Life and Travel, Casey Style!!!!!

"Amusement Rides" in Egypt and Jordan

2012-01-16T17:06:00.000-08:00

This year we had an unusual Christmas vacation. We went to Egypt and Jordan. It was really cool and it was a very different experience. I got to see a lot of the things I studied in the 6th grade and it just so happened that Egypt was my favorite part of that class.

Along with the interesting things, there were some interesting "amusement rides."

The amusement rides were Horses, Donkeys, and Camels. Throughout the trip I rode 3 horses, a camel, and a donkey. I got to try all of them and each one was different.

This was in the wide open desert where the pyramids are. Psych! They are in Cairo. We saw the camels while we were at the pyramids and decided to ride them. Gramma's camel was Moses; mine was Charlie and papa's was Whiskey.

This was at the Step Pyramid. The horses name was Amira which means Princess.

This was Hoda. The horse I had in the Nubian village across from Luxor. I rode this horse while papa and gramma went to the Luxor Museum.

This was the horse that I had in Petra. Gramma fell off her horse here and it looked really funny. I don't remember this horses name. We rode the horses to the Sig.

This was the majestic donkey known as Aususs, which was the father of the mules that my Grandparents and our guide rode. We rode them to the Bedouin village out in the middle of the desert.

I will be writing more about Egypt in the coming weeks. And that's a PROMISE!!!!1

This Year's Gift

2011-11-23T13:19:00.000-08:00

Every year pretty much, not always at the same time, I give to an organization (for charity) to help someone or something in need. This year I received a couple catalogs of different things I could give to from World Vision.

I got some clothing for kids who live in really cold places. Click here if you want to see what I did. For the amount that you give, World vision times it by eleven. I gave $35 and the kids get $385 worth of clothing. Pretty cool huh? My Gramma gave money too.

If you want to give just click on one of the links and do what you want. Also World Vision lets us sponsor two kids to help them go to school and get food that they need to get. Their names are Jesus and Mbaraka. Jesus is in Mexico and Mbaraka is in Tanzania.

Here's a link that shows you some of the other charities I like and have given to.

Be thankful for what you have. Not everyone has what you do. That is why this Thanksgiving I am giving to people who don't have a whole lot.

My Uncle Benny Stops by for a Visit

2011-10-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

On Friday after school my Uncle Benny came over at about 4 pm. He's not actually my uncle but he is like one. We have known him for a long time.We love him very much. He is a dear friend. We had a good time with him. He stayed for dinner and we had a yummy steak. He has two kids who always do stuff with me when I see them. We pray for each other all the time. Here he is. I really like this picture.

Love you, Uncle Benny.

back in school

2011-09-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

I just got done with a great first day of school. I have all my stuff and I even got a new desk so I can work well.

I really like all of my teachers and I can't wait to see how the rest of the year goes. I have advanced classes in English, history, and geometry. I also am taking science and Spanish. I think I will do good in Spanish since I speak Italian already.
Bye

A New Sport For me

2011-08-22T15:38:00.001-07:00

I have done all sorts of sports but now I am going to try Tennis. I have gone to a camp and now I am taking lessons. My coach says I have a natural talent for the sport. I really like it, but it is going to take a lot of work to keep the skills I learned and am going to learn. It's not like team sports, your all by your self in the games and you don't have people taking your place or a coach always telling what to do. I am going to try and get on the Patrick Henry team next year in High School.

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Making Edible Yarn

2011-08-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

I don't usually write on the same day as the event, but this time it was special. My Gramma and I made edible yarn with the new edible yarn maker that came today in the mail. (By edible yarn, I mean pasta.) We had a lot of fun making the stuff, but we needed to put the yarn through the slot that made thicker and wider ones. We thought it was going to be a disaster, but it ended up being pretty good. (We made Cacio e Pepe.)

Here was the box it came in,

here is me working on making the yarn dough,

and here is why I called it yarn.

Were back home already

2011-08-03T11:00:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,
I'm back in San Diego. I liked Italy just like I always do. The last place we stayed was in Umbria, right outside of Assisi, at a place called Brigolante. There were two kids there named Niccoló and Leonardo. They were both younger than me but I still had a good time with them.

These are Leonardo, left, Niccoló, middle, and me.

And this is their mom.

Their place was really nice, although it was raining most of the week. One of the days we went to a cooking lesson at one of the ten best in all of Italy. I had a great time.

Then another day we went to our friend Judith's house. She made and lunch and we all had a good time. She has been my friend since we lived in Italy and she is a really good cook too. Several years ago she helped me with my drawing.

That was all our last week in Italy. Now I'm back home.
See you next time.

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Tommy il Grande and Other International Friends

2011-07-27T12:16:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, today I am going to talk about my friend Tommy ( Tommaso). He has been my friend since I was in third grade in Greve.

Tis is us playing a silly card game called Yu-Gi-Oh in the upstairs of our appartment.

Believe it or not, this use to be my play area when we lived here.

Yaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!! I have a twin.

These are Tommy's parents.

This is my second B-day party with my friends Caro and Lana from Belgium and Tommy.

And their family.

Stop singing to me.

Caro and her family gave me a little model ferrari. Why didn't they get me a real one?

