Day 3!(during the day)

Today we had to be boarding the bus by 7:45 because we had to drive back into Washington from our hotel. In the morning we went to the Arlington Cemetery.

The cemetery has the remains of about 175,000 American Soldiers and president Kennedy. The cemetery was beautiful. There were flowers in every direction you turned, the leaves were on the trees and the cemetery was kept very well. The one thing that surprised me so much, was that you could look for miles and miles and you would still see the headstones, there were that many people there.

*I took this picture when we first got into the cemetery.

* See what I mean, you can see headstones forever!

While we were walking around we ran into a ceremony that was going on for a solider that had just passed away. We walked up as it was ending but what I did end up seeing was really neat. Once we finished watching that we continued out walk we ran into this huge white building and inside were all of these rows or marble benches, it was so pretty.

I have a picture of Jake and I on this one huge chair but the person that took the picture still has to send it to me.

*me and Chloe on the one part of the building

*picture of the inside of the building

After we left there we came across this little bridge that I thought was really cute so I made Jake pose for a picture or two!

*This was the last stop at the cemetery. We stopped at Kennedy's grave. It was very unique, i the middle of the whole thing there was a fire. Beside him was his daughter and wifre. All around him were some of the rest of his family.

That afternoon we had time to go and look at some of the other Smithsonian Museums. The group that i was with wanted to go to the Natural History Museum. At first I thought it was going to be really dumb but when you when in there was a real elephant(that was stuffed & happens to be my favourite animal of all times)

Once we were in the Museum we went into the Oceans section. Inside there were all these preserved sea creatures. It was hard to take picture of some things because they were all in glass cases. So sorry if the picture don't turn out the greatest. Also I have only put up the smallest amount of what I actually took. After we looked at the ocean's creatures we traveled through the human body section(it was really boring so i didn't take any picture in that section because it was all bones and stuff) After that there was a section with all kinds of animals that have been stuffed and then brought to the museum

*I never really realized how large a giraffe actually was until Jake took a picture of me standing beside one. I am not tall at all but i'm the average height of a person and that giraffe is very fall compared to me.

*This was a picture of the octopus that I saw. In movies and stuff they always make them look so cute... and I don't think he is cute at all!

*The really neat part of the animal section was that they wern't just standing there stuffed they movied the animals into positions that made them look really real. For example; the fighting scene that the lions are having up above.
After the animal section we went to see the "hope" diamond(in picture below) and I found it really disappointing. Everyone made it seem like it was going to be some huge diamond but it wasn't as big and everyone said. The diamond section was really busy so we left there right after we took a picture of the "hope" diamond. After that there was a bug/reptile section. There were turtles, snakes, spiders, bees, ticks, beetles, etc.

One really cool part about his section was the bees that they had. They had a bunch of these bees making hoest and we all look at eachother and said where are the flowers? And then one of us noticed a tude that went from the nest to the outside an a bunch of bees were flying in and out of this tube with honey.

Most of the people we came into the museum with split up from us and our deal was that we would meet them at about two and then we would go to another museum. But about half of us were ready to just fall asleep or sit for the last two hours. But instead a bunch of us agreed to go and watched a 3D imax movie. I never was a fan for imax movies but I was willing to go and sit through one so that I didn't have to do anymore walking. The movie we went to go and see was called Wild Ocean 3D. We all thought that it was going to be about all different wildlife in the ocean but no it was about sardenes the whole time!! All of us at one point ended up falling alseep through the 45 minute movie. I was kind of bummed by the end because I paided $8.75 to have a nap.

I will hve another post on what happened on day 3 at night!

Well day wo was probably one of the busiest day of the trip! We had to be leaving the first hotel by eight. In my room the first night there were four girls, so we had to be up by 5:45 so that we could all shower and eat breakfast downstairs. We had a really long drive to get to the first stop for the day, but I passed most of the time by sleeping it off.
Our first stop of the day was the Luray Caverns. This place was amazing and probably the most interesting. I thought that we were going to look at caves outside and I have to admit I wasn't too excited to go at all!

*this is Jake and I after we went through the Caverns. We just sat and relaxed while we waited for the bus

When we got to the caverns we went intside and the people working there gave us a headset with a number pad thing attached to it. Each station you went to inside the caverns had a number you could enter into your key pad. Once you entered the number you would hear a man talking about what you were seeing.

