Persuasive writing from Princess my 6th grader - too cute!

Do you really need a cowardly lion as king of the jungle?  What about someone who threatens to kill you if you don't do what he says?  Well here's my opinion;nobody deserves that!  We need to start running this jungle seriously and deal with the ones who cause the problems.

I, Chubby the Elephant, am prepared to rule this jungle correctly.  I know what you're thinking; "Why should I vote for an elephant?"  Well, my fellow carnivores and herbivores, I'll tell you why.

Elephants are known for being kind hearted.  If you are sick of your poor treatment, than i can resolve your problem without eating you.  I can turn this jungle upside down by making all the conflicts stop.  All squirrels will get an even amount of acorns.  Lizards will get plenty of flies; so on and so forth. 

Let's say you are a carnivore.  First off; I really don't want to mess with you guys since I'm an elephant and I want to stay alive.  Anyway, I can still help you out.  If your prey gets away all the time or some other animal gobbles it before you, do I have a solution for you!  I, as your king, will open a restaurant for meat eaters only where you prey is already "pre-dead."
 
Just face it, everyone wants to live, so my goal is to be the peacemaker of the jungle and keep everyone alive.  I'm not asking you to be a vegetarian; I already made a solution so every creature is happy. 

There you hate it!  So why not vote for an elephant?  I'm kind hearted, I won't eat you, and everyone is pleased in the end.  I promise you, you won't regret making me, Chubby, the king of your jungle! 

Grand Canyon part 1

The day started a 2:45 a.m. when I woke up.  By 3:30 a.m. we had picked everyone up and left for the Grand Canyon.  I was driving and happy to be on an adventure.  There were 5 of us; me, Amber (from Austin, TX in the cute hat), Nancy (above in the turquoise blue), Pam (with a purple coat and hiking sticks), and Kat (in the bandanna). 

 After we parked, road the bus to the trailhead and read all the cautionary signs it was 8 a.m. when we started our hike. 

 It was beautiful!  I love this place.   Can you tell? 

 The trail at the top was icy, so it was a slow start.  The cloud cover made for a GREAT day.  It did hail on our way out of the Canyon, but it was tiny and not much to complain about.

 The views around every bend really change the way you see the Canyon.  Sometimes the Canyon looks pink, other times black.  Some of the time you are walking on clay or rock or a mixture, and other times you are walking on sand.  Did you know there are dunes at the bottom of the Canyon.  Well, we will show you more later. 

Don't be afraid to look down.  It is just an endless array of switchbacks.  That's all.

 We took a bunch of picture on our way down and even ran into some wildlife.  At a bathroom stop on the way down, we encountered a group of young boys feeding the squirrels and a young female hiker telling them to stop.  "You are domesticating that animal!" 

 Did you know there are 2 bridges at the bottom of the Canyon?  Well, now you do.  This is the black bridge and it is at the end of the South Kaibab trail.  It was a glorious sight to reach the bottom. 

 We took a break for lunch and other things and bought a few souvenirs that you can only get at the bottom.  We got there at noon and rested 'til 1 p.m. before we headed up out of the Canyon across the Silver bridge to go up Bright Angel. 

 The river is actually very loud with rapids right here and the Silver bridge wiggles when you walk across it, not to mention that you can see straight down through the floor grating.  It is kind of scary. 

 Walking in thick sand, looking around at sand dunes, then just around the bend you are crossing a stream on the rocks, and finally you have a lush Easter green grass growing along the path which makes you all aware of how beautiful this Earth really is.  The view the in the Canyon is SPECTACULAR! 

 This is at Indian Gardens.  4.5 miles left, but we have already come 13.5 miles.  We can do it!  We left here about 4 p.m. and at this point we knew we would be fighting to get to the top before dark.  It is also at this point that our turquoise blue Nancy starts complaining about stomach cramps.  She doesn't really complain a lot, she merely mentions it. 

 Then we crossed path with much larger than a squirrel wildlife.  See the deer in the background?  SO COOL!  They were right there in touch distance.  SO CLOSE!

 At this point we start looking back at the Canyon, knowing that we will miss it.

 Then the unthinkable - MUD!  Slimy, thick, sticky mud.  It was gross and personally made me fall down and scrap up my legs.  Yep, you heard it here first.  I blame the mud for my fall. 

 So Pam was ahead of us and hearing Rockie music in her head, so by the time we got here, it was getting dark fast.  The last mile was tough.  We encountered ice again.  It was not easy to do the last little bit, but I knew the reward would be the view from the top.  Too bad it was dark by the time we got to the top at 7:30 p.m.  Look below at Nancy JUMP!  She DID IT!   We all did it!  It was great! 

 This is the only picture of the 5 of us together.  It is taken at our reward dinner.  I had pork lion with apples over the top and green beans (yum) and rice.  It was so cold at the top that we ordered hot chocolate to go to keep us warm.  Little did we know that when we made the hotel reservation in the Bright Angel Lodge that we would actually have to walk 2, count them 1 - 2, building away to find our rooms.  We all made it and had a great time.  There is a lot more to the story, but I want to end this part on a HIGH! 

WE DID IT 

and 

WE HAVE THE MUDDY SHOES 

TO PROVE IT!  

(Amber's shoes)

PROJECT TIME - making room for the new frig

 We ripped out the kitchen desk

 to get a new refrigerator.

 So we had a little tile work to fix up

and a few coats of paint needed.  It will be great when it is finished.  SO EXCITED! 

6th grade field trip - Renaissance Festival

Well, we made it to the festival after an over 90 minute bus ride, but it was worth it!  I have never been to a Renaissance festival so it was all so new to me.

 Princess had to try out "Jacob's Ladder."  It was harder than it looks. 

 We saw LOTS of shows.  This one was fire juggling.

 The food, drinks and games were rather expensive.  $6 for one turkey leg.

 But who could resist a turkey leg?  Not our group!

 More fire juggling. 

 We even met up with Sarrah and her mom who were there from the neighborhood school.  This is a picture of Sarrah and Princess waiting for the jousting to start.  (I didn't know we were preparing for bad acting. )

 The blue knight and winner of the (bad acting) joust and my group. 

 WE DID THE COOLEST THING EVER! 

 I guess you can tell what we did.  We rode an elephant.  SO AWESOME!

 This was the highlight of my day.

 and maybe my life.  Being this close to an elephant and touching its leathery skin was awe inspiring.  These are God's creatures.  I ask the worker where they get their elephants.  He said, "Africa."  I don't think he really wanted to talk to me. 

 We had to do some archery too!

 This is one of my most favorite items I did on MY 6th grade field trip.  I have a fond memory of my 6th grade trip.  I remember splunking in a cave and trying archery for the first time and being pretty good. 

 This guy was playing beautiful music on these bells.  SO FUN to listen to. 

 Princess' first tattoo.

 Girl power.

 This, my friends, is a cow tongue. 

 And yes, this is my baby girl touching the cow tongue.  She is not afraid. 

 This might have been Princess' first tongue touching tongue in her life, but she did restrain.  I would have hated for this to be her first french kiss.  JK.  :)

 They even had a petting zoo.

 We show the COOLEST birds of prey show. 

 These birds WERE AWESOME! 

 Then on our way out of the park we saw a treeman that we had to take our picture with.

 There is a face in that tree somewhere. 

 Last but not least, we had to do the wax hands with only 30 minutes left. 

 They said it would take 45 minutes to do the wax hand, but we made it to the bus just in time. 

Cute girls, great trip and I love 6th grade!