Tommy gave me a Zucchero T-shirt.

This is Simone, the care taker, during his intensive labor.

I'm helping Tommy with his English homework.

It was so confusing that it drove us insane.

Look at those big fluffy cotton candies floating in the sky.

Tommy is always going to be my friend.
Caro and her family are going to come see me in San Diego next summer.

Okay see ya every one.

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Matteo and Me...

2011-07-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

We went to Cortona for two days and I made a new friend, Matteo. We really had a good time together and every time we come to Italy, I am going to see him. My gramma and his mom have known each other for a long time. He is really fun and we like all the same things.

This is Matteo and me. Can you tell who's who?

We spent two days, hiking, swimming, walking around town, going to the fortezza, playing with his friends and eating lots and lots and lots of gelato. I wish I lived there or he lived in San Diego.

On our way to dinner last night, I went blind.

Then, I went blind again.

We went to an American Saloon with Tuscan food which is run by Franco the cowboy who has never been to America.

See? Doesn't that look American?

Which one's the Indian?

Us..

Here's Franco, the cowboy, and his trusty friend Al the Owl.

Look at those grapefruit sized eyes.

Whe he gets older his wings will be 6 feet wide. He is only 40 days now.

Going, going, gone. Time to leave and say goodbye. What? It's already over. That's Francesca, his little sister.

Who's this fluffball? It's Carlotta one of the two dogs at the Bed and breakfast where we stayed.

This is Daisy, Carlotta's daughter. She was precious.

Dogs, friends, people, gelato....adios amigos. Wait, that's Spanish.

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I'm in Italy! Sant' Antonio

2011-07-07T02:14:00.001-07:00

I've been here 3 weeks already. The first week we went to Sant' Antonio, my favorite place because I have friends there and have been there so many times. I have known Sofia since I was 5. She is really nice and funny. Filippo, her brother, is the funniest person ever. I can't dscribe it; he's just funny. And Nico is like an uncle.

This is Ule. She's the prettiest and sweetest dog in the whole wide world. She was the pet of other guests from Germany.

This is Caio, Sofia and Filippo 's dog. He is a funny dog and he knows how to open doors.

The second day I was there Sofia's and Filippo's cousins were there from Rome, Sara and Michela. We all had fun together.

This is dinner at Gambe di Gatto which means cat's leg. It is in Montepulciano. We went outside and talked and did stuff while the adulta ate there antipasti. I like Montepulciano.

Caio likes giving people kisses.

Time for the pool.

Was it somthing I said?

No soup for you!

We went to the Gardens of "La Boring"--(La Foce, really.). it was boring, as you can tell.

We were all enjoying pictures of Kenya because they went there right after we did. We were at some of the same places even some of the same lodges. They like the safaris, too.

I did a lot more of Sant' Antonio but it wasn't that important. See you next time in Verona and the wonderful Aida Opera.

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PENNE ALLA CARNE CREMOSA--MY NEW RECIPE

2011-04-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

This my new recipe in both Italian and English. It is yummy. I hope you enjoy it. English version below the italian.

Questa mia nuova ricetta in italiano e in inglese. E 'yummy. Spero che vi piaccia.

PENNE ALLA CARNE CREMOSA
da Chef KZ

•   Penne o Rigatoni (una scatola)
•    Mezzo petto di Pollo
•    Panna—120 ml (o più)
•    Limone (succo)
•    Pepe e sale
•    2 Salsiccie
•    Peperoncino
•    Aglio
•    Bacon (non pancetta)
•    Parmigiano

1.    Fare marinare il pollo in un pó d’olio d’oliva, limone, sale e pepe per 45 minuti.

2.    Una volta che il pollo viene marinato, mettere sulla griglia bella calda.

3.    Tagliare il pollo grigliato a cubetti

4.    Cuocere il bacon fin a quando e’ croccante poi sbriciolarlo

5.    Spellare la salsiccia e sgranarla, buttare in padella a calore medio

6.    Aggiungere il peperoncino , l’olio, l’aglio e far cuocere per 3-5 minuti

7.    Nel frattempo fare cuocere la pasta in abbondante acqua calda e salata

8.    Aggiungere il pollo a cubetti e la panna e mescolare gli ingredienti facendo cuocere per altri 1-2 minuti.

9.    Scolare la pasta e aggiungere alla salsa

10.    Aggiungere e mescolare un po’ di parmigiano

11.    Sbriciolare il bacon e metterlo su ogni piatto prima di servire in tavola.

PENNA WITH CREAMY MEAT

By Chef KZ

• Penne or Rigatoni (a box)
• Half a chicken breast
• Cream-1/2 cup (or more)
• Lemon (juice)
• Pepper and Salt
• 2 Sausages
• Crushed Red Pepper
• Garlic
• Bacon
• Parmesan

