Month: June 2016

I was very excited to get to touch a moon rock. I thought I was going to be able to hold it in my hands. I thought it would be light, not heavy, like pumice. I have held pumice a lot of times already. I thought there would be bumps and holes. 

This was not what I expected and it was disappointing. The rock was cut into a skinny triangle shape and it was only for touching, not holding. It was smooth and there were no bumps or holes. It was dark and I had thought it would be light because when I see the moon it is light colored. 

The tall monument is called the Washington Monument and it is for remembering the first President. His name was George Washington. The next time I come to Washington DC I will go into the Washington Monument and go to the top. Since I could not go to the top for this visit, I decided to enjoy the bottom of the monument! It looked so much bigger this way.

My favorite monument was the World War II Monument because I think it is so beautiful with the fountains and the lights. Some parents were letting their kids get in the water and my Daddy told me that was wrong because this place is for remembering and it is not for swimming. 

I climbed all the steps to the Lincoln Monument. Abraham Lincoln was a president of the United States too. I walked around to the back of the big statue and saw lights shining up. 

From the Lincoln Monument I could see the Washington Monument really far away. 

My last monument of the night Wednesday Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. monument. This one was my favorite, I think. When I was 4, I went to a special museum and learned all about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  I also saw the place where a man hurt him with a little piece of metal that got into his body and made him not be alive anymore. That place is not very close to the Monument but I remember being there. 

My Daddy’s watch tells him how far he has walked in a day. I walked everywhere that Daddy walked and so I walked TEN WHOLE MILES TODAY and I did not complain. This is the most miles I have walked but in Death Valley one day I hiked about 6 1/2 miles or maybe even 7.

I went inside the Library of Congress and saw a lot of very old books. The old books were boxed in by glass so that means I could not touch them. Some of them were from Thomas Jefferson who restarted the library when he sold them to the law makers. The books the law makers had before all got ruined because of a fire. The fire was set on purpose because of a big fight called The War of 1812. That was a long time ago, I know, because the year now is 2016 and 2016-1812 = 204 years ago! 

Today I went here. This is called the Capitol building. At first, I kept forgetting it is called that and I called it The Main Place, or The House. Now I know it is the Capitol of The United States of America.

On the tour I wore headphones to hear the tour guide. Her name was Little Jessica. I think maybe there might be another tour guide who is named Jessica and is bigger than this Jessica. There were a lot of people taking tours with different guides but they were all listening to their own tour guide through their headphones.

This is a chandelier I saw on the tour.

The big roundish top part of the building is called the dome. This is what it looks like on the inside right now because some workers are making repairs. There were metal ladders and poles everywhere and those are called scaffolding. I learned that new word too. Little Jessica says the scaffolding has been there for two years already and that all of the work will be all done by the time a new president has been voted on to be our next president. When the new president takes the oath, the building will look very nice and fresh! An oath is a promise and I know what an oath is because I have taken a couple of oaths now to be a National Park Junior Ranger.  The president we have right now is President Barack Obama but I did not see him. 

The Capitol building is where men and women talk about and agree or disagree on ideas that become laws or do not become laws. A law is a rule and all people are supposed to follow the laws. If someone does not go by the laws it is called breaking the law.

I love Mister Rogers. 

Sometimes I get to watch his shows. I like that he is helpful and has good ideas for solving problems. He is never mean. He explains learning things well. I have some books he wrote about hard things and one of those things is about if your pet dies. It is a very good book. 

I wish I could meet him but I know he is not alive anymore. I got to see his puppets, sweaters and shoes and I liked that a lot. 

My Mama and another mama taught my class  about this artist. There was art here from another artist too but mostly the one man named Andy Warhol. 

I like his art that is bright and colorful. He did other types too but I really like the colorful face paintings he did.

Today I learned how to sew. I decided on my own fabric and decided I wanted to make a blanket. 

I learned how to measure the thread. It’s my wingspan long. That means the same as both my arms, spread out like wings. I learned how to get the thread into the needle hole. That is called threading the needle. 

I stayed in the sewing workshop until they closed it. If they had not closed it then I would probably have just stayed in there, sewing. 

I have read in books about fireflies or lightening bugs but today I got to see them and catch them. To catch them you have to close your hands in a cup shape instead of like when you are clapping. If you clap then you will hurt them. 

