Hiking

I got to go hiking on Saturday! It was so much fun and a perfect day to be outside. I haven't live in Montana long and it's totally awesome to see how beautiful this state is.

 Below me is the Stillwater River. Very ironic name right now because the river was totally raging. That pictures does not show how powerful and crazy the water was. And, honestly, I'm not hanging over the cliff. That's just the awesomeness of photography.

 Again, I'm not going to tumble into the water.

 These first three pictures were taken at a huge rock I got to climb and below was a wider part of the river and where the rapids wouldn't kill you (at least not as fast).

 Here I am at the lake. It was so beautiful, but I was starving and just wanted to get back to the car for lunch. The smart thing to have done would have been to bring our food with us. Right, Mother?

 After lunch (peanut and butter and jelly), I was ready for a few more pictures. This pic shows how fast the river was going. It was so loud! I kind of liked it 'cause it meant I couldn't hear Mother or my sisters!

This is me just being totally awesome. Can't wait until I can hike again! Summer is awesome!

The Pirates and Pet Store

Hey, this is JJ! Emily is allowing me to post the pictures from my day at the museum. I got to see real pirates! Well, not the actual pirates since they died back in the 1700's during a storm at sea (two managed to survive but were arrested!). But I did get to see real pirate treasure! Sadly I wasn't aloud to take pictures in the exhibit, but I still got a few.

 This is me under a banner of the 9-year-old pirate boy John King. I got to see his femur bone that really proved he was a child. No one is quite sure why this boy was aloud on the pirate ships since children normally weren't. I wish I could be a pirate!

I got to sit on the lap of a pirate statue. It was so cool! That little black dot on my overalls is my Pirates of the Caribbean pin that I got at the mall. In the pirate exhibit there was a lady walking around dressed in colonial clothes. She was funny! She liked my shoes since they covered my toes and she wondered about the people with funny colored toenails. She thought they had some kind of disease! Another thing I learned is that pirates were really honest amongst themselves. All their treasure was split equally between them, not even the captain took more. And if there wasn't enough hammocks for everyone to sleep on then everyone slept on the floor. I can't wait to learn more about pirates now!

I also got to go to the pet store. This was taken at the pet bar. I was wearing my Montana pin that day.

 

The Zoo

I got back from my trip to Denver with JJ a few days ago. Now you get to put up with several posts of pictures! Aren't you excited? These pictures are of me at the Zoo. It was totally awesome to see all the animals and get my picture taken. It was quite hot and I was lucky I didn't melt!

 This is me with a sign about Wolves: my favorite animal

 

Here is the actual wolf. I only saw one since they seem to prefer hiding to getting their picture taken, though I don't blame them. I would hide too if screaming children watched me all day.

 

Here I am with a wolf skull. It's as big as me! I tried to fit my head in it's jaws but I couldn't quite fit. If the skull wasn't stuck to the sign I could have done it. Morbid, I know.

 Here I am riding a hippo. Don't laugh! It's not like I chose to sit on a hippo. Mother made me... sort of.

And this is me next to a Penguin sign. As you can see I'm about the same size as the little Penguin, but no where near as big as the Emperor Penguin. I would be scared to meet up with that fellow. (But not to meet the wolf whose mouth could fit over my head...strange).

 The two-headed Giraffe.

 Banded Mongoose (I wanted to take him home. So cute! Look at that mug!)

 Me and a Monkey (He wanted to take me home, I think)

And this is me watching some wild horses. I think they are from Mongolia and they are, like, the last true wild horses.

So, that is me at the Zoo. Tune in next time for JJ's trip to the Museum.

Alex

I learned some stuff about Alex last weekend. Since Casey works at the same hospital as Alex's dad, he knew a bit about the family. However I don't think I was supposed to hear any of it since the grown-ups were talking while us kids were supposed to be upstairs playing. But I was thirsty and came downstairs.

Alexandra Hayden Woods is 13 and lives in the city and goes to public school. She spent most of her childhood (from, like, 3 to 9) in foster homes. She got moved around a lot due to aggressive behavior and being unruly. She was adopted by the Woods family at 10 after being fostered by them for several months. The Woods have an older son who was also adopted.

Her early childhood situation sounded similar to my own. Her father was abusive and she was sent to live with her grandparents who were also unkind to her which is how she ended up in foster care. I'm not sure why she couldn't live with her biological mom, but I think she just got the short end of the stick since her mom had too many other children to care for.

Knowing all of that I went to karate on Friday ready to make the best of it. She was probably bullied a lot and her way of defense is to now be the one to bully first. I've seen her pick fights with some of the other girls, too, but I seem to be more "special" in her eyes.