1. Marinate the chicken in a little olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper for 45 minutes.

2. Once the chicken is marinated, place on hot grill.

3. Cut grilled chicken into small cubes

4. Cook the bacon until crispy then crumble

5. Peel and break sausage, throw in a skillet and cook over medium heat

6. Add the crushed red pepper, oil, garlic and cook for 3-5 minutes

7. Meanwhile, cook pasta in plenty of hot water and salt

8. Add the diced chicken and cream and mix the ingredients and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

9. Drain the pasta and add to sauce

10. Shred and mix in parmesan

11. Crumble the bacon and place on each serving.

Spring break

2011-04-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

For spring break this year I went up to Monterrey for a couple of days. It was really nice there, except for a day with rain and wind. We were originally going to leave on Monday, but we didn't want to have to go through an eight hour drive all in one day; so we left on Sunday instead. On our way, we stopped in LA for one night. When we got to Monterrey, we checked in, unpacked, and went out to go see the Wharf and what there was to do. When we got there, we went to go into one of the buildings, but it was closed because of budget cuts. We went a little bit farther to go into a different building but it was only open on the weekend. So all the interesting stuff was closed. We went down to some of the shops there and looked around a little bit, but there was not much there. We heard some sea lions so we went over to watch them. They were funny and cute to watch. Later we had dinner at a sea food place.

The next day, we went to the aquarium and saw otters, some fish, jellys, and some really cool sea horses.

Sea otter

Jellyfish

????fish

fishes

penguin

seahorse

The next day we went to Carmel and had dinner with some friends. Then the day after that, we started the drive home but stopped in Santa Barbara for a day and went around there for a while looking at stuff. Then we finally got home the next day.
bye

My Newscast Project

2011-02-27T15:22:00.000-08:00

Da due o tre settimane sto facendo qualcosa per la scuola......Oooops wrong language. The past couple of weeks, I have had a social studies project to work on with a group. The project was a newscast from the past. We got to chose what we could do it on. At first we were going to do it on Japan, but then I thought about what I know about and what I can do. I then thought about doing the Renaissance, because that is when Leonardo da Vinci lived. I really like him and his inventions. I remembered that he was Italian and that I speak Italian. So, in the newscast, I start out talking in Italian. Great idea, right. So we got the script together and who each of the characters were going to be. I was, of course, Leonardo Da Vinci. We filmed at my house. When we were done, my Gramma had to figure out how we were supposed to edit the movie we shot. After a long long time of trying to figure it out, she finally got all of the clips that we wanted together. It looked good and she did a real nice job, thank you Gramma. There were a couple things that we needed to add and change, though. When she figured out how to edit it, she showed me how to do it too. The next day, my group came over, yesterday, and we finished it.Well, most of it anyway. We were going to put it on a DVD, but we did something so it would not go on. So after they left, I had to redo all the things that we did and more. When I finished it looked like this.

I hope you think it was good. We worked really hard on it.
See you later

bday party

2011-02-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

hey everyone
I got to go to a birthday party and I had a whole bunch of fun. It was mostly girls, there were only 2 other guys.
We went to Dave and Busters and then we went to the boardwalk to go bowling. I won the second game of bowling. Not much else happened this week.
See ya later

What's up

2011-02-12T13:32:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I'm sorry I have not posted in about 2 months. Wait, two whole months, oh no.
But while I didn't post, I had a lot of stuff happen.
I:

went to two winter camps
had a couple of school projects, I have one right now too
am not playing baseball this year
started going to a new Karate school
got on the honor role at school... again... yeah
am probably going to Egypt next winter break, depending on how it is there
did a whole bunch of other things that are not important

My friend Gavin at the second camp.

My friend Julian from the second camp.

My friend Jesus from school.

My friend Ashley at school.

My friend Bradley at P.E at school

Picture of the sun... cool, right

One of my projects at school--abstract art

My friend Dominic at PEMyFriend Dominic at PE

My group for my project that I'm doing now.

So that is about all that is going on right now, I will try to post once a week.

see ya

Christmas Time Already?

2010-12-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

Wow it's Christmas time already, how did that happen. I just can't believe the season of Christmas is already here, it seems like thanks giving just finished... oh... wait... it did...

Our house is completely decorated, inside, and out. We always decorate our tree with a whole bunch of different ornaments we have from a whole bunch of different places. Almost everyone pitches in to help put up the decorations.

Here is a picture of our tree.

And here is a picture of the outside of our house.

Every year my uncle comes over on Christmas Eve to spend the night. On Christmas morning I wake him up and we open our stockings. After that we wake up my Grandparents/parents and watch them open their stockings. When all that's done we get dressed, go downstairs, eat delicious cinnamon rolls that my grandma makes for us.

When we finish we clean up and head over to the tree to open presents. It's a really fun time; getting and watching other people get presents. About 10:30 is when my mom and brothers come over. We keep all their presents in a room upstairs until they come so there will not be so many presents under the tree, which there already are.

After everything is finished I open up some of the things I got and play with them or build them, like I have to do sometimes. Finally we eat and then enjoy what we got.

But let's not forget the real reason for Christmas, the birth of Jesus, the son of God. This is what I wrote when we lived in Italy. The Meaning of Christmas

I hope you all have a good Christmas and a happy new year.

Dancing Jingle Goats

2010-12-16T19:26:00.000-08:00

Watch this funny video. I laughed so hard I almost lost my head. It's super cute.