It was really neat inside because all of the rocks were growing from the ceiling down.

It was amazing inside the caverns! It was like nothing I have seen before. The rocks took about 120 years to grow 1 inch! If you touched any of the rocked it could stop their growth.

*This was one of the cooled thing I have ever seen! In the picture you see rocks growing from the top and the bottom. It's tricking your eyes! The rocks on the top were the real rocks and the rocks on the bottom were a reflection. But it look like they were under water, but the water was only about and inch deep

* same thing with this one, the reflection of the rocks on the top, The water was proably about an inch here as well

* the part that is white in the background was known as the Pluto ghost

* we got closer later on and I got a picture with it:)

* There was a section of the caverns were the water was deeper and everyone that was walking by was throwing money into the water. I thought it was cool that they threw in one dollar bills! Every couple of months they take the money out of the water and donate it to certain events.

* this is was also really cool! We noticed that the rocks looked like eggs!

After the caverns we went to one of the Smithsonian museums. Today we went to the air and space museum. It was really cool because when you walked in there were capsules that astronauts had landed in the water on their way back to Earth. I never really realized how little space that they have when they are in outer space. In the meuseum there was so much to look at. There were planes, space ships, and other objects that have done something special at one point. There were some place that you could walk through/ look at but most of them were just hanging from the cailing all over the place

For dinner we went to Union Station. I ended up getting a t-shirt that would remind me of the trip. Jake and I went to Jonny Rockets for dinner that night. My mom told me she had it when she went to California and she really liked it so I thought I would give it a try

Jake and I both thought that it was really good! When our meals were given to us we were given each a bowl with a smiley face made with ketchup. I made jake pose for a picture because I thought it was really cute.

Once I had taken the second picture and looked on the camera we both realized that the face was no longer there.

After dinner we all went to a play called Shear Madness. It took place in a hair salon and to make the story shorter and less complicated there was a murder and the actors/actresses were very involved with the audience an they let the audience solve the case. After the play was over we headed to the second hotel. When we got there we all settled in the relaxed until curfew because we all had to get up early the next morning.

Day One!

Well I am back from Washington! My trip was amazing! I have seen and done thing I never thought I would get the chance to do.
The first day we stopped at a coal mine is Lackawana, PA. We were running behind because we got held up at the border. We ended up getting to the coal mine at about 3:30 and when we got there I thought that the tour was going to be a movie or some old man talking to us about what it was like to be in a mine, but I was very wrong! When we got there half of us got into a yellow cart that was caged in and was attached to a large cable at the front. I was in the first group of people that went down into the mine, and I sat at the back of the cart so I was able to take pictures. As the cart was moving down the track and man was telling us what to do if something bad happened and i was okay with the idea of going down into a mine until I was hearing the what if's. I tried to take pictures on the way down but it was way to dark and you couldn't see anything.

Once we were down there the tour guide was explaining that we were about 300 feet under the surface and that around us there were gallons and gallons of water. As we continued the tour I started to realize how dangerous it actually was to work down in a coal mine. I was surprised that kids as young as seven would go down into the coal mine and work a ten or twelve hour day.

As I said before pictures were really hard to take down in the mine because the was limited light down in the mine. After we left the coal mine we still had a long time to drive until we got to our first hotel. We stopped for dinner on the way, and me and a group of friends went to a place called Perkin's. It was a little diner and was probably the best meal I had on the entire trip.


Amandaaa:)

Washington!:)

Well we stopped for the night!! I went to the coal mines today and it was so cool! I didn't bring something to take the pictures off the camera so i will have to post them when I get home. Only two more hours until I am in Washington tomorrow:)

3 Dayss!:)

As of Saturday I am leaving for Washington DC with my science class. I am getting really excited for this trip as the days get closer! The ride is about 12 hours long and we get to take a coach bus! I have never been on one before so I am kind of excited to go on one for the first time! While we are in Washington we are going to a coal mine on the way down, the holocaust museum, the monuments at night, we are going to some cemetery where famous people are, and one night we are going to watch a play. I am bringing my laptop and I hope I will be able to post some of the stuff that I do down there. I will take a bunch of pictures!:) I AM GOING TO PROVE YOU WRONG MOM!:)

Surprise!!:)

Me and some friends had attended a surprise birthday for a friend that had moved away back in grade nine(i didn't know him but Jake invited me to tag along) The surprise birthday took place a East Side Mario's and it turned out really well.

