This is going to be a picture/video post.  They are going to be pictures/vidoes that go with my last post...

Starting with VBS:

Above is Mama's VBS room.  Below is an Amazon parrot that visited our Amazon themed VBS.

On to Busch Gardens...

Above are my three friends.  Below are two of my friends and me.

Above is a swan that was in a lake at Busch Gardens.  Below is the Lochness Monster, which unfortunately was closed, so I couldn't go on it.

Above is my friend picking a duck.  Now to Colonial Willliamsburg...

Above is some kind of polital building.  I forgot exactly what it was, but I remember that inside it had a judging room, a place where people pass a bill, and a room where people talk about political stuff.  Below are some pictures from the inside of the above building.

Above is a picture of the violinist who played What Child is This.  Below is a horse that pulled a wagon.

Below are pictures of revolutionary soldier reenacters.

On to dog camp...

Above is Biscuit.  Below is Biscuit doing agility.  My friend was filming him and me.  It was the last day of the week of camp, so Biscuit was really tired.  That's why he didn't jump right away.  Also, at the end when he's on the table, the reason he didn't take the treat from the guy was becasuse he only takes treats from his family and people he knows really well.

Well, that's it I guess.  Carrie

This is going to be really long.........I have a lot a catching-up to do..........

I guess I'll start up with last week's VBS (Vacation Bible School).  The theme for it was "Amazon Expedition", so we decorated our rooms to look Amazon.  Mama even used her sound machine to make the rain forest noise. 

Each day we had a word that we learned about.  The words were Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, and Consummation.  (The last day we had three words.)  On the first day we learned about Creation, the second we learned about sin entering the world (Corruption), the third day we learned about the flood (Catastrophe), the fourth we learned about the Tower of Babel (Confusion), and the fifth and final day we learned about Christ, the Cross, and Consummation.

Also, to go with the Amazon theme, we learned about an Amazon animal every day.  For example, on Monday we learned about a jaguar, on Tuesday an anaconda, on Wednesday a basilisk lizard, on Thursday an armadillo, and a Friday a morpho butterfly.  So that was pretty neat.

On Friday, after VBS was over, I was waiting for my four friends from Japan to come and pick me up to go to Busch Gardens and Williamsburg.  While I was waiting outside, I saw my next door friend with the new girl that lives down the street, Rachel.  My next door friend had told me about her a little, and now I finally saw her.  She had actually been coming to VBS, so I knew her!  That was kind of funny.

Anyway, my friends came to pick me up, and we drove to my friend's grandparent's house to spend the night.  We had burgers for dinner, and while my friend's grandfather was mixing the ground beef with some kind of spice, he cut off a pretty small piece of meat and just ate it raw, so my friend was like, "That's gross!", and then her grandfather was like, "No it's not.", and then I'm like, "You can get a disease from eating raw meat.", and then he's like, "Well, if I drop dead tomorrow, then you'll be right, but if I don't, then I'll be right." 

Then, he was spraying Pam on the pan where the burgers were going to be, and my friend didn't know what it was, so she looked at me like "That's disgusting.", and her grandfather said, "What's with you?", and he sprayed her on the face with the Pam.  So that was kind of weird, but the burgers turned out really good, and we watched National Treasure in bed.

In the morning we had breakfast and then left for Busch Gardens.  We had brought sandwiches for the car, so we ate them, and then when we got to Busch Gardens, we got a funnel cake to split.  It was really good.  Then we rode the cable cars.  Oh yeah, and I forgot to say that I got a free ticket because I had a military ID.  So that was pretty sweet.

Then we were all going to ride a simulator called Curse of the DarKastle, but ten minutes through the line, and one of my friends and I decided that we didn't want to go on it, so instead we went and got a soft pretzel and rode the Big Bad Wolf.  One of my friends that went on DarKastle said the ride was another hour after we left, and the ride was terrible anyway.  So my friend and I were very glad we didn't go it after all.

Then, one of my friends and I went on Alpengeist, while my other two friends got snacks and went on the carousel.

After that, we all went to ride Escape from Pompeii.  That was really fun.  Then we walked down to Italy.  Two of my friends went on a swinging ride that went back and forth (which I think is disgusting), while my other friend and I tried to take a picture of them.

While we were down there, we went on Roman Rapids and the teacups.  We also did this game where you catapult water balloons across this place to the other team, and try to get them soaked.  My team won while the other team of my other two friends didn't do very well. 

