All the rides before this weren’t scary at all, but this…this was a whole new thrill level.  Over the tall light-green mountains was the drop that made the ride famous.  It was a 90 degree drop from stories high.  If looking at it freaked me out, then riding it would be a whole other story.  I couldn’t back out now, I had to do it.  I tried to ponder the best excuse to back out with so that my sisters wouldn’t think I couldn’t handle it, but my mind went blank as I gazed at the drop.  I froze just looking at the size of it and how it towered over the mountains.  I now understood how it got it’s name.

“Yay this is it!” shrieked Olivia.

I spoke while looking at the ground,“oh yeah I can’t wait.”

“Don’t  worry Lily it’s nothing you’ll enjoy it.”  Interrupted Emma.

I barked back, “haha I know that I’m not even worried.”

  My sisters and I waited all summer to go to Kings Dominion.  Only Olivia and Emma were going to go because Sophia is terrified of roller coasters, so I thought that I would be courageous and go with them to ride some frightening rides.  Hearing about the Intimidator made it seem a little scary but it didn’t seem like something I couldn’t handle.  I mean, most of my friends had gone on it anyway so I shouldn’t even get scared.  But this unwell feeling in the bottom of my stomach made me a little uneasy.  I told myself almost a hundred times that it probably wouldn’t even be scary but the feeling never went away.  It was too late now though, because I was already in the car halfway to the amusement park.

    “Wow Soph is really gonna miss out,” said Olivia.

    “Well not all people can handle scary rides, isn’t that right Lily?” questioned Emma.

I nervously replied, “Oh me?! Ha yeah this isn’t scary at all.”

We started off on rides with low thrill levels and planned to work our way up.  Although we made a different version of the plan and just started at the thrill level of 3.  First we went on a couple water rides that weren’t too chilling, but then the rides started getting extremely high up in the air.  I’m not exactly scared of heights but you’re kind of bound to get scared going on a ride traveling almost 60 mph thats stories high.  As we got into higher thrill levels, that small bit of confidence I had completely disappeared.  I still kept trying to convince myself that it wouldn’t be that bad but it was no use, I was terrified.

This was it.  The ride we came for was right in front of me.  I unhurriedly walked over to the entrance, trying to waste time.  My sister urged me along so that we wouldn’t have to wait in a long line, but I was praying for the exact opposite.  Of course the line was exceedingly short and we were next.  The man over the intercom ordered us into our seats and read the rules for going on the ride.  My eyes got cloudy while I was waiting for my death.

“Please keep your hands and other body parts in the ride at all times,” the man read.

“Isn’t this so exciting!” smirked Olivia, “But its not too late to back out you know.”

“Oh please this?” I started, “This is nothing.”

“Ha!” barked Emma, “We’ll see about that.”

“Have fun and enjoy the ride,” the man finally read.

He finished his lines and pressed the start button.

I clenched the bar in front of me and went blank.  My heart was practically beating out of my chest when the ride started going up. It went up, and up, and up for seconds that felt like hours. Then we reached the top and all I could see was the big blue sky. That one wonderful moment was interrupted when the ride went over a little bump and started to go down.  My heart dropped when my vision was blinded by the air rushing across my face.  Then in an instant it was over. We exited the ride and that was it.  I rode the Intimidator.

Crrrunch! Crackk! The twigs snapped under my feet as I slowly made my way down to the bank. “Grab a paddle!” Phoebe yelled up to me.

Phoebe, Mein, Addison, and I were all in Maine on vacation. Our parents were all out for a fancy dinner. We decided we wanted to kayak out to a little beach in the middle of the lake. “I don’t think this is the best idea” my brother, Addison, grumbled. “You’re just grumpy!” I responded. “Hmph!” he grumbled back a me.

I continued running down the hill until I reached the water, PLOP! I dropped the paddle into the wet grassy bank. I felt the water splash on my arms. I suddenly felt very worried about going out in the kayaks, after all we only had two life jackets, two kayaks, the water was freezing cold, and nobody was there to help if we got in trouble. “Come on Addison” Phoebe sighed as she and Addison carried the little blue kayak down the steep hill.

“I feel like this is not going to go well” Addison said nervously. I kind of agreed with him now, so many things could go wrong. Phoebe and Addison then slid the kayak into the water. Now two little kayaks were swaying along with the current. “Mein! Hurry up!” I screamed up to the house. Mein the slowly started to walk down the hill, “We want to get there before the sun goes down completely!”

Mein then picked up her pace and finally reached the bank. Addison the pulled on a life jacket and climbed into the bigger kayak, then phoebe climbed in. I handed them a paddle and pushed the off the bank into the freezing salty water. “Ill get in first” Mein said as she pulled on the life jacket and hopped into the tiny boat. I then put one foot into the kayak while trying to hold the shore. Slowly I began to place my other foot into the small space left for me, “Ahhhhhh!” The kayak rolled onto its side. The frigged water soaked my feet. What happened? I wondered nervously.

