Short summary of the summer

During the summer, we went on many vacations. Before all the trips, we did two sets of swimming lessons. Now I am in level eight and Adam is in level nine. The first one was a trip to RockRidge Canyon. RockRidge Canyon was a great trip. There are so many things to do. There are the water activities and the dry land activities. After RockRidge Canyon, we dog-sited Kobe for four days. We told Kobe that while he was with us, he had to walk by our side, sit when he sees another dog or human, not bark at other beings, not eat leaves or sticks, and, not bite our hands or our feet. After about a month, we went on a house boat for five days. On the house boat we swam, played games, watched Apollo 13, and, we went on hikes. Once we had docked, Mom and dad filled the paperwork and we traveled to the United States of America to go camping for three days. In the campsite, I saw a cat! I was petting the cat until these boys came and scared it away.

Those sentences represent my typical summer.

How to catch snakes

While I was at Rockridge Canyon, me and my friend Leni (Pronounced: Lay-nee) caught snakes during our free time.
 We caught snakes by the lake near and near the bridge because the snakes liked to hang out there. Here are some places we found snakes: 

• On the other side of the bridge in the slime, 
• under rocks, in the water, 
• swimming around, and 
• weaving through the rocks. 

This is the way I and Leni tried to catch snakes before we came to Rockridge :   

1. Look for a snake. 
2. Try to catch the snake by putting a bucket over it (That didn't work).
3.  If you manage to catch the snake,  try to scoop it up to get the snake in the bucket. 
4. If you are very brave, pick up the snake.

Now that we met an expert, we catch a snake like this: 

1. Find a snake in the rocks, in the water, on the rock line, etc. ... 
2. Follow the snake (If need). 
3. Catch the snake with your hands. make hand adjustments  if needed (One hand on the body, one hand gust before the head. Tight, but not squeezing, lose, but not enough to get out.)
4. Put the snake in the "habitat bucket" (One habitat bucket has water, rocks and seaweed, the other, grass and rocks.)
5.  Look for more snakes.

When we caught two snakes, one of them would go in the water bucket, the other in the land bucket. Every few minutes, we would put the snake in the other bucket (water, to no water, land to no land.). 
Caution do not put the snakes together! They might fight!!!
 -Creative Dana Cat

Rockridge canyon

Saturday, August 1 (2015), me, my mom, my dad, and my brother went to a place in B.C. called Rockridge Canyon. Rockridge is closer to Princeton then Penticton. From Vancouver B.C, it takes about four hours to drive to Rockridge. Whall we were at Rockridge, we did some fun activities like going on the zip ling, and the blob. The zip line is the biggest zip line in B.C, and maybe even the biggest zip ling in Canada!

 The blob is a big cushion that you jump onto and then the next person jumps on the blob and the person siting on the blob either falls of the edge or goes flying in the air.

The blob

At Rockridge, we went water skiing and wake surfing. Water skiing is (as you can guess) skiing on water and wake surfing is surfing on the wakes made from the boat.

Wake sufing

Water skiing

 What I did with my friends, was we caught snakes. The snakes where water snakes and garter snakes (you can read more about the snakes in my next blog.)

Water snake

Garter snake

I had a great time at Rockridge Canyon this year.

Shadow Goblins - Book Report

July 28, I read a book called Shadow Goblins. Shadow Goblins is a book about a few goblins that get into allot of trouble. Here are a few things you should know about shadow goblins :

Shadow goblins are shape shifters. That means they can change into a different thing, such as sheep (I will tell you more about shape shifting later). Shadow goblins live in the Black Wood, and they always work at night. The shadow goblins use Black Shadow Gloves to hypnotise the sheep with the shadows they make with their fingers. Rabbit shadows work best. Beginner goblins use a song called " The Ibble Obble song and the Rabbit Hop" if they are rubbish at hand shadows.  If you are worried that when you come across a sheep, and you think it might be a goblin, place any object on it's shadow, either the sheep will just mind it's own business and wander of, or the shadow will become stuck under the object. If the shadow is stuck, that means the "sheep" is a goblin in disguise and it will be unable to move from the spot it is stuck in until the night is over, giving you plenty of  time to run away. 

