The Journal Of The Trip

Monday, June 17th
Today I woke up with excitement. I was going to Allegheny, New York. As soon as I got up and got ready we were on our way. I read to Grandma G a book called How to Train Your Dragon. It was good. I read it to her for four hours. Then we came to the St. Louis museum. We put together fossil puzzles, felt an earthquake, and looked at a fake tornado. On the way out it was rainy and I was getting really wet because Grandma kept taking away the umbrella. I read to Grandma another hour. Then we listened to The Tale of Despereaux. It was more better and well done then the movie. And for the night we went to Castleton Hotel in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was great even though it had no swimming pool.

Tuesday, June 18th
We woke up early, too early in fact. And I couldn't even lift myself up from the bed. We went down to breakfast. I don't like cereal and that basically is all there is. Instead I ate a few donuts. We went on the drive and it was long. Then we stopped at Wendy's. It was hard to get there. Our car was almost out of gas and we could hear it drying up. So luckily we got gas just in time. We went to the Biblewalk Museum. It was amazing, spectacular, awesome. It was a bunch of rooms in the wall and there was a bunch of plastic figures in the wall. Then a light comes from above the plastic figures so you can see them. Then the plastic figures start talking. The whole tour of the Bible took four hours. We listened to the life of Christ, one-fourth of it. We went on the drive again. I was getting excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Lemon. I never met them before. And we made it there. I thought they would look like Grandma and Grandpa Power. But they didn't.

Wednesday, June 19th
The next morning we woke up in a house. I thought it was my house because I was used to my house. We got ready and stuff and went out to lunch. We got to sit in a carriage that was real without horses. I got chicken fingers, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Then I also got a milkshake. Then we went to the Amish country. I spent $30 getting presents for my family. I got Zech an Amish board game called The Peg Race. I got Ariel a $5 herkimer diamond. I got Dad Amish fudge. I got Mom goats milk soap. When we got home we had stuffed peppers for dinner and then we watched a very good movie called The Encounter. And Grandma Lemon usually falls asleep in movies but she stayed awake. And Grandma G said God was working through the movie. And then we went to bed.

How to get a friction burn!

Thursday, June 20th
The next day I got ready after eating eggs on toast. I started to watch the Science channel. After learning how a car engine is made, and how sponges are made, and how peanuts turn into peanut butter, then Aspen and Aunt Linda arrived. Then we went to the Strawberry Festival. The food was good and then we went to the inflatables. If you're wondering why my knee is injured its because the inflatables have a lot of friction. And I was being very rough going down the slide so I hit the other end of the slide catching myself with my knee. Then we got home and I played on the DS. It was time to go to Sprague's. And I got a generous serving of bacon. The plate was the size of a sheet of paper and you couldn't even see the plate itself it was so covered in food. So I was definitely full after eating that. There was a table with animals sitting around it and I tried to take the moose's milkshake. But it wasn't a real milkshake. Then we went home and slept.

Friday, June 21st
We woke up and got ready. I hated sleeping on a cot. It was not soft and I slept sort of with brown recluses. And the blanket was rugged. It was basically a rug. We got ready to go to the Seneca Iroquois Museum. I learned about the game snow snake. It was cool. It's a winter game where there is a path that is 375 yards long. You put some slick stuff on the snake and then you throw it on the path and try to see how far it goes. That night we went to Aunt Leona's.

Saturday, June 22nd
I woke up and got up to swim. They have a pool at their house. That's almost all we did the whole day. Then I went to the Hillview restaurant. I got a Greek pizza. And then I went to the bathroom and there was an eerie light. On the wall there was a graffiti that had a toothy grin that looked like the gotcha sign in the basement. Then a toothy frown. Then an untoothy scream looking thing. I heard two footsteps. But nobody can get in the bathroom stalls with just two footsteps. But when I opened the bathroom stall door nobody was there. It wasn't anything. Then we went home and swam a little bit more and then went to bed.

Sunday, June 23rd
Today we went to church. The theme was taking responsibility for your life. We listened to the story of the three men in Matthew 25. Then we went home, ate and swam, and got thrown into the pool by Uncle Ernie. It was basically a cousin reunion.

Monday, June 24th
We went to Niagara Falls today and they were bigger than I expected. We went on Maid of the Mist and I got soaked. Then we searched around for other stuff to do, but we couldn't "afford" to do anything. And we swam and watched a movie when we got home. We watched Escape from Planet Earth.

Tuesday, June 25th
We woke up and drove and missed almost everything we wanted to do. We ran out of time to do the Biblewalk Museum again and the river was too low to go on a canal boat on the Ohio Erie Canal. How disappointing.

Wednesday, June 26th
We drove without anything to do. Because in the morning I made us run out of time because I was too scared to go into the pool because at the bottom it was slimy and I thought a shark was down there. The only thing we got to do was go to Subway and eat lunch. We ate dinner at McDonalds in the car. And then I got to see my parents again.

A to Z Treasure Hunts: Avocado

Chapter 1

To The Store

Lucy and Josh run to the store with their mom. They go to the vegetable and fruit section. Lucy and Josh say, "Mom, can we get strawberries?"

Their mom says, "No, but you can get avocados."

"Ew. Gross." said Lucy.

Then the mom demanded, "You are eating avocados for dinner and that's final."

Chapter 2

Into Our Dinner

"How's the avocados?" the mom asked sweetly.

