Four Days=Countless Amounts of Fun!

Due to the fact my teachers needed not one, but two 'teacher work days', that took up yesterday and today, my fellow students and I received a four day weekend! After school on Friday I went to lunch with my madre at the 'Joe Caribe Bistro and Cafe'. They specialize in 'fresh, ethnic and Caribbean flavors' according to their website and I would certainly that their food is not only fresh but amazing! My personal favorite is the Vegetarian burrito which not only has your average burrito ingredients but whipped sweet potato, which might not sound good but it definitely is! Anyway, after a late lunch and some car shopping for my sister I headed home exhausted after a long week at school.
The next morning, I joined my school's Key Club to take part in cleaning up the Bear River, my school's namesake actually. Donning elastic gloves and grabbing trash and recycle bags, we set to work combing the river banks for any trash that inconsiderate and laze people left over the summer. Although we mostly found cigarettes, glass shards, and bottle caps; we did find a surplus of butane gas, a suspicious head of a genie sculpture, a goat skull with a feather wired to it(I suspect homeless voo-doo), and a food-saver. I hope our Key Club and the other groups who were taking part in river clean-ups across Nevada County and elsewhere made a difference for the environment and our community.

Beautiful Morning cleaning at the Bear River.

After I headed home, I went to the 28th annual Draft Horse Classic hosted every year at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. We arrived mid-day, the perfect time since this is when the barns are primarily open, and set to going through each barn.

This big guy wasn't very happy to be getting a bath!

You can't tell in the picture, but these horses are nowhere near regular size!

Some random mules mid-Draft Horse

After eating a baked potato(they're the best around) and getting a 'Nevada City Cappucino' which is actually a lot like a frappucino...just better, I went home and got ready for a Comic-Con Dance, hosted by a Mormon Church in Nevada City. Of course when I heard the words 'Comic-Con' I at first held back the tears that I didn't attend San Diego Comic-Con and meet the beautiful Benedict Cumberbatch and of course the numerous other beloved actors and then I realized I could be Benedict...or Sherlock actually. So, acquiring my mother's purple shirt, my great-grandmother's coat, and my father's magnifying glass; I transformed myself into Miss Sherlock Holmes, or as my Dad put it 'She-lock Holmes'.

Yah I did spend 10 min. taking selfies of myself with this magnifying glass. No shame...

Complete Sherlock Outfit

Megan, Kaely, and I(I'm that white flash in the corner) 'sherlocking' while Anya looks really excited for some reason...

I ended up having tons of fun at the dance with Megan, Kaely, Anya, Andrea, and numerous other people all dressed up as everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Avengers. Megan and I both went as Sherlock, while Kaely was John Watson(both Megan and I's "best 'friend'-'man') and Anya went as the Tenth Doctor, which she nailed especially since she had gotten a pixie cut earlier that day.(which looks adorable by the way).
The rest of my weekend was spent taking my first Driver's lesson(since I'm permitted and all that!),  facing the smoke from the King Fire to take a short trip to Nevada City on Monday, and doing homework(since the Teacher's had to give us tons!). If you take a closer look at my Draft Horse Classic pictures you'll see a haze in the background similar to the haze in this picture...

This isn't a Delta fog setting in this is smoke from the King Fire, that has burned thousands of acres and made a cloud of smoke big enough to see from space. I hope everyone affected by the fire is safe and I want to thank all the firefighters for trying their best to keep this basically uncontrollable fire under control! I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend(four days or not)! Jewel.

Turkey Day...YAY!

Is that the smell of sweet potatoes, Pillsbury rolls, and a turkey cooking? Yep, you guessed it, that's the smell of a good old fashioned Thanksgiving! Personally, Thanksgiving has never been one of my favorite holidays, just something that just came and went as a small bump on the Peppermint Lane to ChristmasLand. However, this year I was really looking forward to the annual giving of Thanks and was not disappointed! The food was good, the family nice, and the tranquil peace of thankfulness settled over all of us...after our 5K run. Ok, you caught me, 5K walk......trot?

