Zion National Park!

Oh I LOVE National Parks! I've been to so so many! And I've been to all the ones in Utah! Last weekend we went to Zion National Park, which was SO much fun. I love to hike and look for desert toads in the streams. I love to get my passport stamped and work on my Jr. Ranger Badges. I just LOVE National Parks.

One of the neatest things to look for in Zion NP is the carved sandstone. Can you see that the river has carved out the stone and left it looking all striped?
It is so pretty!
I stop to look for desert toads at one of the deeper pools. I don't see any (but I have seen them in Zions before!) but I do see water skeeters.
I love Southern Utah.
And I love Zion Canyon.
Did you remember that I have a National Park album? I've gone to so many parks that I decided to put them all in one big album!

Olympics!

I LOVE the Olympics. So does my BFF Inky. She and I always email and talk about the Olympics, and we even got matching shirts for the Beijing Olympics back in 2008 (here is a photo of mine). Of course we needed new Olympic shirts, and I was so so happy when I got the mail the other day and there was a present from Inky! What could it be? Only an Olympic tee! AND the most AWESOME present ever! A Miga stuffed animal!!! She is a cross between a Kermode Bear and an Orca and she is soooooo cute and soft!

Remember that I got an Olympic pin from Inky for Christmas? Well I did, and I was so excited to wear it with my new shirt. Miga and I are already best friends. AND, Inky has a Miga of her own, and a matching shirt! We are so lucky!

GO for the Gold USA!

Two of my favorite winter sports to watch are skiing and ice skating. That is because they are two of my favorite sports too! I love to ski and ice skate. I wonder if snowshoeing will ever become an Olympic sport. (Click the links, they are awesome)

Yes, my shirt rocks. And my pin rocks. And Miga rocks.
Isn't Miga the cutest?!
We pretend to be figure skaters. We'd win gold for sure. :)

Winter Wonderland Camp!

Oh my gosh!!!! Camp was soooo fun! I love sleep-away camp, but I've never ever been to one in the winter!

The camp was up the mountains in this really neat lodge. When I got there I checked in and sat near the fire with the other girls my age. There were some really funny girls and I made lots of friends. Every night we had a HUGE hot dinner in the lodge near the windows. One night while Leah (my best friend from camp) and I were eating dinner we saw a porcupine out the window! How cool is that?!

Most days we woke up early, took a morning snowshoe adventure, play games and drink hot cocoa in the afternoons, and then take another afternoon snowshoe or sometimes a night snowshoe after dinner!

I took my new camera with me to camp, but didn't take a lot of photos. It seemed like I was having too much fun and always forgot.

On my birthday I was at camp and that night all the girls sung "happy birthday" to me and we even had a big cake. It was an ice cream cake. Who ever heard of having an ice cream cake in the winter? Anyway, it was soooo good!

Here are a few photos I took (and a few Leah took of me) -

Look! One thing we learned about at camp was animal tracking. We spotted moose tracks and rabbit tracks and lots of bird tracks! These are quail tracks, I think.
Most days were so sunny and warm! Didn't even need to wear gloves!
I tried to experiment with my new camera a little.
My main Christmas present - new snowshoes!
I love Winter Wonderland Camp!

Christmas has come and gone!

Boy, I have been so busy in Utah! People have asked me if I'm a big sister because they heard about a baby named James, and I have to say, no, I'm not a big sister. I'm an only child. That is the story Mama came up for me, and wants to keep it that way for awhile. :)

But, that said, there is a new baby in the house that is keeping everyone so busy that I haven't been able to blog much. I hope to improve that soon.

But, even with being busy with a baby, I had an awesome Christmas! I got everything I wanted! And guess what I really wanted and got? A Winter Wonderland Sleep-away trip for a Christmas/birthday present combo! What is that? It is a Girl Scout trip that they do every year where you go stay in a cabin, learn to snowshoe and ski, and play outdoors a lot. I spend an entire week there! Can't wait!

And, my birthday is only about a week away! I'll leave for camp soon after.

So what did I get? Only the best things ever!

Do you see my other main present?!
Snowshoes and a new snow outfit! PERFECT for my Winter Wonderland camp!
And my best friend Inky sent the neatest presents! A 2010 Olympic pin (Inky and I LOVE the Olympics) and a Cheburashka puzzle!
Daddy also got me a new camera! It is a digital and is really good.
Merry Christmas!

My new room

Mama and Daddy decided I was old enough to finally have a basement room, something I've been begging for for three years! Last weekend we moved all my things downstairs. I love my new room, it is a little smaller than my last one, but I have wood floors and it is so nice!

I decided to paint the back wall pink, and I LOVE it!

ANOTHER National Park to check off the list!

Mama, Daddy and I went to Rocky Mountain National Park last weekend! We flew to Colorado for one of Mama's friend's weddings and were there long enough to see a little bit of Rocky Mountain National Park, but we weren't there long enough for me to get a Jr. Ranger badge, so I'll have to go back!

Guess what we saw? Tons and tons of elk! It was awesome. At one point we even saw a big boy elk chase away another boy. It is easy to tell which ones are boys and girls because the boys have HUGE antlers!

