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?

Goodbye Kirsten!

Kirsten and I had so much fun in April. We didn't do a lot outside though, because it rained and rained and rained! Bummer! We mostly worked on school work and played in my room. Kirsten has the funnest ideas for games, and she is really smart too, so working on school work with her was fun. I will miss her!

Here we are playing games in my room.
Goodbye Kirsten! Enjoy your travels!

Springtime in the garden

Kirsten and I have been having so much fun! This is a busy time of year for my home school. My new favorite subject is biology and Kirsten and I have been learning so much about plants and fungi for the last week we thought it would be fun to go to Red Butte Garden and test our skills.

FINALLY the weather has cleared up a little bit. After our sunny day on Easter it snowed and rained again for an entire week, but today is just perfect, a perfect day for the garden that is. Kirsten was very interested in Red Butte Garden, their gardening methods in the desert of Utah, and how the entire garden is actually built on the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains! It was so fun to walk around and look at the daffodils, which were all in bloom!

We are excited to explore the garden. Kirsten is excited because it is NOT raining!
Look at all the daffodils! Hundreds and hundreds were in bloom.
Aren't they pretty?
I even wore my yellow garden shirt!
Kirsten and I walked all through the garden and spotted lots of birds, butterflies and squirrels. It was fun! Kirsten even saw one extra fat squirrel she named Nutty.

Great Salt Lake

Yesterday I went to the Great Salt Lake for a report I am doing for home school. I had to pick one interesting thing about Utah and write a two page report, I picked the Great Salt Lake. It was a windy but clear day and Mama and Daddy said they would drive me for some "in person research". I've been to the Great Salt Lake before, when I was little. This time we looked at the salty sand and I found some cat prints in the mud. The lake has gone down a lot so we didn't walk all the way out to the water because the sand was too stinky. It was pretty though, in a really lonely way, maybe I'll write that in my report. Hopefully it will get warmer soon and we can go to other interesting Utah locations. My vote is Zion National Park in Southern Utah.

Anna Lee left yesterday and I'm feeling a little sad

Anna Lee was here for over a month and I really got used to having my "Yosemite sister" so close. We had a sleep over every night, Anna Lee helped me with my home schooling (and Mama even gave her some assignments), and we've been playing fairies and winter princesses a lot. I'm really going to miss her now.

Anyway, while she was here we worked on a photo album. She wrote all the captions. I hope you like it!

Anna Lee Visits Utah

Love Violet

I have been just horrible about updating

Anna Lee is still here. We've done some much for the last two weeks, but I've been horrible about updating! We've had a New Year's Eve party with Lei Mei, we've played lots of games in my room, we've watched some movies and we celebrated the inauguration of President Obama! AND, guess what else? We are going to the farmhouse again tomorrow! Anna Lee is very excited because she knows what to expect. I will miss her when she heads back home next week.

Do you want to see our Obama ball? We watched the inauguration on TV and then danced and cheered for the rest of the night. We had such a fun time, and we dressed in beautiful outfits! Yea for Obama (and guess what else, Malia is almost exactly my age! Wouldn't it be fun to live in the White House and have your Mama or Daddy be president?)

We watched the entire inauguration in our ball gowns, it was so fun!
Yea yea yea for President Obama! Look at my new dresses, Anna Lee is borrowing a new gold dress Mama got me, and isn't my blue one beautiful?
And now that the inauguration is over, I've been working on a report about presidents in the USA for school (home school). I had to write about what having a new president means to me. It was a hard report. I wished Inky was here to help me, she is so smart when it comes to presidents and stuff.

More NYC visits: Teddy Roosevelt NHS and Tibet House

Inky and I did another Junior Ranger program yesterday! Now we are officially Junior Rangers at the Theodore Roosevelt National Historic Site. President Roosevelt lived ages and ages ago. He did some cool stuff like advocate for Universal Health Care, clean up the NYPD, and named his son Kermit.

Inky and I have earned FIVE Junior Ranger badges together. They are:

1. Canyonlands National Park
2. Cape Cod National Seashore
3. New Bedford Whale National Historical Park
4. Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site
5. Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

One of the best parts of being homeschooled is getting to do awesome stuff like earn Junior Ranger badges all the time! Inky's even luckier than me- she's unschooled, so she doesn't even have to do math homework (ew!).