“Are you guys okay!?” Addison yelled. “Yeah, we’re going to try again!” Mein shouted, I then stood up and moved away from the kayak. “How about you get in first this time.” Mein said as she continued to giggle about the mishap. Slowly I made my way back over all the cold, barnacle covered, slimy rocks. Behind me water was trickling down the rocky stream. As I walked the water splash around my feet as Mein had slipped and almost fell entirely into the water. When I reached the kayak I picked up the picnic basket as water dripped of it as I placed it behind the seat. Then i placed my foot into the kayak, it shook unsteadily while i sat down. “Mein, don’t tip us!” But it was too late.

The kayak rolled into the ocean, so did I. I tried to grab the barnacle covered rocks as we tipped. The sharp barnacle slit open my hand as I continued slipping. My hand was stinging, it felt like my hand was bursting into flames.

“Oh my gosh! Are you alright!?” Phoebe shouted to us, “Yeah everything is wet though!” Mein shouted back. I was not okay, my hand was throbbing and stinging. Tears began streaming down my face as I got up out of the water. “Anna, what’s wrong!?” Mein said to me. I just held up my hand. A bloody gash stretched across my palm. “Go wash your hand!” Mein said “Just run up to the house and wash it!” As I started running up the hill I declared one thing, I would never going kayaking in the dark again.

   “Russell,” I woke up to my dad telling me to wake up, “Wake up.  We’re about to land in Boise.”  My dad, me, and brother Owen were flying to Boise, Idaho to see a Boise State Broncos game.  Owen had planned the trip and my dad asked if Robert and I wanted to go.  I was all in for it, but Robert said no.  Later, he was begging that either Owen or I wouldn’t go.

I thought, here we go again.  I hope I won’t puke today or Sunday.  When I could see out the window, I saw a whole lot of hills and mountains.

    “So this is Boise,” I said, “Looks more like Phoenix.”

    “Shut Up,” Owen retaliated, “Dad, why did he have to go?”

    “Because I wanted to,” I replied.

    “You just wanted to annoy me, right?”

    “No I didn’t.”

“Stop fighting you guys.  Besides, we came here to have fun. Not to spend all of our time fighting.”  That was dad; always getting in between our fights (which is a good thing so we don’t get physical).  Now we had to get our rental car.

    “Who knew Boise was called the City of Trees,” I said.

    “Shut Up and wait for dad to get the rental car,” Owen retorted.

The car was a Ford escape.  While we were looking for any damage to the exterior; we could see several jets taking off from Gowen Field next to BOI (Boise Air Terminal).

“Looks like a F-15 (F=Fighter) Eagle and some A-10 (A=Attack) Thunderbolts or Warthogs.  Out here in the mountains,” I said to myself.  I was hoping that 5 ¼ hours or flying that Friday would be worth the game on Saturday.

The 18th passed by with us walking through downtown near our hotel.  We also went to the Idaho Capitol building, checked out our room (you could see Bronco Stadium from our room (the top of it or the lights)).  We also went to Grove Plaza and ate at Papa Joe’s Italian Restaurant.

“Who do you think Corso is going to pick?” I asked Owen.

“Probably FSU (Florida State),” he replied.

“Well, we’ll find out later.”

   It was 0850 hours MT (Mountain Time). We had been watching College Gameday since 0700 hours MT.  At the end, Lee Corso always had headgear which he put on for whichever team he thought would win the big game on Saturday.

    One time when the game was LSU (Louisiana State) vs. Alabama, Corso said, “Let me hear it!”  “Roll Tide (Fans are in italics)!”  “Again!”  “Roll Tide!”  “One more time!”  “Roll Tide!”  “Alright! Roll Tigers!” This week the game was the Clemson Tigers vs. the Florida State Seminoles.  Corso picked FSU over Clemson.

    “Say, why don’t we go down to the fitness center while we’re waiting,” said dad.

    “Good idea.  Let’s go,” I replied.

    “Okay, let me finish my coffee first,” he said.

   We stayed down there until 0945 hours.  By then it was around ten minutes until Corso made his pick and we decided to go upstairs.  After Corso made his pick, we decided what to do and the decision was made to go to the Idaho State History museum until around 1130 hours.  We had lunch going by Bronco Stadium to Big Jud’s.  There they have giant one pound and two pound burgers.  The Big Jud and the Double Big Jud.  I got a smaller burger while Owen and dad got a Big Jud burger and split it.

    “Are you going to send the picture of the regular burger and the Big Jud side by side to mom and Robert?” I asked Owen.

    “What do you think idiot. Of course,” Owen snapped.

    “Okay. Okay. You don’t need to be a wackadoo about it.,” I replied.