Guess what else? There was already snow on the ground in a lot of places! I was glad to have my hoodie, because it was quite chilly.

Here are my favorite photos, and I've been updating my National Park photo album, so make sure to see it!

Isn't it pretty? It looks a little bit like Banff and Jasper, not not quite.
The sky is blue, for now... It snowed later in the day!
Here is some snow in the shade. Brrr...

Fall day at the cabin

Sorry I haven't updated for three weeks. Mama said that I really needed to get serious with school work, now that it is September. This year I'm in the fifth grade, and I'm home schooled. I have three big reports this year, a science report (I'm going to research geology), a state report, and an animal report. All are very big tasks!

But yesterday I didn't study too much because I went to the cabin instead! It was such a pretty day there, the sky was deep blue and all the underbrush was changing to yellow and red already. Can you believe it? It is already fall!

After lunch I decided to take a walk and look for all the signs of fall.

Isn't it amazing that in the mountains the leaves have already started to change?
It is a perfect day, no clouds in sight!
Isn't this plant pretty? It is turning red.
I walk down to the pond to look for frogs, but it seems like they've already left.
But there are a lot of water skeeters!
This flower is called "Bread and butter", isn't that the neatest name?

I am back from Banff and Jasper

I got back just a few days ago from my family's annual summer vacation! This year we decided to go to the Canadian Rockies, Banff and Jasper National Parks. I had such a good time! The mountains, rivers, lakes and streams were so pretty, but the best part was looking for animals.

Here is a list of what we saw:

• Grizzly Bear (yes, I know, exciting!)
• 6 Big Horn Sheep
• 3 Elk
• Lots of deer
• Pika
• Cute birds
• Coyote
• LOTS of fat squirrels
  

I have been working on an album of all my favorite photos from my trip. Here it is! I hope you like it.

Here are some of my favorite photos, all taken along the Icefields Parkway, which is the highway that connects Banff National Park with Jasper National Park.

Christmas in July!

Guess what?! My best friend in the entire world showed up in Utah two days ago! Inky is here! In addition to having my best friend visit, she brought gifts! She was so sad that she missed Christmas and my birthday last year she wanted to make up for it, and make up she did!

Having my best friend her is like the best present, but she also brought along all of these items:
1. Ugly doll toy! He is not plush like my other one. He's so cute!
2. Mama horse and baby horse toy. I love these!
3. T-shirt with girl at the pool (it is soooo cute, the girl looks like me!)
4. T-shirt with my favorite animal - owls!
5. AND...... Rebecca doll!!! Can you believe it? American Girl dolls are expensive and such a treat! The last time I got one was 1.5 years ago, I got Kaya for my birthday. Well I've been saving and saving for Rebecca. With some of the money I've been saving I'll have to buy Inky a present. Rebecca is so beautiful.

Doll party!

On Saturday all the friends Mama has met on the doll boards decided to meet up for a party. I was so excited to go because lots of my friends were going to be there, even my traveling friend Sophie! Sophie speaks beautiful French and looks a little bit like me, so I was excited to meet her.

The party was held at such a pretty garden! All the girls and I explored everywhere! It was so fun to explore and play in the garden with all my friends, even Suzie came! Inside there was food and drinks and lots of fun things to see. Mostly I was just happy to be with Mama on a girl's outing.

Sophie and I found a swing that was just perfect for us!
Isn't the garden lovely?
All the roses were in bloom, even hundreds of pink ones!
I found a wonderful spot in the shade. Doesn't it look magical here? (Also, can you see my cute hair do?)

Weekend with Mari

Do you remember Mari? She is my friend that I went to Thanksgiving Point with last fall. She is so silly and we have such a fun time together. This weekend Mari and I went with our Mama's up to a friend's cabin! It was so rainy, but I taught Mari that you can still have fun in the mountains in the rain. Mostly we played inside over the weekend, but finally the sky cleared up a little bit and we took a hike.

Mari and I love the woods in Utah! We like to pretend we are little squirrels and live outside even in the rain. But little squirrels also have dens, and they are warm and cozy!
We even spotted a squirrel on our walk, but he ran away to quickly to take a picture. We had to be extra quiet from then on...
Also the woods were FULL of wildflowers! Mari and I decided to pick some to share with Mama in the house. Aren't our bouquets beautiful?
Guess what else? Mari is working on growing her hair long! Can you tell it is longer than last fall? She says she wants it to be as long as mine, maybe even longer!

Cabin in the rain

Mama and I took a girls trip up the cabin today with all the girls in my family! We got there and took a nice walk and cleaned up a little. When we were making lunch it started to rain, and rain, and rain. Grandma's doggy Willow could hear the thunder and started getting really scared and was shaking. I was trying to tell Willow it was okay, he's so funny.

After we had hot chocolate the rain cleared up just a little. I explored near the meadow and looked at all the yellow wildflowers covered in raindrops. And then it started to rain again! We all decided we were too cold and we came home. Now I'm warm in my PJs in my room, and of course it is raining outside!
There is even snow still up at the cabin in places. Isn't that amazing?