We the people competition

This is Noah's We the People team. It is a class at his high school, kind of like a debate team but about the constitution. There are six units and each one is about a different subject. The judges give each unit a question and then the students give a speech. After the speech they t the judges ask questions about their speech and their  original question. If you ask me it is quite boring. The only fun part was going to Sacramento and the state capital. Well any way, their school made it to state along with 11 other schools. Then they made it into the top finals with three other schools. The weird part is that you aren't allowed to see any other schools so you don't know how they did.

This is our state capital where Noah competed at the finals against three other schools. Their school took 4th place at State.

This is a statue at California's state Capital 

Lock down

Well last week our school, Fruitvale, had a lock down  for almost two hours. The sheriffs department called our school and told us to go into lock down. They called the it ten minutes before we usually leave at 2:45 and it lasted until 4:30. I was in one of my favorite classes, science, and had a teacher that was really nice and not strict. Most of the students were talking pretty loud and crawling all over the classroom. She let us talk on our phones to call our parents. I borrowed my friends phone (because I can't take my phone to school) and told my mom. Just then the principle said that they were having a canine search and that it would be twenty more minutes. But really it lasted another 45 minutes.

My mom told me that someone had kidnapped a lady and her baby from toys R us or Babies R us, (I can't remember) and dropped her off around our school. The police tried to look for him, with dog hounds. Though, they never caught the guy. When we were let out of the school there were police, reports, and even helicopters. My mom picked me up and I only had twenty minutes to eat and do my homework before I had to go to tumbling. 

Fog Delay

We have been having a lot of fog this year in Bakersfield, so today we finally had a fog delay. There was another time that it was so foggy that most of the schools got a fog delay but we were very unlucky. On Thanksgiving weekend Hunter and I were driving and we could hardly see ten feet in front of us. Well anyway I woke up at 6:30 and ate breakfast. Then I got a text from my friend saying we had a fog delay. My mom had just checked the website and our school wasn't on there, but then I told her to look again our school was listed. The fog delays are two hours,  so I went back to sleep for an hour and a half. 

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving my Grandma Bandy and Great Aunt Pat came up to visit from Redding. My mom went there to pick them up and came back. On Thanksgiving day we didn't do much. We watched a few movies and then went over to Brent's brothers, Bruce,  house for dinner. All my family  except Noah and Hunter came because they were at their dad's. Brent's sister Holly, a few of  Bruce's kids came also. The dinner was delicious. We had mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon, turkey, ham, rolls, salad, sparkling cider, and stuffing. After dinner some of my cousins (all older and in their 20's) went to play bad mitten. We hit the birdie around but didn't play a full on game. Once someone hit the birdie over the fence and  I had to climb over it to get it. After bad mitten we went inside to play  some games. We played Apples to Apples first  then Pit. Pit  is a game where you have to get all the cards the same by trading with some one, but you don't know the other's card. We got bored with Pit and played spoons. Kind of like musical chairs but with spoons. The person who spells spoon first loses. After all the games we were pretty tired and left to go home. 

 After Thanksgiving my grandma and aunt Pat stayed until Monday. It was a little hectic with four dogs in the house. Our two dogs and grandma's two Yorkies. One happened to be a rescue dog and was scared around everyone and all dogs, but after a while got used to us. We went shopping on black friday, went out to lunch at a deli, and watched Four Christmases. On Sunday my mom and I gave them their little gift baskets for Christmas and they were very happy. Then on Monday Brent went to take them home to Redding. 

Camp Woodward

Last weekend I went to a tumbling camp called Woodward West. It was in Tehachapi, about an hour away. Part of my team went and I carpooled with one of my team mates Amanda. The camp had a huge gym full of rod floors, tumble tracks, trampolines, double mini's and more. It's not just a gymnastics camp, it also has an enormous skate park. The cabin I stayed in was pretty nice. It had a heater, outlets and two nice bathrooms with a shower. Our gym stayed in the same cabin as a team from Santa Clarita. We had two sessions that were each two and a half hours.  After each session we would eat our lunch and dinner (not at the same time of course.) A couple  nights I would hang out at the Canteen with some of my friends. We bowled, watched people do kareoke, ate, and played games. On the last night there I went to open gym for an hour and then played foam tag. It was kind of like dodge ball but with pit. I was so happy to miss school on Monday but was sad to leave the camp and all the friends I made there. 

Halloween

Yes, I still went out and trick or treated this year. You can't ever get to old. Well this year I dressed up as a fairy because I don't like anything to dark or gory. It was pretty fun. I invited two of my friends (one from tumbling the other from church) and they both brought a whole bunch of other people. It was funny how it worked out. Two witches and two fairies. First we ate hot dogs and very good vegetable soup. Then we went around the neighborhood to trick or treat. When everyone, but me, wanted to go in we did. Of course we traded all the candy we didn't want. After that everyone left besides Rose and her family so we decided to watch the Princess Bride. I wanted to watch a scary movie but I let her pick it out. Well all in all I had a good time. 

Talledaga Frights

Monday my family, my friend Julianna and I went to a haunted house called  Talladega  Frights. We had a blast and we were all scared. The actors had really good makeup and would come up like an inch to your face and try to scare you. It worked. In the haunted house there were clowns, dead people, people with chain saws, body bags, a forest with people jumping out at you, a huge black thing that you had to squeeze through, this place where there were flashing lights and it looked like the people were running super fast ( kind of like a video game) etc. My favorites were a bridge that went inside a colorful tunnel that spun around in circles. Once you stepped unto the bridge it felt like the bridge was going to go around in circles with the tunnel but it didn't. I was the first one off and it looked like everyone was holding on for their life. My other favorite room was a black room filled with neon colored polka dots . The actors in that room were wearing the same exact thing as the walls so all of a sudden they would be standing in front of you. In the end we were so slow that the people behind caught up to us.