Then we went on a spinning ride that went around and around in circles so fast that you would slide to the outside edge.  One of my friends and I liked it so much that we stayed there while my other two friends went on Apollo's Chariot.

By then it was getting kind of dark.  Two of my friends wanted to play in this arcade room kind of  like Chuck E. Cheese where you get tokens, play the games, and try to get tickets, but my other friend and I wanted to go ride the Big Bad Wolf in the dark, so we split up, and planned to meet each other at the entrance of the Big Bad Wolf at 9:05 pm. 

Well, on my way with my friend, we accidentally took the wrong bridge, and ended up at the opposite corner of the park.  So we asked someone which way to the Big Bad Wolf, and they gave us a short cut, so we made it by 9:15.  We decided not to go on the ride because if they got there while we were on the ride, then they might not know where we were. 

We waited about thirty more minutes.  By then it was 9:45 and we were getting a little worried because our friends still weren't there.  So we asked a lady if we could borrow her cell phone to call our friend.  She was really nice, and let us use it.  But they didn't answer.  We tried again.  Still no answer.  By then it was five minutes until the park closed, and they still weren't there!  Finally, two minutes before the park closed they came.

The reason they were so late was because in front of them in line at the arcade to get their prize with the tickets was a family with five people - each having at least 100,000 tickets.  The mom had 500,000 tickets, so she bought a Nintendo DS and an iPod and she still wasn't done!  A whole family with that many tickets! 

So one of my friends was like to the guy at the counter, "Can we just go really fast?  We only have like 100 tickets, and we're ten minutes late meeting someone.", and the guy just gave them a dirty look like "You just ruined my day!".  Then, when they finally got out of there, they got lost going to the Big Bad Wolf.

But at least we made it out of there all together.  And it was fun except for about the last thirty minutes.  Then, we were gonna go to the hotel, but the hotel we were staying at said on the map that it was in a totally different place than they really were located at, so we were driving around trying to find it, so we stopped at a restaurant at like 11:30 pm to get some dinner which we never had.  We stayed there until a little past midnight, so when it was midnight, one of my friends was like, "Good morning!".

Then, we finally found the hotel.  The next morning my friends' friend, Joceline, came to meet us to go to Colonial Williamsburg.  That was really fun.  We did this puzzle thing where we have to figure out what the pictures meant, and fill in the words.  Then we had to follow the clues, made by the pictures, to find our prize.  (It took us a while, but we did it.)

While we were in this pavilion place, where we were doing the puzzle, part of it said "Go to the street named for Queen Anne's son.", so we're like "Prince George!", becuase there was a street named after him pretty close by.  But then one of my friends said, "Isn't George Mary's son?", and so my other friend said, "No, Jesus is Mary's son.".  And what was funny was that right after she said that, a violinist walked in and started playing What Child is This!

(We ended up being wrong.  Queen Anne's son was the Duke of Glouchester, and Prince George was Queen Mary's son.)

We went straight from Williamsburg to my house.  Joceline didn't come on the trip with us.  She left in her car when we left.  On the way to my house with my three friends, we sang practically the whole way home.  It was really fun, just it didn't sound very good because I was higher than everybody else, one of my friends was lower than everybody else, and my other two friends were somewhere in between.

The next day I had dog camp, where I take Biscuit with me.  It's just for the morning, but it was fun.  I can't remember exactly what we did everyday, but basically here's what we did: agility, presentations (for example, from the vet, search and rescue, someone who brought their dog to a nursing home, someone who rescues dogs), walks, and training.

Biscuit's favorite thing was agility, but he didn't do it as well on the last day (we only did it on the last day and first day) because he was tired from getting up every morning to go to camp.  I think he's happy that camp is over becuase he got tired after a whole week, but I think he had fun. 

Well, that's it.  This was really long!  Carrie

Sorry I haven't written in a while.....I was out of town to my grandparent's house for a week and then I've been reading a lot since.  I've read King Arthur and His Knights (which I was already started in), Pilgrim's Progress (a condensed version), Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island.

My grandparent's house was fun.  While we were there, lots of other relatives came to visit.  I took Biscuit in the paddle boat and he jumped in the lake!  He wasn't very to nice to the next door dog, either, but he played with her nice at the playground down the street.  I played piano and taught myself some little songs on the recorder!  Now Amy's at camp for two weeks (including this week).

