Catching Up

So, if you couldn't tell I haven't posted in a long time. School's started and I've been busy with sports and things like that. Since it's been so long since vacation I'm just going to give a short summary about the second part of our vacation.


We went to Williamsburg and got there late so we just slept. The next day we went to Busch Gardens. It was so fun! I'm one of those people that likes to ride roller coasters so you can imagine this was awesome for me! Last time I went to Busch Gardens I was seven or so and I wasn't able to go on some of those big roller coasters. This time though I was able to go on all of the big roller coasters and I was excited to go on the Griffin while Adam and Ellie got in line for a height thing. The first time on a roller coaster is always the worst. Lets just say I was screaming my lungs out the whole time. After that though I rode it seven more times (not in a row) . The day was so fun. Some other places that we went to in Williamsburg was the Virginia Living Museum,  (a really cool place with lot's of animals, walking trails, and even a planetarium!)

An aquarium at the Virginia Living Museum

A bumper boat at Go Cart Plus

Go Cart Plus, (an awesome place that had lot's of outdoor games including go carting, mini golfing, a mini roller coaster, and bumper boats)

The mini roller coaster

 Newport News park, (we first went to the information center that had lot's of facts, there was a walking trail with lot's and lot's of turtles, and a Frisbee golf course)

A turtle at Newport News Park

Frisbee golfing

and Fort Fun (which really was a lot of fun before it started raining).

Fort Fun

Now I need to tell you about life now. One month ago I turned 12 and was delighted to enter the Young Women program! It was pretty cool, because the day after my birthday was a youth temple trip for baptisms for the dead and I got to participate!

My beautiful birthday cake

My Vacation Part 1: The Outer Banks

My family went on vacation for a week from Thursday, August 9th - Thursday, August 16th. My parents decided it very last minute. First we went to the Outer Banks. I love going to any beach, and I already went to a different beach earlier this so I was excited to go again. The ride there took about seven hours. When we gt there we ate dinner and went straight to our campsite to set up our tent. By then it was dark outside. When we drove to our reserved spot only to find that someone else had taken it! We moved down a few spots and set up our tent there instead. On the beach there is always wind, so when the wind was swaying our tent a little bit we were not worried. I saw some lightning in the distance and got a little bit worried. My mom said it probably wouldn't come to the place we were staying. Well two hours later there was bigger gusts of wind that made it feel like the tent was about to collapse! Then the lightning and thunder started coming and it started pouring rain. The inside of our tent was getting soaked. I got freaked out and our family went to the car to sleep for a little bit while my dad tried to fix the tent. When he was done half of my family went back to the tent and half stayed in the car (including me). It kept thundering and lightning, but it stopped raining. A little while later it started pouring rain again. The half of our family in the tent wanted to come back into there car because they were getting soaked and the tent was about to collapse on top of them.                                                                                                                                                     

This is our tent after everyone was in the car.

This is how soaked or tent got.

This us sleeping in the car.

When we woke up it was cloudy, but then it cleared up and it was actually sunny! My parents had had this tent for about fifteen years. It lasted a long time! When it was light outside  my dad took the tent apart only to find the poles looking like this:

These our the tent poles

 My parents ended up throwing the tent away. We went to the beach for about an hour and then it started storming again! That night we stayed in a motel and went to the beach the next day. Everyone went for about an hour and a half before it started raining (no thunder or lightning this time though). Almost everybody left except for me, my dad, Spencer's friend, and Spencer's friend's parents. I stayed for another thirty minutes or so and then we left. That night we drove the three hours to Williamsburg which is part two of my vacation. 

How to Make Flower Bows

These bows are nice and easy and they turn out good with whatever colors you choose to use. I found the fabric at JoAnn's Fabric Store. It has to be 100% polyester or else it will not work.

Materials:
A hot glue gun
Candle
The colors of your choice 100% polyester fabric
White Felt 
Hair Clips  (we found the best price at Sally's Beauty Supply)
Craft Jewels

Instructions:
Choose the colors you'd like to use and trace 4 circles the following approximate sizes (no need to be exact). 

For each bow: 
Cut circles x 2:  about 12 cm (around a CD)
Cut circles x 1:  about 9 cm (around the top of a glass)
Cut circles x 1:  about 5 cm (around the bottom of a glass)

Light a candle and very carefully burn the edges of the circles till they curl upward, taking care not to light them on fire.  I used a clothespin so I didn't burn my fingers. Repeat for all the circles.

  Once all the circles are done they will look like this

 
Take the hot glue gun and put a dab of glue in the middle of one of your large fabric circles. Put your other large one on top and push with the clothespin so it looks like this. 

 
Put a dab of hot glue on the fabric circle on top and take the medium sized fabric circle and center it in the middle of the large fabric circle. Push it firmly with the clothespin.
  
Do the same with the smallest circle. Take one of the craft jewels and put a little bit of hot glue on the back of the jewel and place it in the middle of the flower.

 
Now it is almost finished! Take one of the hair clips place a small piece of felt between the prongs of the clip (about 3 cm tall and 2 1/2 cm wide) and  across the one side of the clip and the felt put some hot  glue around the outside of the clip.

Carefully place the clip on the flower and press firmly to hold in place.

  
Allow to cool and now you can put it straight in your hair!

An Introduction

Hi I'm Emma. I'm eleven years old. I decided to start a blog, because it sounded fun. My mom has two blogs, my older sister has a blog and lot's of my aunts and uncles have blogs.  In this blog I will post about random things like recipes, crafts, and about life. 

This is my family and I

I like to swim, run, and bike. I do swim team and it has helped me improve my strokes a lot. One day I hope to do a triathlon.

This is my dad and I running a 5k

    

This is me swimming at a swim meet

I like to read and write fantasy stories.

That is a little bit about me.