They are very pretty when they light up. I put them in a bug container and then I let them back out so they would be free.

I learned that they eat smaller insects and snails and slugs. Some of them eat plant parts. 

I read two books to some dogs at the library. The dogs were named Luther and Gus. I sounded out all the words. The dogs were soft. 
I had to stay longer at the library than I planned because the weather outside was very rainy and stormy and there was supposed to be a tornado! A tornado is a dark cloud of wind that can pick up heavy things. 
If a tornado is coming, don’t go outside. Stay inside and go into a basement and get away from the glass windows!

I had to go to the doctor for an x-ray today. The x-Ray showed my bones and the shape of my heart and where some air was in my lungs and also an air bubble in my belly. Wherever there was air was where I saw black on the x-Ray.  I talked with the X-ray worker about the parts of the X-ray and I asked the doctor if Mama could take a picture of the x Ray too. There is a Curious George book I like and in that book he gets a belly X-ray because he ate a puzzle piece!

I am all ok and healthy. The doctor was nice and she explained to me about my body and she also knew about horses so she told me about horses too. I might see her at the horse show. If I see her there, I will say hi to her.

At this doctor’s office, there is sometimes a dog there to greet patients. Today there was a nice old dog who was so soft. I petted him the whole time that I waited for my X-ray turn. 

I am learning about a new insect. This type is special because they only come out from underground every 17 years. So, last time it happened I was not even born. These are called cicadas and they made a very loud noise like a shaker. Just one by itself wouldn’t seem so loud but there are so many making the noises at the same time that I could hear them when my car drove on the freeway! They do not bite. They eat sap from trees. 



Mama and Daddy and I are each in different states! Mama is in Michigan, Daddy was in Ohio and I was in Indiana!

I am in three states at one time!

This was a great museum. Inside were all sorts of motor homes and trailers. Some were too old to go inside, like the one that were 100 years old, but a lot of them that were old and new you could look at and touch. Some were very big and some just small enough to sleep inside. For my birthday I was hoping I would get a chihuahua, but now I would like a motor home.

When I was in Death Valley I saw a lot of flowers but I have been in some new states today. Those states are Michigan and Indiana. I saw beautiful flowers in the middle of the freeway here and that was a surprise. 

I went to a town called Gary. That is so funny to me because one of my dogs is named Gary. When I looked out the window, I noticed that this place had a lot of buildings that were broken. 

I went to Michael Jackson’s house he lived in when he was a child. I learned he was married to Elvis’ daughter. I have also been to Elvis’ house. 

Michael Jackson played a lot of good music and I am listening to it in the car. He died because he took too much medicine for his body. That’s what Elvis did too.

My air conditioner broke at the beginning of our trip so we get wind from outside to cool us down. Some places I go to have a strong smell, usually the smell is cow poop. This time I smelled a delicious smell. A whole town smelled like bread or muffins. It was a factory that makes oatmeal!

This is the last place Buddy Holly played music before he died. I know all about Buddy Holly because I have been to his museum, one of his houses, his recording studio, where he was buried, and today, this place and the place where his plane crashed. Daddy and I saw a musical play about Buddy Holly’s life and I know about his music. I know that his wife is alive and I really would like to meet her. 

This was very interesting to me. This is the phone Buddy Holly used so he could call his wife before he got in the plane that had an accident. 

We put one of Daddy’s guitar pics here where Buddy Holly’s plane crashed. Planes do not usually crash.

I saw big fields of corn and got to jump through them. I learned that there is a saying about corn that people say called knee high by July and Daddy said that means that corn is knee high in the month of July. But this is for adults because this corn was already a little past my knees. 

I also saw swarms of tadpoles in some water but the water was not a pond. Some tires had made deep holes and there was water in there and so many tadpoles. I reached in and gently held some. I only held them for a quick bit because they need to be in the water to stay alive. 

Tadpoles are eggs before they are tadpoles and then they are kind of in-betweenish and then frogs. 

A long time ago mail was delivered by men on horses and it was very dangerous because they would get robbed a lot. If the horse got scared and threw the man off, the horse just kept on going to the next post office stop. This is the first one of those stops that was ever built. Now mail goes by airplanes and trucks. 

Mama and Daddy call this an Outdoor Flute because it is not for playing in the car. I bought it at the museum and now I get out and play it when I am at gas stations. 

