Long Point County Park, FL

3/4/09

We really haven’t done a lot since I’ve blogged last but lots of school. My mom wants to make it very clear that we aren’t free-loading this year and taking the year off. My school day is typically shorter than a day in public school, but I learn more each day, and I work at my own pace, which is above average. I get plenty done every day and because I have 160 days of school and public school has 180 it automatically becomes more challenging right? Well that is true but I wish it wasn’t, and plenty of times Ben or Sam burst into tears and tantrums wishing that they could give up school even if they had to give up the trip with it.

As much as I disagree, school is hard, and much more so than public school. Will’s learning about space, aeronautics, and atoms, as well as fission, fusion, and energy in just the 6th grade. I have to admit that I’m a little jealous but I’m learning American history and get a research paper about twice a week. Yesterday alone I had three! But I did four days of work in about a 9 hour period. I’m learning as much as I could at the moment, and find it challenging but exciting. Every bend around this crazy highway of life leaves something to explore, something to learn, something to discover, or something to enjoy.

P.S. Last night we went on a camping trip for Boy Scouts on a deserted island surrounded by water. We loaded all of our camping gear, and made trips back and forth across the windy lake to the bank on the other side. We had an enjoyable experience. It was just me and my brothers doing this, and my parents got to have some quiet time back at the R.V. I cooked Top Ramen for dinner along with some canned fruit, and Will cooked oatmeal this morning. We had a fun time and went bird hunting the next morning with a bb gun and high velocity pellets. We came back empty handed, but we had fun and I taught Ben and Sam some gun safety. And isn’t that what scouting is all about? Yea, well we had fun except at the end of the morning when Ben started yelling about Harry Potter and how Hermione’s parents are muggles and dentists and stupid things like that. He seems to be going through a phase where he can just argue about the silliest things. I hope that he’ll stop soon and Sam won’t end up like him.

Sebastian Inlet, Florida

3/1/09
And we’re still in Florida; we’re just having less fun. We’ve done nothing but school, and move the R.V. every other-day to a new slot, so is the campground’s policy. We’ve gotten ourselves up to lesson 96 and I believe that we’re going a little faster than the other students, or at least I am. I always seem to be ahead of my siblings. Except for Sam of course but he’s actually supposed to be in second grade. I got my green tests back today, and Mrs. Clark you did a wonderful job grading my tests. We enjoyed reflecting on all of our subjects and I have received my best grades yet! A’s and A-’s in all of my subjects. My mom is happy and my dad is happy and Ben isn’t, but nothing pleases him anyway.

I’ve explored the depths of my computer and have come across a wonderful gaming program with only the most fun and interesting games I’ve seen in a long time; none of the slow, rune-scape graphics on any of them. I’ve had a lot of fun doing them on my breaks and my dad says that I need to do more Piano, Boy Scouts, and Rosetta Stone. So it looks as if I’ll never get all the work done now, but it was fun while it lasted. I’m not like Ben who’ll say, “But I never get to do anything I like to do,” which you start to hear after awhile living with him. I can appreciate Mom and Dad’s caring and thoughtful capabilities and wanting us to get outside more, but Mom has really begun to detest anything electronic like game boys, (which I don’t play at all) Will’s Nintendo DS, (which I play very few times a month) or my computer (I can admit that I play this but not as much as other kids my age). We have no Play Stations, Xbox, or anything of the sort, but computers. I think a little bit a day is reasonable, don’t you? I played Port Royale 2 too much and I have about 2 hours of cumulative hours left of it so I’ll be playing for about two weeks. Not a lot of computer time. Everywhere I go I see kids playing games on their I-touch, or things like that and it makes me realize that I’ve been kept from all of that. I see how they’re obsessed with it and if it was up to me, I probably wouldn’t be much different. But my parents kept me away and I’m partially glad that I did and they did. Yet less than 25 minutes a day, while I do more school than a 9th grader, doesn’t seem fair. I’m probably boring you so I’m going to stop and do a lesson of Math. Bye!