To see more, go to : Giggle With the Goats

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

For thanks giving I went up to my grandma's brother's house in Auburn, which is up by Sacramento. I had a lot of fun with my cousins and family. It was a very fun time. I hope I can do it next year too. It took a long time to get up there, and even longer to get back. My uncle has a dog named Patch and my two other cousins have dogs named Aussi and Dexter. The were all friendly, but my favorite one was Aussi. He was my cousin Chris's dog.

Here are pictures of when we were up there.

Aussi

Cousin Jenn

Uncle Dan

Playing Cribbage with Uncle Dan and Cousin Chris

Corrine and Craig

Aunt Glennis

Me shooting targets in trees with a paintball gun

I had a really good time there.
bye

Halloween plans and activities

2010-10-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

Today for Halloween I am going to go out with my little brothers to help them trick or treat and to make sure they don't get lost or scared or hurt. I am going to leave with them at about 5 and finish around 6.

After that I am going to go to my friend's house and maybe go trick or treating if we feel like it, we are a bit to old anyway. If we do go, I am going to be a ghost or master of disguise, if the mask gets to hot. For a 12-13 year old, going trick or treating is mostly for all tricking or just getting crazy on candy.

For my costume I am going to wear all black clothes, a black cape and a blue ghost mask with a veil covering my neck.

If you are a parent tell what your kid is going to be, if they are young enough, and if you are going to do anything fun.
See ya

Remember Me

2010-10-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I meant to do an entry at the beginning of school but I have had so much work that I have not had time to do it. Now I am doing an entry on my great job in school.

I think I have a four point 0, but it all depends on one science test that my teacher needs to grade; it might take a while and it might not get on my first progress report, but I hope it does cause I want a four point 0.

Last year I had a little bit of trouble with math, but this year I am doing great in Advanced Algebra!! I have high A's in all of my classes except for science, for now anyway.

This is Me First Week of 7th Grade

I like all of my teachers, but my science teacher is a little bit different from the others because she is not organized and I like neat teachers!!!!!!!!! (I hope she does not read this!)

My other teachers are really cool especially my Art, History, Math and English teachers. My art teacher is crazy, he always makes jokes, so does my history teacher. My English teacher is nice and he loves Italy like I do.

I'll keep up more with my blog now on what I am doing in school and other things that happen.

See ya everyone

Amboseli day two

2010-09-06T11:10:00.000-07:00

Amboseli was the last place we went to. Our second and third days were a little bit different than the first. Early in the morning the second day my GRANDPA/DAD and I went on a nature walk with a couple Masai men who knew their stuff about the area they live in. I learned many interesting things and saw some really cool stuff, for example:

we learned that Dik diks, on right, leave a little black thick fluid that comes from their eyes on different plants, or something like that, to mark their territory.
Here is one doing what I just explained they do.

We also saw some footprints of Aardvarks, porcupines, and elephants. We also heard some really cool bird sounds and looked at different spider's webs.

Later that day we went on an all day game drive where we stopped for lunch later on at the top of a hill. We drove around looking for things when we saw a big group of elephants with hyenas hanging around them.

They kept creeping up to the elephants, but the elephants chased them away. It turned out that there was a dead hippo behind the elephants that the hyenas wanted to get to. The elephants chased them away because they thought that the hyenas were going after them. We sat there watching for who knows how long. When nothing else happened for a while, we eventually got bored and left.

A little while later we saw hundreds of more elephants in the distance. It was just a huge line of them that never seemed to end.

Driving along some more we happened to come by a couple of ragged looking lionesses looking for water and food. They looked like they were exhausted and could not go on much longer. I had to feel sorry for them, they looked like they hadn't eaten in years.
They did not do very much, but since we had the best seat in the house, meaning we were the closest to them, we stayed and watched for a while.

We headed off to lunch and on the way we saw some hippos and elephants in the swamp water. On top of the little hill we were eating lunch on, we could see birds flying in the distance, hippos in the water, and some little sandstorms in the distance. After I was done eating I still had some leftover bread from the sandwich that I had so I was able to feed the birds around me. There was one that liked me and was brave enough to eat right out of my hand. It was cool because, one, I love birds, and two, they are wild birds not pets or ones from a zoo or something.
After that we started to head back to the lodge. We drove by a pond with storks and spoon bills in it.

Awww, isn't that cute. Those are spoon bills, the one behind them is a stork.

That is it for now everyone, I might not be writing for a while because school is starting tomorrow.
see ya

Amboseli day 1

2010-08-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

We drove to Nairobi to an air strip and took a plane that only took four people. The ride was very bumpy because the plane was so small.

The view was amazing, I could see some animals from where we were in the plane. A funny thing is that the bumps were so big, that I thought we were going to fall all the way sometimes, but we didn't.

We landed in the middle of nowhere on a dirt air strip with someone waiting to pick us up. His name was David and he had some drinks and snacks with him for us to have.

I took this. Scherzo.

We drove to the lodge, on the way seeing some Maasai Giraffes.

Notice how the pattern is different than the Reticulated one in Samburu

We also saw some Ostriches. When we got to the lodge, they had warm towels to wash our faces off with and they had some watermelon juice for us to drink. The first night we stayed in a cabin, even thought we were supposed to have a tent which we ended up getting the next day anyway. It was very nice, the whole thing was like it was made by hand, or most of it anyway.

