Well, this past Saturday, my Dad and I went to another big model rocket day at Buder Park. We had a lot of fun and the weather was just about perfect. Gideon, Elsie and Mom had a garage sale with my Uncle Mark and Aunt Missy on Saturday while we were busy with the rest of the guys from our Rocket Club. There were also a whole bunch of really cool model airplanes being flown at the park that day, too. We had a good time watching them when we weren’t busy with our own launches.
Dad ended up losing part of one of his cool rockets in a tree, but it was really cool to see. We are going to try and get a replacement for it before our next big launch day. I got to prepare and launch about 10 rockets if you add up all of them. I am really enjoying learning about model rocketry and getting some time to hang out with my Dad by myself, too. Gideon is still too little to be able to go to our Rocket Club events.
I am looking forward to another fun Rocket Adventure on October 6th when Dad and I are driving up to Elsberry, Missouri for another Rocket Club launch day. It’s going to be so.. cool because that is where the guys launch the really big ones! I will be sure to have my Dad take some pictures and maybe a video to post on my blog at our next rocket launch, too.
This past weekend was really fun! It started with Gideon and I getting to spend the night at Rupie’s house on Friday. Saturday morning, Grandma Nanie, brought us donut holes for breakfast, too.
Mom, Dad and Elsie picked us up from Rupie’s house around 11am and then we went home for a little while so that Mom could pack us a picnic lunch. Once she was done packing all the stuff to make sandwiches and some of my favorite chips, too.. we all loaded into to the van and drove down to a neat little park by the Mississippi River to have lunch and play for a little while. We all had a great time at lunch and got to play on the equipment for a few minutes, too. Dad even took Elsie down the twisty slide on his lap! She didn’t cry, but she had a very surprised look on her face.
After lunch we got back in the van and drove over the levee to Alton’s Riverfront Park to tour the LST 325 that was docked in Alton for the weekend. It was really cool and really big! Dad, Mom and I had toured it when I was 4 years old when it was in St. Louis docked by the Arch. I don’t really remember very much about seeing it before and since Mom was pregnant with Gideon the last time we saw the ship, he certainly didn’t remember it either.
As you can see from some of the neat pictures that my Dad took while we toured the LST 325, it is a big boat. I was really impressed by how the technology seemed pretty advanced for way back then. The sleeping compartments were really small. I am glad that I don’t have to sleep in bunks that are that close together. Gideon’s favorite part was seeing the guns. There was a veteran touring the boat right behind us and he talked to my Dad and some other folks about his experience using guns like them when he was in the service.
Mom and Dad bought me a neat “Gator Navy” t-shirt. I wore it to school on Monday and everyone thought that it was really cool.
The story about the LST 325 is really cool. You can learn more about it at http://lstmemorial.org
I had a three day weekend since yesterday was Labor Day and it was packed with lots of fun. Friday night we went to my Cousin Taylor’s 2nd birthday party. It wasn’t a lot of fun for me, cuz Taylor is a girl and she’s 2! But enough said about that. ;)
Saturday we went to the Children’s Library and got some more books. Gideon and I played with the foam building blocks for a little while before we had to get home and eat lunch. After lunch, Dad went to a Postcard Show in Collinsville while we stayed home with Mom and Elsie. Elsie took a long nap and Mom helped Gideon and I get our room more organized. She had been telling everyone that it looked like a tornado hit our room–thanks to her help on Saturday it’s starting to look a lot better now. (yeah right!)
Saturday evening was a lot of fun!! Grandma Joanne came over to our house around 5pm and we all got in our van to go to the big Homecoming Celebration in Bethalto, IL. They have carnival rides and booths with all sorts of stuff there. This was the 4th or 5th year that we’ve gone to the Homecoming with Grandma. My favorite part is getting to do the Bumper Cars with Dad. This year we rode them twice and I got to drive my own car both times. Gideon and I also rode on the kiddie Helicopters, kiddie boats and the Dragon roller coaster(also for kids) together. We all had a lot of fun and the weather was nice and cool, too. Elsie was awake for the whole thing, but was content to ride along in her stroller and take in all the neat colors. After we were done with all our tickets we headed back to the van and decided to go out for dinner at El Mezcal, one of our favorite mexican places.
