Terracotta Warriors

Today, Mom and I went with Andrea, Barbara, Andy and Elliot to The Pacific Science Center to see a movie about the First Emperor of China and the Terracotta Warriors. 

 They were really cool.  Each one has a different face.  They also have different jobs depending on how they are dressed.

 They even had horses!

 This exhibit did have some interactive parts.  Here we could build different kinds of warriors.  Andy and I tried our hand at creating something.....

 but Elliot (Andy's older brother) won with this creation below.

 I really liked this suit of armor-it's made out of stone and 2,200 years old!

 In this room, we got to see what the terracotta warriors looked like way back in 200 BC.  All painted.  They were really neat!

 There were several other inter active displays.  My favorite one was on the First Emperor, Qin's  (pronounced Chin) battle strategies.  I found military strategies to be fascinating, and then this little girl came along and pulled the plug.  The program needed to be reset by an employee.  Uhg, silly girl.  The activity below, Andy and I were archaeologists re constructing a warrior's head.

 Archaeologists have realized that this dig is HUGE, and since it's discovery in 1974, they realize that Emperor Qin's tomb is buried nearby in a 10 story under ground palace.  Archaeologists have not tried digging up the tomb, until they can find a way not to damage the artifacts.  His tomb is supposed to have unknown treasures with his sarcophagus surrounded by a river or mercury!  The museum tried to depict it below.

Then we moved into the main part of the museum.  Andy, Elliot and I got into this hurricane machine.

 Then we moved on to the tinkering station where we worked on electronics.  I'm hooking stuff up to a battery.

 This was all in the shadow of the Space Needle.  A man named Colin helped us.

 We had a really good day.

Yellow Belt

I finally earned a color belt in Hapkido!  I am so happy.

 I was so excited  I put it on!

 Grand Master Kim and I!

Crystal Mountain Again

I have a whole week off for Mid-Winter Break and Mom took me skiing today!  We went back, just the two of us, so Mom could focus just on me.  I like to ski slow and controlled.  We got there early, so I had some tea and Mom a coffee.

At 9:00 am when the chairlifts opened, we got out there.

 The scenery is amazing!  Nothing like the Cascades for some awesome views.

 We skied until one o'clock, and I was tired.  We stopped because Mom wanted to end our afternoon on a high note.  Once we turned in our equipment, we rode the Gondola up to the top of the mountain.  I was excited to ride in one of these things.

 Unfortunately, Mount Rainier is right behind me.  The cloud is covering it.

 Mom and I took a selfie.

 We rode the gondola back down.

 I cannot ski these slopes yet, but maybe someday.

What has been going on in February

I haven't been going to a lot of school in February!  Last week the Seattle lowlands got snow and the Kent School District was closed for three whole days!  This was Monday, February 6th.

 During these pictures, we did not have power.  The snow was wet and heavy so a lot of power lines broke.  Fortunately, we got the power back on after 6 hours.  Everything was so quiet even though we live in a metropolitan area.  Even the plane traffic had stopped.

Mom shoveled the neighbors driveway across the street and took this picture of me.  Tuesday, February 7th, I planned to miss school anyway because I was going on a field trip with the Bridge School to visit KUOW, our local National Public Radio Station.

Dad came with us too!

We started out in the conference room, but we got the tour and we even saw people talk on the radio! Wednesday, February 8th, Andy Sabrina and I went swimming to at the Federal Community Center.  All the Federal Way kids were in school, so we only had to share the pool with a handful of other kids.  Here are Andy & Sabrina in the dry sauna.  I love to warm up in this room.

The three of us spent most of the time swimming the lazy river.  Back to school on February 9th.  This week, we only go to school for half days due to conferences.  Next week we are off because it is mid-winter break!  No school February!

Crystal Mountain

Yesterday, Tuesday, January 31 rst was a teacher workshop day, so my Mom took Andy & I skiing at Crystal Mountain.  She also invited Lana and Sabrina.  Crystal Mountain is right next door to Mt. Rainier National Park.  The day was kind of cloudy and we set out early to get to the mountain a little after 9:00 am.

 I was more nervous than my friends.  Sabrina had never skied before and Andy skied with me 4 years ago at Snoqualmie Pass, when were both in kindergarten at the Bridge School

 The clouds were low, or we were high....

 I managed to make it down ok.  All three kids did wipe out from time to time.  My Mom skied at the back to make sure that us kids made it down ok.

 Because we are in the Cascades, there are tons of fir trees dusted with snow.  It was really pretty.

 Here's Lana (pink hat), Sabrina & Andy.

 Sabrina was having trouble with the chair lifts.  Mom was able to help her.  Now she can ride them like she's been skiing for years.

 We had lunch in the chalet.

 We took an express chairlift up higher to ski more challenging green runs.  This chairlift was large enough for all of us.

 The clouds came in and it was a little eerie .

We stayed until the chairlifts stopped at 4 o'clock.  We were all tired, but had a really good day.  I told Mom that I wanted to go back.