Wow!

Oh wow! Guess what? I got 2nd place in the 2011 Florence Elementary Spelling Bee!!!! I think it's because I am in 4th grade, and some of the kids were in 3rd, or because I have a little stuffed animal of our school mascot (a falcon) named Lightning because that's what our school mascot is named. Even I can't believe it! I was literally shaking as much as I possibly could up on the stage, especially when it was just me and Joshua who were left. The second-to-last round, I got my word right, after he had missed one. So he had to come back on stage, and then he got his word right and I got mine wrong! So, really, it's kind of like we tied. My class and Mrs. Fabry's class (my social studies and math teacher) both gave me a standing ovation! I am so happy!!!!!!!! :)

 

Cool Kathryn Lasky letter

Remember the post I did about Guardians of Ga'Hoole and Wolves of the Beyond? I wrote a letter to the author of both of those series. Her name is Kathryn Lasky. Today, she just sent me one back with a bookplate autographed by her! :o :) She told me when the next Wolves of the Beyond book was coming out, and she said May 1st. She is one of my most favorite authors! I think I will write back soon!

me + trooper = best doggy friends

Art Contest and Book Report

Remember when I posted about Legend of the Guardians? I saw it the day it came out!! It is my most favorite movie of all time. Well, there was a raffle for it at this place called Aaron Brothers and I won everything because I was the only one there! There was a collector's version of the poster, a DS game, and a soundtrack. There was also a free movie ticket that we got and a second soundtrack, but it was the same as the first one. There were 2 girls that came at the very end and they got the second soundtrack. (Lucky us they didn't get the DS game. We really wanted that and they almost got it.) Well, Aaron Brothers had an art contest and if you win you win a trip to Sydney, Australia!!! No offense to the other ones, but none of them are very good. :) This is mine. If you want to see the website gallery, click http://aaronbrothers.com/contests. For school we have to do a book report and make a book jacket with a brochure, mobile or a grab bag. I picked a brochure for the Great Tree. I am doing The Journey, the 2nd book because that is when the Band gets to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. My book jacket is really cool. I will post a picture of it so you can see it when I am done.

Post

I just felt like posting something right now. I just don't know what. I think I'm going to post my day.
Well, today we watched general conference, and we went to Hobby Lobby to get some craft supplies for my book report on The Journey, the 2nd book in Guardians of Ga'Hoole. We didn't do much besides that. We had a babysitter and her name was Sarah. We played with clay and I made a bunny and a bird's nest with eggs in it. I think that was it. Daddy went to a priesthood meeting for daddies, and mommy has a friend over. I'm bored.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole movie!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been reading a book series called "Guardians of Ga'Hoole." If you like to read, this might be the book series for you. (There are 17 books, including the Great Ga'Hoole Tree's Guide, without it, 16 books in all.) Kathryn Lasky is the author for this book series. She is AWESOME!!!!! Once you finish that series, it will talk about a place called Beyond the Beyond, also known as "The Beyond." There are lots of battles, skirmishes, and wars there. Lasky also wrote another book series about the dire wolves of The Beyond. The series is called "Wolves of the Beyond." It is about a young malcadh wolf puppy. His name is Faolan. Faolan has a splayed paw. Well, these are who some of the characters are. P.S. Did I mention that there will be a movie about it? It comes out tomorrow. If you want to see the preview for it and play games, click on http://legendoftheguardians.warnerbros.com/. (There is a key at the bottom of this post that tells you what some of these words mean, like malcadh) Here are some pictures:

These are some movie screenshots. The first one is an owl with battle armor on, the next one is Soren's dad telling a Legend of Ga'Hoole, the third one is some evil owls charging into battle, the fourth one is Kludd talking to Soren and Eglantine, and the last one is of the meeting room of the Great Tree.

This is Ezylryb. He is the ryb for the weather and colliering double chaw. He is Soren's best friend besides Gylfie, and dies of old age in one of the Prologues in the Legends.

Gylfie (above) is a tiny Elf Owl. She is best friends with Soren, a Barn Owl. She escaped from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls ( St. Aggies ) with Soren.She is the navigation chaw ryb.

Otulissa (above) is a Spotted Owl. She is the scholar of the Great Tree after Ezylryb and Strix Struma die. She wrote the 16th book in the series, " Lost Tales of Ga'Hoole ". She is a bit stubborn and talks too much. ( Or so Soren says. . . ) She is the Ga'Hoolology ryb.

Martin, also a very tiny Northern Saw-Whet Owl, is part of the Chaw of Chaws. ( Ruby, Martin, Otulissa, Soren, Twilight, Digger, and Gylfie. ) He is a very good collier, and is good friends with Soren. He is double-chawed.

