Celebration Weekend

This weekend in Baltimore was full of celebrations! My aunt and uncle's 60th birthdays are this summer so my cousins held a surprise party for them on Saturday night! Here is me with my sister and my cousins, Amy, Laurie, and Mike. The top picture is of my new baby cousin, Pierce!

Lots of family members came from all over the country to celebrate the birthday party. I got to visit with some people who I haven't seen in a REALLY long time. This is me with one of our cousins, Gene Dewey. He was the assistant secretary of state for President Bush until he retired. Then he was called out of retirement to be an ambassador of Sri Lanka. He's really nice and told us lots of stories about Sri Lanka and other places he's been to!

On Sunday, baby Pierce was baptized at the same church that Amy and her husband Jay were married in. The pastor was hilarious and Pierce didn't even cry when the water was placed on his head!

Baby Pierce had to pose for LOTS of pictures after the service...and he didn't cry a single time! He was so patient and good and just allowed himself to be passed from person to person without so much as uttering a complaint. After that we went to Amy's house and had a celebration party for Pierce!

And here I am with the best grandpa in the world! I'm really sorry all of you who think you have the best grandpa. The one right here is the true top of the charts!

Proud to be an American

How amazing is this country? This country that recognizes the value of freedom and whose citizens are willing to sacrifice their lives to help others experience freedom. This country that is willing to die to be free. Kathryn and I went to Washington, D.C. on Saturday on the way up to Baltimore to see our cousins. We stopped to visit the monuments that I haven't seen since I was no older than 14. Hard to believe that was actually 14 years ago! It was a very reflective, emotional couple of hours as I really started to understand what those monuments stand for.


The Vietnam War Memorial was so touching. As we walked along the wall, staring at the 58,245 names, we noticed that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE was absolutely silent. All the people who had been in conversations moments before, children poking their brothers and sisters, begging their parents for ice cream, all of them were silent as they moved along the wall. Although, of course, no one had told them to be silent. I thought of the single sentence carved in to the Korean War Memorial, "Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met." It moved me to tears to realize that all of these memorials were honoring family members who believed that freedom was more important than their lives. We found the name of one of our mom's cousins who died in the Vietnam War.



It was the first time I had seen the new World War II Memorial. That was the most amazing monument I've ever seen. It quickly moved to the top of my "Favorite Monuments Ever" list. It is so beautiful, surrounded by every state and covered in quotes that showed what this war meant. The very first one that you see surrounds a pedestal and says, "We came to liberate, and not to conquer, to restore freedom and to end tyranny." Again, it comes back to freedom. The reason we fight. The reason we help. The reason we die. And the reason that Christ died for us. It's always about freedom, and it always has been.


As we walked through the World War II Memorial, I had a strange feeling that I couldn't quite explain, other than I knew that every time I tried to talk to my sister about what we were seeing, I couldn't speak. Tears would come to my eyes every time I opened my mouth to talk. Kathryn finally said, "There's a weird feeling here...kind of like a tingling..." I was doing okay holding back the tears, until I saw this beautiful wall in the center of the memorial. It was covered with stars and said, "Here we mark the price of freedom." Freedom costs. From the Korean War Memorial, "Freedom is not free."

I am so proud to call myself an American and be a part of this country that honors freedom over life. To all the men and women who died so that I can be free, thank you.

adorably cute animals

Today, Will, Ben, Jake, and I went to the Metro Richmond Zoo. It's a really small zoo but it has lots of kinds of animals. The good thing about it being small is that you can get really close to all the animals! They give you a cup of food at the entrance and you can feed any animals except the birds. You can pet almost everything. And tons of animals had babies! Here are the best of the pictures that I took today. There are tons of more pictures that I will put up later, but these are the very best!

This ring-tailed lemur was so adorable. He was just a baby and he was so small he could crawl through the fence of his cage. He kept crawling through and coming up to the sidewalk to see us! Then he'd crawl back in his little fence and come back out whenever he wanted. He was really nice!




My favorite thing was the zebra butts. I think zebras' stripes are so beautiful but their butts really show the stripes' beauty the most.





This moon bear was trying to wash off his tongue or something. He kept pulling on his tongue with his paws, tugging harder and harder. I thought he was going to pull his whole tongue off.



We think this little guy is a gazelle. He was so nice too. He was really curious and wanted us to pet him.






And this cute guy is a farrow deer. They live in Asia. They were so gentle - Ben and Jake let them eat right out of their hands. They petted their little faces.

The Richmond Zoo was really cool...I just wish the animals had bigger habitats - but I always think that, no matter which zoo I go to and how much space the animals have. I'll show more pictures later this weekend!

woo hoo you caught a ball. event of the year.

