had to go downwards three times until getting to the top.  It's always a good feeling when you finally get it.  After about a minute on the ground, my fingers and arms started to hurt from pulling myself up.  Mom was talking to a climber who told me to get my legs up higher and it would make things a lot easier.  Next, I went on the second hardest wall which was the one that didn't point you down at all but instead didn't have any handholds but tiny crevices in the rock.  The difference between this one and the other one was that the hardest one used up a lot of strength and was hard to pull yourself up on and the other one was harder to find handholds but didn't use as much strength.  It took me a while to get to the top but it felt a lot more realistic than those rock handholds that jut out of the wall.  These used a lot of finger strength and my fingers were throbbing at the bottom.  The guy that was still talking to mom said that serious rock climbers do finger exercises to strengthen their fingers and that mine would be hurting for a few days (they stopped hurting a long time ago).  I then went to the water park where Amelia and Isabel played the whole time.  First I went in the lazy river thing where it was like the one at any other park but without the rafts.  The current was also a lot stronger.  It was fun because when you got towards the turn the current would whip you around.  I also went on the water slide which if you fling yourself into, you can go to the edge of the slide at open parts which is a small thrill. I've decided that I want to make rock climbing a hobby that I do regularly if I can.  There's a place in Columbus for climbing and I'm going to see if I can go there sometimes.  My mom forgot her camera so we don't have any pictures of me climbing the wall but we plan on going back again soon.

Hiking in the Rockies (yesterday)

Yesterday we went to hike in the local park. The first part of the hike is through a dried out meadow.  We saw a bone in the meadow in which dad thought it was probably the bone of an elk attacked by a mountain lion.  There were a lot of places of to the side which looked good for bouldering but we couldn't take any side trips because dad had to go to work in about 2 hours so it had to be a fast hike.  The next part of it was a snowy forest up in the mountains which all of us put together fell about 5 times because it was really icy.  We could also slide about 5 feet which was fun.  The whole time we thought it was a perfect place for mountain biking, but in the icy parts it looked just about impossible to get through.  The next part of the hike was up on the mountains, but out in the open so there wasn't much snow.  It looked awesome for mountain biking.  It had an amazing view of the town and the mountains in the background.  We then went back into the meadow and proceeded to go back to our car.  This blog is relatively short because the hike was only about 3 miles and nothing happened after that.  There's a trail that goes to the very top of the mountain which would be an awesome view but that would be more of a day hike.  On our way back we saw a group of elk.  They looked a lot like deer except their necks were a lot fuzzier.  I don't think there's any deer in Colorado but there are tons of elk.

The Denver Art and Science Museum

Today we did all of our work and then set out to see a huge museum in Denver that had tons of different exhibits.  We got lost so we were kind of late getting there but dad still wanted to see every exhibit so we went through each one pretty fast.  My favorite exhibit was probably the one about mummies because they actually had mummies there and interesting stories behind them.  One was a rich woman who was mummified and then moved into a man's coffin.  It's unknown how or why it was moved but it might just be that when they sent it they moved it to a man's coffin.  We also went through a temporary exhibit about gold which had different types of gold and different things the gold could make.  Out of all the metals, gold is the one that can be compressed to be the thinnest.  They used to make plane old statues out of rocks and they'd cover it with small strips of gold to make it look like it was made of pure gold.  No jewelry is entirely made out of gold because pure gold would be to soft to make any jewelry with.  There were also tons of other cool facts and there was tons of gold in it.  We also went through the exhibit that had dinosaurs and other creatures that lived at the time.  I learned that catfish can scramble across dry land to get to different bodies of water and this is said to be how creatures got to walking on land.  Eventually they adapted to getting out of the water and were able to stay moist and above water for longer times.  I had never known that catfish could scramble on dry land.  They had video's of some and I thought it was amazing.  When we were out of the museum everyone was happy to be out even though a lot of things in it were fascinating, everyone was tired and hungry, especially me because I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. On our way back we stopped to look at the bison field where there were about 40 of them just roaming around.  It was amazing how much waste they left in the field.  I feel bad for whoever has to clean it up.  An amazing fact about them is that at one time there were as many as 60 million in North America and after being hunted mercilessly and being driven towards the point of extinction there came to be only about 1,000 left.  The sign says that their behavior can be unexpected so we had to stay 3 feet away from the tall gate even though I put the camera lens through it to get a good picture.  When we got home we went in the hot tub then me, mom, dad stayed in it for a while and when the stars came out we could see them clearly because there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  Dad showed me where the Big Dipper was and we discussed politics and such.  