    “Hey dad, did you know that we actually parked illegally,” Owen said.

    “Really? Why didn’t the car get impounded?” Dad asked.

    “Because we had Arizona licence Plates,” Owen replied.

    “Oh. Who knew?” Dad said.

    “Mr. Know-it-All right there,” I said.

    “Shut Up,” Owen snarled.

At 1720 hours, we went to the game.  After witnessing the tailgating and taking a kick on replica field goal posts; we checked out our seats.  We were in the upper deck, Section 101, Row CC, Seats 16-18.

“Dad, I know you like the Upper Deck, but this is too far.  It takes over a minute to get up here,” I stated, “I’ll probably lose a pound or two climbing up and down,” I thought.

The first half was unfortunate for the Broncos with the score being 17-7, Nevada.  The Broncos senior QB (Quarterback), Joe Southwick, broke his ankle on the first play.

Backup junior QB Grant Hedricks had a controversial play when he ran for 49 yds.  Everyone wanted the flag to be thrown, including us.

    Dad said, “He tackled him when he was out of bounds.  That’s a personal foul.”

They didn’t call Nevada on it, but Boise Scored a touchdown.  The Broncos rebounded in the 2nd Half winning by a score of 17-37. In the third Quarter, HB (halfback) Jay Ajayi ran for a 79 yard Touchdown with a second in the 4th Quarter.

Led by Grant Hedricks and Jay Ajayi; Boise won the game.  Ajayi had around 300 rushing yds. and 3 TDs (Touchdowns).  Hedricks was 18-21 with 1 INT (Interception), 150 passing yds. and 1 rushing TD.

The next day was when we left.  The trip out to Boise was one of the most un trips I ever had behind those to see Grandma and Grandpa out in Freeland, WA (Washington).

I said at Reagan National Airport, “11 ½ hours of flying and running through SLC (Salt Lake City) to make our next flight home, was worth it.”

We were in Boise on the 18th, 19th, 20th and had a lot of fun and the best restaurant (in my opinion) or Boise and the one you have to go to is Fresh off the Hook.   It is a street north and a couple streets over to the west from the Hampton Inn in downtown Boise on Capital Blvd.

 I was woken up by the ring of my phone. I picked up the phone and I heard my mom say to me, “ Get up and get ready, we are going to rent a boat today. Your dad and I will bring you guys breakfast and we will be home in ten minutes, hurry up so that we can get the boat!”

Right after I hit end call on my phone, I thought to myself, I have two choices. I could get up now and get ready to go on the boat, or I could lay in bed for a while longer, and possibly make us late for the boat. I decided that I should really get up, so I woke up Maddie and Olivia and I told them to start getting ready, and that  we are renting a boat. Mom and dad are going to bring us breakfast in ten minutes.

Ten minutes had passed and my mom and dad came back into the hotel room and we were on our way to the dock to get the boat. My mom said, “ Hurry up, we have to get down to the dock so no one rents the boat before us. If someone rents it before us than we can`t get the boat.”

As I started to walk faster, I said,  ‘Than we all should start to walk faster!”

There was no way that Maddie would ever start to walk faster. She was not very excited for this adventure. Right after my mom said that is started to walk a bit faster to get to the dock. My dad signed the papers and we all got on the boat, we found out that the boat was a pontoon. I was sitting down next to Honey and Daisy, (my two dachshunds) Daisy was shaking a bit, I think she was scared of the water. My mom and dad put the tube in the boat and said,” So, who wants to go tubing first?” After my dad asked us that Maddie and Olivia both said, “Not me!”, at the same time.

I thought to myself, well I do not really have a choice but to go first. So I yelled to my dad, “ I guess I will just go first.”

Once we pulled out of the dock and got a couple miles out onto the lake, my dad hooked the tube onto the boat. I put my life jacket on and my dad said to jump into the tube, I hesitated a little bit but then I jumped in.

 My dad yelled to me and asked if I  was ready, I said yes and I started to rush through the water in the tube. At first I was going a bit slow, but then my dad started so speed up a little bit. I could feel the mist of the water in my face, and the nice breeze. We hit a couple wakes and they totally changed the pace, I started to go a bit slow and then all the sudden I was bouncing up and down. Right as I started to bounce up and down on the tube, I thought to myself, oh gosh if this tube tips over I am not going to be happy. I was relieved when we passed through the wake, it was a little bit smoother than it was when we went through the wake. After about five to ten minutes, my dad stopped and asked me if I wanted to come in yet.By the time that my dad asked me that,I was a bit cold from the wind and the water so I yelled back too him, “ Yes please!

After he pulled me in I had to climb up the ladder  and up onto the boat. My two dachshunds were there to greet me, they looked like they we very happy. My mom told me that Honey was crying when I was in the tube. I thought to myself, wow she must have thought that I would never come back from the water. I layed down to get some sun to warm up.