Tonight's baseball game was truly a test of patience, control, and acting in a God-centered way by being a good sport. I had a great game, even though we lost, because I hit a double and 3 singles and in the field I played pretty well too. And I'm trying really hard to keep that in mind and not let the stupid girl that was playing third base for the other team ruin the good game. But let me tell you...it's hard. For one thing every time she came up to bat she wiggled her rear end back and forth obnoxiously I guess because she thought everyone wanted to see how great her rear end looked. Then in the field, every time she caught a ball, and I mean EVERY TIME as if it's some great event to catch a ball...like woo hoo you caught a ball, good for you...anyway EVERY TIME she caught a ball she had to do this little dance, run over and jump on the guy playing shortstop and start kissing him. I wanted to shout out, "SO YOU CAUGHT A FREAKIN BALL!!! GET OVER IT!!!" But I didn't.

One time she was on first base, trying to run to second. The guy that was up hit a ball to me and as I caught it, it took a bad hop and bounced off my arm. I saw the creepy third base girl running to second and I was like, "Oh I'm getting you out creepy girl!" So I dove on to the ground to get the ball and flipped it as fast as I could to our shortstop just in time to get her out. I felt a little better then.

At the end of the game, when we lined up to shake hands and say, "Good game!" to the other team, I almost didn't shake creepy girl's hand. I did though, not happily, but I did it. Our coach told us that we might have to play that team again in the playoffs in two weeks. I hope so. Cuz creepy girl's going down.

Skatepark Birthdays...that's the way to do it!

Okay so I just had like the best time EVER at the skatepark! I would possibly even go so far as to say that it was comparable to a day at Disney World, and anyone who knows how much I love Disney World knows that's saying a lot!


Last night I went to my favorite restaurant, Red Lobster, with my family and Peter! Then Kathryn, Peter, and I went to the pool and hot tub to relax! Kathryn came to my birthday party tonight at the skatepark too! I was so excited that she came because I didn't think she was going to.


The skatepark was packed! Dan, the guy who runs the skatepark, said it's the most people that's been to the skatepark since like last year or something. He said 45 people were there for the party! It was awesome because everybody brought scooters, bikes, skateboards, you get the idea! All the kids tried something new for the first time. Leah learned to drop in on a ramp for the first time! Ben learned to ride down straight ramps! Collin started riding way up high on the biggest ramps on his bike before coming back down! I hope everyone keeps coming to the skatepark! It's so much fun to hang out there with people you know!


Lots of kids were from my class and from church so it was awesome getting to see all the kids again! And of course you can't have a party without a moose cake! My friends Kim and Sara and Jonathan came (Jonathan was the official photographer and did an amazing job with the pictures, I might add!) Kim and Sara decorated the cake with mooses and lego trees that I brought from home! They should seriously go in to the cake decorating business or something! Don't those little mooses look cute? They are very happy in their new home! Too bad their home is about to be eaten!



Okay off to bed...wow what a great day! Thanks for coming everybody!!!!

happy birthday to ME!!!

hey it's my birthday! yay!

now i'm tired. i'm going to sleep.

:) hahahahaha!

Another glorious day at the lake

Yesterday my family spent the afternoon relaxing at the "lake"/"pond"/"body of water big enough for canoeing, kayaking, and swimming" at my mom's farm. We had kayaks this time, so Kathryn and I raced and took turns with the paddle (since we only had one paddle). Mike was just enjoying the sun and the water, floating on his raft when Kathryn decided to run over him with her kayak. Poor guy.

I got in a kayak, but if you don't know me well, I have this slight fear of kayaks that has never really gone away since I was little. I'm afraid that one time the kayak will flip over and I won't be able to swim out of the hole and I'll be trapped upside down beneath the kayak forever. So I was feeling pretty brave yesterday and decided to try one.



It wasn't so bad and I even raced around the island a few times. Kayaks are really quite sturdy as it turns out.




We feel so blessed to have this awesome lake right at our house where we can go any time. How is it that God can be this good?

TOMORROW'S MY BIRTHDAY!!! Yippee!!!!

The Best 4th of July Ever!!!

See that rockin flag cake right there? Yeah it tasted as delicious as it looks. Kathryn made it for our 4th of July cookout we had at my mom's house. Kathryn, Peter, and I spent most of the time down at the big pond, swimming and canoeing. Chaos came with us too and he had the best time swimming across it, since he just recently realized he could swim! He wanted to be right where we were the whole time so he'd swim right out to the middle of the pond to hang out with us. I was worried that he didn't have the stamina to make it all the way there and back cuz the pond is really big (more like a small lake), but it ended up not being a problem at all. There's an island in the middle of the pond that he liked to swim to.