2/26/09

Hi! We are still in Florida and just sent off Nana and Papa at the Airport. We’ve had so much fun. We walked on the beach and had barbeques. We went to The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida and Aerospace travel is an interest of mine. We went on tour buses and saw the real crawler in the flesh! My NASA cyber class teacher would be so jealous. We saw real SRBs and ETs; not extra terrestrials or aliens, but External Fuel tank. We saw the Orbiter, or shuttle, Explorer. As well as the Pathfinder, the Fueled and valve-broken Discovery, and the Saturn V rocket, Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo space craft. We had a blast. Literally, we got to feel what a real shuttle launch experience felt like in their free simulator.

We did a lot of school and my dad had to fly to Baltimore for some post–Army stuff and VA or Veterans affairs stuff. But now he’s back and we’re driving to another campground off of Patrick Air Force Base, FL.

2/20/09
We left to a nearby Walmart for the night and got booted out by some security rent-a-cop. So we set off to another Walmart and got sent out of their too. We finally got to a third Walmart and didn’t get sent away till morning. Then we went to a campground on a military base called Patrick Air Force Base and stayed another night there. We drove around all day the next day looking for a good acceptable place where our grandparents could stay. We got one at a place called Royal Mansions.It has a cute small sized condominium with a pool, Jacuzzi, and beach access.

Then we stayed two nights at a county park called Long Point, with a river running through it and the ocean surrounding it. We tried fishing and failed, and I blew up our inflatable canoe and set off exploring just to find a bottle-nosed dolphin, to my mother’s great surprise. I fed the seagull’s some chex cereal for my break and set off some fireworks after dinner. But don’t forget school, school, and more …………..school! Then we went back to Patrick Air Force Base and then off to Royal Mansions. Nana and Poppa met us here later that day and we’ve been here ever since. We’re doing school, playing in the freezing ocean, and having fun.

Orlando and McDill Air Force Base, FL

2/16/09
The next day we all went to Magic Kingdom, We got to ride the monorail from the parking lot and it was a really fun ride. We walked around until we decided to go to Space Mountain for fast passes. We played around in Tomorrow Land until we got bored, then we went to Adventure Land and waited in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride for 20 minutes. We did some other minor rides, and got more fast passes and had more fun. Then we had lunch, boarded a train and rode to Space Mountain. We all had a blast, literally. It was supposed to be like a space launch, and we screamed as much as if it were the real one. Finally, we went back to the places where we had got our other fast passes at Splash Mountain and got really wet! Then we went to main street USA and watched Spectro Magic a show about all other Disney classics. Then we boarded another monorail and went home.
The next day we stayed at our condo with Matt and Julia. We played a complimentary miniature golf game, tennis, and raced in paddle boats that looked like swans. This was our last day with our friends at Disney World and we had so much fun with them! The next day they all boarded a plane that took them back to San Francisco. We miss them all dearly, and I wish that we never had to go back to school and our friends didn’t have to leave and we got to stay in our condo with an automated ice maker! But all dreams don’t come true, do they? Oh well, we left the condo the next morning and moved back into the coach. Then we went to Blizzard Beach, Epcot, and Disney Quest for one final bang and left Disney World for this time around.

2/13/09
My sore throat still hurts but I seem to be feeling better. Yesterday we didn’t do anything but school, a quick swim, and a visit with our friends from Alaska. Yea, The Hoseltons are from Fort Greely, the same place that we’re from! Mr. Hoselton is an amazing guitar player, and writes his own songs on the road. He played new songs for us, and we played at his hotel’s pool with his sons Parker and Jackson. Mrs. Tammy, Mr. Roger Hoselton’s wife, talked with my mom about Alaska. We had a really fun time. Then we packed up, said our goodbyes, and went back to the timeshare. See you later!

2/12/09
We haven’t done a lot, except for going to the greatest water park in the WORLD! There are two of them at Disney World. One of them is called Blizzard Beach, and the other is Typhoon Lagoon. We went to Blizzard Beach with our friends. The story behind this heated water park is that a freak snow storm blew in and made 8 feet of snow. With all that snow what do you do? Build a ski resort of course! So while the chairlift was built up, so did the temperature, and it’s now one of the world’s most gushiest slushiest water parks that looks like a ski resort in the world. We had a lot of fun on the double dipper and summit plummet, the only place in the world where you can travel straight down for 250 ft and go 64 mph sliding on your bottom. It was scary yes, but I’m not one to be afraid of heights. There were a couple of other rides that we went on but not nearly as good as that one. My bottom still hurts though. And that’s why I now prefer passing people on the lazy river. I’ll keep you posted.

