Air Force Academy, Colorado

June 27, 2009
Today we are in Colorado, and yesterday we finished all of our school. My brothers are all done. Now we’re on summer break!

Today we went to the stables and went horseback riding. My horse was named Peewee, because he was so short. I liked Peewee because he was a fast runner. We went riding in the woods on trails and it was really fun. We went on narrow trails and big, fat ones too.

We went to a place called Royal Gorge, and it’s a deep crack in the mountains. The Arkansas River cut through the big mountain. We saw the highest suspension bridge in the world, and it’s over 1,000 ft. above the river. We went on a tram. Then we went on the Skycoaster. It’s this big thing when you go up, and then the man says, “3, 2, 1.” Then I pulled this little rope, and it dropped us for a free fall. We went 50 mph! Will and Ben went with me. It was really scary, especially when we were hanging over the cliff. I want to do that again.

Next, we went to a cowboy place where they did a draw and they were fighting over a girl. About 5 or 6 men died in the shootout. They weren’t really dead, but they used black gun powder. It sounded just like a real gun. We went to a movie theater and we learned how they made the bridge.
Then we walked across the suspension bridge. We dropped pennies, and the wind blew them different ways. We heard about a man who flew over the bridge with a jetpack in just 19 seconds. Next, we went down on an inclined railway to the river. We saw river rafters come by. There were a whole bunch of hummingbirds too. They were so cute. Oh, and we saw a black bear running today! We were really close, like 10 feet away. It was awesome because we were in our car.
Yesterday, we went swimming and I did dives off the high dive. It was 3 meters high. Also, we met 2 kids named Tiger and Trevor at the RV park. We had a pinecone fight for fun. Also, we went to the pool with Spencer and Clayton. We went bowling, and it was really fun.

It’s kind of hard living in an RV. We’ve been living this way for a year. It’s a small space. But it’s good because we’ve been seeing a lot of friends. We saw state parks, Disney World, went surfing in Florida, and visited Europe.

Colorado Springs, CO

In Colorado we went on a camping trip with the Bailey’s. We hiked up to a reservoir in the mountains and it was steep and hard to climb. We spent one night up there. We had a big campfire, and we went swimming, and it was awesome. It was Spencer’s first hike in his life! We found Fools’ Gold all over. Will got a twisted ankle pretty bad by falling off some steep rocks. I puked in my sleeping bag because I ate way too many marshmallows.

We’ve been doing a lot of school. Most days were boring at the library for me. I got to watch movies while my brothers were doing school. I finished my school already, so I can play most of the time. My brothers have less than 2 weeks left.

Last Sunday we thought it was Father’s Day. But it was too early. So we had Father’s Day on the wrong day! Then we went to Zach’s house and it was really fun. Their house is pretty big, and we played outside and in the basement. And Amen is about three, and he’s a lot bigger than the last time I saw him.

Also we went to the Bailey’s house for a sleepover. That was before the campout. We watched The Dark Knight and played Rock Band and had the best time. We ate a really good dinner that was lasagna. Mrs. Bailey is the best cook. She made this awesome dessert. It was a whole bunch of layers with cream and cake and fruit. It was so good! It was sugar-free except one part.

We went to Garden of the Gods. It’s like a whole bunch of sandstones stacked up and you can climb on them. They’re over a thousand years old. Some are a million years old. We went on a bike ride and it started raining. There’s a really cute town called Manitou Springs. It has a really cool park because it wasn’t normal. It had a merry-go-round that’s tilted. When you walk on it, it spins. We had ice cream, and they had a natural spring with soda water. It tasted horrible.

Colorado is almost like Alaska but not as cold. It’s really country. And the mountains are huge. I’d really like to live here. I shot a bird with Will’s BB gun. It only lived for a day. It was blue and really small. It fell out of the tree, and I felt bad. I named it Flapper. I spent a lot of time with Flapper and I gave it water, but I couldn’t find any food. When it died, I buried it and made a cross for it. Now it’s outside. I’m going to shoot cans from now on.

Colorado

Today we are in the Air Force Academy and the state is Colorado. Our campsite is pretty cool because there’s a park that’s really big here. Also I bought a paper airplane. There’s this little stick with a rubber band on it. You pull it back and shoot it and it goes over 100 yards!
We visited our friends named Spencer and Clayton. They just moved here from Alaska, and their whole family is here. We went back in the woods and played Cops and Robbers. There’s a train on the train tracks.