Jake's birthday was coming up the next weekend on April 5th and I wanted to do something special, something that he wouldn't think I would ever do, something he would remember for a long time. Sure he would love if I took him to some fancy dinner and then maybe went to a movie after but I wanted it to different from every other birthday he might have had. So one night I was sitting in bed and he texted me and said that the surprise dinner thing was really cool but I wouldn't want one for myself.

Well then an idea jumped into my head! I was going to have a surprise dinner for Jake with his family and closest friends at his favourite restaurant. Now Jake loves food and almost all the places we have gone to eat out he always says I love this place so for me to pick his favourite place to eat was going to be hard without help. So I somehow had to get it out of Jake without him assuming anything. So that night I called him and told him I needed to know his top three restaurants because my mom and I were arguing about what they were. His reply was Turtle Jacks(number 1), Mongolian(number 2) and then East Sides (number 3).

After some research it came down to that we had to go to East Sides because I had to big of a group and they wouldn't be able to get us all together. So after I had set a date I went onto facebook and sent out the invites to everyone(let me tell you trying to see if everyone can come is stressful) Once the date got closer i sent out a reminder message to make sure everyone remember.

On Friday Jake drove to my house and I let him know I had to drive because we have never been there before and it was on the other side of Kitchener(and we have been toe east sides a billion times). Jake kept pushing to get going because he was hungry and I was trying to delay everything because people were texting me from the restaurant saying don't come yet. So finally I just decided we would leave but I would just drive around and pretend that we actually were on the way.

I drove all the way down by uptown Waterloo, the rec, rim, the mall, I pretty much drove all over Waterloo. Then Jake started to clue into the fact that we weren't really on our way there. He kept saying your taking me home and making me dinner there aren't you! but I just shut my mouth and kept driving. Finally I got the OK to come and we were on our way! When we pulled into the parking lot he kept saying AMANDA I TOLD YOU WE WERE GOING HERE... and I just smiled! When we got into the restaurant he found out I made a reservation and I never do. The lady took us to the table and when we walked in everyone yelled surprise!

Jake didn't look to impressed at first but I know he liked it. He wasn't to impressed when they came in to sing to him but whatever:) Overall I learned that it's a lot harder to plan something than I thought! But I had fun doing it:)

Happy birthday Jaker:)

Amandaaa:)

uh... I have no life at all!

Okay well I thought since as of tomorrow it would have been a month since I have posted anything on my blog so I had to post something even if it was nothing really. I have been doing a whole lot of nothing! So therefore I have nothing to blog about. I hope to find something soon!:)

Amanda!!:)

I just don't understand some people...

Drama to me is stupid, pointless and very childish. There are people in the world who are always the people who get stuck in the middle of drama, people who like to sit back and watch people go through drama and then there are people who like to start the drama! People that like to start problems in other peoples lives are stupid. They thrive on it, they love to see someone upset or frustrated, and they think they are number one. People like this need to realize that they aren't number one in the world, that the world doesn't revolve around them, that everyone on this planet isn't looking up to them.

People "say" that they are kindhearted, welcoming, cooperative, encouraging, fair, friendly, helpful, and thoughtful. I believe it's one thing to say you are those thing but to act them but to act them seems to be a challenge.

Amandaaa(:
xoxo

Little Red Wagon #17

This week at Little Red Wagon Joanne challenged us to create something with only using black and white. On Saturday Joanne coloured me this cute House Mouse stamp and on Sunday night I created this cute easel card. I followed the steps from Joanne's Friday Frendzy at Two Scrapbook Friends.

Hope you like it!!:)

Girls Nightt!

Tonight my mom and I had a "Girls Night" We sat in my mom's scrapbook room and scrapped all night. My mom finished one of her design team layouts and then started working on a card, and shortly after starting it she ditched because she was "sleepy"
I had an amazing time tonight with my mom. I love spending time with her, we always find such interesting things to talk about. Tonight especially!!:)
This is the layout that I did tonight!:) This picture was taken this summer! :)


Amanda!

My Birthday!!