2/11/09
Ok so even though I haven’t done a lot since I blogged yesterday my mom says that I have to blog everyday we’re at Disney World. So here goes. When I finished blogging yesterday we loaded up in our car and drove to EPCOT. We saw everything thing that we didn’t see last time we were at EPCOT. EVERYTHING. And some things that we had already seen last time we were at EPCOT. We had a lot of fun with our friends Matt and Julia, and their kids Alex and Sophia (But we call her Sofi). Then we stayed around for the fireworks and all in all, had a lot of fun. My favorite ride is still MISSION: SPACE but the most interesting ride is “living with the land.” We’re going to Blizzard Beach today even though I’ve come down with a sore throat the last few days and have been tough enough not to show it. I’m taking Ibuprofen now and seem to be feeling better, but let me tell you that I still stay as far away as I can from the stuff! Blizzard Beach is a giant water park that you can ride up to 60 mph on some of the rides before you can say “UUUUUUhhhhhhhhhh Where’s my bathing suit?” Time to go! Bye!

2/10/09
On February 8th our friends Matt and Julia came with their children, Alex and Sophia. We switched all of our food from the coach to the apartment/condo, and switched again because the people at the front desk made a mistake. So after we got settled in, we moved again…. pain in the butt by the way. My mom bought an extra carload of food for our friends and we couldn’t even ride in it because it was so stuffed. So while we walked to our new apartment, which was the same as the first, my mom drove off and we almost lost sight of her once or twice. Next, our friends arrived from the airport late at night and we went to bed earlier than we wanted to. The next day we all went to Hollywood Studios theme park in Disney World. It is my second least favorite of 4 parks. Although it has Rock and Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith (that can go 0-60 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds) and the Hollywood Hotel Tower of Terror, it still doesn’t beat Epcot (My first favorite) or Magic Kingdom (My second favorite). But it is a hair above Animal Kingdom because of nightly fireworks. They’re omitted in Animal Kingdom because it “scares the animals.” It also has Fantasmic, half fantasia and all fantastic. It’s a show where Mickey Mouse battles evil in this magic duel with fireworks and a water projectile screen. Dancers dance on boats and Ariel, Beauty, and Snow White fall in love, conquering all, the end. It was great. Today we’re going to EPCOT with our friends, and we still have 5 days on our tickets! See you later!

2/8/09
Of all the Disney theme parks that we have went to, none of them even compare to how amazingly great EPCOT is. EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow. And a small city it is! It has restaurants, lodging, roads, and parks. Even though they don’t have cars in the park, they do have Monorails galore and some things that a city doesn’t have. I’m mostly speaking of all the rides they have. And they aren’t based on a movie like in Magic Kingdom. No, these rides are there because they are the most high-tech, futuristic, and thrilling rides of all the rides at Disney. A perfect example would be MISSION: SPACE, an amazing ride where you get to feel the thrills of being in a real-life astronaut simulator. Everything is dazzling and razzling, especially at night during their IllumiNations: Reflections of the Earth. This is where hundreds of fireworks are shot into the sky and synchronized with music to create a truly amazing experience that you’ll most likely never forget. Then after all of the fireworks burn out and there’s nothing but smoke in the night, they shoot laser beams through the smoke and you see a beam. Well actually you see hundreds of them as well as lights on the side of the lake, but whatever I tell you isn’t as good as seeing it yourself. There are all sorts of cool plants and fish in the LIVING WITH THE LAND ride. You get on a boat and slowly glide through all the exhibits of agricultural progress since farming was invented.

