High School

I have decided to go to Arapahoe High School next year and my dad and I went to the first official gathering for the incoming freshmen on Monday. When we first got there, I was so excited. Then, Principal Booth gave a very nice speech that made me even more excited. He talked about some of the fun courses they have and all of the extra curricular stuff too.

Then, we picked six courses that we wanted to go visit for a few minutes and walked to where the class would be. First, we visited the World Languages class. I am taking Spanish 2 right now and absolutely LOVE it! I cannot wait to take Spanish in high school and am hoping to test into Spanish 3. I got to meet one of the teachers and she was very nice.

Then the bell rang and we headed off to Language Arts(English). I love English class right now, and this class looked like it would be a lot of fun also.

Next we went to Art. I am absolutely obsessed with art and I always have a drawing or doodle going. The teacher was very nice and made the class sound very fun and I thought I would also learn a lot from her.

For the fourth class, we went to Performing Arts. I have wanted to play flute in a high school band since I first started playing, so this was exciting. There were tons of different bands to choose from and I am now trying to decide which one to join. They also have numerous choirs that I would like to join. I have also fallen in love with acting ever since we got our new teacher, so I looked at the Drama program while I was there. I loved all of these and now have a new problem... Which classes am I going to take?!?!?! It's a good thing I have a while longer to decide that... whew!

Then we took a little detour to the clubs area. Don't even get me started on all of the clubs and sports they have to choose from! There was every kind of club anyone could ever think of and then some! They all had their own little tables and we went to the volleyball table, the art club table, the band table, and many others. I had fun on this detour!

Finally, we went over to science class. I love science too. The teacher was great and I instantly became interested.

After that, we were exhausted and were, thankfully, dismissed. We were both tired and extremely hungry by then. We grabbed some dinner and then headed home. It was a fun night and I learned a lot about Arapahoe!

Ski Masters

I am sorry I have not posted in a while, but I have been very busy lately. I was going to write this post last weekend, but I just didn’t have time.

I don't know if I have written about this already, but I am adopted. I know my birth family and see them fairly often. My birth mom's name is Kristina, which is what I call her, and she is remarried to Dan. They live pretty far away from us, so I only see them about 4-5 times a year, but that is a lot more than most adopted kids. They had two daughters together named Myla (7) and Alexa (4) and they are sooooo cute!

Confused yet? I know I would be if I were you. But hang in there with me... It’s about to get even more confusing...

My birth dad's name is Brian. He was remarried to Amy and they had two kids also. Their names are Chloe (8) and Drew (6) and they are also extremely adorable and sweet. Unfortunately, Brian and Amy divorced last summer, so now it is harder to be able to see Brian and Chloe and Drew all at the same time now, but we work it out. I see them much more often than I see Kristina and her family.

Anyways, now that I have explained the whole adoption thing to you, I can tell you about my weekend. Last Friday, I met Brian and his best friend since high school, Donny, up at the buffalo outlook area in the mountains. I said goodbye to my dad and got in the car with Brian and Donny. Chloe and Drew were spending the weekend at Amy's house, so they unfortunately could not join us this time. We drove up to Copper Mountain where we were going to ski. Once we got there, we met up with Blake, Brian's brother/ my uncle, and Eric, Brian and Blake’s dad, who I call Grandpa. We all put on our ski gear and got up on the ski lift.

This was the first time I had been skiing with any of them. It was a little nerve wrecking because they have been skiing since they were 4 and have skied every weekend since. I have to admit I’m a pretty good skier, but I have also been told that they are very good skiers.

When we got up to the top, we picked a trail called "Coppertopolis", a blue, and started down it. Since this was our first run of the day, we took it pretty easy so we could warm up. "Coppertopolis" led into another run, which none of us can ever remember the name of, and we took that the rest of the way down. It was an AMAZING run because there was basically no one on the run, the snow was perfect, and the view was absolutely gorgeous. I did a good job keeping up with them on that first run and I thought "well maybe I'll be okay today:) " I had no idea what I was in for. Once we got off the lift at the top again, we took off down the same trail as last time, and they were flying! I was thinking "DANG! I am in soooo much trouble!" They were zooming down the trails, going off little jumps and when they stopped, a huge cloud of snow would poof up around them. Sometimes, so much snow would come up that I couldn't see them because there was so much snow.

Then I realized that I was either going to have to gain some major skills very quickly, or be left behind in their clouds of snow. So, I decided to find some major skills, and it kind of worked. I watched their form, how they moved and used their knees, and then I got it! By the next run, I was flying down the mountain just as fast as they were! It was SOOOOOO cool and SOOOOOO much fun!!!! I had never had that much fun skiing before! After a few more runs, they couldn't loose me. (Haha)

Around 9:20, we met up with Brett, Brian's other brother/ my other uncle, and another guy, also named Brett, who is Brett's friend. (Are you confused now? 'Cause I sure was.) We all skied together and had an absolute blast!!!! I kept up with them, they gave me a couple tricks, and then I really kept up with them. It was so much fun!!!:)

Not only were they fun to ski with, but they were also just fun to be with... Sorry, that was kind of a cheesy rhyme... We were all cracking jokes or making funny faces the whole time, and I don’t think any of us went two minutes without laughing.