Bubo, a huge Great Horned Owl, is a very good blacksmith and collier. He has pits that have regular coals and bonk coals inside of them. He also keeps the Ember of Hoole in his coal pits to keep it hidden from the Pure Ones and other owls for a short time. He helps Ezylryb in the colliering chaw, and is a good friend of Soren's.

Soren ( above ) is the leader of the Chaw of Chaws. He is the ryb for the colliering and weather double chaw. His brother and sister, Kludd and Eglantine are Barn Owls in the books, too. Kludd is the leader of the evil Pure Ones. They think that the Barn Owls are the " purest " owls, so the other kinds of owls have to be slaves to them. Eglantine is good, just like Soren is, and she goes to the legendary Great Ga'Hoole Tree after Soren finds her. Nyroc is Soren's nephew, who was born as a Pure One but wanted to be good, and he eventually retrieves The Ember of Hoole.

This is Digger. He is a Burrowing Owl and he is a little annoying sometimes. He likes to dig holes and is the smartest owl besides Otulissa in the Chaw of Chaws. The rest of his family was killed by the Pure Ones and Digger was the only one to survive. I picked this picture because it looks like he sees something scary. He is making a funny face.

bonk coals = coals that are best for forging things, and have a ring of orange and some blue

The Ember of Hoole = the special ember that every owl wants for themselves so they can have power over everyone and everything else

chaw = classes for all sorts of things

Chaw of Chaws = all chaws mixed into one: How to be a Guardian of Ga'Hoole

collier or colliering = an owl who goes out and collects coals, sometimes catching them on the wing if they are born to be colliers or are trained very well

double chaw or double-chawed = when an owl gets or has more than one chaw

I hope you will read these books someday! They are super cool and there will also be a video game for it on Wii, Nintendo DS and DSi, X-Box 360, and other video game systems. (I think)

Trooper is so cute!!!!!

Meet our new doggy, Trooper. He's an Australian Shepherd. They're supposed to be sheep herding dogs, but they also make great, fun, crazy pets.

                                                

Trooper thinks he can eat and drink Mentos and soda ( He can drink soda!!! ) while we are doing the experiment.

This is from the first week we got him.

He thinks he can be in the family picture, too!! Silly puppy.

                                                  

This is a walk. He just learned how to sit, and he is still getting used to the leash.

Well, that's our new puppy. 

Griffins (awesome!!!!!!!!!)

This a griffin. They are mythical creatures. It is said they are from India. It is part lion part eagle. Since the lion is considered the king of the jungle and the bald eagle king of the birds, it is a very powerful creature. Griffins are normally known to guard treasure.

There are two different heads a griffin can have: a lion or an eagle. I love these awesome creatures and I hope you do too.

Great Wolf Lodge!!!!!

This is when we went to The Great Wolf Lodge. In this picture, me and Parkie are doing this thing called MagiQuest. You get to pick what color wand you want out of Sparkly Pink, Black ( mine ), Silver ( Parkie's ) and Brown. Moe got silver too, so Parkie and Moe were fighting over which one was theirs. Moe's was on auto, which means he didn't have to wave his wand at the  computer trees or anything else. If he did, it just did something, like lighting up. That was the Quest part. Me and Parkie beat it, so we started Adventure. That is where you have to battle a bear, a dragon or a fairy. We tried to do the dragon and the bear, but we had to wait in line FOREVER!!!! So we decided to do that next time. Next year, they are going to have something called Compass Quest. It is the same thing, except you get a compass and there are different things.

This is when me and the rest of my family when swimming the first time. ( I think!! We went swimming about 4 times!!!!! ) This is me and Parkie were in the tube for the Wave Pool. That is one of my favorite parts besides the water slides and the Lazy River!

This is our family by the water playground part in the very front of the water park.

This is the kids bedroom. There are Wolf Dens, Kids Camp, and an Indian Teepee, if I remember right. Or you can just get a regular room.

Well, we had fun!!! Maybe you can go there one day . . .

Anole lizards my friend caught

These are pictures from 2009.

Western Day

Today was Western Day at school. It was so fun! We did a dance to a song called " I'm from the country ". We were going to dance to "Ice Ice Baby", but we didn't have enough time. It is a very fun dance. It is just that at first it is so confusing. Now I am very good at it. My dad (today it is his birthday. Happy Birthday!) said he loved that song.

Balto Movies

I LOVE Balto movies! Here are a few screenshots.

This is Balto and Jenna when they first meet. Jenna is Balto's mate.

