Hello everyone!  For my eleventh birthday I got to go on a trip to Washington D.C.  We had to wake up at about 5:00am and leave at 5:30. We were in the car for about 6 hours and it got really boring at times. But it was so worth it!

When we got into D.C. we went to Union Station and had some lunch there. There were lots of choices but we decided to have some conveyer belt sushi at a place called Yo Sushi. It was really fun to try and get the sushi off the conveyer belt. The spicy tuna rolls were excellent. We also got to have real Japanese soda which is awesome!

For my birthday I asked for a tour of the White House. I didn't get my tour of the White House (sequester!), but I got one of the capitol building by our guide, Kevin Mooney, who works for Congressman Tom Reed.This is Kevin.

Kevin guided us through a tunnel that took us from the House of Representatives to the Capitol. He was very good at walking backwards. When I got to the Capitol I learned that there were two statues of American people from each state. There were many references to the original 13 colonies. It was an absolutely amazing tour! 

In Washington D.C. there is a lot of walking, and I'm pretty sure Pallas barely walked any of it. Dad, Mom, and I all carried her at least once on our trip. Dad carried her a lot more and she likes to make faces at us over his shoulder. This is Dad carrying her in the tunnel between Congressman Reed's office and the Capitol.

While we were in D.C. I got to see my cousins Aidan and Deirdre and my Uncle Brendan. We all went out for thai food. It was great to see them because we only get to see them once or twice a year.

The next day we went to the American History Smithsonian.  There were lots of exhibits but my two favorites were the ones about the presidents (of course) and the first ladies. In the presidents exhibit there were presidents memorabilia and lots of facts. In the first lady exhibit there were lots of first lady dresses and tea sets.

This was a collection of street signs named after presidents.

The next day we went to the Washington D.C. zoo.  When I first got there were big letters that spelled zoo so Pallas, Trin, and I got in them and took a picture. There were lots of animals so I'll just name a few. There were elephants, pandas (they were all sleeping though), gorillas, and lions.

Once again Pallas was carried throughout the zoo. We did about a million miles of walking that day, because we had to park very far away.

For breakfast on one of our last days we went to dim sum. I love eating all of the yummy foods. Some of my favorites are chicken feet, shumai, shrimp dumplings, rice noodles, and crab lollipops. This is Trin with her favorite, sticky rice steamed in lotus leaf.

One of the best things about our hotel was the pool. It was really big! My favorite thing about it was it was nice and warm. Pallas liked the toys they kept at the pool. There were floaties that we pretended were surf boards and a dolphin inner tube. I loved being in D.C. and hope to be back real soon.

Peace and love,
Rowan

Back in April my mom, dad, and I started my garden. In May we planted lettuce and spinach.We mostly weeded in April and May, but now it looks a lot better. This is the day we went to the garden and got to work.

After we got the soil ready, we took the seeds and spread them in straight rows and covered them with soil. We put them in about an inch according to the packages.

One of my favorite things to grow is herbs. Even if you don't grow a vegetable garden you can always grow a herb garden if you like different flavors and spices. My favorite thing to make is herby potatoes.

(that will probably be my next blog post) 

After a while my lettuce started growing! We already made a couple of salads out of it. Maybe I could make my own salad dressing! Hmm...

We also planted tomatoes, thanks to our friend Dave who gave us lots of plants. We already have so many blossoms! My favorite thing to make with tomatoes is fresh salsa. We make ours with tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, onion, cilantro, jalapeno, and salt.

I was thinking that a garden is a great family activity. Plus it's a great workout! It hurts. If your family doesn't agree, you try it for yourself. And if you try it, you too may be rewarded with an out of control sage bush! Yay!

Peace out!
Trinity the amazing :D

For my birthday this year my family went to Chicago. We got to ride the overnight train to get there. When we got to the train station we found out we were delayed 3 hours! When the train was ready we hopped on at 4:30am. This is us waiting on the cold windy platform. But the train had comfortable seats and pillows. Right away I fell asleep. In the morning it was my birthday! We got breakfast and I opened my DS to find out my mom and dad bought me the harvest moon game that I wanted. It was awesome. Rowan and I played on that for the rest of the ride.

Pallas and I loved taking in the great views. Finally we got to Chicago and got off the train.

When we got there we were super hungry so we went to a place that is owned by the Cheesecake Factory, Grand Luxe. They had amazing food, but my favorite was desert. My parents secretly ordered the make-your-own cupcakes for us. They brought our cupcakes and a birthday pastry for me that said "have a grand day!" with lots of whipped cream. I enjoyed both of them.

