| Princess of Quite-A-Lot |
| She was student body president in 5th grade, so her childhood name was prophetic. She is in 8th grade now, plays the bassoon, and still wants to run the Iditarod. She's hoping for voice lessons. |
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| Parade wave and smile perfected! |
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| Butterfly Landing |
| Washington, D.C. Trip As dictated to her grandmother - April, 2006 When we first arrived at Shenandoah Resort, we had to travel on a long snake-looking road and it was dark, so it was really freaky, because of lights that showed up automatically. So it was an interesting drive to actually get to the resort. When we pulled in, I saw the stables where the horses stay, I saw a valley where they grazed, we passed a playground, a miniature golf, a baseball field, and a horseshoe tournament thing. We pulled up to the check-in lobby place, we walked inside and there was a sock hop with Elvis-type music. After we checked in, we went to our cabin and we put all of our things in, and we went back to the lobby place. We explored all the different things that we could do for activities. There was an inside swimming pool and a Jacuzzi. There was a game room and an exercising room and a registration center where you could check out soccer balls, basketballs, tennis balls, horseshoes, etc. Our resort was a lot more than I expected. The next day, we got up and headed down to the swimming pool. My older brother, Kyle, and my father went to the game room and they also exercised. After they finished that, they came and joined my mom, little brother and little sister and me in the swimming pool. We enjoyed our first relaxing day at our resort. The second day, we drove to Washington, D.C. We bought tickets for the subway, so it would take us to the Smithsonian. Once we stopped at our stop, we started walking around the Mall. The Mall is a long strip of grass with museums and other political places with the Capitol at the end. The first place we went to was the Air and Space Museum. It was closing, so we didn't have that much time to walk around, but we did buy tickets for an IMAX Theater production. After that, we went to the Holocaust Museum. We went to a more advanced part of the museum where they showed gruesome pictures of what was actually happening and told about many people in stories about what was going on. I don't know why people like Adolph Hitler want to kill innocent people just because of their beliefs. Just because he didn't like Jews and Gypsies and disabled people, that didn't qualify him to murder them and torture them in any way he could. Putting them in concentration camps and torturing them and scarring their memories for the rest of their lives, if they were able to live through that time. Telling them to take off their clothes and go into a room crowded with more than a thousand people and telling them to take showers, but instead of water coming out, poison gas came out, and nobody was able to breathe, and everybody was falling over on each other. People who murder other people just because they don't think they need to live, because they are lower in any way, and torture them, just so they can get their way by killing them and getting them off the face of the earth do not deserve to live themselves. My personal opinion for the Holocaust is that Adolph Hitler had no business of killing people who never did anything wrong to him. His actions were unsanitary. The third day, we were back at our resort. We had reserved horseback riding, and we were very excited. My little sister, Riana, was too small to ride the horses, so she got to ride a pony. The pony's name was Brownie. My older brother, Kyle, decided that he didn't feel like horseback riding, so he said that he would stay back and watch Riana while my dad, mom, and younger brother, Justin, and I went horseback riding. We were assigned horses. Justin got Honey, my father got Big Jake, my mother got Duchess, and I was assigned to the best name of all for a horse: Charlie. The name Charlie is one of the best names of all because of a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie. When I play games and we have to make up names, my name is always Charlie, and I was surprised to be assigned to a horse that had my exact name. His whole name was actually Charlie Brown, and he must have been really hungry while on the trail ride, because he would stop in his tracks and lean his head down and start eating the grass. I was embarrassed the first time, because I held up most of the entire line. The trail ride manager, April, told me to pull his head back up. Every five minutes or so, I'd have to do the same thing over and over again. He must have been famished. Honey and Big Jake were very well behaved because they didn't eat or stop or get out of line at all. Duchess on the other hand, thought she was too royal to stay in a line with the others. She decided she wanted to get out of the line and walk by herself, but my mother kept telling her, "No, get back in the line..." It was one of the best experiences I've ever had. We decided to go back to D.C. and stay the night so we would be able to see more and have a better experience. We went back to the Air and Space Museum, we went to the American History Museum, and my mother and sister and I went to an art gallery. The first stop we made was to Arlington National Cemetery. We saw the changing of the guards and the three Unknown Soldiers. We saw JFK's grave with the eternal flame; his wife and two children are buried next to him. I wonder how JFK's flame is eternal, because when it rains, it would have to put out the fire. It is impossible to have fire that goes on forever through rain and snow and hurricanes and all of the other storms that we have. Either they turn it off, or it goes out. We also saw Robert F. Kennedy's grave, it is the only white wooden cross in the entire cemetery. At the top of the hill in the cemetery, Robert E. Lee's mansion overlooks the entire cemetery. It has a gorgeous view. We also took a tour of the house. HOOKED ON P.A.C.T. P.A.C.T. is like a fishing hook. Once you start, you can't turn back. We are like the fish. We can't resist taking it. P.A.C.T. is swimming in confusing questions. And it is hard to choose the answers. Some are long and some are short. Although it is hard to decide, we need to, fast. The Ghosts of Charleston Have you ever seen a ghost? Do you know of people who have? Have you researched about them? Well, if you have never heard a story about a ghost, here's your chance. Charleston is known for its many ghosts. These ghosts haunt buildings, streets, dungeons, and even the bridge. But there has been a pattern of who sees them and who doesn't. Most of the people who see the ghosts have never heard of them or their story, so once they do hear of them, they never see them again. Sometime around the 1900's a family, consisting of a mom, dad, grandma, little boy, and girl, were traveling across the old Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, during the night. Also, a cargo ship was anchoring, so they could rest a night. But little did they know the brakes had failed No one on the ship could tell that they were moving. Most of the people on the bridge noticed the ship, and they turned around as fast as they could. But this family was in the middle of the bridge, and well, their car was pretty slow. The ship crashed into the bridge and the car went overboard. Days later, officials went looking for the little car that held the bodies of this family. Once they pulled the car out of the water, a foul smell came across everyone. They opened the doors to the car and all they saw was a family literally being taken over by shrimp. The little boy's face was covered and they tried to scrape the shrimp off, so they could identify him. This little boy has no eyes and well, barely any face at all. So now people claim to see the haunting of this little car driving along the old bridge. And, as the car drives by, you can see the little boy looking at you without any eyes. But once you blink, they're gone. |