 I got a snack and a drink out of the cooler. While I was eating my snack I was still warming up in the sun. After having a relaxing half hour in the sun, my dad let me drive the boat for a couple minutes. Part of driving the boat was a little bit scary for me. Every once and a while we would have to turn, which was not easy for me. The good thing was that, my dad was right behind me so if I needed any help, he was right behind me. Olivia asked me if I wanted to jump off the boat and going swimming in the lake. I thought that it would be fun so I said, “Sure that sounds like a good idea.”

I was hoping that the water would not be too cold today.

 We put our life jackets on and we went to the end of the boat. I walked to the end of the boat and Olivia said,” So who is going to jump first?”

I responded by saying, “ Well, I think that you should just jump first. I was the one who went tubing any ways.”

She just looked at me and said, “ If you do not jump then there is no way that I will jump.”

I did not say anything back to her, Olivia was not going to jump off the boat, so I just jumped.

The water wasn’t so cold, it felt pretty refreshing. Olivia wouldn’t jump into the water so I swam around the boat and went up the ladder on the side of the boat.

If Olivia was not going to jump in the water, then I guess that I would just have to push her off the boat. So I pushed her a little bit and she fell into the water, I jumped right in after Olivia fell in..My mom asked me, “How was the water?”,

I said, “ The water was not too cold it felt good.”

My dad said that we only had about an hour left on the boat. It felt like the last hour flashed by in the blink of an eye. We were heading for the dock, so my mom asked all of us to start, to pick up all of our stuff. I picked up a bag and I found Daisy in our towel bag. I picked it up and we pulled into the dock.

We hooked the boat onto the dock and we got out of the boat. The people that worked there started to re-fill the boat with gas. They were filling the boat up with gas and it was really loud, I thought wow, who would ever think filling up a boat with gas would be this loud? We walked to the car and went back to the hotel. I was so sad that the day was over. The day felt like it was only an hour long.

“Race you to the bottom,” I yelled to Peter over the sound of the chair lift.

“OK so what route are we going to take?” Peter said pointing at the small map on the chair lift. The map had blue lines, green lines, and black lines. It looked like a 4 year old had scribbled on a picture of a mountain. It made it even more confusing  that I was FREEZING.

 After studying the map for a while I said. “How about… we take Frenchman down to Schoolmarm and finish off on Fox Run,” I said while adjusting my goggles.

“OK,” said Peter kicking the snow off his snowboard.

We were at Keystone Resort in Colorado.  It was a beautiful day, the sky was blue, the snow was falling, the Rocky Mountains in our view.  That was on the main side on the mountain…. We were on the north face which was windier, colder, and rougher.  We were both freezing and nervous but  we weren’t showing it.  We were in a standoff.  Neither of us would admit we were cold or nervous.

We jumped off the chair lift.  As we were tightening our bindings, I said trying to act casual, “Loser owes the winner hot chocolate back at the lodge.”

“Deal,” Peter said shaking my hand.

READY……SET……GO!

We were neck and neck and then half way down Frenchmen I slipped on a chunk of ice and face planted into a pile of snow and Peter took the lead.  I was frozen.  I got to a the intersection and Peter was still in the lead.  There was a sign with two arrows.  One said Schoolmarm- 1 mile to Fox Run. The other said, Sidewinder- 5 miles to Bottom.  This is my chance to get back in the lead, “I thought to myself. Peter took Schoolmarm but I could take Sidewinder and beat him to the bottom.”

I got to the Start of sidewinder and went down 10 feet.  Then there was a sign that read: “Sidewinder” and it had a black diamond next to it!  Now I have to go back to the intersection and go down schoolmarm.  Now Peter would definitely beat me. I jumped so I was facing to the top of the hill and noticed it was too steep to go up. Now I had to go on the black diamond but it was my first time and no one was with me.  I looked down “well I’m going to die” I thought to myself.

“OK. suck it up Nick, you have to go”.  I looked down at the steep angled slope. I felt my jaw drop.  I flipped back around and slowly started going down the slope.  Under my breath, I said a prayer. I remember what the first thing I learned was about snowboarding: “side to side, side to side,” I thought to myself. I had to use the whole slope to slow down but I was still going fast. I felt like one of the snowboarders from the north face commercials.  All I could hear was the sound of the wind and the board flying through the snow.

In the distance, I saw the end of the slope and the lodge.  I also saw Peter on the end of Fox Run . It was going to be a race to the finish.  I forgot everything I ever learned about snowboarding and did not slow down,  but just headed straight for the finish.  Peter came out of the trail and bumped right into me.  We were almost to the bottom, I could taste the hot chocolate already.

We raced head to head until the end of the trail and it was a tie.  “Ha, ha” we were both laughing. “Well who wins?” I asked Peter laughing .