Then we went to The Shedd Aquarium with lots of animals and things to do. First we went to a dolphin show. Then we saw all kinds of fish and sea animals.Then we went to the arctic area and guess what, MORE PROBLEMS! We saw the penguins and then Pallas saw something--a submarine for the kids to play in. She would not leave so we stayed there for ten minutes then left. Pallas was sad so to cheer her up we went to the 'rivers by you' area and there was a camping set that you could play in. You could go canoeing or sit by the fire or even make breakfast! 

This is outside the aquarium. We took some pictures of us to share the memory.

On Saturday our Aunt Kerry came to Chicago and we went shopping, went out to dinner with some new relatives, and watched the golden globes together!

We went to dimsum with our Aunt Kerry too.The food was really good. My sister tried some kind of inside part of a cow and chicken feet. Gross! It took Pallas a long time to fit that dumpling in her mouth. ;D

I loved Chicago! We even got to meet long lost family! I hope I can go again! Maybe you should take a visit too!   


Peace out!
Trinity :D

Struthers Library Theater in Warren, Pa

In October my family headed down to Warren, PA to see a play called The King and I. We went to see the play because our great friend Ellen was the lead in it! She was I. We drove to the theater after some good pizza at her house. At the entrance we looked at a map and decided to watch from the balcony. As you can see, it was an amazing view.

As I was admiring the room I looked up and saw a beautiful chandelier in the middle of the room.I lit up the whole theater. It definitely caught my eye.
(there is also a view in picture #1) 

Of course we were dressed up, but as always Pallas went a little farther.She kept asking to go up to the top row, and as always, she got to go up.

Watching the show was fun. We got to sit in the first row of the balcony! The play was about a English teacher goes to a new faraway place to teach. Well...there is a king at this place and the king has strict rules. and the teacher is helping them learn her ways but the king does not approve and everyone in the room is wondering: Will she leave?

The show was awesome! After the show I ran down to the stage to say hi to Ellen.Then sadly it was time to go.I loved the play and want to go back.


Peace out! :D,
Trinity

Hi, it's Rowan. Over the summer my mom,Trin, Pallas, and I went to Rock City Park in Olean, NY. It was lots of fun. Here is where our adventure began.

When we got there Trin and Pallas had to go to the bathroom. While they were in the bathroom Mom and I saw this bear. When Trin and Pallas got back from the bathroom we got on it and took a picture. Then we went inside the gift shop and looked around. It had the biggest rock inside. Right in the floor.

When we got to the rocks, Pallas got a little scared but she decided to go down with some help. It was weird seeing how big the rocks were. They're bigger than my house. When we were walking we even saw an old sawmill. It was so cool!

Sometimes we would have to go up big stone stairs. You had to work very hard to get up. But it was still fun. That's Trin at the top, waving like a maniac.

When we were walking right around here, we saw a porcupine squeezed between two rocks. Trin and Pallas got really scared so we all ran away. Mom tried to get a picture of it but it started hissing and she screamed and ran too.

The view from the rocks was amazing.There were swings to sit on. They were so peaceful because we had been hiking and walking and were really tired from running from the porcupine.

When we were done we called ourselves the conquerors of Rock City Park. Wow! It was a great way to spend the afternoon.Thanks for reading!   

Peace and love,
Rowan ;]

One of my favorite things to do in summer is to go blueberry picking at Childs Blueberries up on a hill near us. At Childs, I pick out a blue bucket and we walked down by the pond to the field along a beautiful row of flowers. 

The blueberries looked great. At Childs they have different kinds of blueberries from around the world on each row. Each one tastes different but I know Jersey blueberries have three kinds...super sweet, sweet sour, and super sour.

There are no chemicals, so in the fields we pick and eat. Rowan just eats.

The best place to tickle is in a bush of mostly ripe blueberries. Tickling blueberries is when you wiggle your fingers so they break off and fall into your bucket. Otherwise we just pick. Sometimes me and Rowan find a place with shade and pick. Rowan...just eats!

I don't stay in shade for long. I try to keep moving for more blueberries. Rowan and Pallas like to stay there...and eat.

Rowan and Pallas kept eating but thanks to me and mom we got a lot. We kept on picking and picking and picking! Me and mom started picking the green ones out. And Rowan and Pallas...well...they kept eating!

We weighed the blueberries and got bottles of water. It didn't cost much.