     
 This year I joined my sister and her friend, Brooke, on the eighth annual Michael Bratton II Turkey Trot, a 5K to raise money for suicide awareness and prevention in our county and honor the loss of Michael Bratton. Every year this 5K has gotten a little bit bigger and almost 2,000 people ran this year!

And we're trotting...and we're TROT-ING.

We then headed home to watch the one and only MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE!  To be honest, it's one of my ultimate Thanksgiving-themed goals to be in the crowd or on a float at the parade and let me tell you, am I trying! After thoroughly enjoying the parade we got in cute(and cozy) Thanksgiving outfits before skedaddling to the kitchen to cook every Thanksgiving food ever....yams(marshmallows included), green beans, mashed potatoes, and of course the TURKEY!

23 pounds of tasty...PLEASE NOTE: the froggy chip clip, yes it stares into your soul.

Yes, Kenna this is stolen from you...so props but I didn't have a picture of everybody!

Dad carving up Mr. Turkey

My family: Mum and Dad, Kenna, and the grandparents all sat down to an amazing dinner and remembered how thankful we were for everything around us and each other(cue the 'awww's). We had a great time together and even enjoyed some musical stylings from yours truly.(no, they don't happen often and when they do....stage fright knocks on my door and invited itself in.) This year I was really thankful for all the great opportunities presented to me, that were taken and the memories that I've made. Whether good, bad, hilarious, scary, or beautiful, this year's memories have been great and I've been lucky to have such great people to share them with! I hope everyone had a great Turkey day! Share your experiences and thanks down in the comments, I'd love to hear about them! Jewel

Summer Memories

Here we are six weeks into school and nostalgic summer memories are still being passed around like notes snuck behind the backs of unknowing teachers. I had a great summer soaking up the sun's rays that always seem to be spiked with a little adventure and just a pinch of mischief as I went from Oregon to Cali to Oregon again.

Summer is all about taking a break from society for awhile to find yourself while you aren't surrounded by your peers and piles on piles of homework. You might find a new talent,meet someone absolutely crazy,try something new, find the place you never want to leave or even find some 'summer lovin' and it would obviously happen too fast. Ok...so maybe that last one didn't happen to me but the rest I was lucky enough to experience...

Personally it's not summer to me until the GIANT LADYBUG MIGRATION flies through my yard. Thousands upon thousands of lady and gentlemen bugs come swarming through but luckily I use the term swarming lightly. One of the first of my summer adventures was an impromptu trip to Oregon to see my Grandma.

We visited the beautiful Shore Acres State Park and saw way too many of my favorite flower, roses!

My life got packed and re-packed into a different suitcase practically overnight when I left for my sister Ashley's house a day after getting back from Oregon. 

Obviously we had to hit the beach first!

I spent the 4th watching fireworks with the little munchkin you see above, my niece, Emma.

After a short flight back home everything was pretty chill for a few weeks. I spent time with my sister Kenna, went boating and enjoyed the utter laziness of July. But no one likes to stay put for too long and I was back in Oregon before I knew it. 

The first day there we stopped at a Wildlife Safari in the middle of Winston, Oregon...the only one of its kind around mind you.

And of course had to hit up another Animal Park a few days later!

What else do you do in miles of sand then go four-wheeling?

One of the places we happened to eat was at the delicious Sharkbites where the tacos to the fish n'chips are to swim for. (haha I'm funny)

The last week of my beautiful summer vacation was spent under the bright carnival lights of the fair and hearing the endless teasing of my two wonderful sisters. 

I saw my first concert: Gavin DeGraw, The Script, and Train! Which of course left me yearning to go to every concert ever!

I can happily say that I had an amazing summer. Not only making too many memories to count but discovering a million things about myself and the world around me, which is truly what summer is all about! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and made millions of memories...I'd love to hear about them! Jewel.