Isaiah’s Blog!

This past Saturday was my third trip to the St. Louis Zoo this summer. Mom packed a picnic lunch for all of us and we had a picnic under the shade of a huge tree by the St. Louis Art Museum. After lunch, Dad and I put the picnic stuff back in the van and we all walked down the hill to the zoo.
It was Elsie’s first ever visit to the zoo and she ended up sleeping through the whole thing! Gideon and I had a good time checking out the animals. There was a huge line to get in to see the humboldt penguins and puffin exhibit, so we decided to circle back to go through it later in the afternoon. Several of the bears were out and the polar bear was really active. He walked around a lot and jumped in his pool and swam some, too.
After checking out the bears Gideon and I got to go for a ride on the carousel–Gideon rode on a penguin with Dad’s help and I rode on a warthog. Mom and Elsie watched and took a picture of us when the ride was over.
There were a lot of people at the zoo on Saturday, but there were also lots of animals that were out and active, too.
One of my most favorite parts was getting to go through the herpetarium and seeing all the cool reptiles. Some stupid people were throwing change at the caymans–even though there was a big sign saying not to throw any money or trash in their exhibit. It made me really mad that they were mistreating them and not obeying the rules. Gideon enjoyed checking out the reptiles, too. His favorite was probably the turtles because he really likes turtles.
We also went to the primate house. Mom said that it was smelly, but I told her that I kinda liked the way that it smelled in there. After that we headed to big cat country and we got to see the two new lions–they were sound asleep in their cave(so were the snow leopard, puma and red pandas, too). Just as we got to the tiger’s exhibit the keeper was bringing him back outside, so that was pretty cool to get to see him walking around. He mostly stayed in the shade though.
By the time that we made it back around to the penguins and puffins, the line was much shorter and we only ended up waiting about 10 minutes to go inside to see them. They were really neat to watch and Dad took some neat video clips of the puffins showing off in the water, too. We stayed there for a little while and then we headed to the Riverwalk exhibit to try and see the baby cheetahs and the new baby elephants.
By the time we were done at the zoo, we were all pretty tired but we had a great time together as a family.

Saturday morning our adventure started super early! We all got up, dressed and loaded into the van by 6:10am to be able to meet the rest of the guys from the Rocket Club outside the gates to Scott Air Force Base at a few minutes after 7am. Mom & Dad were surprised at our cooperation in getting going and the fact that we made it in plenty of time to meet everyone and get our special passes to enter the base early. Mom, Gideon & Elsie dropped us off with the guys and went to get some donuts to kill some time before they opened the gates to the public at 8:30am.
Dad and I rode onto base with a cool college guy from our club. He had a really slick looking truck, the interior of it was black leather! Once we got there we helped set-up the tents for the Rocket Club’s exhibit and and then walked out into the big field to set-up for the launch of some huge model rockets. We had to be pretty far out in the field to set things up because of how flammable the jet engine fuel is on all the big planes that were at the air show.
It was fun even though it was super sonic hot outside and we didn’t take any bottled water in with us when we went early to set things up. Mom, Gideon & Elsie joined us once the gates opened and they made it through the security checkpoint. Mom had plenty of bottled water with her in Elsie’s stroller so we were very thankful for that.
Gideon & I got to check out a few of the big planes while we waited for Dad to join us again (he was still helping with the model rockets). We also got coloring books and plastic fire hats from the Scott Air Force Base Firefighters tent. My hat was red & Gideon picked his favorite color, blue. When we were leaving we got another coloring book & a white hat for our Cousin Gryffin.
Once Dad joined us again, we stopped to check out a JPATS plane with him and he talked to the pilots for a little while. Dad worked on the visual databases for some JPATS flight simulators a couple of years ago, so it was cool to see one of the real planes up close. After that we walked over to a huge hanger and got to see a B2 Stealth Bomber. It was very cool & very big! Dad took a bunch of pictures of it. I must say that the B2 was my most favorite of all the airplanes that we saw at the show this year.
After leaving the Air Show around 11:30am we stopped at a shopping center on the way to my Aunt Robin’s house. We ate lunch at a Chick-fil-A in the food court—one of our favorite places to eat! Once we got to my Aunt’s house Gideon, Gryffin & I hung out in their family room and watched Over the Hedge and some old Spiderman cartoons on Uncle Mike’s new 55 inch big screen tv. That was very cool!! Dad helped Uncle Mike move a bunch of stuff from their old house to the new one (lucky for them the old house is right next door!).
Saturday was a long day, but we all had a lot of fun and I really had a good time hanging out with Dad and the other guys from our Rocket Club. Next year.. we’re taking bottled water with us when we go early to set things up!