Everything is awesome and clean and beautiful. Frankly it’s too good for words and that’s without talking about the mind-boggling world showcase: 13 amazing countries, one after another, bordering a lake. All the cultures of Europe, the Middle East, Japan, China, Morocco, and even Canada are all within a small square half-mile. And each countries’ gift shops, restaurants, and street performers are manned by people from that country which is really cool too. So far my favorite country is China, and my favorite ride is SOARIN. We just left the Disney campground and are moving into a temporary hotel that my parents’ friends Mr. Matt and Mrs. Julia and their two kids, Alex and Sophia were kind enough to give us for one week of their timeshare. Mrs. Julia is also my God Mother and my Mom’s maid of honor at her wedding. Everything is wonderful, except for all of the school that we’ll have to do when this is over, and all the longing we’ll have to come back. But one of the greatest things about being here is that I’m here! You don’t understand? Let me explain. Everyone I know practically has gone to Disney World one way or another. But finally I’m here at the famous Disney World that is world famous. If you don’t believe me, talk to the multi-lingual people from China, Spain, and even Russia. There are 5 languages written on all the signs here so everyone can understand the message. All the games tell you to choose your language out of twenty, some of which I can’t even understand! It’s so cool and everyday I thank my parents for bringing us here for ten whole days! That’s all for now! See you soon!
P.S. The temperature has gotten up past the 60’s and into the 70’s, so we can go outside in shorts now!

2/6/09
We arrived at Disney World late at night and checked into Fort Wilderness Campground Resort. They have a heated pool…………….that’s heated a whole 40 degrees or something. We already figured that out. The first theme park that we went to was Magic Kingdom. It’s not the most interesting park, or the newest edition to Disney World, but definitely the most classic. We went on “it’s a small world” and Mom loved it. Sam’s and Dad’s favorite was Splash Mountain. Ben liked Tom Sawyer’s Island, and my favorite was Space Mountain. It’s an indoor roller coaster that’s in the dark. You keep on thinking (as you round hair pin turns) that some giant metal beam holding up the ride is going to come out of nowhere and take your head off. Nobody dares to put their hands in the air on this ride. We explored Tom Sawyer’s Island and had fun there. We saw bears sing, got wet, rode the big thunder mountain railroad, and even flew on a pirate ship. We took a lot of the tips that Charlie gave us in Maryland such as “get up early” and “go to the popular rides first.”

It rained on us and apparently it’s their value season, or opposite of peak season, so a usual 3 hour wait in line turned into a whopping 10 minute wait. We definitely had a lot of fun and rode Space Mountain 3 times. The line was about 3 minutes, and 2 minutes was walking through all the empty lanes. It was hard to imagine all those lanes filled with people. The next day was 2 lessons of school to take the place of the day before and the day, after that was our Animal Kingdom day. This was the biggest park with the fewest rides. We saw the Safari Tour in the Africa Section and Dinosaur from the Dinoland USA section of the park. Everyone’s favorite ride had to be EXPEDITION EVEREST. It was really neat and we almost got eaten by the Yeti. Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh Scary. Forward, Backward, side to side, straight down and straight up. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

When we were done with Animal Kingdom we went home. We planned to go to Epcot but Will woke up with a pain in his neck and the whole day we stayed at home and did school. We did school all right but we sure didn’t stay at home all day long. We went to a cool place called Disney Quest located at Downtown Disney. There it’s nothing but fun and games, literally. It’s a five story building filled to the brim with top of the notch gaming like Astro Blaster where you’re IN the Starship. It’s top of the line and all new, all interactive, and all cool. That’s all for now.

1/31/09
We got to Tampa on the 29th and set up camp at McDill Air Force Base 7 miles away. We met Mr. and Mrs. Miller and one of their 4 puppies, Rosy. While I finished up on my tests, my mom and dad “caught up” with their friends. Afterward I did the dishes and got to be surrounded by Ben and Sam a little (okay a lot) more than I wanted to. The next day we went roller blading into Tampa for a couple of hours and met some more of my dad’s friends. Will has been behind me and just finished up his tests and it’s really nice to know that it’s all behind us. We went sightseeing in Tampa and saw all the Steelers fans in black and gold jerseys. We met the Millers again and their son, Justin. We got to play with all 4 of their puppies and they cooked us a great dinner. We went home at 1 in the morning and got up at 10 the next day.

We drove to Orlando and got our Disney tickets at Shades of Green. We also went to “Body Worlds,” a human body museum that was all about the human body’s limits, health, and how to take care of it. All of the bones and kidneys and stuff were real people once. That’s right! Walking, talking people who died and were dissected and put on display for all to see. It gave me Goosebumps just remembering all the stuff that I looked at. But we also saw an IMAX DOME THEATRE movie called Extreme Sports.