We saw Carmen Bowen. Today she’s having her birthday and she’s turning 8. Carmen was my neighbor back in Alaska before Colonel Hildreth moved in. Carmen’s mom and dad are really, really nice. We went to their house and it was an awesome house. They have a greyhound and her name is Polly and she’s really fast. The fastest she went was 49 miles per hour! She used to be a race dog and then she retired. We played Monopoly, and also I gave her one of those rubber band planes. She really liked it!

We went to a really awesome ranch and Mr. Roger and Ms. Sue own it. There’s a Bobcat and I got to drive it! There are two levers on it. One’s for steering and the other’s for moving the bucket. We planted 100 strawberry plants for Ms. Sue. First, there was kind of a big hole. We had to smooth that out. We put these heavy railroad ties on it. We put wire there so the ground hogs won’t eat them. We put dirt down, smoothed it out and planted it.

We got to drive a 4-wheeler, and a horse named Dusty. They have another horse named Ladybug. Ladybug is all black. Dusty is all black with a white strip down his nose. It was pretty smooth riding the horse. When we got hungry, Mr. Roger cooked up a huge bucket full of food with shrimp, corn on the cob, and potatoes. He boiled it and then dumped it on the table! We put the butter right on the table to butter our corn. It was a fun, messy dinner. It was a dream come true. Then we went in their house. My brothers and I changed into our underwear and went in their hot tub! They have 3 dogs. One’s Annie, one’s Red, and one’s Corky. Annie went under the cooking pot and she singed her hair and almost caught on fire! I love their ranch!

We saw Ms. Ronda and Mr. Gene at a really small church. We wanted to see them again and they’re leaving today to move to Alabama. One person started crying because Gene is leaving.

Liberty, MO and Ft. Leavenworth, KS

June 3

Next we went to a person’s house, and their names are Mac, Christine, Mr. Mike, and Ms. Susan Conge. And they have a dog, and his name is Duke. He is a Yellow Lab, and he’s one year old. Their house is pretty big, and they have a big trampoline in their back yard! We played with water with Duke and everything. We all got soaked, and it was really fun. We slept over at the Conge’s house two nights, and one night at our RV. We played a lot of games with them.

And then we went to Dylan’s house. Dylan is another boy and he’s 12. He lives there with his brother and his sister and his mom and dad. We played with their dog named Leo, and then we went to this play. It was really cool but I didn’t really get it. It was written by Shakespeare about old-fashioned stuff. We all played in the woods.


After that we left. We went to this campground on a giant river. It’s called the Missouri River and it’s all brown because of all the sand and dirt. It was humongous, and we couldn’t swim in there because it would swoop us away. We went to the Haney’s house, and caught a tiny little frog. Then we let it go. Then Ben caught another thing. It was a lightening bug, and he let it go.

Then we went to visit Olivia’s family. They’re really nice! Shelby and her parents live there too. We had a sleepover and it was really fun. We found a little bird that was alive. It could barely fly because it didn’t learn how yet. We put it in a little dirt hole, and then we went to a museum. When we came back, it was still there! Then we taught it how to fly.

Iowa and Chicago

May 29, 2009
Today we are in Missouri. We just drove through Iowa. My Mom’s Grandma grew up in Iowa. Yesterday we ice skated in Iowa and it was just us. There was no one else ice skating! We climbed one tree and it was really good climbing because there were a whole bunch of branches. We met a dog named Sonny. He was really nice.

Before that, we were at Lake Michigan, the campground at the Navy base. We went swimming on the base, and bowling too. I got a strike when I went bowling. I don’t use the bumpers. We went kayaking way out to a big cool lighthouse. We all went, and we all had our own kayaks. We went to a Memorial Day Ceremony. There were a whole bunch of chairs looking out over Lake Michigan, and we were thinking of everyone in the military. They had really good donuts and food.

Also, we went to Chicago and met Matt and Julia, and Sophia and Alex. That was really fun because we got to meet them again. The last time we saw them was in Florida at Disney World. In Chicago, we went on a boat ride. We rode bikes to the zoo. We saw kangaroos, silver back gorillas, a zebra, and a whole bunch of monkeys in the monkey house. We saw a little baby one that was getting held by its mother. It was brown, not black.

We went up a tall building that seemed like it was a mile high. We were above the clouds. My ears popped in the elevator. We had pizza that was so thick I couldn’t even finish one slice! We played the werewolf game with Sophia and Alex, and it was really fun.