Life in Colorado

The main reason that we're here in Colorado is because my dad has training so we might as well get some skiing in and check it out. We landed kind of late but we still got in time to go in the hot tub for a while.  Our house here is pretty cool, they've already got an X-Box hooked up, and of course they've got a hot tub.  There are a lot of people with hot tubs out here because it gets really cold.  The next morning we took dad to the hotel that he stays in while he's in training and they gave us nice warm cookies.  That's the most awesome thing about the hotel, they give you free, delicious, warm cookies.  We then went to a soup place.  Later we went to the tennis place in Evergreen (Evergreen's the town we're staying in) and met the instructor and a couple of kids.  There was one about my age and one Amelia's age.  Isabel didn't want to go to hers.  I liked the instructor even though I don't think he's as good as Erik.  He's only 25 years old and likes to play a lot of games.  We had this the next day too because it's a three day thing.  We only went for two of the days but are planning on having another one with more kids on Monday.  After we were done we went to the training center to stay with dad for the remainder of his training.  It probably wasn't worth it because he had to study all night but we got to have a family dinner at a noodle place which was really good.  We also went in the pool before the noodle place while dad finished his training for the day.  Later I watched a cool show called Smash Lab where they were trying to find a more efficient way to end car chases and they would have a robotic arm that came out of the back of the car and sprayed a fire extinguisher directly into the grill of the car.  It ended up not working very well but it was still interesting.  We also watched Myth Buster's where they were trying to make a jet pack which also didn't work.  The next day, today, my mom and sisters got up and got breakfast while I sat in bed watching T.V.  We had blueberry muffins from Starbucks.  We then went to the pool and waited for dad to finish training again.  When he was done, he said if we hurried he could get us in a simulator so we hurried over and ended up getting in one.  It was really cool, he taught us how to control and work the rudders and everything and we took off and landed successfully (maybe a little help).  The motion was off so it didn't really feel like we were flying it but it still showed the visual.  We then went to Chipotle for lunch.  We checked out a ski resort which we plan on going to called Echo mountain which is really cool because the lodge is located halfway up the mountain and it's pretty much just a giant terrain park (ramps and rails) which I'm really into.  We also checked out another town and then went home and we all got in the hot tub (even mom).

The Dayton Air Force Museum (sorry I'm a bit behind, this post is for a couple weeks ago, more air force pictures at the bottom!)

Before I start telling about the museum let me just say that I've wanted to be in the air force for a while now so this was a really exciting trip for me.  There were about 15 airplanes outside of the museum but we didn't go to see any of them.  It was set up where it went through the airplanes from older ones, such as planes from WWI and WWII and then got into the more modern planes such as the Raptor and the B2 Spirit.  It was awesome watching how they progressed through the years from biplanes with a tiny engine and the pilot would sit in seat directly in front of it to using metal and having big engines.  The whole thing was in a few huge hangers.  The trip wasn't only about looking at how planes progressed or anything but also about history.  They had an exhibit on the Cold War, the Holocaust, and even the story of the Berlin Wall.  They even had a couple chunks of it.  In every exhibit, they had real artifacts from the time such as a uniform that someone in a concentration camp wore, part of the wall of Berlin, and multiple things used in the Cold War.  They got as modern as the unmanned plane, the Predator and the newest fighter called the Raptor.  My favorite plane was the stealth fighter in which I want to fly when I'm older.  They also had the B-2 as I said before which is a stealth bomber which was also really cool up close.  They had an open plane that you could sit in and dad knew about almost all of the controls.  There was also a section with rockets that included the nuclear weapons that are being used right now.  They were huge!  There were two floors so you could get a bit closer to the top.  We also watched and IMAX movie about the space station, not the one that's being built on the moon but the one in space.  It was pretty amazing watching them assemble everything.  It looked like tons of fun to float around in the station.  I thought it was really cool how they could squirt water and it would float and they could just eat it.  They also showed how they trained in a simulator what they would do if they got disconnected from the ship and were just on their own in space.  They have a rocket that they would attach to their backs and just maneuver back to the ship.  It didn't look easy at all because it's really hard to maneuver.  It was even cooler because it was being showed on the huge screen.  We were planning on going to another hanger where we'd actually be able to walk through an Air Force 1 which is the 747 that the president flies in when going to other countries.  I watched a movie on it a while back and they completely shut down the airport when the president's about to land.  Dad says that he's been stuck in the airport when it happens and it's really annoying.  I was sad to leave because there was still a section that I wanted to see but we didn't have time to.  They also have a real air force base right beside the museum so there were a bunch of planes going of and when they did it was really loud outside.