On the way home Rowan and Pallas kept eating, and I did too :)



Peace out! Trin :D

Beef n Barrel, Olean, NY
A while back me and my mom went to the Beef n Barrel for a lunch date. I ordered french fries, of course. They were wonderful! They're crunchy on the outside, floury on the inside with the exact right amount of salt.These fries are on our top ten list. We also had chicken wings. I like their wings because they have so much flavor, a little bit of spice, and they are very tender too.  

Then I had beef--it was amazing because it was so tender too. My mom had a salad. She really enjoyed it. Then we used two spoons on a Wonderfully Wicked, which is a brownie delight sundae. It has vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, whip cream, and most importantly... BROWNIES! My favorite. I loved spending time with my mom. Stop on down at the Beef n Barrel and get yourself a good meal!

Peace out! Trin :D

I want to tell you about when my family, and family friends Dennis, Ray, and Lauren went to the Wellsville Balloon Rally in Wellsville, NY. I'll start at our house. We all had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning in order to get there on time! After we got out of the house we headed to Tim Hortons so mom could have her morning coffee. I got a bagel. Our order took a long time. It took us a long time to get there--I mostly read and talked to Mom and Dad. When we got there it was 6:15. My favorite one was black with a checker pattern of many different colors. The first one to lift off was a rainbow checker one. (The first one in the picture.) We found out there was a contest to see which could go closest to river in a ditch.

These are balloons blowing up. They were right behind us.

I loved watching them blow up and fly away.

Here are Dennis,Lauren,and Pallas eating the picnic. While waiting for the balloon rally to start, we had a delicious picnic breakfast with doughnuts, orange juice, quiche, sandwiches, and strawberries. During our picnic we watched the balloons blow up and decided which were our favorites.

After it was over we went to our friends house without telling them and finish our picnic. Sadly they were not there, but we had lots of fun otherwise. We threw frisbees and footballs and we swung on their swing.

Pallas and I ate lots of doughnuts while we were there.

This is a picture of Ray, Trin, Dennis, Pallas, Lauren, Dad, and I in their pool. I really loved our interesting adventure.

Peace and Love,
Rowan :)

No, I don't want to write about Brave. I did NOT like it. I'm not telling you why. I did NOT like the girl. Her had pretty hair. The mom her had pretty hair too. And the horse had pretty hair. That girl was so pretty and helpful. Her so brave cause it was called brave. I liked nothing. Nothing! I did not like the bears. They were scary and mean. The brothers were cute bears, but NOT the mom bear. Her scary. I will never ever see that movie again. I like the drive-in. Good french fries and snuggling. That's it. Naptime.
Pallasgrean

Hi Rowan again. In the past two weeks I went to Allegany State Park twice! The first time I went with Trin and Pallas, Uncle Kevin, Aunt Val, my cousin Kieran (from Washington state), Uncle Mike, Aunt Rosie, and our cousins Sean and Dom. The next time I went with Trin, Pallas,and Mom when we decided to have an adventure. We weren't planning on going to Allegany State Park. We were actually to go to Long Point State Park but when we got there we found out that swimming didn't open till the next day. We were upset but decided to go to Allegany State Park instead. That's how our day all started!

When we got there we had to decide where to sit. We chose a shady tree. I wanted to jump right into the lake but I had to get sunscreen on first. Then I jumped right in. It was cold at first but after a while it felt nice and warm. Trin and I did lots of different things in the water. After a while we got out and had a picnic. There was chicken, cookies, raspberries, nectarines, and lots of other stuff. After that we got right back in and after a while we got back out and painted the scenery. Then we went up to get ice cream. I got a scoop of cake batter and a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough. Trin got a scoop of mint chocolate chip and a scoop of dutch chocolate. Pallas got a strawberry kiwi slushie. Mom got a scoop of chocolate peanut butter. (In the comments, tell me what you would have chosen!) After that we went to a playground and I accidentally left my favorite soccer ball there.

This is Trin, Pallas, and me. We had lots of fun in the water. Pallas almost drowned when trying to swim to Mom.

The first time I went (with my cousins), I swam for just a little bit and then we built a big sand castle village. The picture you see isn't all we built. We also put in a huge stick and we made a little lake with a dam, or as we called it, a darn. And in the far left corner there is a deep hole that my cousin made and Pallas fell into it so we called it the hole of doom.

We even got to go kayaking with Uncle Kevin. First Trin and Pallas went and then I went. When I went, we tried to find a beaver who lives at Allegany State Park.

This is us having a scrumptious lunch. I will name everybody from left to right. First is Uncle Kevin, then Pallas, me, Trin, Sean, and Kieran. Those two adventures were really fun! I really love going to state park.

Peace and Love, Rowan :)