Florida's West Coast

Wow I haven’t blogged in awhile! Well, here it goes. We arrived at Eglin Air Force Base when it was getting dark about a week ago. We set up camp and went to bed. The next day was lots of school, and we watched the inauguration, which happened to be one of my spelling words that day. President Obama made a really good speech. NBC says that millions, almost billions of people were watching on just their station for the inauguration. If you think about all of the stations filming this momentous occasion there probably were billions of people watching.

Anyway we left the next day after doing more school, and got to Panama City, Florida in about 2 hours, doing school all the way. We stayed at a state park for 3 days and in that time we swam in the Gulf of Mexico, watched alligators at a restaurant, went to Home Depot and had a family bike ride on the dunes. On the 4th day we left to Homosassa Springs where we went to a state park and got to swim with the manatees. One thing, in the movies they’re cute because they’re clean but the ones we swam with were dirty so they just looked fat. But it was still fun. And don’t forget school! Lots of it! I’ve done so much school my passion to learn is turning into what my brothers have, the loathing of school. But I try to stay ahead in my studies and not daydream. I am currently taking my lesson 80 tests which means I’m halfway through the school year. I only have one more test, Grammar. In 3 days we’re going to Orlando for a vacation from this vacation at Disney World! WHOOOOOOOOOOO! We left to Tampa and have been doing school ever since. That’s all for now! BYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEE!

South Carolina and Georgia

It has come to my attention that I have not blogged in a while. Within the hour when I finished blogging on the twelfth we went to a museum about Special Forces. We watched a movie about the history of the parachute and its uses in the military. Most of it was about paratroopers. We also had the chance to simulate us jumping out of a helicopter and parachuting to the ground below. We read about Special Forces part in World War 2. Then we drove to my dad’s good friend Mr. Miles Huff. Mr. Huff is a chef and instead of being paid to make one restaurant rich and those people good food, he TEACHES cooking at a university so that all people that those students cook for will hopefully get extraordinarily good food that they otherwise wouldn’t get. Chef Huff is a genius cook and after one meal you won’t ever want to leave the table. I know, I had the wonderful opportunity to try. Mr. and Mrs. Huff have two grown-up young ladies for children, and one of them has a child, so they’re grandparents! But they look so young you can’t even tell! While we stayed at their house for a couple of days we stopped by at a friend from Alaska who recently moved to Virginia. His name is Nick Dueanas, his dad’s name is Mr. Mike and his moms name is Mrs. Cindy but we pronounce it Ms. Cindy, and Adam is his little brother. We stayed for a while and played risk, a board game, in which we didn’t have time to finish. And went to a park, and had dinner, and played with Adam. Afterwards, we watched Bush’s Farwell address and saw the video clips of the recent plane that flew into the Hudson River after hitting a flock of geese in an emergency landing. We left the next day and went to Georgia. We there we stayed at another one of my dad’s friend’s house for 3 days! It was awesome and there house was huge! We played with their 2 boys and their other child, Mary Cate, was on a Girl Scout ski trip so we didn’t get to meet her. But we had a blast; we had two sleepovers, a 2 mile hike up the only mountain that snowed in Atlanta and a nerf-gun war. We also played with their next door neighbor’s dogs, with the owner’s permission of course, the two German Sheppard were called Rex and Bushca. We had a lot of fun. We left today and just finished passing through Fort Benning, and should be in Florida in approximately 3 hours. BYE!

Maryland, Virgina, and South Carolina

1/12/09
All right we’ve done more school and have finally left Fort Meade, Maryland. We are currently at Mrs. Juliet’s house in North Carolina. We’ve had a fun time playing with her kids. We went to Mr. Fred’s house and had Fred-mcmuffins instead of egg-mcmuffins. They were delicious. And Ian is really good at Lego Star-wars.

My Dad says that we’re getting more visitors looking at our on-line journals each day. It’s really cool looking at all the e-mails people are sending us when they look at the site. So the more you click on the site the more our counter counts!