At lunch, Blake, Grandpa, and Donny had to leave :( We said goodbye to them, but Brett, Brett, Brian and I continued together. We did some more runs until about 3. By then we were all getting tired and decided that we better call it a day before any of us got hurt. I had SO much fun with them and they invited me to come up and ski with them again any weekend! :)

Cinderella Play

Last night, I was in my first real play and it was an AMAZING experience!!!! I have been in two other productions at my school, but this one was, in my mind, my first real play. In 6th and 7th grade, I was in the plays Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The reason I said that these did not really count was because we only did dances in those plays and none of us had any lines. Now we have a new drama teacher and he is the BEST!!!!! He is super funny and amazingly talented. With his help, we wrote our own plays based off of the fairytale, Cinderella. The 6th grade did this really cool interpretive dance play, the 7th grade did a play called Twinderella by Charlie Lovett and then we did our own versions of Cinderella.

I played the part of the stepmother in our skit we named Anything For Our New Princess. It was a funny skit where I was waiting on Cinderella because she was the new princess and then by the end of our skit, I poisoned both of the step sisters and Cinderella and took the throne. It was a very funny comedy and we had the whole school laughing! I had a wonderful time and I am now considering participating in the theater in high school next year! :)

Dad's Poem

I don't know what it is about my family having poems all around the place, but this is another one. My dad has this poem hanging in his office and I love reading this one too. In fact, he caught me reading it so much, he got me a copy and now i have it in my room too! Haha... Anyways, here it is:

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints; other times there was one only. This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow, or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints. So I said to the Lord, "You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has been only one set of footprints in the sand. Why when I have needed you most, have you not been there for me?" The Lord replied, "The times when you have seen only one set of footprints; my child, is when I carried you.

I love this poem! I thought this would be a good one to post on a Sunday. Well, I hope you liked the poem as much as I do, and have a great week!

Ski Trip

The 8th Graders go on an 8th Grade Ski Trip every year, and this year, it was our turn! We drove up to Snow Mountain Ranch Thursday afternoon and got there at about 5:30. Then we put all of our bags and things in the rooms in the lodge. After that, we all went down to the KIVA. Most of my friends and I had already been to Snow Mountain Ranch before and were familiar with the KIVA so we knew exactly what we wanted to do. First played volleyball and then we got roller skates and all went rollerskating together. It was so much fun!!! :) We were falling all over the place... Hahahaha... My friend, Laura, and I go ice skating together sometimes so we had a little more experience than others, but we all had a great time.

Next, we walked back to the dorms and got into our warm clothes. We all hopped back into the buses and vans and drove down to the Frazier Tubing Hill. We tubed from about 8 to 9:30 and had a blast! We did some runs individually and then we did some group runs down together also. On one run, we had almost the entire grade and all of the chaperons go down together and it was SO much fun. After that, we were all exhausted and went back to the dorms to go to bed.

The next morning, we got up at 6, got dressed in warm clothes, had breakfeast, and set off to go skiing. It was soooooo cold and the wind was blowing very hard, but we didn't care... We were all skiing and snowboarding together and having a great time! We skied from about 8AM to 3 PM and only took a 30 minute break for lunch. It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!! I started out with a bunch of my buddies that snowboard and a couple that ski and we did some blues. After lunchtime, I switched and went with my other skiing friends and we did blue-blacks and blacks and had a great time! :) The snow was powdery and perfect for skiing and I had a wonderful time!

Here are some pictures and videos of us on the trip...

Up to the Mountain

Today our choir sang the song Up to the Mountain by Patty Griffin. It is a beautiful song that honors Martin Luther King and I really enjoyed singing it. Now I don't know what our choir director or the congregation thought (haha), but I thought we sounded good. Our piano player sang the solo part and sounded absolutely gorgeous and I felt proud to be apart of the choir this morning.

As we were rehearsing before church this morning, our director pointed something out to us. He called this particular verse to our attention... "Some days I look down, afraid I will fall. And though the sun shines, I see nothing at all. And then I hear Your sweet voice, oh, oh, come and then go. Telling me softly, You love me so." He read it out to us instead of singing it and let us hear how beautiful it was. "Isn't this the reason we are all here today?" he asked us. I thought that was a wonderful thing for him to do and say because we are all usually too busy trying to make sure we are singing the right notes that we don't really notice how wonderful and meaningful the lyrics to our songs are. That really opened my eyes and I will pay more attention to the lyrics in songs now. :)

If you would like to listen to the song, I have put it on the play list on this blog. It is called Up to the Mountain. Enjoy!!!:)

Jazz Band

I play flute in the jazz band at my school and we had practice this morning. I LOVE jazz band! We play the most fun songs ever! Also, some of my friends are in it with me so that makes it even more fun! :) haha... Anyways, we are practicing the songs Take 5, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and It Don't Mean a Thing right now and if you haven't heard of any of these songs... LOOK THEM UP!!!! Haha... They are soooo fun to play and they sound amazing with all of the different instruments(flute, piano, saxophone, trumpet, drum, bass, and occasionally, a singer).

I don't normally go around listening to jazz music, but something about playing the songs is so much fun! If you play an instrument or sing, you probably feel this way too. It's hard to describe, but something about music or playing music is so cool and I LOVE it! I listen to music all the time and I am obsessed with it!!!! :) If you play an instrument or just love music like I do, I would love to hear about it through the comments you leave!!! :)
This is a picture of my friend Amanda(on the right) and I playing a jazzy song on the flute together in 5th grade!!! :) I just found this and thought it was hilarious! We have been playing flute together since 4th grade and we always have a great time. She is one of my jazz band buddies:) hahaha