“How about we do it again after lunch and have a tie breaker, but this time winner owes loser cake at dinner.

“Deal.” I said shaking his hand

“But this time no black diamonds,” Peter said sarcastically

    It was a warm sunny day and one of the last days of summer. Ryan my brother, are friends Ben, Jack, and I had no idea what to do. We were all bored out of our minds and nobody wants to be bored when school starts in a few days. Everyone was  starving. I got up and screamed “Let’s go to IHOP!” We were all excited to go and jumped on our bikes. “It’s only going to be 3 miles but some of it is uphill and it’s terrible weather for riding the bikes.” said Ben. We started riding and I was already behind “Sean, hurry up!” yelled Jack. I was already tired on this hot humid day. We went a shortcut through a bunch of construction developments. A bunch of construction people were yelling “Get out of the way!” It wasn’t really the best idea to go ride through where a bunch of construction people were. When we came out of the shortcut, it just made the ride longer. We all started cracking up when we saw a giant grocery cart with corn flakes, milk, and a package of hot dogs in someones yard.  Until we got to Simpson baseball field nobody said a word. Jack yelled “ Turn right since it’s not there are no cars on this street!” We all followed him. The only problem with this street it was a longer ride. In my head I was wondering why we didn’t just have my mom drop us off but I guess it was better to ride our bikes. Before I knew it we were at IHOP.

We walked into IHOP and the air conditioning felt amazing.  It felt like we were in a winter wonderland. IHOP had tan walls with tables everywhere and pictures of food. There were waiters everywhere waiting to serve the next customer. We all sat down in one big booth. The waitress brought us waters and immediately asked for our orders. Ben and I ordered chicken and waffles, Jack got pancakes, and Ryan french toast. When we were waiting for our food we all played paper football with the little packets you put in your coffee. That was really boring because Ben would score every time. A few minutes later the waiter came out with the food. The chicken was very crispy and looked amazing but the waffles were cold. It was a really weird combination but tasted amazing. I took a bite and I was astonished of the taste of the chicken and waffles. “This is amazing” Ben said to everyone”. “I can’t wait until football starts even though the Giants are going to be bad”. After that we all talked about the upcoming NFL season. After each bite the chicken and waffles got better. In about ten minutes we were all finished. It was definitely one of the best meals I have had in a while. We walked up to the cash register and payed the money. After that we got on our bikes and went to Target talking about how the meal was so good.

    We walked into Target and saw thousands of items. I immediately said “Let’s play a game where one person goes to the other side of the store and the other people try to find them.” “I’ll go.” said Jack.  We counted to 30 and Jack was gone. We had no idea where to go first. RING RING, I picked up my phone and of course it was Jack. At the moment we were walking around the store. “You’re going the wrong way Sean” Jack whispered. Then he hung up. Ben and Ryan started talking. “We are never going to find him” said Ben. “Yeah, we should just call him and leave this is boring” said Ryan. For the next ten minutes we walked around the store with no hope we would find him.” Right then I saw Jack near the electronics section. We all started sprinting throughout the store. When we were running I saw one of my mom’s friends. I quickly ran the other way so she couldn’t see me. “ Ben he went this way” I said. I turned the corner there Jack was. I tagged him and the game was over. “That was fun.” we all said. We all walked around the store just talking after that.

As we were walking through the bathroom supplies section for some reason Ryan found a plunger. Then on the white tile floor I found a small foam football. Jack suggested we play a game of baseball. Ryan wanted to be the umpire, I was the outfielder, Ben was the pitcher, and Jack was the batter. There was barely any room between the two isles. There was a big wall behind me. Toys of Spongebob and Dora were every where in the isle. We all started screaming “Strike him out!” Ben wound  up and lobbed the football into Jack. Jack swung with all his might and destroyed the ball. The ball went flying on top of an aisle, but quickly came tumbling down. There was a old lady and teenage son standing right where the ball was going to land. All the pressure was on me. I sprinted to the cart the old lady had and reached out as far as I could into the cart. The ball landed perfectly in my hand. The lady and her screamed as loud as they could when I caught the ball. They had definitely not seen that coming. “We won!” we yelled as we laughed to get ready for the next pitch. “See that catch Jack?” I said. He laughed and said “Yes.” Ben got ready for the next pitch, but an employee told us to stop and leave the store. The guy was still laughing since he saw the whole thing happen.

    We walked out of the store to our bikes, got on, and rode all the way home through the humid air. That was definitely a day to remember.