"Great!" Lucy answered happily.

Josh took a bite and said, "Yummy!"

Then the dad asked, "Do you want me to cook another one?"

"Sure!" Lucy and Josh responded. Then they split an avocado.

Lucy took a bite and vanished. Then the dad said, "Where did Lucy go?"

Later Josh said, "Can I eat her avocado?"

"Go ahead," answered the dad.

Josh took a bite and vanished also. Josh fell down into the avocado's juice. He landed next to Lucy. They started swimming in the avocado juice so they wouldn't drown.

Chapter 3

The Avocado Pit

Soon after the fall they grew tired of swimming. Something happened that stopped them from quitting. Bits of avocado flesh started falling out of the sky. That meant their mom or dad picked up the avocado. The pressure from picking it up had made some of the flesh fall near them. They were about to be eaten by their own parents! So they swam and swam and swam until they pulled themselves out of the juice and onto the avocado pit.

Chapter 4

A Door in an Avocado

Lucy and Josh were walking around impatiently waiting for their parents to see them. They observed a door.

Chapter 5

King Vocado

Lucy and Josh opened the mysterious door that led to the inside of the pit. Five million pounds of coins were in the room of the unexpected door. Suddenly a metal magnet shot towards them and grabbed them both. King Vocado was standing there holding the chain that connected to the metal magnet.

Chapter 6
Happy Ending

Lucy thought she was stuck, but she wasn't. Only Josh was magnetized.

Above the avocado was their parents speaking to each other. The dad said sternly, "What is wrong with this avocado?"

"When the kids took a bite they disappeared," said the mom frightfully. The dad stabbed a knife into the pit of the avocado.

Down in the pit of the avocado, Lucy saw something shiny. She jumped at it, and pushed herself off the other side towards King Vocado. He fell over. He didn't have any arms, so he couldn't get up. Lucy got the metal magnet. Josh was set free from the metal magnet.

They climbed up the knife while Lucy was still holding onto the metal magnet. The magnet grabbed the treasure and they accidentally took the treasure with them. Lucy and Josh were out of the avocado. Suddenly, coins started flying out of the avocado. The mom opened her mouth in surprise and said, "We are millionaires." They never ate an avocado again.

Inside and Outside

Buildings are like people. God sees us from the inside and the outside. The inside is better because it reveals our real person. We are kind of like buildings. The building can look small on the outside, but be big on the inside. I may not look big on the outside, but I'm "big" or "special" on the inside. Just like a building.

The First Part of the Volcano

Gabriel and Stefenie, Chapter 5
"Wow, finally we made it to the top of the volcano. Yay!" said Gabe.
Then in the distance a noise sounded. "He Ha Who!"
"That's weird. A flying pig?" asked Stefenie.

"Ahh!" said Gabriel and Stefenie.
"Okay, I just learned something," said Stefenie.
"What?" asked Gabe.
"Whenever you hear that noise, duck!"
"Yes, that is a great idea." said Gabe.
"Okay, how many times did you bring Sonic?"
"10,000 times," said Gabe.
"You should be a little. No, a lot more accurate," said Stefenie.
"Okay. I do not know." said Gabe.
"Ahh, lava!" they both said.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!" They both yelled.
Stefenie opened her eyes and saw they were floating on a two foot volcano. She frowned when she looked at Gabe. Do you know why? He was still screaming.
"Gabe. Gabe. Gabe." said Stefenie.
"What?" asked Gabe quite surprised.
Then Gabe saw a man's foot move behind a rock. Gabe yelled, "Hey you, over there, why are you hiding?"
"What are YOU doing on the map of the volcano?" asked the man.
"Can you let us down," asked Stefenie.
"Okay." said the man.
Then a noise struck. "Ughhh"
So Gabe asked, "What was that noise?"
"It is the dragon of darkness," said the man. "We need to get to my shelter."
"Do you have anything you want us to do?" asked Stefanie.
"Yes! Fight the dragon." said the man.
"Okay," they both answered.
"You need to get to the stone door," said the man.
"Okay," said Stefenie.
"Look, the stone door," said Gabe.
"Open it," said Stefenie.

The Volcano is Spotted

Gabriel and Stefenie, Chapter 4
"It is hot out here. Ah, lava rocks," said Gabe.
"But where are they coming from," said Stefenie.
"Yeah, you're right. Lava rocks don't just come from plain air." said Gabe
"Look a volcano. Let's explore it." said Stefenie.
"Okay." said Gabe.
So they ran and ran and ran for 8 whole hours.

Vacuum Cleaner Lessons

I was vacuuming on Saturday. Sometimes you can see the dirt, and sometimes you can't.

God is like the dirt you can't see, but you can still believe that something is there. My point is, it might look like God is not there, but He is everywhere.

The Greatest Prayer Meeting

On Sunday night I was going to a prayer meeting. We got to have refreshments, but we got there early so we didn't get to have refreshments early. But the refreshments weren't the best part.

It was the prayer. Because I prayed about a lot of different things. Like for missionaries to not go to jail for telling about Jesus. Like China and other countries don't allow people to talk about Jesus.

And we are lucky to be in the United States. Because we can tell other people about Jesus. And that we get to have this prayer meeting.

I think prayer meetings are fun because I get to pray about helping people.

My friends don't really like it. But I have been trying to help my friends enjoy it. And I had a great prayer meeting. This was the best.