This is Balto and his daughter, Aleu.

This is Balto in the 2nd movie. Did I mention that Balto is half wolf, half husky? Jenna is a regular husky.

These are all of Balto and Jenna's pups. The gray one is Aleu. She is the only one that is not a pure husky. When people start taking the pups, no one wants Aleu because they know she is half wolf. Balto and Jenna get to keep her.

This is Aleu when she is full grown. She is very feisty. She loves to play, but Balto always warns her of hunters. In the 2nd movie, she sees a hunter and he almost shoots her, but Balto scared him off.

This is Aleu telling Balto that he doesn't need to look after her so much since she isn't a puppy anymore. He watches anyway.

This is Aleu playing.

I enjoy these fun movies. You should watch them sometime! There are 3 in the movie series.

Christmas!

I got a lot of cool stuff for Christmas this year! Here are some things:
1. An American Girl doll named Kaya
2. A little stuffed husky pup that falls asleep and blinks and even falls asleep
3. A ton of Bella Sara cards (awesome)
4. My cousins to play with in Utah
5. A reindeer Webkinz that I named Blitzen
6. Some books
7. A Bella Sara DS game
8. Wii Sports Resort wii game
9. An American Girl DS game
10. A Mario wii game

New House!

Our Chicks

This is a picture of my chicks. They are older now, but they are not full grown yet. We got five, but a couple days ago we put them outside. I went out there to check on them, but there were only 4. We have no idea what happened to the fifth one, but we are still very sad. Right now, the remaining 4 chicks are bigger and are not puffy because they don't have fuzz anymore. Instead, they have a lot of cool feathers. They look kind of like wild birds. They are very crazy little chicks. They have a box that we put them in outside sometimes, and whenever you try and put them in there without someone else's help, they keep jumping out. Then you have to catch them and put them back in without letting the others out. It is very hard. But I still love them! :)

Florida Rocks!!!!!!!

I went to Florida for one of four of our vacations this summer. It was very exciting!!!!!

We went crab hunting on two nights of our vacation. This is the bucket of crabs that we found the second time we went. You have to do it at night because the sand crabs only come out at night. The first time we went, the first crab we found was huge for a sand crab!

This is a picture of Callie, (My best friend) and Miles, my little brother. They are on " Shell Island." No wonder it is called Shell Island! The shells are huge there!!!!! They look like shells that would be in a book!! They look so cool, because their color and their size look so fake.

This is a picture of me and Callie. We are sitting on a chair in the beach house that we rented. The beach house was beautiful!!!!! Me and Callie slept in the same room and shared the same bed!!!!

This is a picture of Callie on the beach at Shell Island. I guess she just found another shell!

This is a picture of me at the beach. (Not on Shell Island. I wore my swimsuit there.) We took this picture on family picture day.

WHEN YOU GO TO FLORIDA, GO TO SHELL ISLAND!!!!! IT ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alaska!

This is me with my cousins in front of an old rainforest tree. Our guide said that

black bears use that tree for shelter sometimes. We also saw a black bear in the temperate rainforest, too. It was walking around by a stream in the rainforest.

This is where me, my dad and Parker went panning for gold in Juneau. I found a lot of gold! Probably about 1/4 of an ounce. It was fun, but the water in the rapids was freezing and crazy! But I was gold panning in the calmest part of the river. It was freezing, too. The sand seemed like it was magical because our guide gave us some sand that he found when we first started. When it ran out, he wouldn't tell us where he found because once we found the spot, all the gold would be gone.

This is one of the dogs at the Musher Camp in Skagway. I forgot this dog's name, though.

This is me holding one of the puppies. His name is Murphy. He is very soft and cuddly! He only weighs about 4 lbs.

These are some of the puppies sleeping together. The people didn't tell us what their names are, though.

Here I am with my dad. He is holding Maverick. The kids didn't get to hold him because he is a very wild little puppy! :)

This is me with a very nice sled dog named Chief. He was one of the nicest ones that I met.

This is Mouse. She is a very nice sled dog that enters the Iditarod every year. She is also very sensitive. She thinks that she is the best lead dog, but Chief is better than her. He is the best!

This is me, Parker, Miles, Ethan and Emma. We are looking at our stuffed animals in the window. We put them there so we could see our room on the outside of the ship.

This is me, Parker, Jack and Annie dancing at a place on the cruise ship called Club Fusion. We danced there almost every night. One night, there was a live 80's rock n' roll band playing for us.

This is me in a wildlife preserve. I am standing front of a cage with 2 Grizzly bears and a coyote.

This is a picture of me swinging at a park in Canada!

ALASKA ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!