Over the Mountains-Day 3

 Thursday morning we woke up and drove went to the Wild Horse Wind Farm outside Ellensburg. Wild Horse is owned by Puget Sound Energy.

 The visitercenter was high on top of a ridge of which you could see Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood.

I'm not sure why it's called wild horse because it has tons of cows.

 Here's my class and some of their Mom's.

This is me standing at the base of one of the windmill blades.

Afterwards, our tour guide, Caleb, took us into one of the windmills.  This one to be more precise.

The interior at the base was a 16' room with a really tall ladder, secured by magnets.  We could not see tot he top because of the landings.  These windmills are taller than the Statue of Liberty.

After the wind farm, the class drove out to the Ginko State Park which has a petrified Forest.

I am standing on a petrified log.  Teacher Andrea got the interpretive center open for us.  We were able to get move information on how the trees were petrified and how the site was discovered in the 1930's and turned into a State Park.

We were right next to the Columbia River.

We also saw some ancient native American petroglyphs.  It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon and I was done.  I asked Mom if we could drive home.  We made it back to our house at 4:30 pm.  I really enjoyed this 3 day field trip, but I was happy to be home.

Blue Belt!

I joined the Black Belt Club last October and I have seen a lot of personal improvement in those karate skills.  Sensei must have thought so too because I tested for my blue belt (beginning of the intermediate belts) last Saturday.  I got my belt last night.  I am happy to have it.  I will have it for awhile, since there are two levels to blue.

Presently, I am still the youngest kid in the Black Belt Club and I am looking forward to continue training 3 times a week.  Yesterday, we got to break boards for the first time.  This was a lot of fun!

This video is from the end of the test.

Pompeii-the exhibit

Mom and I have been wanting to go to this exhibit since it came to Seattle.  We read about Pompeii last fall, which was all inspired by the pop song "Pompeii" by Bastille.  We ended up going with Andrea, Andy and Elliot, since they are members of the Pacific Science Center.  Andrea, Andy and Elliot saw this exhibit last month, so Mom and I just went through it together, while they went to the IMAX theatre.

 They let us in in groups, so we had to wait for 10 minutes to get in after our time. 

Not the most flattering picture....Mom had to turn off the flash.  Finally!  we were in.

Statues, house gods and frescoes!

 Fountain

more frescoes....

 Axe head

huge urns for olive oil!

My favorite piece, a 2,000 year old green glass bowl.

This carving had to do with theatre.

Gladiator stuff.

Now we get to the ominous part of the exhibit, the day of and after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

This is what the city could have looked like just after it was buried in ash.

They had some body casts from the real Pompeii.

So, in western Washington, we have 5 volcanoes close by, could Pompeii happen to us?  It looks like Tacoma is going to get it.  Since we are north of there, we should be fine!

First Power Point-The Fourteenth Goldfish

Our class participated in choosing the next Newberry Award Book.  There were seven books up for the award. The kids in our class decided which of the books we were going to read.  I read The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm.  Mom and I read the book together over Winter Break. 

 Our teacher, Andrea wanted us each to write a report on our chosen book to try and convince the rest of the class to read it.  I decided to present my book with a power point.  Unfortunately, you cannot see the slides very well in Mom's recording.

Theo Chocolate Factory in Fremont

The Bridge School went on a field trip to a local chocolate factory in Seattle.  Mom drove me and Aivlyn & Finley.  The parents had to find street parking and we all met at the factory entrance.

 (I am in the red coat with camo pants.)

 There were dinosaur bushes on the other side of the street.

Once inside, we had to wait for the tour guide.

Everyone on the tour had to wear a hair net.

Even Mom!

Once the tour started, we learn about chocolate trees and where they grow.  We got to taste chocolate.  I could only taste the dark chocolate (dairy allergy), and frankly, I thought it was horrible.  Mom liked it though.

AFter our talk, we got to go into the factory.  Everything was working, The roasting machine, grinding, sugar adding etc......

We ended up in Theo's shop, I didn't want a thing yuck!

My classmates seemed really happy.

Wrapping Up 2014!

December flew by!  But here, are some of my highlights.

 Mom finished my Christmas Eve Vest.  She designed it around Sandra Jaeger's pattern of "Santa with Reindeer".  I described to Mom a quite village, snow, full moon, Santa, Mom did the rest.

 She even put a red nose on Rudolph!

 Karate has been fun!  Andy, Tyler, Elliot and I were waiting for our class.  I have learned a lot being in Black Belt Club.  Sensei told me that my sparring has improved in the last two months!

 On December 18th, I went home with my friends, Sylas & Tazmin.  I got to hold their snake!

 Christmas was quiet, but good.  I got some lego sets (The new Minecraft ones are super cool!), some books, and a tablet.

 It was good!  I am happy!

 Here is Mom's yule log, it was made of wheat.  We had all four grandparents over for dinner.

 We had a second Christmas at Aunt Megan's on the 26th.  That was fun too.  I got to play with Paxton ans Maddox.

2014 has been a really good year.

Snow in November!

 It snowed here, in the Seattle area on Saturday morning!  Mom and I got out (after she had a cup of coffee) to play in it and build a snowman.

There wasn't a lot of snow, just enough to cover the grass.  Mom made some great snow balls bur couldn't get a snowman going.  Oh well.

The dogs came with us.

After about 20 minutes the winds picked up and I was ready to head back inside!