Before people had washing machines they filled buckets from a river, boiled up the water, mixed up the clothes with a tool that looked like a toilet-unplugger, then rubbed the clothes on a bumpy metal board. I learned that this was a lot of work. 

One of my jobs at home is to fold all of the towels, washcloths, dish towels, and art room rags but I do not push the washing machine buttons yet. I do help make laundry soap though. 

I visited a real ranch with: horses, ostriches, chickens, peacocks, pigs, camels, llamas, and most exciting, BISON!!! 

I have wanted to see bison up close for a very long time and I really wanted to do that on my trip. Today I got to feed bison, lots of them. I learned their tongues are a foot and a half long and I felt how rough they were! Rougher than a cat, Mama says, but I never have touched a cat tongue yet. I have dogs, that is why. I also learned that bison don’t see very well but their ears work well for hearing.

I woke up during the early morning before the sun came up and asked Mama if she would like to watch the sun rise with me. 

She was not ready to stand up and watch it so I opened all the curtains so she could see it while she was lying down.

We are in a new state. I circled it on my states map. It’s my first time here.

One of the things on my trip list was to see bison. There are bison up on this hill.

I learned about the creatures who live in Wyoming. In this museum a lot of stuffed animals were in there. I don’t mean stuffed animal toys. I mean animals who are dead and have been stuffed so they stand in one position and everyone looks at them to see what they looked like. I also got to feel all sorts of samples of animal furs. I liked petting all of them but it was a little sad that they were not alive anymore.

This is a dandelion shadow. 

My car’s air conditioner broke and so that means only hot air will blow and since it is summer time, I never really cool down. 

This morning I woke up and I really wanted to throw up. Mama bought a container for me in case I needed to do it while we were driving and after a long time I finally did need it.

A little bit after that happened, one of my teeth fell out and I am wondering how the tooth fairy will get my tooth. Right now it is in the coins part of Mama’s wallet so it does not get lost. 

Sometimes being on a trip can be hard.

We took a small hike to see wild horses but none of them were out. 

Instead of seeing wild horses, we saw lots of crickets. Everywhere. Every step I took, crickets would jump away from my boots. 

I got down low to watch some ants. I saw one carrying some mouse poop that was bigger than the ant’s body. Then I saw another ant carrying a long piece of something sharp, maybe a plant. If you are patient, you can really see ants doing a lot. 

I did not see this sign until after I hiked for wild horses. I didn’t see any snakes or scorpions though. 

This is not a dust storm. It is 400 degree water steam coming out of the ground. 400 degrees is very hot and it is not something to get close to. Our oven can cook to 400 degrees. 

I went to an old cook house museum and saw all sorts of old things. It was very interesting. 

These are old kitchen tools for cooking.  They had an old stove and an old fridge too. 

I learned that old packages were usually made of thin metal. They had an old (empty) box of marshmallows. Now our made foods come in plastic instead. 

These are old medical tools. Over 100 years old.

These are old cameras. 

This is an old desk from a classroom. I learned about using an ink well and a quill pen. An ink well is a little glass jar of ink and you dipped your pen into it instead of the ink being in the pen already. 

There was a very nice lady working at this museum and she told me all sorts of things. I was a little shy with her but I did tell her about being a Junior Ranger.

This man made a big art project because he wanted to honor Native Americans. Today I learned what it means to honor and it is kind of hard for me to understand this word but it means when you think someone or something is very special and you maybe want to protect it or show other people how special it is. There used to be a place where people could stay and sleep here but someone set it on fire and you can’t sleep here anymore.



This was interesting to me. We are in a desert place but there is snow on a mountain that I can see. I drove here in the Spring and there was more snow then. It is probably colder at the top of that mountain so the snow doesn’t melt so fast. 

My dog is looking at the cirrus clouds while I travel.

Sometimes when I go places, I have to wait. Today and yesterday I had to do some waiting.

 Mama and I took turns drawing some sort of fast shape or scribble and then the other person had to fill in something else to finish the shape or scribble. 

This is like art improv. I know what improv is because my Daddy plays improv. Improv means you make parts of stories up and if someone else makes up something you don’t ever say “no” to them. You say “yes” and then you can add on your own ideas. I like improv because it is sometimes really silly.