      On a hot August day, I got out of the car after long drive with my dad. We walked up to a big house and knocked on the front door. A nice forty-something woman answered the door and said, “You must be Gretchen ‘s husband and daughter, do you want to see the puppies?” She led us to her garage where there were two fenced in areas. In each area there was a crate with a mother dog and her puppies. One litter of 8 puppies were a week and the other litter of 10 puppies was only a day old. Sharon, the breeder, showed us one puppy from each litter. She gave my dad the older puppy and handed me the newborn puppy. He fit into both my hands and laid there sleeping. He couldn’t see or hear  me because his eyes and ears were not working yet. Daddy and I talked for awhile to decide which to puppy to pick. This was a really hard choice, because, we had to pick a dog that had the right markings and was it going to be a good dog for our family? We finally decided that the newborn was the cuter puppy.

       Sharon said, “He is a good choice, but I must warn you that he may die. Sometimes newborn puppies die because they are too small and weak or their mother can accidentally lay on them. When this happens they can suffocate.  But, I will do my best to keep him safe.”, “Oh!”I said  I didn’t expect to hear this. How could my little puppy die? I had fallen in love with him already. I could picture him living at my house and snuggling on the couch with me. I asked Sharon how she would keep him safe. She said, “I have hired a dog sitter who will watch the puppies all day and my family will watch them all night. Last year one of the puppies was smothered by the mother and we were very sad.”

      I drove home with my dad and worried about my little puppy. Would he be safe? Would I ever see him again? Daddy and I made a list of names on our way home. When we got home we told Mom John all about the puppy. We decided on the name Chip since he looked like a chocolate chip. We told Mom about the danger of the puppy being smothered by his mother. A few days went by and we didn’t hear anything. I started to wonder if Chip was okay. Would she she call if he died or wait until our next visit?

    A week later Sharon called to tell us Chip was doing fine and we could visit any time. The dog sitter kept the mother and puppies safe while puppies grew big to enough survive if their mother laid on top of them. I was so relieved and wanted to visit him right away!

       When I returned on September 22, 2013, on a chilly day in Havre De Grace in Maryland, my best friend Mica D. and  I were looking through a fenced in area. It was big enough to comfortably hold at least 3 grown men. The bottom of the area was covered in cedar chips and the was a bigger version of a rabbit hutch. I wondered if there were still 10 puppies. If one was missing, would Chip be there. All of the sudden 10 rolly-poly little puppies came tumbling out of the entrance of the rabbit hutch! All of the puppies came up to Mica and I and looked up at us with curiosity because they had just opened their eyes. Almost all of the puppies were about a month old and they were still used to walking so, they were a bit wobbly on their feet. Each puppy had different markings and colors. Most were a chocolate brown with splotches of white all over their small bodies. The puppies wriggled with joy as Mica and I fawned over them.

    Then we both  heard footsteps behind us, and just as we looked behind us, we saw that my seven year old brother John was running towards the cage with a look of pure glee upon his face, followed by my mom, and right on her tail was one of the breeders dogs Brownie who was the older sister of the litter, and the breeder, Sharon, walked up to us.  Sharon politely said “Excuse me” and slipped into the cage to give each of us a puppy to hold. I was handed Chip a.k.a puppy Number Eight which in the next month or so he would be in the car with me and my family. That is because my family is adopting  him and will bring him back to our house in Alexandria. The puppy that was handed to Mica, was a puppy with no name and no adoptive family to go to yet, so he went by puppy Number Two. The two boys were from the same mother. I sat down in a plastic lawn chair nearby with tiny Chip in my arms.

My brother John came up to me and, of course, started to complain. “ I wanna hold him!!!!!” he whined, “ Mooooom! Tell Grace to give Chip to meeee!” With that statement he burst into tears from the frustration. “John,” my mom said gently, “ go play with Brownie. She wants to play fetch with you!”. “Really?” he said sniffing. “Yeah, really.” she reassured him. “Okay!” he said his face brightening, and with that he ran off to play with Brownie. I was secretly relieved because I didn’t want John to accidentally drop Chip.

It was a chilly that day so Chip started to shiver in my arms. The puppy in Mica’s arms was doing the same.  I was cold too and I had left my jacket in my mom’s car. “Mom!” I yelled, “Can you go get my coat from the car?” Mom replied, “Yes! Be right back!” and disappeared to the front of the house where Sharon lived. After a couple minutes, Mom appeared with my rainbow striped coat in hand. “Here.” she said and handed me the fuzzy multicolored coat. “Thanks.” I said as I handed Chip to Mom for a moment so I could put the coat on. Then, all of the sudden I had an idea. I took the puppy back from Mom and placed the shivering pup inside and zipped the jacket up halfway. Mica saw what I was doing and did the same with her red and white Holster jacket. Both pups settled in immediately and fell asleep.I relaxed and sat back in the chair with a sigh. As I embraced the puppy’s tiny warm body, I knew that he was the perfect puppy for me.