As of February 18th I have been an adult! All of my life I would count down the years until I was a certain age. 12 for finally being a teenager, 16 so that I could drive, 18 so that I would be considered and adult, 19 and I'm legal age, and so on. But now that I have reach the age that I have count down to I'm not so excited that I'm there. Sure I am an adult now but really is that actually going to mean something. Yes I can now buy lottery tickets, and I can validate my lates at school, I'm able to rent a camp site and I'm able to view inappropriate websites (not that I ever would!) but it doesn't feel any different to be 18 years old. When I turned 12 and 16 it was like I was so much older. But why when you turn 18 does it not feel any different.

I look back on pictures and see how small and cute I was(I have to admit when I was really young I looked like a rat) and I wish I could go back in time and relive some of the things I got to experience and maybe change some of the things I did wrong, and the way I treated certain people. My parents always tell me how they are proud of me and they can see that I'm changing into a very nice young adult but I don't really want to grow up. In school I'm picking courses for my semester that I'm coming back to finish and everyone is talking about applying to certain programs and they have known what they have wanted to do for their whole life... but I have no clue at all what I want to do with the rest of my life.

I just think that life just goes by way to quickly and I really regret rushing certain things that I have done throughout my life. I wish you could just pause life and flash back in time and relive certain events that you really enjoyed. For example; anytime that I spent time with my one Great Aunt Edith(who passed away) elementary school, high school, camping with my family when I was little, anytime spent on our boat, and the list could go on and on.

Anyways, it sounds like I'm giving a speech right before something bad is going to happen to me. Moving on... These pictures that are in between the text are through my lifetime somewhat. I raided my mom's old photo albums and tried to find some half decent pictures that my parents wouldn't kill me if I showed other people. My mom said no to many of them(and I totally understood cause they were so funny) and my dad doesn't really care so I put them up anyways.

My birthday this year was amazing! Jake and I didn't go out for dinner on Valentines Day because our ninth month was on the 17 and my birthday on the 18 so we decided that we would do one dinner for all of them. On my birthday Jake took me to my favorite restaurant of all Red Lobster. We went to dinner somewhat early because we wanted to have some time to hang out after because Jake wanted to give me my gift.

Jake came to pick me up at 5 and as I was giving Jake directions to get to Red Lobster he asked me to go into the center compartment in his car to get out his Ipod so I could plug it in and we could listen to music. So I finished giving him the direction and I opened the middle compartment and there it was... my gift! I just about crapped my pants because I didn't think it was going to be in there. So as I was looking there was no Ipod in the first place. Jake told me to open the card and so I did(and it was really cute) and then there was a tiny little box sitting there just waiting to be opened.

It was wrapped in silver wrapping paper with a little red bow on the top. Jake told me to open it as I was taking off the wrapping paper I was thinking to myself; I didn't give him any ideas, and what the heck could this be? As the wrapping paper came off there it was starting me right in the eyes! The word Raffi! I screamed JAKEE! and I didn't even know what it was yet. I was thinking hmmm, maybe it's new earings, or a new necklace. I had NO IDEA!! I finally get the guts to open up the box and inside was a ring(there will be a picture soon!) By this time we were almost at Red Lobster. Jake glanced over at me and said "do you know what this is" and I thought to myself "uh, ya i know what it is?" and then Jake said that it was a promise ring!! I all of a sudden got really shaky and had about 1000 butterflies flying around in my stomach.
As we were pulling up to Red Lobster Jake asked me what driveway it was because there were about three in a row. I answered the second one because I was positive I was correct! Well I was wrong. We went into the gym parking lot and we didn't really know how to get out. It took way longer than it should have to actually arrive to the restaurant. Finally when we parked I put the ring on! It's beautiful and I love it to death! My 18th birthday is the most memorable that's for sure!! There will be pictures of the ring soon!!:)


Amandaaa!

Valentines Day!