 Summary : Murkbag  has become a teacher. He teaches two little (and naughty) shadow goblins called Pungent and Stinglip. Murkbag teaches the goblins how to capture shadows and then tells them to capture there own shadow. Stinglip is very good at making shadows with his fingers, but Pungent needs to where a rabbit costume because he is rubbish at making shadows. The three goblins go to a sheep pen to capture one of there shadows, but the sheep are acting very wired and they don't have a shadow! Pungent realised there was an ink-pot on the ground and gave that bottle to Murkbag instead of doing what they where told, and Murkbag didn't even notice (he probably wasn't watching). Then, on the way back, Murkbag accidentally got caught on a bush, and the full ink-pot flew out of his hands, right into Stinglip's mouth! When Stinglip woke up, he started doing thing like nibbling on the grass and leaves, but there was barely enough time to ask questions because a shadow that had lost it's ink-pot was floating in front of them! Murkbag told the goblins to go to Goat's Log as fast as they could. When they saw a skeleton (Stinglip was a sheep by now since he drank the shadow in the ink-pot, so it was only Pungent who saw the skeleton)! Pungent tried to hypnotise the skeleton, but the skeleton only introduced himself (his name is Bone-zzz) and told Pungent that he was a goblin but he lost his shadow and tuned into a skeleton, and he can turn into himself again if he found The Tree of Shadows (that's where all the lost ink-pots are put). Stinglip and Pungent agreed to go to The Tree of Shadows, but when they got there, Stinglip tuned into a sheep again and crashed into a bunch of ink-pots. The monkey goblin (the worker and organiser in The Tree of Shadows) left the Black Wood because she was mad that so many shadows escaped. Eventually, Murkbag found Pungent and Stinglip. Now, Pungent is still in the rabbit costume, and still rubbish at hand shadows, and Stinglip is still tuning into a sheep but that is wearing of.

Shape-shifting in words : 
1 Silver trail After the sheep is hypnotised, the shadow goblin will take it's own ear wax and trace the perimeter of the shadow.
2 Inking Pour ink into the shadow. The ink will not go over the silver-trail.
3 Inkpotting In a few minutes, the ink will evaporate like water, and then, it will be drawn into an ink-pot, like a genie in a lamp. Once the ink-pot is corked the shadow will slowly turn into a thick black ink called gloop. Now it is ready to drink.

4 Drinking Shadows The goblin that drinks the gloop will turn into a sheep. This usually takes a bit of time and the goblin may take some of a sheep's characteristics such as nibbling on leaves, grass of even bleating. 

I really liked this book (that is why i added so many details) so I rate it 4 1/2 stars

New Puppy!!!

August 6, we get to have a puppy! Okay, okay we don't get to keep him, but we get to "dog-sit" him. The puppy's name is Kobe and he is my dad's cousin's dog. We have to give Kobe back August 11. Most of you will think that having a dog is not something you get to exited about because :
-You have to scope up the poop
-You can't go on BIG vacations 
-It smells bad really, really BAD
-It might shed all over the couch / furniture
-It might chew on the toys upstairs
but we (me, my mom and my brother are. My dad, not so much) are exited because my dad dose not want a dog so if we can "dog-sit" Kobe than maybe dad will change his mind and let us get a dog too (everybody has a dog so we fell left out ((that is me, my mom and my brother))... )! Now the pros of having a dog :
-When you go on a workout, it can keep you company
-When you are board, it can keep you entertained
-It gives us a good chance to do some exercise
-It will make you go outside more often
-It is a good inside/outside pet (If it is rainy, stay inside. If it is sunny, stay inside or go outside.)
-We could walk to Dairy Queen and get ice-cream/blizzard/arctic-rush etc..

Bike Adventures - 48 / 42 Km

Yesterday, me, my mom, my brother, my dad and my aunt went on a very long bike ride. The bike ride was about 48 maybe 42 Km! We spent 9 hours outside, but about 4 hours was spent on the bike. (first we watched some wheelchair tennis, then next long stop was at a restaurant, then at an ice-cream shop and then at home.) We went through the forest, on the burrard St bridge, on the lions gate bridge, to a beach, then to a Vietnamese restaurant, then to a tourist attraction and finally back home.
 I was sore after that (+ I was not on a tandem. I was on a normal bike with no help. OK, maybe on the hills I got a push or two from my parents...).  You get the idea. I was tired after that adventure.

Last Day of Swimming Lessons and lego movie

Today was the last day of swimming lessons, and guess what happened! I passed to swim kids 8!!! I will be doing another set of swimming lessons so maybe I will pass to swim kids 9.

Now that we have the Lego movie on the computer, I can send it to  you :

Tell me if you have problems, questions or comments on the very, very short Lego movie.