June 2010

On Friday my dad and I went on a short hike on the Ladybug Trail. It was short but fun. We packed our backpacks the night before and left as soon as I got out of school. The trail was beautiful. We saw lots of flowers and of course a ton of ladybugs. As we were hiking a dear came charging around the corner ahead of us and was running down the trail straight for us. At the last minute it darted of the trail and disappeared into the forest. It sure scared us both! When we finally got to what we guessed was the camp ground we found a tiny flat spot in the rocks to set up our tent. We ate chicken burritos, had a small fire, played a game, and went to bed. The next morning we made egg McMuffins and headed back to the truck. We had a wonderful time and we would love to plan a "Marshall Boys" hike sometime. See you all later!
Love,
Garrett

Motshiedler Madness

May was a fun-filled month. We hosted a german by the name of Andre who was my age. His 5 other close friends stayed with other Fresno host families. We dressed them in cowboy gear and took them to the Clovis Rodeo and on Saturday they rode in the parade on an old fire engine.They traveled all over California and to Vegas and finished up their stay back in Fresno. We took them to a Grizzly game and to (of course) Yosemite. We went to a bunch of dinners with all the host families and got to meet some neat people. They were a great bunch of guys, very fun and nice guys:
At work, I put together an art exhibit for my school. We held it at an art gallery located in the same shopping center as our school and displayed our student's art mixed in with a real artist's pieces. With instruction from our art teacher, the children created pieces inspired by Matise, Van Gogh, Monet, Polluck and other famous artists. The open house was a great success.

Ken and I begin taking dance lessons with Mom and Dad this month. We're learning a ballroom style of dance called the Night Club 2 step. It's been a lot of fun learning these cool moves and I think when our 5 weeks is up I'd like to do another round!

We're getting ready for a trip to Maryland in a couple of weeks with the Mott clan. We'll be staying in a house with the Mott parentals and Edoardo (Ken's Italian friend) along with his girlfriend and their 4 kids. We'll visit D.C. a couple of days, eat lots of crab, spend time on the lake and just relax. We even plan to meet up with Dad who will be working there!

Today Ken is preparing some delicious octopus that was purchased at the Fresno Fish Market last night after we went to an event at Chuckchansi stadium. Our house smells like fish. Not sure how I feel about this in my kitchen:

Editors note: They sent pictures but some may not be sutible for family viewing (or the squeemish)