I was half asleep when I heard the first explosion. It all started when after waiting for what seemed to be forever, he finally walked onto the stage.  Nationals Park Stadium was packed with people wanting to see him. The crowd cheered so loud that people three blocks away must have heard. Despite the fact that I couldn’t hear what he was saying, I still couldn’t believe that from only 30 rows away, Paul McCartney was picking up his guitar getting ready to play. When he turned on the microphone everyone got quiet to hear him. “Good evening Washington D.C.”! The microphone was so loud that people realized that they didn’t need to be quiet to hear, and started cheering again.

   After a couple minutes of talking to the crowd, he finally started playing. The G chord rang out through the entire stadium.  His first song was Eight Days a Week. It was hard to see him on the stage because everybody in front of me was standing up. I thought for a minute about what to do. I decided to ask my dad.

“Dad, I asked, I can’t see what should I do”?

“You can stand up on your chair”, he replied.

Once I stood up on my chair I could see a lot better.

My dad’s friend Ramsey came too with his daughter. My mom brought a friend too, but her seats were with  Ramsey, away from us. Before Ramsey went to his seat, he gave me a box of glow sticks. I gave some to my brothers and used the rest for myself. I put the glow sticks together like a necklace and put them around my neck.  My brothers saw me and tried to do it too. About halfway through the concert I got hungry.

“Mom can you get me a hot dog?” I asked

“Sure”, she replied.

My mom went into the stadium to find a hot dog stand. 15 minutes later she came back with a hot dog for me and cotton candy for my brothers. After eating their cotton candy, my brothers got really tired. They started to drift off  The band started playing Live and Let Die. I didn’t know the song very well but I had heard it before. It was getting late I thought. It had to be at least 11:00. My brothers were asleep and I was really tired.  I was starting to drift off when I heard the first explosion. I almost jumped out of my seat as the black sky was filled with a mixture of bright colors and a deafening BOOM. Both of my brothers bolted up to see what had happened.

“What was that”? I asked

“Look at the sky”, my dad replied, pointing up.

On the stage they had what seemed to be jets of fire. Another firework shot into the sky. The band played as fire shot out in all directions. I sat awestruck watching the different colors explode in the sky. I was barely listening to the music. I thought that it was loud before this song, but this was crazy. After the song, the sky slowly got darker as the jets turned off and the fire dimmed.   Once we were all awake, Paul asked the audience if they had liked the fireworks. The crowd screamed yes in almost perfect unison. Paul pointed at his ear and shook his head.

“Too loud”, he said to the audience, with a smile on his face hinting sarcasm.

Everyone laughed at his remark and he started the next song.

   Paul had been playing for almost three hours. My brothers were asleep now. I wondered how they could sleep with the music so loud. After Paul finished what he said would be the last song, he came back on for three encores! At the end, there were cannons behind the stage that shot out red, white, and blue confetti.    There was so much of it that it rained red white and blue   for almost 10 minutes.  When the concert was over, it was almost 12:30 am.  We all went back to the parking lot where our car was. It took us a while to get back because so many people were trying to leave at once.  Once we got back to the car, we found Ramsey there with his daughter.

“She said it was too loud so we came back here for the second half”, Ramsey told us in response to our quizzical looks. Once we were all in the car, we started heading home. I was glad I finally had gotten to see Paul McCartney.

I rode in to South Beach (a small town in Hilton Head South Carolina) on my bike, my family in front of me already locking their bikes together.  It was a perfect day.  The sun was shining, but it was still cool.  We pulled into an area full of picnic tables.  I pulled up next to my family and locked my bike on. I loved it here, there was something about it that just made it perfect.

“Lets go get soda!” I said excitedly.  That was one of the main reasons I wanted to come here.  They have tons of soda, and I never know what to get.

“Okay.” my dad said.  My brothers, my dad, and I walked past a lot of stores selling clothes and walked to the edge of the pier and into a small store.  We looked around at all the merchandise.  This store had everything!  It had shirts, snowglobes, souvenirs, lighters and best of all, drinks.  I was so thirsty.  I got an orange crush soda and so did my brothers.  We walked outside to find our mom waiting.  Then as a family, we all walked to the center of the small town to see the parrots.  The parrots were three parrots (Captain, Kiwi, and Cherokee) that were very old, and we saw them at least once every time we came here.  Kiwi and Cherokee are light blue with yellow chests and Captain is red with a yellow chest.  We were standing and admiring the parrots in their tall spindly tree with curling and winding limbs when my mom asked:

“Do you want to walk around with me?”

“Sure.” I replied.  We walked around and walked into some of the stores.  We walked into one to find a bunch of caged hermit crabs with painted shells.

“Woah!” I said which I followed up immediately with: “Can I get one? I promise I’ll take care of it. I’ve taken care of the hermit crabs at school.” I was referring to my class pets I had in third grade. They were three or four hermit crabs that we could play with if we had free time.

“I don’t know… we already have a dog.” my mom said.

