Vacation!

This week was a great week. But it all started out kind of strange. On Sunday I went to go sit down with my family after passing the sacrament. As soon as I sat down my mom leaned over and said, “I think you need to read your scriptures” I just looked at her and was like “umm… ok” and just sat there. Then she said it again “I think you need to read your scriptures right now!” So this time I said ok again and started to unzip my scripture bag. As I finished opening my bag an envelope fell out that had my name on it. So I opened it up and pulled out a paper that said Scripture Hunt. It was a riddle thing that I was supposed to fill out using my scriptures. So I followed all the instructions on the paper and finished the riddle and it said, “Surprise! Prepare this week for those things, which are coming. You will shout with joy and these signs shall follow which shall manifest unto him the truth of all things.” So in other words It said to be ready this week for a surprise and you will keep getting hints. So that was my Sunday clue. Then on Monday after school I went to go get a snack out of the fridge and there was a bottle of water that said “Clue #2” Then when my mom walked into the room she said “Its not the bottle it is the water inside.” So I had to think about that, it means it has something to do with water. I sat and thought about it all night cause I only got one clue a day. I went to bed and got up the next morning and went to go get in the shower. In there I found no shampoo and no soap, instead there was a little bar of soap and a little bottle of shampoo with a post-it note above it saying “Clue #3. You know like the ones from a hotel. Right then I though we are going on a vacation to stay in a hotel and we are going somewhere with lots of water. So lets see this was Tuesday morning. Wednesday rolls around and I can help but think what my next clue for that day would be. Then in seminary my mom comes in with a little bottle of sunscreen and a post card that says “Pack your bags we leave in two weeks.” Then on the other side were the picture is there was a picture of Mickey, Goofy and Donald Duck. So right there in school I found out we were leaving for Disneyland! I am so excited! My parents were not going to tell my little brother and me until the Thursday morning that we were leaving. They we going to pack for us and just get us up at four in the morning and take us straight to the airport to leave. I am kind of glad they didn’t do that. But I wouldn’t have cared anyway. This will be our first vacation since I was in third grade and we went to Disneyland! That was a very very long time ago. We are going to go spend the days we are there at Disneyland, California Adventure, Sea World, Universals Studios and the Beach before we come home. We leave one week from Thursday! I can’t wait!

Summer! Almost Here!

Well summer is getting closer thank goodness. I was counting the weeks and we only sixteen more weeks until summer! I honestly couldn’t believe it. We will be done with ninth grade, done with Jr. High, done with summer and before we know it in high school. Then after that we will be graduated and gone away before we know it too. College in less then four years, it is all just coming and going so so fast. Not a day goes by in my life when I don’t think about the future and where I will be in one year from now, then two years from now and just so on until I get bored thinking. I remember when I was really little, you know like those vacations to Disneyland, first day of school, fun times you had in kindergarten and things like that. It all just seems like yesterday. Well I am really really looking for summer. I think it is going to be a fun one. I just signed up to go to EFY at Weber State. Then only thing is that I don’t get to stay overnight. I will have to drive back and forth morning and night because all the rooms were filled up. But still it will be really fun. Last year I heard how much fun everybody had at EFY when I was an officer last year and got a chance to hand out with the older kids. So in my ward when the young men’s leader said. “Hey everybody we are going to EFY” I was excited cause I had heard so many good things. But I turned out that we were going to this four-hour talk with some churchy guy. It really wasn’t fun at all. So this summer I just decided to sign up with some friends and go with them for the weeklong thing. It should be really fun. Then after that along time into summer I think I will be going to scout camp. This will be well I guess my fifth weeklong camp. Wow just had another one of those “Can’t believe how fast life goes moments. I just seems like last summer I was at my first camp. But anyway my troop is going to Camp Loll this year. The scouts are going for the usual merit badges and stuff, but the older kids who already have their eagles are going on a high adventure trip. For those of you don’t know Loll is just outside of Yellowstone park. So all week long we are going through classes on how to repel, white water raft, and other fun outdoorsy things. I am really excited for that too. Then today me and my mom were talking about jobs over the summer. I think im going to try and find one that I can do before I turn sixteen in September. I am already a soccer referee and that makes really really good money. So I will keep doing that and maybe find more of a full time job during the day. I don’t know I am really excited for summer and nice weather. Sunday was so so so nice and warm. I cant wait.

