Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

Norah's wish

 My wish

Norah Leven

I wish for my mommy to buy two chickens because the 1st chicken we bought died because a coyote ate it. My second chicken got lost. 

Jackson's Personal Narrative

 A Rafting disaster

Jackson Leven

Have you ever had a disaster during rafting? I have and you would not like it. (It's July 8, 2022 10:00. We are in Lake Tahoe, California)

First my dad said that we are going rafting in the Truckee River with another family. So I say, "okay". So we drove 2 hours there. Then our plan was to go in an eight person raft, but my dad got 2 four person rafts.

Next we got on our raft and the other family got on theirs (At least ours was more inflated.) But they had the food and drinks. And they were way behind us and we could not connect. 

So they threw food and drinks but most of it missed. So we were very hungry until my dad slowed down and they gave us a bag of food.

It took about two hours to finally get to one of the two rapids. It was very fun and bumpy so we steered to the left and got stuck in six inch deep water. My dad pushed the raft back into the current. But he got left behind and had to jump to us and we slowly moved on. 

Last we went on the final rapids. They were not too bad but very shallow and a medium sized rock. Our guide , my dad A.K.A the pro fell off the raft but got saved by the other family. 

Finally my dad said we needed dry clothes and lunch. So he the other family's dad went to the house. (4 hour round trip) We had to sit in the hot sun and wait.

It took forever for them to get back. Last we ate our lunch next to the sound of rushing water. Then we went home (two hour drive). When we got home we played some board games and had a warm dinner. Well I hope our guide never falls of the boat on rapids or when we need him again. 

His score: 24.5/27

Focus one small memorable moment. 2/3

Clear descriptions of what took place. 3/3

Wrote the events in story form. 3/3

Include a hook at the beginning. 3/3

Include an obvious and proper conclusion for the end of story. 3/3

Begin a new indented paragraph when changing events or ideas. 3/3

Put events in order so they make sense to the reader. 3/3

No grammatical errors. 1.5/3

Spelled words appropriately. 3/3

Fort Morgan -- 2022 Thanksgiving

For the first time, we drove east. Our car packed with two kayaks, four bikes, five tennis rackets, two fishing poles, numerous food supplies plus a rice cooker finally left Dallas at 10am Saturday November 19. East we went, first past Louisiana, then the mighty Mississippi river, turned southeast after Jackson, reached Alabama in the dark. We arrived at our rental house in Fort Morgan at 9pm. Other two families have already arrived. They left a day early and split the drive in two from Austin. 

We had six kids in the house. Jackson 9, Benny 7, Norah 7, Emma 6, Jasper 5, Leo 3. Kristina and Patrick are Chloe and Bruno's friends in Austin. They spent last thanksgiving in South Padre Island and had daily water activities. Before the trip, a cold front dropped Dallas temperature to near freezing. The same weather system also affects the Alabama coast. Temperature was in the low 50's during the day and most days were forecasted to rain. We worried about whether the beach activities were going to be possible. Kristina packed many toys for the kids to play with. 

Sunday we woke up to misty weather. Our house is the second row of the houses in Morgantown development. A walk to the beach took about 2 minutes. There were very few people on the beach. This didn't stop the kids' interest in digging in the sand and chasing the waves. Will, Jackson and I went grocery shopping at Rouse's Market in Gulf Shores during Norah's nap time. Our cashier was friendly and shared with us his catch photos on his phone. I had thought of leasing a charter boat to go deep sea fishing. With the cold weather and windy sea and young kids, we never executed the plan. We checked out Jeff Friend trail for future hiking and kayaking needs and the ferry to Dauphin Island for a possible trip to the aquarium. The rest of the day was filled with biking, tennis, beach walk and laughter. 

Monday morning, Jackson woke up with a sore throat and fever. I served him four cups of lemon honey tea and he just slept and slept. The rest of the crew played at the beach. Jackson woke up around 3pm and completely recovered. I took him to the beach and he played till dinner. Before going to sleep, Norah complained about a sore throat. 