The same rotten teacher was still there. JJ's dad couldn't stay, but JJ did. It was a typical class. Alex kicked me a few times and stole my water bottle. I told the teacher; he told me to "toughen up". Even though Alex still wants to chew me up it didn't hurt me as much. I can understand her and I could just as easily ended up like her. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do because she really shouldn't be hitting anyone even if it's not entirely her fault. And that teacher still needs to go. If not because of his attitude to me then because of his crude remarks to JJ's dad about his children.

On a sunnier note, the sun has been out for a few days! It's hot out and I think summer has finally arrived. Yay!

Karate 2

Another dramatic karate class. Luckily I had JJ's dad with me. Since it's been raining forever and there is a ton of flooding all baseball practices were canceled. JJ and Jack came to support me, too.

My class started out good. Alex and I were at opposite ends of the room. But during our water break she came over to me.
"I see you're back," she told me.
"Of course," I said.
She grabbed my water bottle but I'm not sure what she was going to do with it since JJ's dad came over. Alex gave the bottle back to me and stalked off. But somehow we ended up as partners. That was enough for me, I told the teacher that Alex was picking on me and I didn't feel comfortable being her partner. The teacher told me to tough it out! I wanted to cry, but I knew I couldn't and I knew I had to at least try to get along with Alex. Or at least figure out why she seems to hate me so much.

But JJ's dad wasn't going to put up with that. He went right up to the teacher and told him that Alex and I weren't compatible and we needed to be placed with someone we felt more confident practicing with.

I think the constant rain and cloudy weather has been making everyone a little testy because the teacher bluntly asked JJ's dad if I was his daughter or if he had any relationship to me at all and if not to mind his own children and not micromanage other people's. And then he made a nasty comment that JJ's dad must have a habit of picking up other peoples children since it is clear that JJ and Jack are not as white as their father.

We left then and are going to get that teacher fired. Since I was out early, we headed to the hospital where Mother is a secretary, which is also the hospital Jess' dad is a surgeon at. Us kidlets were told to go find a snack machine while the grown-ups talked.

JJ and I got cookies and Jack got chips and we got a bottle of apple juice to share. Our parents were still talking along with Casey, but I don't think the conversation was about karate anymore since they shut up when they saw us. Mother said I was going to spend the night at JJ's and she would pick me up in the morning.

That was Friday and Saturday. Today I'm going over to Jess' house for a Memorial Day lunch and I'll post about that when I get a chance. Sorry if this has been an angst-y-ish post. That Alex girl has really thrown me for a loop.

Karate

I don't know if I have ever mentioned it before that I take karate. My uncle was my teacher for a few months, but since he moved back to New York (Rebecca is his daughter) my class had to get a new teacher. There was also a new student today and I got partnered up with her. Her name is Alex and she's a year older than I am and a little more advanced in karate. I held the punching bag thing-y and held my breath like I always do for fear of getting kicked.

Everything was going great so far. Alex had very good coordination and accuracy. I was starting to have fun since I wasn't near as worried as usual about my partner missing.

I don't really know what happened next. Alex claimed I moved my hand, but I'm certain I did not. She missed and fell over backwards (that's when I lowered my hand).

I've never been so scared before when she jumped up and shoved me in the stomach. She kept calling me names I'd rather not repeat and threatening to choke me. I was afraid to yell for the new teacher since I didn't know him. Luckily he did notice, but he only mildly told Alex to behave and it was time to switch partners.

I just wanted the class to end and barely put any effort into my kicks and punches. Now the teacher thinks I'm lazy and not very good. But I don't really care about that right now. JJ's dad picked me up along with Kit and his son. (He coaches his son's baseball team which practices right after Kit's team. Kit stays and helps the little kids).

I started to tell Kit what happened when Alex stormed over.

"Who's the little punk boy?" she demanded. Okay, seriously the girl has her knickers in a twist or something and apparently Kit looks like a boy when her hair is in a ponytail and she's wearing a baseball uniform. I mumbled that she was my sister Kit. Alex shoved Kit in the shoulder and I grew defensive and shoved her. She tackled me down, but we were quickly stopped by JJ's dad.

I had to tell JJ's dad everything on the ride to his house. He reminded me to tell the teacher immediately if it happened again. I promised I would and he said he would stay during the next class if I wanted him to. JJ is so lucky to have such a great father!

I was super glad to see JJ and told my story again to her. I felt better after talking about the fight again. But I'm not very excited to go to class next Friday.

May Day Basket

I finally got to open my May Day basket from the exchange. Thanks so much to qweensyd1 and all the girls!

I quickly grabbed some scissors and began opening the package while Mother breathed all over me to "be careful, young lady!". Maybe some smaller scissors would have been better!

 But I managed and found a basket full of awesomeness and a beautiful card!

I love the bandanna! I'm going to have a hard time deciding what to wear on my head now! I got a cute little wolf (my favorite animal!) and tons of toys.

My sisters are quite jealous of all my goodies, but they didn't make a basket themselves, so they shouldn't expect to have gotten anything. But I'm a good sister and will let them play with my new things...for a few minutes anyway!