Yesterday was Labor Day which meant a day off of school for me and a day home from work for Dad. Dad surprised me with a mini-digital camera of my very own when I came downstairs for the day. It is really cool and I have started taking some pictures with it, too. I am hoping to have his help in posting a few of the pictures that I took using my new toy.
At lunchtime we all headed over to my Grandparent’s house for a big Labor Day cookout with my Mom’s side of the family. Dad took care of the grilling for us again this year. We had hamburgers, hotdogs, pork chops and chicken tenders. Everything was really yummy and Mom sent some of the leftover chicken tenders in my lunch today, too. Gideon, Taylor, Uncle Mark and I all went swimming together for the last time this summer at Grandma and Grandpa’s yesterday afternoon. We all had a lot of fun splashing each other. It was more fun once Taylor got out of the pool though because Uncle Mark and I could rough-house a little more.
Gideon started Preschool today and says that it was “really tool”(he means really cool). They got to paint people and they played outside on the playground for a little while, too. Mom took lots of pictures of him this morning so that Dad could see how his first few moments of being a big preschool kid went.
After I came home from school today my Mom found a woolly worm in the backyard when she was taking our dog outside. She brought it in on her finger and let Gideon and I look at it and we both touched it, too.
The woolly worm felt kinda weird and fuzzy. Gideon wasn’t sure about touching it at first, but then he got brave and did. He says that it felt “um, trazy.. it feels like my stuffed twitters… it’s a weird fuzzy thingy”. Mom took some pictures of the little guy after she put him in a container of potted petunias on the back porch. We are hoping that it will stay in the potted flowers and we will be able to watch what it changes into.
White Paw, one of our crazy porch cats, was “helping” Mom with the picture taking and she took a couple pictures of him, too. My favorite is the one of him upside down!
Tonight we are going to an Ice Cream Social at the preschool that Gideon will be going to start at next Tuesday. I went there for two years and really liked it. I think that he is excited about being a big boy and going to school. After the thing at preschool we are headed to Wednesday night Bible study at Vaughn Hill.
This morning was pretty cool!! Dad got Gideon & I up in the middle of the night to drive across the Mississippi river to see the lunar eclipse from the Wetlands area.
At first I was a little aggravated to be up so early, but after we got over to the wetlands and saw the eclipse I thought that it was definitely worth it. The eclipse was interesting because the light on the moon seemed to be moving up and down. It is actually kind of hard to explain exactly what I saw without being there in person to witness it. Dad is going to post some pictures of it for me and maybe that will help with my explanation.
After we finished watching the eclipse, we got back in the van and went home and went back to sleep for a few more hours. Mom and Elsie were still sound asleep and didn’t know that we had gone on our little adventure until we all got up this morning. Gideon really thought that it was cool, too. All day long he has been telling everyone about seeing the “moon up in space” and the “eclipsing moon”.
Well, I started my second week of third grade today. I really like the teacher that I have this year and I think that it will be lots of fun in her class. One of my best friends, Deep, is in my class again this year.. so that’s pretty cool.
Third grade is harder than second grade was, but Mom keeps telling me to stay positive and decide to do well and I will. Tonight I had a lot of homework. Mom helped me work through it and I got it done pretty quickly. I had 14 spelling words to write 3 times each, a reading page with questions to answer and a math practice page, too.
I am looking forward to doing lots of science projects and reading Accelerated Reader books and working on the computers in our classroom this year, too. Ms. Colley lets her students do a lot of cool stuff.
Over the weekend we had a big garage sale at my Grandparent’s house. Gideon and I sold canned sodas and bottled water. Together, we made $16.00 with our drink stand(Uncle Mark and Aunt Rupie gave us extra money to boost our sales total). We are going to have another sale with Uncle Mark and Aunt Missy in a few weeks, too. Mom is selling all of the baby boy’s stuff that she had been saving since I was a little kid. Since Elsie is a girl, she doesn’t need to save all the boy stuff anymore.