We had gotten there early so we went to the Maasai village near by, which we were going to do the next day. We went with a nice young women named Kimberly, who was from Island of Jersey. She works with the local people around the lodge.

We got there and we were greeted by the Chief, who was very young, because he was voted by his village to be the Chief.

The people greeted us with a dance and then showed us the houses, or huts, that the people lived in, then they showed us how they made fire, and then finally we went to look at some of the jewelry made by the women. We got some things as presents for some friends and I got a bracelet.

After that we went back to the lodge and relaxed for the rest of the day.
I will not be talking about Kenya on my next entry, instead, I will talk about my week in Big Bear Mountain.
bye

Lake Nakuru

2010-08-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

We did not do anything the first day because we had to drive all the way to the lodge, the most long and boring trip ever. When we got there we had lunch, but shortly after that we went to the room. It was so cool, there was netting on the beds and the room was filled with all sorts of bright colors.

It rained all the rest of the day so we did not do anything special, so... off to the next day.

The next and last day at Lake Nakuru was the day we went on a drive in the national reserve, which is known for the tons and tons of Flamingos in the lake. As we drove in we saw several baboons, they were so funny to watch because, unlike the other animals, they did not know to get out of the way of the vehicle. I was worried that we were going to run over one of them, but we didn't thankfully.

All together that day we saw:

hundreds of baboons with their little ones playing on some tree roots
Storks
spoon bills
Rhinos
all sorts of gazelles and antelopes
hippos
hyenas
elephants
giraffes
lions in trees

and more...

that is all so I will talk to you people later.

Maasai Mara part 3

2010-08-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

The third day started out with a morning game drive at eight o'clock.

This is me freezing to death.

We did not see a whole lot of things but we did see a nice sunrise and a huge herd of elephants all together. There were several babies too. There were ones that were playing and having fun and there were ones that just kept walking along casually with no distractions.

look at the little baby Elephant

These elephants are having a fun time.

After that drive we had all day until about five to enjoy the day and relax until it was time to go on the next game drive, which was the one at five.

I got to go on a walk with the manager of the camp to look for birds and plants and to learn a little bit about them. I learned several things that were really interesting. For instance, gazelles and different animals eat the sodom apple when they have a stomach ache but if we eat them we get a stomach ache.

This is Raymond the manager.

It was not just a night game drive it was also a sun downer in the middle of the bush near all the animals. It was cool to look around and see everything around you. Our guide had drinks and chips lined up on the hood of his car. We walked around and talked until it started to get a little bit darker. This is what we saw before it got completely dark.

I took this picture too. That is what makes it cool.

It would have been many people dreams come true if they were in my shoes.

When it finally got dark, we set out on our drive. Since it was dark, there was a spot light and I got to be the one who held it and spotted all the animals in the pitch black of the night. Luckily at the Mara, you can not go very long without seeing a bunch of wildebeast or something. We would see hundreds of them, but you could only see their eyes because it was so dark. It sort of looked like lights in a city, but only moving ones.

We saw some animals that we could not see during the day, like Bat eared Foxes and hares and some other stuff too. We also saw hyenas and zebras. It was just plain amazing to see or not see, ha ha get it.
I'll talk about Lake Nakuru next time.
See ya

The Maasai Mara part 2

2010-07-31T17:26:00.000-07:00

The second day in the Mara we did a full day game drive. We went out at 8 o'clock in the morning. We started off by seeing several Zebras right when we came out of the camp. We did not see much at the beginning of the day, but we did see all of the animals that usually take part in the great migration, they just stood around. It was amazing how well they got along together. It was cool to see so many animals in peace with each other. I had never seen so many animals all together at once in one simple place.

We drove off to somewhere else to find what we could. We went a little while without seeing anything different, then our guide spotted some lions a little ways away. When we got there we stopped for a while. It turned out we were really lucky, the lions were mating. it was interesting to watch. The female would go over to the male, the male would get up, get on the female and they would "go" for about fifteen seconds.

The lions kept it up for a long time, it seemed like it anyway. A little bit later we left the lions and headed out to look for something else that could be interesting.

We were driving along when Nixon, our guide, spotted Zebras over by a river a while away. When we got there there were thousands of Zebras lined up near the river. Since we were there for the Great Migration, the Zebras were deciding if they wanted to cross the river to the other side or not.

They ended up not crossing, but it looked like they were going to a couple of times. What they would do was get real close to the water, get a drink, then they would go back to where the rest of the herd was. One of the reasons they did not cross was because of the 3 Crocodiles that were nearby just waiting for the Zebras to start crossing so they could get a good and tasty meal.

Once we decided they were not going to cross, we left so we could find a place to get out and have lunch. We stopped near a river with Hippos in it.
The cool thing about the lunch was that it was out in the middle of nowhere, the bush, where any animal could pop out of the bushes or something.

After lunch we left. We did not see anything more that is worth telling about, so I will talk about The Maasai Mara part 3 next time.

The Maasai Mara Part 1

2010-07-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

To get to the Maasai Mara, we needed to go to an air strip in a town near Samburu. The plane was not very big but we went in a smaller one to Amboseli. It was cool to watch out the window and see how the area changed. I mean with the trees the color of everything that we saw. Since we were so close to the ground we could see animals running around and playing and living their life not knowing we could see them.