“Please mom!”

“No I’m sorry.”

“Fine” I was angry but I understood. It was kind of expensive and we didn’t really need it. We went back to the parrots, and I sat and enjoyed my soda with my brothers.  After we finished we biked back to our amazing house we were renting.  It was very nice and I loved it.  Me and my brothers shared a room in the very back of the house.  It cut through our grandmas room.  Our grandma hadn’t come to south beach with us, she stayed at the house.  Me and my brothers snuck back to our room, and watched tv until bedtime.

When I woke up we ate breakfast and biked to the beach.  We stayed for a couple hours but didn’t go in the water.  The waves were too small to play in or have fun.  We played in the sand and made mountains and sand sculptures.  Then we left to go to south beach once again.  When we got there we got a soda and walked around as a family.  We walked to the store where the hermit crabs were.  We walked inside and my mom yelled,

“Surprise!”

“What? Are we getting a hermit crab?” I asked excitedly.

“Yep. You and your brothers can choose three, one for each of you.” I chose a small one at random.  My brother Drew picked a giant hermit crab about twice the size of mine.  My brother Sam picked a medium one with a shark painted shell.  We told him he should name it Shelly Sharkson as a joke. We packed them onto a cart connected to our dads bike.  It was full of sand because we carried shovels and towels to and from the beach in it. Then our bike caravan set off back to our rental house

The next day we drove home from hilton head.  I had the hermit crabs in their cage on my lap.  I took mine out of the cage and put it on top of the cage.  Shelly Sharkson and Drew’s brute stayed in the cage.  I might have made mine traumatized from all the bumping of the car.  It almost never came out of its shell again.  I almost thought it was dead, (Of course, that was before I knew hermit crabs were nocturnal).  As we drove home I was happy, excited to come back and show everyone what I got.

    The ski lift swayed back and forth, over a patch of evergreens.  It was stopped over the middle of the ski course.  I had hoped that the ski lift would be stuck all day.  I ran out of luck, only 30 seconds after the lift stopped, it started up again.  The short lift ride was over when the instructor raised the safety bar on the lift so that we could get off.  We silently gathered the class at the beginning the the green circle course.  Lower East Meadows, the ski course, was the easiest on Bromley Mountain in Vermont, yet butterflies still swarmed in my stomach.

My class began down the first slope like ducks in a line.  I tried to go slowly, but, since it was my first time down a slope this steep, I got out of control, fell down and, rolled away.  I thought I wouldn’t make it and that I would be stuck up there, on East Meadows, as a popsicle for the rest of winter. The majority of my class followed my example.  As the slope flattened out to the degree I was used to, the butterflies in my stomach lessened. We  While we slowly skied along the smooth snow, my instructor made a sharp turn towards a ski trail in the woods.  My classmates and I struggled to do the same, but ended up shuffling to the trail. It was narrow path and my small, 6 year old legs struggled to keep my skis from hitting the trees.

     We followed the instructor out of the path. I smiled when I saw that we we were still on flat part. We continued along the flat area, I glanced to my right and saw a long steep slope. I was relieved that I didn’t have to go down that slope. I barely made it down the first slope.

   “Skiers, I want you to make wide zig-zags,” the instructor explained “ This will help you on the steeper areas of the course.”

My class slowly zig-zagged along the course. Ahead of me I saw the that course grew mildly steep. For a class of beginners, it was too steep. The butterflies came back and I wanted to cry.  I saw my classmates looking nervous as well. I almost felt frozen tears run down my face when our instructor started talking. The instructor noticed that we struggled on the first slope. He explained some little tricks to help us along the slope. I thought he was going to say something like ‘Man up’, but instead he said something more supportive.

“When I say, Pizza, I want you to turn both skis inward, this will help you slow down,” my instructor shouted “ when I say, French Fries, I want you to make your skis parallel, this will help you control yourself and go faster.  When I say, Popcorn, I want you to hop, this doesn’t matter other than to have fun.”

The butterflies in my stomach vanished, and I had fun skiing. The snow was packed and fluffy so when we fell, it didn’t hurt.  I did fall a couple of times, but it didn’t matter because I was skiing, the right way.  Wow, I thought, skiing really is fun,when you know how to.  I was proud of myself, when we got to the bottom. The other kids were too. I had conquered East Meadows on Bromley Mountain in Vermont. Of course since I was 6, I thought I could take on the whole mountain, even the black diamonds and double black diamonds, which are the hardest kinds of courses.

I still use those tricks when I ski now. I always remember to keep my skis in the french fry position, when I’m skiing and I want to go fast. If the snow is icy, I remember ‘pizza’, so that I don’t go too fast. When I’m on a terrain course and I go over the jumps, I use ‘popcorn’, for fun. Who knew some small gesture towards me from age 6 would help me later in life?