My vacation

I have been doing SO many things on my vacation!!!!!!
Tuesday I went swimming and my grandpa also gave me a massage.
Wednesday we went swimming and also to a lavender farm...smelled terrific!!!....and went to this place called Del Sol. If you don't know what Del Sol is, it is this place where stuff changes color in the sun!!! I got a palm tree keychain that changes from clear to an orangish pink color and my mom got nail polish that changes from silver-green to purplish pink. Nathan got a necklace.The store was AWESOME!!! We also went to this olive place, and they sold green stuffed olives and a lot of other stuff, but the green stuffed olives were the only olives they sold....pretty dumb, huh?! My grandpa wanted to go to this wine store and only people 21 or over are aloud in, and so my mom, Nathan, my grandma, and I went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory next store. I got a mint filled truffle, Nathan and my grandma got a raspberry filled truffle, and my mom got a sea foam. (I don't really know how to explain a sea foam.) Oh! Before the chocolate factory, my mom saw a sock shop!! I got a pair of socks there. I like them a lot!
Thursday we went hiking and swimming. The hike was SO pretty!!! There was a waterfall at the end of the trail. It was only a trickle, but still pretty!!! The water was freezing cold!!! I climbed some rocks over the water so I could touch the waterfall and moss. Then we hiked back. It was a good hike, though the best place to hike was the Rocky Mountains near Estes Park. (Not really a park.)
Friday (yesterday) we just hung out.
Today is Saturday. My last day in Solvang! So sad! Though I am glad to be going home to Sophia and Tiger (Our cats)! I am going to go back to Del Sol today to get a shirt. I will wear it on Wednesday. I am also going to paint a giant clothes pin to put in my room! We might swim today too!

Tomorrow I am going home and my grandparents are going to stay until Tuesday.

I have had a great week!!!

My life after thursday...

Thursday Nathan got his braces, I had my cello lesson, my grandparents arrived from somewhere Oregon, and I had soccer practice!!!
Friday my friday school started. I am taking a writing class and helping my mom with a California History class. It went pretty well the first day.
Saturday I woke up at 10:00 and read in bed until 11:30 until my mom asked me to make brownies for Nathan's soccer ice cream social. At 2:00 Nathan had his soccer game until 3:00. He tied, 7-7. My dad asked him, "was it sprite or 7 up? Then Nathan had his ice cream social from 3:00-4:00pm. Then we went home and I had my soccer game at 5:00pm. We won 7-6. I had my ice cream social the week before so we went right home after my game. After that, I packed my clothes because we were leaving to Solvang the next day.
Sunday I went to jr high at 9:30. For those of you who were wondering if I was listening, my jr high pastor talked about how pride is the mother of sin. After Jr. High, I went to the kindergarten class I help out with. After church, we went home, and got everything ready to pack in the car, but then my dad realized the thing that goes on top of the car that we borrowed was missing a bolt, so then we tried to find it but couldn't. We finally left at 3:30-4:00. We arrived at the time share in Solvang about 7:30 pm.
Yesterday, we went to Andersen's split pea soup for lunch. By the way... if you ever go to Solvang, and like split pea soup, you NEED to go to Andersen's!!! After that, we went walking around Solvang, and I bought some post cards since I collect them. Then, my dad, brother, and I went downstairs and played ping-pong and pool. I had never played pool before and I thought I did fine for a 1st timer. At 5:00pm, we went to this thing called Meet the Manager. We had food there and got free satchet of lavender (it smells TERRIFIC!!), and got a free Del Sol frisbee. For those of you who don't know what Del Sol is, it is this company that makes lots of things that indoors it is plain, but in the sun gets colorful. Very cool! There was also free wine tasting. That night, we started reading Harry Potter!! I have been wanting to read it, and my parents said the only way I could read it is it we read it as a family and talked about it. It is VERY good so far.
This morning I woke up and read for awhile, then got up and got ready for the day. Right now I am writing on my blog, my brother and dad are playing basketball on xbox, my grandparents are talking and I don't know what my mom is doing. I don't know what we are going to do today, but I guess I will find out and tell you.

By the way, for those of you who do not know about Solvang, it is this cute little town with lots of stuff to do and lots of stores to shop at. It is about an hour away from Santa Barbara.

That is what has been going on in my life!

My Trip to the Zoo

I went to the zoo yesterday with Marsella for those of you who know her! We saw LOTS of animals like giraffes, elephants, zebras, tigers, a black bear, sea lions, and a whole lot more!!! It would have been very fun except for one thing. Nathan, Marsella, Sophia (Marsella's little sister), and I were playing tag at a playground in the zoo. Sophia was it, and I was trying to run away. But I was by a mister, and the ground around it was wet, and as I started to run, I slipped and fell and got dirt all over my pants and shirt! And guess what?! I happened to have a white shirt on! I was mad at myself and kinda embarrassed that my white shirt got all dirty. And I admit it, I started to cry a little. But other than that, I had a great day!!! We stopped by the store on the way back to the car, and I bought a postcard (because I collect postcards and I always by one when I go somewhere) and a cute zebra cup (because I liked it)! Overall, it was a good day!

C.S. Lewis once said that it is better to love and miss than to never have loved at all. But is that true?
Let's explore that a little....

Let's say you were very close to your mom and she gets cancer and dies. Would it have been better to not know her at all? I'll give you a minute to think about that.... What do you think? What about all the memories you made with her? What about the fun times you had together? Would it have really been worth it not to ever love her?

Now let's go to Canada. Pretend there is a woman that lives there that was engaged but her sweetheart was killed. She loved him SO much that she cried for forever. After she was done crying she decided to never love anyone again, and had a hardened heart and never loved anyone ever. Do you think she should have done that?

I don't think so.
I once had a cat name Pouncer. We got her at the same time as Tiger (Nathan's cat). She was a great cat! And one time my mom let her outside after midnight, and she never came back. There were coyotes and raccoons where we lived, so she probably got eaten by one of them. And we were supposed to leave for Disneyland a couple weeks later. I didn't think I would have a fun time at Disneyland, but I did. We put some food and water out for her when we were gone, but didn't know if she ate the food or another cat. Same with the water.
She never came back. I missed her for months, and then about three months later, I got Sophia!! She could never replace Pouncer, but I still loved her. And now 5 years later, I still have Sophia!

But anyway... I'm glad I had Pouncer for 2 years. I would agree with C.S. Lewis that it is better to love and miss than to never have loved at all.