Here are some pictures of Rusty (the next door dog) and Biscuit:

Also, we went in the paddle boat with Biscuit, and he jumped into the lake!  We don't have pictures of him in the lake, but we do have pictures of us all in the paddle boat, so here's one:

Well, that's it, I guess.

Carrie

Hello!  Today is Walter's birthday!  In the morning he went to Home Depot to do the kids project and since it was his birthday, they gave him free safety goggles.  Walter also had his birthday party today.  He invited nine kids and seven came, so counting Walter there were eight kids.  For just the birthday party presents, Walter got a bug maker, a Wal Mart gift card,  spiderman stickers and moon sand, a blue Lightning McQueen toy and another play car, a book called Walter the Baker with a pretzel, a HUGE radio control car, and a water pumper fire toy boat.  

The birthday party had water balloons, a pinata, cake and ice cream, face paint, and regular balloons.  It was military themed, so the pinata was shaped like a tank, the water balloons looked like bombs, the plates and napkins for the cake an ice cream had a picture of a tank on them, the regular balloons were red, white, and blue, and the face paint was camouflage colors.

Other than only birthday party presents, Walter got a train overpass, Cities and Knights, plus the expansion, from Settlers of Catan, another game that's called Just Kidding,  spiderman markers and activity book, and money. 

Yesterday was the 4th of July, so happy late 4th!  We went to a little neighborhood parade, but the fire works we tried to go to later didn't really work out.......long story.  Anyway, I better go.  I'll write later!  Carrie

Hello!  Here's my next week of camp:

Monday, 30th of June, 2008 - Today in the morning I canoed and fished.  Canoeing was really fun - especially since I did it with someone one that paddled the right way - just she (the girl in front) didn't know her right from her left and the girl in the back kept splashing me (because like in the middle, where I was sitting, you sit on the ground, so it's really easy to get splashed).  Fishing was okay, but I didn't catch anything.  After that, I did archery.  That was fun.  I'm not very good, though.  And, of course, I had two snacks and a lunch.

Tuesday, 1st of July, 2008 - Today in the morning I hiked to a Civil War tunnel and paddle boated.  The Civil War tunnel was really cool, because it was like built over a creek, and we got to walk through it.  Paddle boating was okay, but I got stuck with annoying kids.  In the afternoon I did stream monitoring (checking to see if all the creatures that needed to be in the stream were in it; making sure it's healthy) and some games.  Stream monitoring was fun and cool.  I found (in a net) leeches, catus fly larvae, and a stream worm (which is as thin as thread, but as long as a normal worm).  Then some other people found a mussel, a snail, and some clams.  Afterwards, I was all wet ('cause we just walk into the stream in our shoes and clothes and everything), so good thing I brought a change of clothes (I only changed socks and shoes, though, because by the time we hiked back, I wasn't really wet anymore.)  Also, the games were fun.  And I had my two snacks and lunch.

Wednesday, 2nd of July, 2008 - Today I went to the Watermine (a waterpark)!  It has slides and a lazy river, so it was really fun!  I spent most of my time in the lazy river, but the rest was great, too.

Thursday, 3rd of July, 2008 - Today was the last day of camp!  I did canoeing (I got to pick if I wanted to paddle boat or canoe since it was the last day and I totally picked canoe) and for lunch we sat in the tour boat, so that was fun.  We also played Capture the Flag and a water balloon fight.  Capture the Flag was fun, though my team didn't win.  The water balloon fight was fun.  The counselors were slingshoting balloons at us and Walter wasn't looking, and the balloon hit him straight in the back!  Then his back was soaked.  So that was my camp.

And now today is Independence Day, so happy 4th of July!  I'm being patriotic by wearing a flag shirt and socks, plus star earrings, a red, white, and blue bracelet, and I did have a small toothpick American flag in my hair, but I took it out.

Tomorrow is Walter's birthday party, so I'll tell about that in my next update.  Carrie

Hey!  This week and next (except for the 4th of July) I have Lakeside camp.  And so I'm doing sort of a camp diary that I'll update every day.  Hope you like it! 

