Zara in Marco Island, Florida!

We had to take 2 long planes to get to Florida. We had a 4 or 5-hour long wait while we were passing through Chicago because our plane kept getting delayed. Then, we had a 1 hour car drive to get to Marco island. My family and my cousin's family arrived at our Florida house at about 10:00 Florida time, which is 7:00 Seattle time. Then, at 10:30 we hopped in the pool and stayed in 'til 11:30 and then we fell asleep at 12:30! Every day we go to this place called "The Sand Bar" because a sand bar is a bar of sand underwater that makes you trip. I think that it is called that because it is really popular, and everybody feels like they have to stop there. The Sand Bar has an awesome pool and a mega-delicious restraunt. The restraunt has delicious grilled cheese and ice cream, but today they were out of ice cream. My birthday is happening in Florida this year, April 19. 

We have been going to the pool about 8 hours a day.

Here is a pic of the sand bar pool. Today it was stormy, which is unusual, because it is usally somewhere in the 80s or 90s.

My sister Claire and I at the beautiful beach:

My 9th birthday in Florida!

I got to ride a pony on the beach on my birthday!

Miss you guys!

Hampton Court Palace

We went to Hampton Court Palace which was 10 minutes from my cousins' house. The Palace was home to King Henry VIII and built in the 1500s!  We learned a lot about his life and he is most known for his wife situation - he had six wives in his life and he beheaded two of them. I love history, so I enjoyed learning about that even though it's pretty brutal. 

We had a good day though and sweetened the time with ice cream and a fun time in the garden maze - totes amazeballs!

Harry Potter Studios

The movie set of Dumbledore's office!

The model used in the movies to 

photograph Hogwarts from far away views

We went to the Harry Potter Studios where they actually filmed the Harry Potter movies.  It was amazing to see the place where the actors lived during the 10 years that they filmed those movies. We saw the sets of the Gryffindor commons, Diagon alley, Privet Drive and the Hogwarts bridge. 

One of the interesting things I learned was that sets can be used for different scenes, such as Snape's potions class.  It was also used as Snape's office and the place where the 3-headed dog guarded the sorcerers stone.  

One of my favorites was that we actually got to have Butter Beer.  It was delicious. Tasted like sparkling apple cider with caramel foam on top. yummmmm. 

The City of London

On a bridge with the London Eye and Big Ben in the background

My cousins, siblings and me with the Tower Bridge behind us

 We saw the Tower of London where they house the crown jewels and old armor from the 1500s.  Amazing history here in london.  London is full of people from all over the world. It's a busy city and we did and saw so many things there that I can't describe them all without my typing fingers getting tired. 

A Visit To Oxford

We went on a mini trip within our trip - to Oxford!!  It was a beautiful town and 38 colleges are there. So it's a town full of smarties!  There is also the Oxford castle and Thames River that runs through the town. In this picture, we are standing in front of the Natural History museum.  

Hope you all had great Spring Break's too!!!

Trip To Austin

Anna's Trip to Austin.

When we were in the plane to Austin,we caught a great picture. here is one down here.

You can notice how flat Texas is compared to Washington!

 It was already hot in the plane when we got to Austin.  And sunny!  I couldn't believe how long it took to get there:  4hrs.  That's two movies, five books, one fight with your brother, and one not-so-good airplane lunch.

Austin's street signs are really funny.  The first one tells you how to cross the street, step by step by step.

There's another one I really like:  

We went for a walk.  It was a great sight!  Behind me is a river that runs through Austin.  It's controlled by a dam.

There's a mural that two artists were restoring.  We visited almost all the places on the mural, including the capital building (Austin is the capital of Texas), the University of Texas (go Longhorns!), and Sandy's famous frozen custard!

Texas was a great place;  I hope I go back one day.

p.s. Huskies and Longhorns get along very well!

Audrey Visits England!

My family is visiting my cousins in England over Spring Break.  They moved here in December from Bellevue and we miss them a lot, so this is a real highlight.  They moved for my Aunt's job - she is the CFO at King.com, the company who makes fun gaming apps like Candy Crush - pretty cool.  She is really good at what she does and so the whole family moved here to support that job move and to get an awesome international experience.

Highlights of the week for Ian

This week, we had a crazy hair day/dress up and I spray painted my head with blue on one side and red on the other side.  I think Josiah and Max had the best hair.  I'm excited to go to my friend's house on Thursday.  I just finished my Mayan Research draft on Monday. I'm writing about how the Mayan government was structured.  Also, my group is going to use a pyramid Prezi as a presentation tool to teach our class about the religion and government of ancient Maya.   Also, I got to level 10 in typing.  Last week or this Monday, we did this game of Foursquare in gym. 

Keiko Sensei told us to do IXL at home but I couldn't do it because my computer couldn't get the internet.

Felix in Olympia

Last Friday I went to Olympia with my Mom. We went to watch The Governor sign the bill she worked on. I got to go to the floor of the house and took a picture with Representative Goodman by his desk. The dome in the capital is the largest stone dome in the world. The light in the dome is big enough to hold a car.

                                          Governor Inslee

                                          Representative Goodman

                                                      Senator O'BAN

Highlights of the week for Audrey

This week on Tuesday we had library and Ms. Pat's daughter, Alice, brought her service dog Rhett in and talked about him.  We read a book about service dogs.  It was really fun!  Earlier in the week, we did a practice MSP test just to get the feeling of what the real one will be like in May 7th and 8th.  Today we are going to have art and I'm really excited because we are doing a narrative painting.  It is a small moment picture.

In social studies, we are doing a presentation on Mayan religion and government.  In our presentation, our group decided our anchor activity is going to be every one is going to get a piece of clay and make a tiny pyramid.  For our Prezi Presentation, we are going to do a pyramid with different facts on different stories of the pyramid.  And then, we just filled up our marble jar and now we get a party.  We are voting right now.  I WANT CRAZY HAIR DAY!  That's all.