Tuesday morning, Norah woke up with a fever. We were able to quarantine since we had a total of five bedrooms. While Norah slept, we made a trip to a nearby pier to try crab fishing. I chopped up some chicken bits and cooked shrimp as bait, took the kite string and fishing poles. The pier was windy and cold. We tied each chicken piece with a string long enough to reach deeper water, but no crabs came biting. But a big bird flew close, a heron maybe? He was eyeing the chicken. He ate a chicken piece before I had time to cut the string off. The other end of the string got caught on the rock edge. He was stuck! Kids went closer to help but he panicked. He tried to fly so hard that the chicken piece flew out of his stomach and fell back to the water. Amazingly he didn't leave. We cut out the string and he flew back and ate the chicken. Jackson and I also acted as fishing coaches. The other kids practiced casting with great interest. In the afternoon, Will and Jackson went for a hike on Pine Beach trail (the more interesting sounding Gator Lake trail was closed). In the evening, three moms went to dine at Sassy Bass grill. It was a good change of pace. 

Wednesday was a sunny day, the best weather day of our trip. Will and Jackson went to Bon Secour Bay to kayak in the morning. We squeezed in a couple's tennis play at naptime. Norah felt better enough to come to the beach in the afternoon to watch the sunset. Jackson enjoyed boogie boarding in the waves. And all the digging! Taking advantage of the good weather, I planned the BBQ dinner tonight and allocated S'more time after the charcoal fire. A few kids enjoyed their first S'mores! After dessert, we each carried a flashlight and went to the beach to dig for crabs. One of my friends married someone from Pensacola and told me crab digging was a fun thing for kids. We found two tiny crabs on the sand and dug out none. It was nevertheless super fun for all of us to explore the beach in the dark. It was a new moon so we saw millions of stars twinkle.  

Thursday most kids went to play tennis. After finishing our mid-day feast of pastrami and mash potatoes, our family took a scenic drive to the east.  We were only about 30 minutes away from the Florida-Alabama border. We drove by Orange Beach and entered Florida. High rise condos covered the ocean-front starting from Orange Beach. We liked Fort Morgan's quietness compared to the large developments more to the east. We stopped by Gulf State Park Pier to see if it's a good fishing spot. They charge a hefty price just for stepping on the pier. On the way back, I took the wrong route and accidently checked out the community at the other side of Little Lagoon. 

Friday morning Norah still hasn't recovered. The rest of the gang went to check out the namesake fort. In the afternoon, her fever finally left and she was able to come to the beach to say bye. Despite the illness that never left us throughout the trip and the weather that hardly cooperated, we all loved the relaxing trip. There is such simplicity in a day of planning consisting of just beach and tennis.

Saturday we planned to catch the 8:45am ferry to shorten our drive and enjoy the ferry ride. We all woke up around 6:30 and were all ready to go at 7:30. It was foggy outside. And the ferry texted Will that today's ride was cancelled. We left the house around 8am. Arrived home at 7:15pm. A few traffic accidents on I-20 delayed us a little bit. 

2022 Halloween

 We had a fun Halloween this year! Bucket loads of candies were collected and many activities lead to the Monday night finale!

Ghost and Pirate

Carving a pumpkin

Product of kids labor

Fun carving with Grandpa!

Proud moments

Wednesday at work, I received a call from Greenhill School. I stopped what I was doing and picked up. A happy voice started by assuring me there was no problems at school. It's Norah's Spanish teacher Mrs Stromberg. She just had a great conversation with Norah for a whole period. In her 30 years at teaching, 14 years at Greenhill, Norah is the first kid to come to her discussing a strategy to get to top grade.

Norah received her report card on Monday. Her home room score is at the higher level while her Spanish score is at average. She speculated why and Will encouraged her to directly talk with her teacher. We mentioned it on Tuesday parent-teacher conference with Mrs Prentiss. On Wednesday, the teachers facilitated this discussion during Literacy. 

Mrs Stromberg was so impressed with Norah's observation for her situation and her desire to excellence. She said she doesn't like score the kids so it's common that she graded everyone an average score. Norah has brought a new perspective for her. She poured out compliments for Norah. It felt so good to hear those feedback.

Same day, Jackson was chosen to be the ambassador of his school. St Mark's had an open house on Wednesday and 1400 people came to visit. A group of kids each grade were chosen to give tours and answer questions. My friend was there and took a picture of Jackson. He was amazing on being the face of the lower school! We got a letter from the lower school principal to thank Jackson for his effort. 

Yesterland Farm

 We met up with a few of Norah's friends today at Yesterland Farm. It is a place full of rides, maze, hay rides and apple canons. Every two hours, there is candy rain blasted from the canon in the central plaza. With 20,000 steps on Jackson's Fitbit, we came home happy and exhausted.