Huckleberry Finn Update

A lot has happened in the book Huckleberry Finn since the last post about it. Huck dressed up like a girl and went ashore to see what was happening in his town. The woman found out he wasn't a girl but he made up a story in which he ran away from his farm because he'd been treated poorly and she believed it and promised not to turn him in. He also found out that her husband had seen smoke on the island they'd been staying on so he was going to go there that night and look for Jim. Right when they were done talking and Huck was out of the house, he went and told Jim and they got in their canoe and left the island. They made a wigwam in the middle of it to sleep in and to protect them from the rain. Eventually they came upon a ship that was about to sink and decided to go aboard because there was sure to be many treasures in the captain's courters such as cigars and lots of money. When they got on the ship they found a group of robbers that were pointing a gun at a man that was begging for mercy and they prayed not to be seen because then they would surely kill them. When they went back to the place where the canoe had been tied up, it was gone! They searched all over the sides of the ship looking for it and eventually found it. They didn't get any of the treasures because of the struggle to get off the ship. Since Huck felt bad for the men stuck on the ship, he told a fairy pilot that his family was stuck on the ship and needed saved so the fairy would hopefully pick them up. Later they found another boat with nobody on it and went aboard and found lots of cigars and other treasures. They also got some books which Huck read all about kings and told Jim about them. They were looking for a town called Crete which led to a fork that led up the Ohio River but they feared that the next fork would just be another island and they would find themselves on the same river. Not far behind them there was a huge boat that could carry more than 30 people and Huck and Jim agreed that they would be talking all about Crete so they decided that Huck would sneek onto the ship at night and find out all he could about where they were and where Crete was. On the ship, so far what I've read is that they haven't talked about Crete yet but I'm still at the part where he's on the ship. The story of Huckleberry Finn is really good and I would definately recommend it so far but the only negative part of it is that sometimes you can't understand what they're saying because it's written in a southern context that was used way back during slavery. I think the people on the big ship Huck's on are going to find out he's on the ship and there will be yet another adventure.

A WELL OVERDUE BLOG ENTRY

I haven't been able to blog for a while because we've still been getting used to the whole home school thing but I'm going to try to start posting regularly so don't stop checking it!  We'll start when we had our tennis lesson with Erik (I think that's how you spell his name but I'm not positive).  I thought I was going to play terribly because I hadn't played for about 3 weeks because we were in Hawaii and couldn't bring our racquets for some reason even though the courts there were good because of all the palm trees around them and everything but I think a time off actually helped my game.  My mom thought I would do terribly too because I had an energy drink before it and because I hadn't played in a while.  We were both wrong because I ended up doing really good and we moved on to a shot I hadn't worked on much which is an under spin shot or slice.  It's where you bring your racquet down and it makes the ball stop when it hits the court.  When my lesson was over he told my mom that I worked hard and all that which he barely ever does.  Usually he says that I wasn't quick on my feet or other critiques.  We went to our first home schooled class at the Work's which was about science and art.  In science we learned all about Isaac Newton and did a bunch of hands-on activities such as building our own cars with connects and racing them against other people.  Me and my sister's car got second over all which was pretty good.  We also did and activity where we got an egg and a box and had to make the box cushioned in order for the egg not to break because he dropped it from about 10 feet and the one that didn't break and weighed the least won.  I think we got second in that too.  In the main part of the Work's there's a bunch of science stations set up such as a station where you turn a wheel and it lights up different light bulbs which is supposed to prove the difference between fluorescent and incandescent bulbs.  They also had other stations with magnet's and lights and a bunch of cool stuff.  I made some friends and one of which liked the same bands as me and was planning on learning guitar and all that.  In art class we put plaster over plastic eggs and painted different colors and designs on them.  The different designs were from a different culture and had different meanings for each of them.  I painted a camel and the teacher held it up to the class because she thought it was cool.  Let me reenact, "Oh everybody, look at Gabe's egg, he painted an animal on it, he's going to be the next Monet."  Seriously, I'm not kidding, she really said that.  Today I played tennis with the tennis group and we played doubles during it.  I was surprised that my serve was going in really fast and sometimes, even the older kids couldn't return it.  We also played around the world and I was in the final three which was o.k.   Afterwards, we had a pizza party because it was the last meeting we were going to have.  When I got home we had a soup get together and I hung out with my friend Elliot and taught him how to do a front flip and back flip on the trampoline.  Tada!!!

My Real Birthday

Today I officially turned 13.  We went to Bob Evan's as a celebration because we already celebrated it at Snow Trails and I got the worst pancake you could possibly get.  It was a pancake with banana cream in the inside of 2 pancakes with carmel cream on the top and whipped cream.  I could only eat about 5 bites before it was just to much.  Yesterday me and my sister went down to the snowboarding hill and there was hardly any snow.  We had a video camera and were planning to make a movie.  That didn't stop us though, we took snow and made a path leading up to a ramp we built.  It was about 2 feet with about a 30 foot lead-up.  We did every combination of tricks we could.  Amelia would rather film than actually snowboard but I got her to go off the ramp a couple of times.  I landed a couple tricks that I didn't know I could land such as a 360.  That was only a 2 foot ramp, if I had a 15 foot ramp like the ones I go off at Snow Trails I might be able to do a little more.  It was a lot of fun.  We also went into the church where there's vending machines and got some pop.  It took us about in hour in all before we had actually started snowboarding.  Today I'm going to Easton to take a class on making a video and I'm going to make a video with the videos me and Amelia took.  Au revoir!!!!