When we landed in the Mara, there were animals all around us. From the looks of it, I think that the animals thought we were just some other weird animal, the plane that is. Our guide in the Mara's name was Nixon. He was a Masai. In his vehicle he had some beverages for us.

The Mara was the coolest place we went to. And it was my favorite, we were there for three days. We stayed in tents that were right in front of the river were many hippos were. It was a beautiful place to stay at and the service was nice, the food was good, you could see animals across the river from your room or the dining area, and I had my birthday there. The Mara was the only place that we were not by ourselves on our drives. There was one other couple with us.

We took our first game drive in the Mara at four o'clock in the afternoon. It was unlike any of the other places, where we had to look so very hard to find one animal at a time, where in the Mara, we could not go ten minutes without seeing hundreds of Wildebeast or Zebras or any Gazelles and birds.

Road block, Wildebeast style.

Thomson's Gazelle

We also saw a lot of Topi which are what you see here.

Zebras playing

We were driving along looking for anything we could see, when Nixon, our guide, spotted one lioness behind a rock a little ways away. It was deciding if it wanted to try to take on a buffalo or not, so we watched it for a while, but it did not do anything, it was still interesting to watch though. We left the lioness and went to look for something else. We only went about two minutes when we found two male Hyenas laying down. They look surprisingly a lot like dogs.

This is Nixon

We left the Hyenas and started heading back to the camp, which was called Karen Blixen camp.

That was the end of our first day.
I will write about our second day next time.

Sweetwaters Camp

2010-07-21T17:47:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

Today I am talking about Sweetwaters in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. We only stayed for one night but we wished we could of stayed longer but it was still nice to stay there. Right out side of our tent there was a water hole where many animals would come and drink the water there. The Warthogs were fun to watch eat, they stick their butts in the air and munch away on the grass.

When we got to the place we had lunch, and sitting or standing right out side the window of the restaurant, was a Maribou, which is like a mix between a Stork and a Vulture.

And then after lunch, I got to go on a Camel ride. It was fun, but mine was being a bad boy, he kept stopping to eat leaves and he started to run one time.

At four in the afternoon we went out for a game drive. Before we actually started we went to a Rhino sanctuary and a Chimpanzee sanctuary. The Rhino was a blind black one, so he had to be kept in captivity so it could live longer than it would of in the wild on it's own. His name was Baraka.

We didn't see much at Sweetwaters but we were glad of what we saw. But we did see vultures eating a dead giraffe and lots of gazelles and some giraffes and an elephant.

The next morning we got up and went to the town that was nearby so we could fly to the Maasai Mara. As a matter of fact that is what I will be writing about next.

Samburu the first place we went

2010-07-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
Samburu was the first place we went after we stayed the night in Nairobi. In case you did not know, Nairobi is the capital of Kenya. We got to Nairobi late at night and we needed to get up early in the morning to get to Samburu. The drive was six hours. Half of it was bumpy roads so it was a bit annoying after a while. We finally arrived in time for lunch.

Amazed by the beauty and the nature of the place, we walked through with monkeys all around us and many different beautiful birds. At the lunch area, or the dining area, there were two of the local Samburu men that were scaring away the monkeys with their slingshots and using them so the monkeys don't steal any food from the kitchen or from peoples plates.

It was an enjoyable meal with the scenery and all the stuff around us that's going on at that moment.

At four o'clock, in the afternoon, of course, we went out for our first game drive. At first we did not see anything but birds, but then we started to see a lot of Impalas, dik diks, and other antelope and gazelles. But then we saw the one thing we thought we would not see, a cheetah.

The next day we saw some water buffalo over by the river, a warthog, a huge herd of oryx and some elephants and three reticulated giraffes. The stay was good, but we did not see that many animals, or at least as many as we thought we would.
On our way out of Samburu, we stopped by the local village to visit for a little.
The people danced for us sang some of their songs and showed us around their village. It was fun to see all the people and the way they live.

Next I will be writing about Sweet Waters, where we stayed for only one night.

Kenya

2010-07-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone sorry I have not written in so long I was busy with stuff I needed to do and plus, I got to go to Kenya for 2 weeks and it was fun and even more amazing than you can imagine. We first went to a place called Samburu which was a in a tropical sort of place which had monkeys and a few antelope called Kudu that came around every once and a while. I kept a journal so I wouldn't forget about everything. All the animals are:

Wildebeast all over in the Masai Mara because of the great migration
Zebras same thing as the wildebeast
Giraffes
baboons
Rhinos
Chimps
Elands
Topis
Elephants
buffalo
monkeys
dik diks
impalas
thomsan's gazelles
grants gazelles
hippos
crocodiles
vultures
eagles
secretary bird
ostriches
cheetahs
lions
hyenas
mongoose
jackals
hartebeast
oryx
maribou
warthogs
storks
spoon bills
and much more

and many birds that were beautiful in color and that we saw many times so we could appreciate how pretty they were.