School Sports

What sports do you play? Soccer? Baseball? Football? Well if you play those then you would try out for the school team wouldn’t you? Well I guess you are just out of luck because those sports are not offered in our school or even school district. Throughout this essay I will focus mainly on soccer because that is the sport that I play. But in this paper I am also including Baseball, Football and other sports. I want to know why there is only a very select few sports offered at our school compared to other schools. I feel sports have always brought people together. To learn to work together, trust each other, and become good friends. Think of the revolutionary story of Jackie Robinson and how he changed baseball and the way people look at other races. Which I feel even led to a change of the world. With out sports this story would not exist. Imagine in school you have two different groups of kids. They don’t like each other and fight. Kids in both groups enjoy playing soccer. They all try out for a school team. They have to learn to work together and trust each other. Sports in school would lead to more unity between student’s and most likely lower the amount of high risk kids. If that does not work then we could use the discipline points system. Say that if they get a certain number of points or more than they cannot participate in school athletics. You can also use this for grades. Tell them that if they do not get a high enough GPA then they cannot play and are removed from the team or just bench them and not allow them to play. I have some friends that are very passionate about soccer. I really do feel that if they could not play the sport because of behavior or grades then they would try their very very hardest to improve so they could play. This friend who I just briefly mentioned does go to our school. He truly loves soccer and is very very good at it. He has been playing on a competition league for a very long time and I have been privileged enough to play competition level with him for five years before he moved on to a better team. I feel that he does not get respect at school because he does not play one of the few organized sports that is offered at our school. Basketball players who have seen him play in gym class think he is bad at basketball so that makes them think he is really bad at all the other sports. That is very not true. If only those kids could see him out on a soccer field. Then go out and try to play soccer for themselves they would find out its not as easy as it looks. Even with other sports I feel that there is a bit of bullying going on because sometimes kids can’t always see the persons full potential. My friend trains non stop all year round to be the best he can be for the upcoming soccer season. He runs almost every morning in the very very cold temperatures and sometimes in inches, even feet of snow. When I ask him why he keeps going? Why he keeps training through miserable conditions he just says to me, “It will pay off when the soccer season comes., because I will be that much farther ahead of everybody else.” People would never know how good he really is. Everybody knows that the kids who are good at sports are always the most popular kids. It’s not fair that people just don’t realize there are a lot of sports that are not as well know out there that are also worth noticing. We need all the sports that we can get to help in getting kids in shape. The state and Nations top health officials say that Americas kids are bigger than ever. They have a higher caloric intake and a less active physical lifestyle. If the state and district are telling kids that they are out of shape and overweight why are they not doing anything about it? They make us take gym class. They feed us very bad food because it is healthy and low in calories. This is still not working because I still hear how overweight the youth really are. If they love a sport then they will work at it to be the best they can be. Everybody will do that if they truly love the sport. I feel this is a way to solving the problem of overweight kids. Give them a variety in choosing a sport. They will probably also work at it like my friend to be the best they can be. I think that adding more sports to schools will solve many problems, Obesity, Bullying, Low GPA averages at schools, possibly even money issues. All of these things have been brought up to the school board as problems. They have a very high chance of being fixed with just a few small changes. Mainly the addition of more sports.

Day at the Legislature

Well finally second term is over and third term is beginning. Almost over just counting the days until summer. Since it was the start of second semester we all got new classes, kids and teachers on Wednesday. I was not in school. I had to miss to be up at the state capitol for the state Day at the Legislature. I had to go for a youth City Council for Layton City that I am on. Me and a few other council members got up really early in the morning and had to be at the capitol at seven in the morning. We had a short breakfast and went off the smaller council meetings at eight o’clock. It was actually very interesting. We went down to the basement to the meeting conference rooms. The meeting that was the most interesting was a debate about wildfires. The state fire marshal was there saying that instead of spending billions of dollars to put out wildfire in the middle of nowhere just control it to an area where nothing can be hurt or damaged and just let it burn itself out. “Who cares about a few square miles of sagebrush? As long as nothing or nobody gets hurt just let it burn.” He said. Later he went on to saying that at the end of the Utah fire season every year the state runs out of money specifically for fires. Which ends up with the state going into debt. But he was saying that if they only fight the fires that are threatening homes that should save them money. It actually was very interesting. After those small meetings the State Legislature and House of Representative meeting started. They took place in the very big and fancy meeting rooms like you see on president of the Untied States and government movies. They talked about people who wrongfully go to jail. Which means they did not do a crime and were put in jail on accident. Well once this is proved that they did not commit the crime and are released they are given a check from the government saying they are sorry. But the problem with that is that the person who is in jail for one year gets the same amount of money as someone who is in jail for up to thirty years. Which is not fair. The person wrongfully accused and convicted should get more money if he stays in longer. After that we left the capitol and went to the Grand America hotel for a very very fancy dinner. We had this fancy salad, chicken and potatoes and other fancy things. I met Governor Huntsman and ate lunch with Layton city’s mayor and three senators and representatives. It was really fun.

