October 28

My family went on a trip out east last week. We went to Hershey park, Washington DC, and Gettysburg. It was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of our vacation.

We went to a wax museum and had fun posing with some of the people who were there :)

I liked this guy because he was short :)

These are some pictures from Gettysburg.

My dad locked the keys in our car... so this is what we had to do to get in it (after a special car guy came and tried to get in it for 45 minutes...) 

Such a fun place! 

September 13

Okay, I know it's been a long time since I've updated but school has seriously been keeping me SO busy. I get so much homework every night, and I also do the musical so I have had no time to update this! Anyway, I'll fill you in on just what's been going on in our lives these past couple weeks.
My dad went to New York! He got to go to the MTV awards and everything! So that was pretty cool that he got to go there.
Nathan, Emily, and I started up school a little bit ago. We all love school and it's going really well.
I actually got my license a couple days ago, so that's pretty exciting! I had to take a road test, and that was probably the most scariest thing I've done in my life. The instructor sits there in the car with you and watches your every move. I was shaking the whole time, but I managed to get through it without having any points taken off! The first day I drove my brother to school, he actually got into the back seat of the car because he thought we were gonna get pulled over because I "look too short to be driving." I made him sit in the front seat(:

Anyway, everything's going pretty well here!

July 24

I had an amazing birthday today! I started it off with teaching kindergartners at VBS, and honestly there is no better way that I would want to start off my birthday! I love being around kids. Later in the day I was brought to my Aunts house for a surprise party that my dad planned for me.

July 18

We went camping last week with my moms side of the family, so that was a lot of fun. While we were sitting at the beach I wrote a short little poem, so here it is. 

I've seen a lot of pain

and I have shed lots of tears

but I've seen beauty

that overcomes all my fears

although there is pain in this world

God finds ways to take that pain away

He cares for us way too much

to let us fall astray. 

Next week is VBS! I'm leading a class of Kindergartner's with my friend. It's also my birthday on Wednesday! I'll be turning 16 so I could get my drivers license but I still need to get 18 more hours in of driving sooo, I don't think that will be happening(: 

July 7

We just got back from camping today with the small group, it was a lot of fun! I could seriously just go camp for the whole summer. I love it. However, I could do without the misquotes. I counted 52 misquote bites today, and I'm really hoping I don't have poison ivy again! When we were camping we went through bike trails, went to the beach, and sat around the camp fire. It was really fun. Oh, and I have to mention my amazing experience of carrying a 22 pound bag of ice back to our camp sight from the camp office. So, my dad sent me down to get some ice with my brother and a couple of our friends there. The ice was held at the check-in office of the camp, so it was a trip up there. We rode our bikes and didn't really think about how we were going to get the ice back. I wasn't going to walk the ice back and come back for my bike... that would have taken wayyy too long. So, I set the ice on my bike handle bars so that the front side of the ice was sticking over my handle bars and the back end of the ice was sticking out towards me. I bit the end of the ice with my teeth so that it would stay and then rode off like that. It worked really well! And, one of the camp rangers saw me and told me that I had talent. Sooo yeah. that was fun.
We leave again for camping on Thursday with our family, so we're all really looking forward to that!

Wednesday, June 26

Relay for Life went really good! I ended up staying up until 5:00am and I walked 16 miles and a quarter! I walked a mile more than last year. This summer has been great so far, we've all been keeping busy. We have a couple camping trips coming up that we're really looking forward to.

I'll Walk for You

Tomorrow there is an event called Relay for Life. I blogged about it last year too, so it might sound familiar. It's where a lot of people gather at a high school track and walk around the track/raise money to find a cure for cancer. This is a poem that I wrote that relates a little bit to this event.

I'll walk for you

The last time we talked
I made a promise to you
I said that I'll walk to find a cure
if it's the last thing I do.
So this year; I'm going to walk
more than I ever have before
I wish you could walk with me though
There's nothing I'd want more.
I remember the last lap we walked together
your hand was in mine
I looked over at you
and everything was fine.
I miss you so much
sometimes I don't know what to do
even though you won't be with me this year
I'll walk for you.

summer!

Well, we made it! It's summer!  It went so fast! Next year Nathan (my brother) will be in 7th grade and Emily (my sister) will be in 3rd.
I hope everyone has a great summer and I'll try to update more often now that I have more free time.

Dutch Dance

Last week for Tulip Time, I dutch danced. I dutch danced a total of 17 times! It was a crazy week. I was going to update this blog last week but I could barely find the time to do my homework, so I didn't end up getting to it. I also do softball. I actually injured my ankle pretty badly a couple weeks ago. I was up to bat and the pitcher pitched the ball to me and it hit my ankle. Then, again in the next inning, I went up to bat again and I got hit in the same spot with the ball.  My ankle was so swollen, it was crazy! I had to wear this air cast for a while. I was out for a couple weeks but I just got to start playing again today! I'm not very good at softball but it's been a good experience playing on the team and I'm glad I did it!
Here are some pictures from dutch dancing.

Poems

Something new that I am going to start doing is posting one of my poems and one of my moms poems.
I won't do this very often, though. I'll probably do it once a month.


This is my moms poem:
Empty 

There's a  hole inside my heart
that some day God will fill.
There are many days I really wish
that time could just stand still.
Part of me doesn't want to live,
it only wants to die.
I get so very frustrated
and all I can do is cry.
It's not that I want to 'die'
I know that isn't the key;
life on earth can be so frustrating;
heaven is where I long to be.
We were made to live on earth
for just a little while.
The thought of entering heaven
always makes me smile
I'll keep going with this hole in my heart
and god's grace will see me through
I'll listen carefully for His voice
that will tell me what to do.

This is my poem.

Broken

Why is there so much pain in this world? 

How can we make it go away? 

Why does it feel like God is so distant?

God, please don’t let us fall astray 

We all need to recognize

that God is here

He will never let us go

He is always near

This pain in our life 

could be a sign

This pain could be telling us

That God wants us to shine

We need to use our pain

and turn it around 

God wants us to let people know

that good can be found. 

Even though there is brokenness in this world 

God has everything planned

He will hold us all up

In his majestic mighty hand. 

Spring Break

I went to Florida over spring break with my friend and her family, so here are some pictures!

I wanted to prove that I could have a little bit of energy at 4:30 in the morning :)

My dad got our family a new car when I was in Florida, and now I am able to drive this smaller car instead of our old van that is so big!