This is Wafula--does he look familiar? I was given an African tribal name by a Kenyan man I met. It means Rainy Season which is a good time for Africa. It is a time when everything grows and animals are nourished.

This is only the intro to everything. My next blog entry will be about the first days in Samburu National Reserve.

Flying Baseball Runner

2010-04-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

Be sure to watch the whole thing because this is fuuuuuuuuuuuuny. I think I'll try this sometime.

A Fortunate Series of Events

2010-04-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

Hi People
I don't have school this week so we're just staying home and doing things as a family We can't do anything big because we're saving up money to go to Kenya this summer.

Two days ago we decided we were going to this sculpture garden, Queen Califia. and I got to bring a friend so I chose my best friend Kurt. We picked up Kurt and left to go. It took a while to get there and Kurt and I got bored in the back seat. When we finally got there, we went into the park and we saw all these different totem pole type things

and a huge dome in the middle with a bird head and the queen on top of it and under it was an egg.

Surprisingly they weren't even painted. They were made out of all different rocks and minerals like mosaics. I recognized some of the minerals and rocks that were on some of the sculptures--like obsidian, pink quartz, mica, and tiger's eye. They were all put together to make really cool things.

We found out the same person that made that garden made one in Tuscany where I was living and yet we didn't know. Next time we go to Italy, we are going to go the park, Il Giardino dei Tarocchi.

From there we found out we were close to the Wild Animal Park so we decided to go there. My grandparents and I have memberships and Kurt told us he did at home so when we got there we told the person at the gate and they looked up his membership and he got in free, too.

When we got there it was around lunch time so we decided to get something to eat. Gramma and Papa got chili-cheese dogs and Kurt and I got nacho supreme.

After that we headed over to the gorillas. They were pretty lazy. When one finally came out of the cave, it lay down right next to another one.

We went and saw a show that was funny. It showed some cool animals, a servile, a bird that could break dance, a river hog and a cheetah. I really liked the servile because it has excellent hearing and could hear high frequency which are not hearable to us.

We saw elephants, lions, giraffes, rhinos, elands, horn bills, guinea fowl and bunnies.

These were special because we will see many of them when we go to Kenya this summer. It made me even more excited.

Summer is not that far away--three months. I can't wait. Kenya, here I come.

WHY I LIKE MIDDLE SCHOOL

2010-03-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,
I have just been thinking about why I like middle school. Friends and learning is the best part for me. But I also like the teachers and the subjects too.
Each one of the subjects gets you ready for life in different ways. For example right now, I'm typing this by myself and I would not be able to if I didn't have computer class at school. Here is a picture of me typing this blog entry.

The best part about that is that I don't even need to look to type. If you're an adult, think about why you like work if you're not retired.
See ya' everyone

Wii blog fun

2010-02-20T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,
I am writing a blog entry on my Tv using the Wii. I am teaching my Gramma-mom how to do it as I am going through the steps.

From White to Black

2010-01-24T15:15:00.000-08:00

When I was in kindergarten through second grade there was an after school karate program that I participated in every Friday. I really liked it but once a week wasn't very much.

First Grade

Then in the third grade I went to Italy to live and I took shotokan which is a type of karate. Some of my instructors had been champions. It was strange to find them in the small village where I lived, Greve in Chianti. The head of the school was Michele Romano who was several times European and World Champion. I learned a lot from them.

A Competition at the Karate School in Greve

When I returned to San Diego from Italy we looked for a good karate school. We eventually found the one I am going to now and it happened to be the instructor who taught at my elementary school on Fridays. That was in September 2007.

Since I started at the Allied Gardens School of Martial Arts (AGSMA), I had a goal that I would become a black belt.

There are 6 levels before first degree black belt. The first test I took when I was a white belt, I didn't just pass, I double passed which meant that I got 20 or more points higher than I needed. From second section I tested for third section and passed; from there I tested for fourth section and passed and so until I went all the way to sixth section.

Finally the big day came, my instructor thought I was ready to take my black belt test. I took my test on January 9. It was really intense, but I got through it. I didn't know if I passed that day because I needed to write two 1000 word essays. One of them was on what it means to be a black belt and the other was on loyalty and benevolence which were the code of ethics that I chose to memorize for my test. Part of earning my black belt was that I had to perform community service or help teach 15 lessons to less advanced students. I did the 15 lessons which went by pretty quick. I liked doing it.

When I was done with my essays, I turned them in and waited for them to be graded by the Head Instructor. The Monday after I turned in my essays, I found out that I had passed my test and had earned my first degree black belt. There have been 10's of thousands of students at this school, but only 42 have reached black belt level and I'm one of them.

Now I begin my real training. My new goal is to get to first stripe by the end of this year.

See ya

LEGO MANIA

2010-01-17T16:43:00.000-08:00

Every Christmas, my uncle and I don't think it''s the same without getting a Lego. Even though my Uncle is a grown man, he really likes Legos. Each year we get one for him that has more and more pieces. Same thing with me because I'm getting better with legos.

Uncle Jeff opening his Lego--Can you tell how surprised he is?

I usually like to build my own. My specialty in my own buildings are usually airships or planes. I've even invented new transforming legos.