Today was the last day of the Summer Science Program. I’ve had a lot of fun going to the classes and on the field trips to the zoo. We had an Open House today and parents got to come eat lunch with us and then we all went around to some of the classrooms to do science projects together. Mom, Elsie & Grandma Nanie came to eat with me & go to the Open House. Gideon & Grandpa didn’t feel good today, so they stayed at home. We had pretzels filled with pizza toppings for lunch—yummy!
The first class that we went to was really cool! We took used film containers, filled them half way with water, dropped in an Alka Seltzer tablet & then put the lid on really tight. After a couple minutes… POW! The lids flew off the containers like little rockets. Mom says that we can do that experiment at home, too.
The second station we went to was downstairs in the cafeteria. They gave us a big baggie full of ice with salt in it and a smaller baggie with some stuff I can’t remember & vanilla extract. We put the little bag inside the bigger one and shook them up really well. The end result was homeade ice cream… mine was pretty runny, but it tasted good.
The last class that we went to was back upstairs. That is where we made UV Bracelets. The beads are white when you are inside, but then when they come into contact with UV rays from the sunshine outside, they turn really intense colors.
After that we went back to our regular classrooms and collected our projects that we have been doing the past three weeks and said thank you & good bye to our teacher.
This afternoon I got to go swimming in my Grandma & Grandpa’s pool again. It was a lot of fun and I even got to help my Grandma Nanie use the net to clean all the leaves and stuff out of the water, too.

Ahh! An asteroid just hit the ship! There is a hole in the ship! There is a hole in the ship! What are we going to do? Calm down everyone, everything is going to be okay. I am going to go out & fix the hole so that we can finish our journey to Planet X. It’s a good thing I just finished covering up the hole because Planet X is in sight!
CRASH!! We just crash landed! Ok, let’s all get out of the ship & try to calm down a little bit. Wow, what was that thing that just moved in that bush over there? It was so colorful, I want to go check out what it is. Ouch! What just stung me? GRRrrowl!! Run everybody! Run for your lives!!
Hey, there’s another creature that is even more colorful. ZZzzapp! Ouch! GGrrowl! Look at that thing! It’s got a whip. RUN!! Now what do we do Big Brains? We’re lost on Planet X in a huge jungle with monsters that are hunting us & want to eat us for dinner.
Don’t call me Big Brains you Numbskull! I got us here & I am gonna get us off of this crazy planet, too. PSSHHOO!! The ship just exploded!! Look over there! Oh no, now we’re surrounded by hungry monsters! Ahh! The whip has got me… I am suspended in mid-air by the whip & can’t get loose! I am having trouble breathing as it tightens around me… Fire your guns, men! ARRRRRRRGAAAAAACKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!auuug! hey thanks for making him let go dude!less talk more walk! they might be down but they certleny not out!

Friday night was pretty cool, Mom took Gideon & I to Jamestown Mall in Missouri to meet Dad after he got off of work early. Dad took us to the movie theater to see “Ratatouille” on it’s opening day! It was a great movie and I would give it a 10 star rating for family friendliness and ultimate comedy power. Gideon really liked it, too. Mom & Elsie stayed home because Elsie was too little to go to the theater with us. So, it was Boys Night at the Movies!
Saturday we got up early and drove to Uncle Mike and Aunt Robin’s in Belleville to help them move into their new house. Aunt Robin made some awesome homeade(all the way from scratch!) cinnamin rolls for us to eat before we started working. Gideon & I played with Cousin Gryffin and watched movies. Aunt Robin ordered Papa John’s pizza for lunch and then Uncle Mike treated us all to ice cream at the White Cottage Ice Cream Shop that is just around the corner from their house(we got to walk there!). Gideon, Gryffin & I all got to play a neat race car video game there, too. Later in the afternoon Uncle Mike set up his new big screen tv in their family room. After helping them with their house, we went to Hobby Lobby in Fairview Heights to look at rockets & motors for rockets. Dad & I found some cool ones & we bought them.
Sunday afternoon Dad & I(with some “help” from Gideon) worked on constructing our new rockets. We got everything done except for painting them & once we get that done they will be ready to launch!
Today.. I had my next to last Science Program Class and we got to use the insects that we collected last week & brought into our teachers to make a diorama! I captured two japenese beetles last week & refrigerated them to make sure that they were dead & for some crazy reason, both of them were still alive!! We had to bring in a total of 6 insects for our project & I had more than enough to complete it without the goofy mutant beetles. I think that maybe they are “Teenage Mutant Ninja Beetles”!! Thursday is my last day of the Science Program & our dioramas will be on display for parents & grandparents to check out at the Ice Cream Social at the end of the day. I’ve really had a good time being a part of the Summer Science Program this year, it was really fun & I hope that I will be invited to be a part of it again next year, too.