San Diego and Arizona

We went to San Diego with my grandma. We went to a Navy Hotel that was on the beach. Me and Jackson went swimming. At first it was very cold, but then it didn't feel very cold after a while. Mom thought I was crazy. My mom wouldn't let me go under the water because the waves were very big.

We went to the San Diego Zoo. We saw monkeys and tigers. My favorite would probably be the monkeys. The next day we went to Legoland. The first thing I saw was all these Star Wars characters made out of legos. And we went on this rollercoaster that went straight down. Then we went on a cruise around the bay and we saw all different kinds of Navy ships and sea lions. We saw a dolphin but the person driving the boat didn't see it. The last thing we did in San Diego was go to Sea World. There was this ride called "Journey to Atlantis". It was a water ride. We got to go straight down on this water thing and we got a little bit wet. We saw sharks and sea otters. And we took a picture of Lily when I was petting a dolphin. I got to feed it too. We saw a whale called Shamu and it splashed me. We saw a funny show with a sea lion named Clyde. There was this really funny guy who danced to all these different songs and changed costumes.

At the zoo with my brother

The panda was sleeping.

Legoland Darth Vader

This ride was fun. My mom and Nana were trying to squirt us with water guns.

A big bucket of water got dumped on me.

Shamu at Sea World

Sea lions in San Diego Bay

Lily Baumeister with the dolphins

Flat Lily

I got to pet the dolphin

Flat James and an alligator. He really wanted to see a crocodile, but I could get closer to the alligator.

Zachary and Gavin with a water monitor, a type of lizard.

The last picture wasn't very good so I took this one with Flat Zac and Gavin with a legless lizard.

It was really fun to be with Nana because we got to go to all those fun places and out to dinner.

With Nana on the beach at the Navy Hotel

After San Diego, we drove to Arizona to the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. We saw all this wood that had turned into stone that was different colors with stripes on it. We got to see mountains with blue, red, purple and green and all those different colors on it. That's why it's called the Painted Desert. We stayed at a campground near a crater. The crater was from a meteor that fell 50,000 years ago. It looked like a big hole in the Earth.

The Painted Desert

Petrified Forest

Meteor Crater

Then we went to Susi's, my mom's friend, and spent the weekend swimming in their pool and playing with little kids, Joseph and Evie. They are 4 and 2. They were cute.

Playing with Evie

Reading to Joseph and Evie

Eating herbs out of Evie's garden

Next we get to go back to California for a while until my dad gets back from Alaska. 

Mesa Verde, CO and Moab, UT

We went to Mesa Verde in Colorado. It’s a place where ancient Indians lived high up in the cliffs. We got to go on a tour. We got to climb up ladders and crawl through caves where they lived. We stayed at a campground that had a lake. Me and Jackson were excavating the rocks. We also got to ride our bikes. It was very very cold.

Riding my bike at the lake. It was really cold.

Climbing up the ladder into the cliff dwelling.

This is what it looked like from the outside. It was called Balcony House. They said that 40 people lived there.

One of the tunnels on the way out

This was the doorway on the way out.

This is called a kiva. A kiva is like their church.

After Colorado, we drove to Moab, UT. We got to see the Arches. We went for a long hike and climbed up on some rocks where we could see Delicate Arch. It was very windy and there was a big hole. It was sort of scary because if you fell you would probably break an arm. We also got to see some petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are ancient drawings on the rock that tell a story.

Mom and Dad went for a rock climb while me and Jackson played on the rocks. I pricked my finger on a cactus. It really hurt. Then me and Jackson drew on the rocks with other tiny rocks. It was like our own petroglyphs.

Hiking to Delicate Arch

Checking out Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch

After our hike I got to rest and have lunch.

Here I think we look like eyeballs.

I told my mom that I thought this looked like a really big bird with a man behind it hugging its neck.

Petroglyphs

The next day we drove to Las Vegas because we had to go home for a few days for a funeral. It was our friend, Bob’s funeral. My mom cried a lot because it was her friend too. Then we went back to Las Vegas to continue our trip. 

When we were at the campground in Moab, I made a cake for our friend, Bob.

Jackson and me in the tee pee at the campground.

Disney

My favorite place at Disney was the Magic Kingdom.  My favorite ride was Mt. Everest because we got to go backwards. My other favorite rides were Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. My favorite thing that I saw was the Yeti on the Mt. Everest rollercoaster. At Animal Kingdom my favorite animals were the tigers, the gorillas and the bats.

We also got to go to Blizzard Beach, a big waterpark. There was a wave pool that me and my mom swam in. There was a huge waterslide that Daddy, Mom and Jackson went on that went straight down. Mom and I went on a tube slide that went straight down at the end. It was fun.

At the Magic Kingdom I got a bracelet that says my name on it. We saw fireworks at the castle and Daddy took pictures of it with his phone. After Disney we got in the car and drove through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. It was a long day in the car.

                                      The bats at the Animal Kingdom were huge.

Here's Jackson, Mom and me at the Magic Kingdom

It was so hot, Mom let me buy this misting fan.

I was really sweaty.

The gorilla was awesome.

I got my face painted like a panda bear.

The tigers were really cool too.

Here's me at the Rockin' Rollercoaster with a rockstar wig on.

North Carolina and Savannah, GA

In North Carolina we got to go to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Me and Jackson played a game in the caves. We climbed into the cave and pretended we were archeologists. We pretended that there was a museum that a helicopter took the rocks to. Mom and Dad climbed next to us. The two places we climbed were Table Rock and Ship Rock. We also got to go mining. Me and Jackson found little rocks and big rocks. My favorite rock was called Rose Quartz. Daddy found two rocks when we went mining. When we went climbing at Ship Rock Dad put one of his rocks in my chalk bag and one in Jackson’s chalk bag. It was fun to find it in there, like a little surprise. We also got to have dinner with mom’s cousin, Sam and his girlfriend, Alicia.

                               Made it to the top of the mountain. It was really hot.

                             Playing in the caves with my brother

                                    It got kind of windy at the bottom of the climb

                                  Here's Flat Kyan at Linville Falls

                                                Making smores

                                                       Mining for cool rocks

                     

                                              Picking out the coolest ones

When we were driving to Savannah our car broke down and we had to stay at a car place. I got to ride my bike. We stayed there for one and half days. It was fun because we stayed at a hotel with a playground. We got to ride our bikes some more and have dinner on a picnic table. 

                                       Here's me riding my bike at the car place

When we got to Savannah we saw Foster, Riley and Rowan. We played War Ball and soccer. I got a bunch of bug bites and we had smores. The next day we went to an Easter egg hunt. Riley and I looked at stuff in our eggs. Then we went swimming. There was a huge slide and me and Riley went on the slide. It was hard to say goodbye because we had so much fun. But then we got to go to Disney.

                                       Rowan, Riley and me with the Easter bunny

                                             I got to hold a real bunny.

                                  Me and Riley looking at our stuff from the Easter egg hunt

                                                  The big slide