The End of Term and Long Weekend

Well I don’t remember what I wrote about last week. I think it was the expression of my disappointment of not being able to go on that campout. It ended up being okay though. So actually right now I am typing (or trying to type) to type this blog on my iPod. If I was home I would just do it on the computer but on not so I will try to kill two birds with one stone. So anyway I am so so glad that the term is over. I really don’t know why I think is just the stress of making sure that my grades end up okay. On last Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday all I did was read. I read all day at school when I could. Then I would walk home from school and that was my only break from reading. Then I would go straight back to read again. This is why I am so glad that’s over. But the thing that I am looking forward to the most is the extra long weekend. So starting off the weekend. Yesterday was my grandpa’s birthday and my grandparents came over and spent the day with us. Then we all went to my little brother’s basketball game. Afterwards we went out to dinner at Cafe Rio. (My favorite restaurant) It was AMAZING as usual. Then after that I went to the regional dance. Had a good time there to. So them here comes this morning I got up and got ready but today is Stake Conference so instead of driving to church we hopped in the car and drove to Bountiful. So enough of this week let's talk about the fun stuff with our long weekend. Tomorrow/Monday I am going to the car show in Salt Lake. I am so excited you can’t even imagine. So I will have to take a lot of pictures and post them on my blog. Then I really have no idea what I am going to do the rest of the break. I really want to go skiing and sledding. So I will cross my fingers. I guess I'm lucky cause I get a day longer break than all of you. On Wednesday I have a conference at the State Capitol and Grand America hotel. So I get an extra day off. The only problem is that I have to get up of five o clock on the morning. Leave at six fifteen and be at the Capitol very very early. That's the only bad thing. But I think that it is going to be worth it.

End of Term Stress!

Well like I promised last blog I would tell you about my winter camping trip to the cabin. So I guess I will tell you that we didn’t end up going so let me explain how it happened. When we planned this campout it was supposed to be in a week from this coming Friday, But my leaders pregnant wife said “No you can’t have the campout then! That’s when we are supposed to have the baby.” So after much persuasion we convinced him that he needed to be home that weekend. So then they moved the campout to Jan. 11th and 12th. Then I found out that his wife had the baby three weeks early so it ended up being a few days before we were supposed to leave. It kind of made me mad that we planned it around the baby then they ended having it when we had moved it for him in the first place! (If that made any sense at all.) So since the baby was born early he had to stay in the hospital a little longer than most babies. But really it is all right with me. Im glad that that was the reason they canceled it and im glad that both parents and baby are now home. So anyway I guess that I will have to wait another week and a half and you will to if you were just dying to hear about it. It is almost the end of the term thank goodness (Getting closer to summer!) but the only bad thing is I have been living the last three weeks in total stress. If you are at all like me the last week of the term you are running around the school talking to all the teachers trying to get your grades up at the last minute. That’s exactly what I really really do not want to do tomorrow. But I think my grades are fine as of now, as long as I can finish my AR points. I really do like to read I just feel like I can’t choose the book I want to read. I had to read Into Thin Air for science and all of the books we had to read for Honors English. I just don’t get excited like I used to about reading because the books I get stuck reading are not my type. So really now I have to stop typing and go read so I can get all the AR points I need.

Movies and Snow

Well since we haven’t talked since before Christmas I hope everybody had a good one. I hope everybody got all they wanted I know I did and much much more. Well any over the holiday break the only thing I did was read my book to finish my AR points and I watched movies. I saw like eight movies, National Treasure, Disturbia, I am Legend, The Game Plan, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and finally Alvin and the Chipmunks. Well I guess that’s only seven but still I saw all of them in five days. My favorite of course was just the first National Treasure but since I have seen that a lot that really doesn’t count for the holiday movie contest. My favorite was National Treasure: Book of Secrets Though I didn’t like it as much as the first I still really really liked it. Disturbia was really good but it was really kind of strange in some parts. Those of you who have seen it probably know what I mean. But really I liked it. I did love all the movies I saw all over the break. Then aside from all that I spent lots of time shoveling and snow blowing the snow. The really sad thing is I haven’t had a chance to go play in the snow yet. We have gotten so much snow the past few weeks, well I guess even months I haven’t had a chance to go play in it. Except next week I will have all day and night and day again. We are going on another scout camp out. Now im sure you have heard me talk a lot about my young men’s and all our campouts so it should be no surprise that I am going on another one. This one I am going to a cabin in Heber City. There will be lots of snow of course. This will be my third trip there and I have had lots and lots of fun there every single time. So we will get there and unpack a little then go outside and sled and snowboard and play in the snow. So that should be fun and I will have to let you know how it went when I write my next blog next week.