Sorry my posts have been so late I just have been very busy with homework and stuff. Well on Valentines day Jake had to ref pretty much the whole day so I hung around my house with my mom and scrapbooked. My mom and I talked about how we didn't understand the point of Valentines day because you should be able to show your love for someone any day of the week and as you get older you may not even see your husband/wife on Valentines day. So we thought it was a dumb holiday. As we were scrapbooking my mom and I made this card together for me to give to Jake later that night(I was very last minute)

My mom had made a box for my brother Jason's girlfriend(if that's even the right word) and put candies inside so I thought heck lets make one for Jake so this is the box that I made.
and inside were one of Jake's favorite candies(I personally think they are disgusting-but whatever makes him happy!) Inside of Jake's card I made coupons that said that I would pay for dinner and a movie(because he NEVER lets me pay)

Okay now enough about what Jake got from me! My Valentines day was awesome!!! My mom, Jason and I had to run to the mall to pick up a few things to add to the gifts and as we were pulling into our driveway there was a van that parked on an angle and my mom and I kind of looked at each other funny. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw an older lady standing at our front door holding a huge thing of flowers and my youngest brother was taking them at the door. As soon as we parked I ran inside and saw that they were from Jake. Inside the packaging there were a dozen roses and some lilies. I should have taken a picture as soon as I got them but I was in shock that he actually sent me them and now its to late because they are starting to droop! After I received my flowers I no longer thought that Valentines Day was stupid!

Little Red Wagon #16

Okay well I was going to try to do the challenge last week but I didn't get a chance too so I thought I would give this one a a try. This week at the Little Red Wagon Deanna challenged everyone to use ribbon and here is what I came up with

This was the card that I gave Jake on Valentines day(there will be a post on Valentines day soon) For the little people on my card, my mom and I actually paper pieced their outfits by stamping the image onto the pattern paper and then cutting it out. My mom also helped me a bunch with making the guy tall enough to hold her hand(thanks mom)

Amandaaa(:

Semi Formal!

Last night I had my Semi-formal at St. George Hall. Before this Semi I had only ever gone to my grade nine one because in grade 10 I went to California with my mom and in grade 11 I ended up getting grounded(and I deserved it) but anyways. This year I was in a leadership class at my school and i was really hoping that the first semester class got the chance to run semi because the second semester class would get to run our prom. Well me and four other girls ran semi this year.

Our theme was Las Vegas and at first I was thinking okay... so this is going to suck like what kind of decorations could you get for Las Vegas that would be appropriate for a school function because everything in Vegas that I have ever known was about drinking and hardly any clothes. Well we saw the hall and it is beautiful! It was huge and we thought we were going to have trouble filling the space. I was thinking in the small town of Elmira there would maybe be a little bit over 100 kids there... well I guess completely wrong! We had over 300 kids attend the dance.

I spent all day yesterday at the hall with the other girls hanging up decorations and setting up tables. I never really realized how difficult it was to run an event that you knew everyone would remember. This dance was something that so many people remember and look forward too and I was one of the people they blame if something didn't go right or if the dance "sucked"

So all five of us were very nervous the whole week before and until we got there last night.

I wore the dress that I was going to wear last year. Since I didn't get a new dress this year I went to go and get my hair done. I thought since it was my last year I would do something special and I thought it turned out really well. For Christmas my brothers gave me a gift certificate to go and get my nails done so I also used that towards my "semi look"

Since I am creating a book for Jake and now I have started my own 12x12 album I wanted a bunch of pictures that I could scrapbook and I told my mom that she would be in charge. So my mom and I set out into the garage to find one of my dads shop lights(that blind you when you get your pictures taken by the way) and a white sheet and we put it over our TV unit and away we went.

Jake came over about an hour before we had to leave because I didn't know how long it would take for us to get all the picture taken. Well when we were about to leave I got really bad butterflies and started to get really nervous....

When we got there everyone was standing in the lobby because they were waiting for all their friends to get there. So Jake and I did the same because no one from grade twelve was there yet... So Jake and I were watching people come in(and I could have done that all night) Some of the dresses that the girls came in were like covering hardly any part of their body and come of them were just plain ugly!

Once more people that we hung out with got there we went in an danced for the rest of the night.

Since I was one of the people who ran Semi-formal I had the pleasure to clean up the hall when everyone left!!(just what I wanted to do after I danced for 3 hours) Jake drove that night so he had the pleasure of helping as well.
Overall Semi-formal went over really well! I had a blast running it and attending it!:)

I told my mom that I wanted to post the pictures on my blog before she did but she didn't listen so here they all are...(thanks mom!)

I will be the first to scrapbook them since I didn't get to post them first!