We also visited the Tibet House, a museum and gallery about Tibet. This is me and Inky in front of a statue of His Holiness, Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama. He is one of my heroes because of his support for peace.

Who are your heroes?

P.S. You can see all our pictures from our trip here.

Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site

Inky and I had another adventure last weekend! Since both of us are homeschooled, we often get to read really cool books that other kids might not have the chance to read in school. It turns out both of us are big fans of Edgar Allan Poe. We got the chance to visit one of his homes, in Philadelphia, on Saturday.


Here we are on the front steps of the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site. In order to get in, you have to bang the knocker once. Then, a park ranger will let you in. We were a little nervous! The ranger reassured us that when they restored the house, they checked under all the floorboards!


The first thing we did was ask if the Site had a Junior Ranger program- they did! We got our booklets and got to work. We saw a video about Poe's life and looked over the exhibits. One of the rangers asked us if we'd like to go on a ranger tour. Of course we did!


She showed us all over Poe's house. There wasn't any furniture, but we climbed up the narrow staircases and looked out his windows. We learned that Edgar Poe married his cousin, Virginia Clem, when she was only thirteen! Wow! That's not much older than me and Inky. We agreed that we definitely are not ready to get married, even if a famous author asked us.


The last room we saw on our tour was the cellar. It was dark and damp. The ranger told us a scary story called "The Black Cat." Then she revealed the false chimney that inspired the story! Inky and I got shivers up and down our backs. You'll have to read the story yourself to find out why! This picture is of us climbing on the false chimney.


After the tour, the ranger gave us keys to a large trunk. We had to complete several activities with the items in the trunk in order to complete our Junior Ranger booklet. When we finished, we received our badges! One of the rangers took our picture with the ranger who led our tour.

Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site is definitely the creepiest National Park we've been to so far!

FROGS!

I love frogs. And I love the cabin. And I love sleeping outdoors.

We went to the cabin last weekend and the meadow was full of frogs! They were so noisy and cute, I loved to catch them and look at them. I was always super careful though, and always put them back. Daddy said that I shouldn't move them, because they might miss their girlfriends. :)

You have to be very still and very quiet when you look for frogs.
This year the meadow was really really flooded. There were mini rivers and ponds everywhere which made lots and lots of good places for the frogs to hide. Today I'm writing a report on frogs.

When doing my research I found this-
Here is a list of some of the different ways people think frogs sound around the world!
Afrikaans: kwaak-kwaak
Arabic (Algeria): gar gar
Catalan: cru�-cru�
Chinese (Mandarin): guo guo
Dutch: kwak kwak
English (USA): ribbit
English (GB): croak
Finnish: kvak kvak
French: coa-coa
German: quaak, quaak
Hebrew: kwa kwa
Hungarian: bre-ke-ke
Italian: cra cra
Japanese: kerokero
Korean: gae-gool-gae-gool
Russian: kva-kva
Spanish (Spain): cru�-cru�
Spanish (Argentina): berp
Spanish (Peru): croac, croac
Swedish: kvack
Thai: ob ob (with high tone)
Turkish: vrak vrak
Ukrainian: kwa-kwa

Aren't they cute? They are really slimy and fast, but I finally caught one!

School and Ruthie

Since we got back from the Caribbean I have been busy finishing my school year. Because I'm home schooled, I don't really ever stop learning, but most of my assignments are done until next fall. That means I can spend the summer working on my Chinese, Russian and Italian, some of my favorite subjects.

And guess what else? There is a new girl living down the road here. She is so funny, her name is Ruthie, and she is from the 1930s. Kit has been talking and talking about Ruthie for ages, she is going to flip to see that Ruthie is here when she gets back from her Aunt Millie's.

Welcome to Utah Ruthie!

The first day she arrived Rachel and I threw her a party. We all dressed as 1930s girls and enjoyed the sunshine in the back yard.

Assignment for school-

Some of you know I'm home schooled. I really like to be home schooled, but I also really miss going to a regular school with other kids my age. I am home schooled because I travel so much (sometimes the whole school year), and I'd rather travel than go to a regular school.

Here is an assignment I did today for school, I had to take my name and describe myself with the letters. What do you think?

V- Very cute and smart
I - Interested in seeing the world
O-Only likes waffles with real maple syrup!
L-Long black hair
E-Energetic!
T- Terrible about making my bed