Monday, 23rd of June, 2008 - Today I went paddle boating and archery.  The paddle boating was fun, but the paddle boat looks totally different than the one at Grandma and Granddaddy's.  The archery was really fun, though I'm pretty bad at it.  We also went hiking and played games with a parachute and balls.  We were supposed to go fishing in the parachute/ball time, but the younger group took our lines, so we did the other games instead.  And then, of course, I had two snacks and lunch during the day.

Tuesday, 24th of June, 2008 - Today I did canoeing and orienteering.  I loved canoeing, and now that I know how fun it is, I wish Grandma and Granddaddy's canoe didn't burn up.  The orienteering was also really fun, and now I kind of want to be an explorer with the canoe and compass and everything.  I also played mini golf and kickball.  The mini golf was okay - I got two holes in one - but what was really fun was that afterwards we got to go on the carousel!  Kickball was okay, too, but like I said, I liked canoeing and orienteering the best.  Then I had the same food as I mentioned above.

Wednesday, 25th of June, 2008 - Today I played volleyball and went to the pool!  The volleyball was really fun, except some other people were playing football, and they threw it wrong, and so I got whammed in the eye.  It really hurt.  Oh well, the pool made it feel better, and yeah, the pool was really fun.  It had a slide and a diving board.  I went on both.  And then I had two snacks and lunch.

Thursday, 26th of June, 2008 - Today I canoed and fished.  I loved canoeing, as always, but it's sort of annoying because the girls I go in the canoe with don't hold the paddle right, so 1) they go really slow, 2) the paddle hits the canoe and makes a really annoying noise (since the canoe is made of metal), and 3) they don't listen to me when I tell them that they're holding it wrong - actually, they try to annoy me by banging the canoe with the paddle by holding it wrong, and anyway it's just sort of annoying.  Fishing was okay, but I didn't catch anything.  Also, we tie-dyed shirts (which went really well, and I was happy with how it turned out) and saw a reptiles presentation.  So that was cool.  And of course I had food.

Friday, 27th of June, 2008 - Today I did paddle boating and mini golf.  Paddle boating was pretty fun, and mini golf was too.  I did better than I normally do in mini golf - I got a twenty-seven for nine holes.  I was playing against one of the counselors and he only beat me by three points!  I also hiked a little.  We were supposed to do paddle boating and fishing in the morning, and archery and mini golf in the afternoon.  Somehow a five minute thunderstorm turned all that around, and we ended up doing something totally different (paddle boating in the morning, and mini golf and a little hiking in the afternoon.

So that was my week, and I'll do the same thing next week.  Carrie  

Last evening (Friday) Mama had a jewelry party at our house.  It was fun, and plus two of my friends came.  I didn't get anything, but Mama and Amy did. 

Today Walter and I played in the wading pool some, but it was really cold, so Walter only stayed in like forty-five minutes.  He got out because he had goose bumps and his teeth were chattering and he was really cold.  I stayed in like an hour and five minutes.

A while after that, Walter left to go to his friend's bowling birthday party.  Daddy and I went to played tennis.  My classes for tennis are over, but I've really improved over the eight weeks of tennis.

I better go now.  I'll write soon.........Carrie

Hello!  Lately I've been writing lots of short updates.  So I guess I'll try to write a longer one today.  Anyway, today is Tuesday, and we're all going to meet Daddy at his work place for lunch.  Amy's the only one who has been so far because before once he took her to a cello show.  So now the rest of us want to go before it's too late.

I'm also trying to get lots of school done today.  I had a dream that I only needed one more lesson (and corrections) of Language Arts, which is the only thing left for my school (Language Arts), but really I need like eight lessons or something.  The thing that makes it go really slow is that I have to write a paragraph from dictation before each lesson, and that means I need to get Mama to read it for me so I can write from dictation.

Amy and I were invited to go to our friend from church's house, but since we're going out to lunch, we couldn't go.  Also today, Amy has viola lesson, and I think Mama has to do something to her pickles, which she is making.  So yeah.......that's what we're doing today.

Tomorrow's Wednesday, and I think I'm not doing anything except trying to get school done.  Or we might go on a fieldtrip since there's nothing else on the calendar.  I guess that's it.......Carrie

Hello!  On Sunday I played Be Thou My Vision.  On Monday (today) I did some Language Arts and played some games with Walter.  On Tuesday (tomorrow) we're going to meet my dad at his work place to eat lunch with him.  That's pretty much it............Carrie

This is Amy and I playing Be Thou My Vision.  We played it at church tonight.  Carrie