We went to the Smithsonian Air and space museum in Washington D.C.. They had a simulator where you land a fighter plane on an aircraft carrier. It was really fun. We also watch a short movie about how air planes take off and land on an aircraft carrier. Apparently they attach the plane to a catapult, fill it up with steam and fire it off the deck of the ship in 50 ft! We also saw the Lincoln Memorial and Washington monument. There’s a great view from the top of the Washington monument. We saw the White House and Korean memorial from the top. They say that on a clear day you can see 30 miles in each direction from the top of the 555 ft tall monument.
We went to a mock-up of a colonial town called Williamsburg in Virginia and we saw the dig site of colonial Jamestown. Both were historical, educational, and interesting. Williamsburg had a lot of people and we asked a lot of questions and were heavily informed. I had questions I had to ask to get my Life scout Rank for Boy Scouts and we also learned much from the experience and have also done a lot of school. The Jamestown dig site had a kids program where you run around the museum finding answers to questions and you get a patch that says “You’re a Junior Park Ranger” I thought I could learn enough without the questionnaire so I didn’t do it, but Ben and Will were all for it. I helped them out a bit though.

We had fun visiting Mrs. Lisa in Switzerland so we decided to see her again in the U.S. We had a lot of fun at her hotel’s pool. We talked about Fargo, and the trip, and Switzerland.

When we lived in Maryland I had a good friend named Charlie. Well, on January 6 we went to his house and had dinner with Charlie, Mrs. Crystal, Josh, and Mr. Mark. We had a fun night of pizza, games, and visiting. Charlie seems to like the idea of homeschooling and I gave him some advice. We talked about Disney World because we will be going there in approximately 2 and half weeks.
We also went to the Mikatarian’s house for a visit another night. They had two very nice daughters named Kendra and Kaitlin. We played some games then went home and the next many days were school, school, and more school! Too much more of the dreaded word and my head will explode!
Last night we went to Mr. Dennis’s house for dinner and played with his two kids Adam, and Hope. Mrs. Karen made a lovely spaghetti dinner. We had fun and I showed them what I could do on the piano. More coming soon I’ll keep you posted!

Ft. Meade, Maryland

Nothing has really happened except for school, school, school, and New Year’s Eve! We watched the Ball drop on T.V. and went to the same Roller Skating Rink as last time. We skated till one in the morning and got served breakfast at midnight. My mom tried backwards skating the first time we went. I’m not going to say that she did badly, but she fell a lot. Now she’s a pro. It was a wonderful way to spend New Year’s Eve.
We also had fun going with our cousins to the new Air and Space Museum. We saw all sorts of really cool things, and most of the satellites and orbiters I recognized from space camp. Everything was fun and interesting. They even had a full original of the Enterprise. Not the Columbia that blew up in space. And not the enterprise from Star trek. We watched a fighter pilot movie called Red Flag, in the Museum’s very own IMAX theatre. If I have one word to critique the movie it would be AMAZING. It’s like you’re actually there. But that’s the effect that the producers want you to have. Anyway, I guess that we’ve earned it with all the school we’ve done.
Unfortunately, I was sick yesterday with the flu and practically stayed in my sleeping bag from dawn to dusk and dawn again. But now I feel better and am doing more school today. We also went to the Cryptology Museum. It’s not about crypts, which are where dead people are buried, but a museum about codes, agents, and hiding information. All in all a great place. That’s all for now.

12/30/08
Ok, so we haven’t done much since I last blogged. We haven’t even left the city yet. We went to the bowling alley on post 3 times, the movies once (we watched Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa), the library once, the Muse twice, and Oh yea we went to Uncle Eric’s House for Christmas. I got 4 presents for Christmas. My first present was the Book ART OF WAR by Sun Tzu from my mom. It’s really cool and I read it all the time. My second present was a nerf blow gun from my dad. I can shoot a dart 30 ft silently and accurately. My third present was a couple of chocolates from Santa.

And my fourth was a brand-new Laptop from Santa. Thank you Santa! It’s so cool! It has got all these pre-downloaded games, and no pop-ups. I use it all the time. I don’t need to wait to use the other laptop and I’ve already downloaded all my favorite settings and programs and virus protection. I love it! I’ve even typed and edited 2 reports for Calvert, my homeschooling program. Talking about that, I’ve had plenty of it. We’ve done nearly nothing and way too much school for my likings. I’m ahead of my siblings in school, and do about a lesson and a half of school a day. My dad say’s 10 more days and we’re out of here. I very much hope since so we’ve been here waaaaaaayyyyy too long.