Sunday morning we all got up early and drove up to Hardin, Illinois so that Dad could preach at the Indian Creek church of Christ. He preaches up there every few months and we all enjoy going with him for Bible study and Worship. The people there area really nice and we went out to lunch with some of our friends from there, too.
Also over the weekend, we got to visit with our Cousin Patty who lives in Queen Creek, Arizona-not very far away from where Grandpa Roger lives in Mesa. She was in Illinois visiting some of her Aunts and Cousins this past couple of weeks. We all went to Uncle Mark’s house for a while in the afternoon and then we went out to dinner together, too.
The library end of summer party was a cuple of nights ago. I enjoyed listeing to Shanta the african - american story-teller I coud tell a few but of cource then I woud still be here at midnight tipeing but she has some good ones.
On Friday.. hold onto your chair, I(Gideon & Dad, too)got to see WALKING WITH DINOSAURS at the Scottrade Center. We ate dinner at Union Station, then we walked back to the Scottrade Center to see the show.
My Great Aunt Ruth(or Rupie as we call her) bought tickets for the three of us to go to the show. When we got there and started looking for our seats, they told us that we had to go to customer service to get new tickets because the upper level where our seats were supposed to be was closed for the evening. Evidentally they had made the tickets so.. expensive that they didn’t sell out for the night, so we got closer seats when they gave us our new tickets!
It was really loud and I plugged my ears for part of it, but it was super COOL! My favorite part of the show was when the Platosaurus and the Linstisises(an egg eating dinosaur from the first triasic period) fought each other. It was a lot of fun to watch. Gideon thought it was cool, too. His favorite part was when the baby T-Rex came out and roared at the crowd.
Dad let us get a cool program from the show, too. It has color pictures of all the dinosaurs in the show and also shows some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. But you don’t have to take my word for it… take a look at some of the video that Dad took when we were there!
I have had a busy summer so far: going to Camp NeoTez, Summer Science Program, swimming, going to Vacation Bible School and playing Bionicles. I have also been reading a whole bunch!
This is the 4th summer that I have participated in the Summer Reading Program through the Hayner Library in Alton. This year’s theme is “Mission: Read”–since I like space stuff, I think it’s pretty cool. So far I have read over 50 hours! I was also the 2nd kid to get my name on the “Wall of Fame” at the Children’s library–to get your name on the wall you have to read 30 hours. Next week is the big end of summer party and I will get to pick out a brand new book from my age group as one of the prizes for being in the program. They also have drawings during the party—a couple of years ago, Dad & I got tickets to see the Gateway Grizzlies baseball team. They have neat prizes you get to choose from–Target gift cards, Cardinals baseball tickets, books & other cool stuff.
Today I am going to St. Louis Mills to shop and play in the indoor playground with Mom, Gideon, Elsie, Grandma Nanie, Aunt Missy, Cousin Taylor & Cousin Gabby. We are going to have lunch with Dad today, too. He only works about 5 minutes from there.
Tonight is our Vacation Bible School carnival & cookout at church. I have had a lot of fun at VBS this week. I also memorized a new Bible verse every night, too. Tonight at the big VBS carnival, my class gets to do a skit for everyone. Gideon’s class is doing something special, too. Our lessons were based on the parables of Jesus. My favorite lesson this week was about the Good Samaritan. It was pretty cool last night– Gideon got up in front of everyone in the auditorium and said his memory verse for the week “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.” He is the only kid in the 2 & 3 year old class that memorized it!
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.
Yesterday was Labor Day which meant a day off of school for me and a day home from work for Dad. Dad surprised me with a mini-digital camera of my very own when I came downstairs for the day. It is really cool and I have started taking some pictures with it, too. I am hoping to have his help in posting a few of the pictures that I took using my new toy.