Peter and I put Baxter the basset hound and Chaos in the canoe with us and took them for a ride. They weren't sure about it at first, but then they decided they really liked it because EVERY time somebody would go out in the canoe, one of them wanted to get in too!

This is my favorite picture because it's so symmetrical. Even the dogs' heads sticking out of the sides of the canoe! And Kathryn just looks so funny hanging on the nose of the canoe with her feet sticking up.


The dogs appeared to like it so much, we decided to stick them in the canoe by themselves. They weren't so sure how to use the oars though, what with the lack of opposable thumbs and all. It's a big problem.

A bunch of other people who came to the cookout came down to canoe with us too! Once Kathryn and I were riding with Lane, a really smart third grader. In his brilliance, he decided it would be a great idea to see if he could flip the canoe over. Fortunately Kathryn and I had cat-like reflexes and we were able to counter balance the canoe, but he came close!

The food was delicious, especially the watermelon! Yes, Katie, SWEET, JUICY WATERMELON! So scrumptious, I ate two heaping plates full of it! We played Bocce too, that game with the heavy balls and you have to try to throw your heavy ball next to the little white ball. At night we set off fireworks and watched them! If the 4th of July was always like this, I wish it would come every month!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!

Happy 4th of July everybody! I had something cool happen today that I'm excited about! I was really tempted today by this one sin I've been struggling with. As I saw the temptation happening, I started praying, but even that didn't really help. Finally in a last attempt at getting that sin out of my mind, I grabbed the last weapon I had - the bible. I opened it to Luke 8 and started reading. It was the section about the four seeds, each planted on a different kind of ground. I got to verse 14: "The seed that fell among the thorny weeds is like those who hear God's teaching, but they let the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life keep them from growing and producing good fruit." I shouted out, "DANG IT!! I AM NOT A THORNY WEED!" And then I laughed cuz that sounded funny. But it worked! Immediately the temptation disappeared from my mind!

Man, we had an unbelievable 4th of July too! Probably the best one ever! Pictures and details to come tomorrow! Use the weapons God gave us everybody! They're powerful beyond measure!

wet, wet dog

Okay Chaos is an official retriever now! He always has been like 3/4 retriever because he does everything like a retriever EXCEPT swim. He likes the water but he usually only wades in it. He never does the full-on swim deal. Well last night Peter and I took him to Walnut Creek Park to play disc golf (which I found out is absolutely NOT my sport, but still fun). Peter was doing really well and almost got two aces (holes in one). But on the last hole, which happens to be over a long spread of water, his disc unexpectedly took a left dive right in to the lake. Of course it was his favorite disc so he took off his shoes and socks and went swimming after it. Chaos jumped in after him and started swimming too! Well from that point on, we couldn't keep the dog out of the water! As soon as he would climb out on to the bank, he'd turn around and leap right back in again! I was so proud of him! He's an official dog now!

I took him back to play disc golf again today and he leaped right in to the water! When we got home, I gave him a bath to get rid of the icky lake water smell. So now he smells like bananas and coconuts. Well in a wet dog sort of way.

White Oak Canyon

Yesterday my friend, Peter, and I took Chaos hiking at White Oak Canyon near Old Rag. We hiked straight up White Oak trail along the waterfalls and saw incredible views. From the trail head to the Upper Falls, it's a 2,650 elevation difference. Then we looped around and went down Cedar Run Trail. White Oak has 3 really beautiful waterfalls. Cedar Run has many smaller waterfalls, but you can actually go in them and climb up them. The whole loop is 8.2 miles.


Peter freaked us out by jumping over waterfalls, gaps, and in to pools of water.






Chaos swam in every pool of water he could find. He loved every minute of it. The water was a little cold, but it felt good after hiking straight up almost 3,000 feet.




The waterfalls are so beautiful and were a lot of fun to climb on. Peter absolutely loves nature and outdoors and sees God's creative hand holding all life. He's a Christian who is in love with our glorious God and desperately wants to live a life that is pleasing to Him. As we were eating lunch over a beautiful part of a waterfall, he looked around and said, "You know what blows me away the most? That all of this is sin-stained. Can you imagine what the nature in heaven is going to look like?" I had never thought of that before...that even the most beautiful views here are stained and tainted by sin. How much more beautiful will it look in God's perfect, eternal kingdom?








On the way down Cedar Run Trail, there's a natural water slide that's about 40 feet long. The rock is super smooth. It doesn't even feel like you're sliding down rock. The pool at the bottom is really deep - I couldn't even touch the bottom. The slide was so fast, so fun! We went down like 15 times.


It was such a perfect day. Chaos was completely exhausted afterwards. He slept so soundly last night. In fact he usually wakes up by 6 AM and wants to go outside. But this morning, he didn't wake up until 8:30! Hopefully we can go hiking again this week!