This year I got a 1624 piece Volkswagon Beetle. It's sort of special because my family plays the "slug bug" game. If you don't know what that is, every time you see a Volkswagon Beetle you get to hit someone if you're the first person to see it.

I wanted to start on it as soon as I could so two days after Christmas, I started to build it. It took me a while and through it I had some difficulties with pieces that were not there. I had to substitute pieces that I ended up not needing.

This was a good test for me because usually when I get frustrated I have a hard time. But doing this one I was able to keep going and finish my quest of making the lego.

When I was finished it looked like this.

Two weeks after I finished it, my grandpa pulled a joke on me and said that he had dropped it on the way to putting it in my room and broke it. But he didn't. I really did not think it was a good joke. My gramma didn't think it was funny either. My grandpa's always telling jokes (most of the time they're not even funny) but this one was really up there in not being funny.

I wonder what "Lego Santa" will bring next year.

See ya..

Thanks to My Uncle Dan and Aunt Glennis

2009-12-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

For a long time I've known about Samaritan's Purse and told you a few things about it. A few weeks ago I received a gift magazine from them about gifts to give to poor people in need of things to make money. I was really interested in the honey bees and the baby chicks.

For $30 that you donate, a poor family in need of money gets a honey bee hive so that they can sell the honey and the bee's wax to pay for education, health care and for food they need to survive. Also, with the honey bees they pollinate plants and crops which also help them survive.

When I first got the magazine, my gramma and I went through it to see what we thought might be a good thing to do. I liked the honey bees.

Then a few weeks later, I got some mail from my Aunt and Uncle. For Christmas they donated the $30 dollars in my name to Samaritans Purse for the honey bee hive. I was so excited. I just couldn't get over it. Thank you so much, Uncle Dan and Aunt Glennis. It was a really awesome Christmas present except I opened it before Christmas. I wish I could know where and what family got it. I hope through that they get the money they need to survive.

Here's a link to my past blog entries about Samaritan's Purse. I made shoe boxes again this year, also. You, too, can check the catalog to see if you want to send anything.

Merry Christmas--bye everyone

I'm at school again

2009-12-09T09:26:00.001-08:00

hi every one, I'm at school in the library on the computer.

It's a good day today at school. We're all laughing at something now,

Bye everyone

MY LEMON SAUSAGE PENNE RECIPE

2009-11-23T12:28:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody in the world who knows that I have my own recipe. Guess what I have another one that I made yesterday. I call it

LEMON SAUSAGE PENNE.
The ingredients are:

1 1/4 lbs. uncased mild Italian sausage
white wine
1/2 lemon (squeezed)
powdered red chili pepper (you can use peperoncino if you don't have powder)
Italian seasoning
1 large diced tomato
3 cloves minced garlic
grated parmesan cheese ( how ever much you want)

First take the sausage out of the casing, crumble and fry it.
While it's cooking, put in the rest of the ingredients.
While cooking this, be boiling the penne.

Serve with evo and parmesan cheese.

There is not much sauce because all the flavor is in the sausage. I hope you enjoy the food.

BYE BYE

I'M AT SCHOOL

2009-11-06T10:24:00.000-08:00

I'm Back from People to People

2009-10-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody, I'm back from going to People to People. When it came time to leave to come home, I didn't want to leave.

First Day: When I woke up the morning I had to leave, I was, like everybody would be, nervous. I got up, got dressed and went down stairs to have breakfast. After breakfast, I brushed my teeth and got ready to go to the airport. Then it was finally time to go. I went outside, got in the car and we were off. When we got to the airport, we got my ticket and boarding pass, went through security. Then went to the gate where my plane was. There I saw someone else from San Diego who was going to the People to People Leadership Forum just like me. Here's me at the airport getting ready to get on the plane.

It took 3 hours and 50 minutes to get to Washington D.C. When I got out of the plane, people were waiting for me and took me to the hotel. There I met some new people, got my room key and found who my leader was. Then we had dinner and went up to bed.

Some of the things while I was in Washington D.C. were:

We saw the Iwo Jima Memorial

We went to the Saudi Arabia Embassy for dinner the second night. The food was yummy.
We saw John Kennedy's grave with the eternal flame. This was at Arlington National Cemetery.

Also at Arlington National Cemetery we saw the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. There are 4 graves but only 3 people. This is because the family of one of the soldiers found out he was there and took him some place else to bury him. My delegation manager chose me to demonstrate what they were going to do with the Changing of the Guard.

We went to the Supreme Court.
We also saw the Library of Congress.
We had a tour of the Capital Building.
We saw the WWII, the Jefferson, the Lincoln, the Franklin Roosevelt, the Vietnam, the Korean Memorials.
We went to the Smithsonian Air and Space, American History, the Natural History Museums.
We went to the Newseum.
We went to the International Spy Museum.
We went to Jamestown and Williamsburg. I was chosen to be John Smith at Jamestown by the guide there.Williamsburg had all sorts of old-fashioned shops like a silversmith and a wig maker. It had a jail cell but they thought jail was a waste of a perfect example of what would happen to the people who committed crimes. They thought they should whip or use some form of torture in front of the public so no one else would commit crimes. Then on the way home, the bus was in an accident because the guy who hit us was drunk. No body was hurt. That was a fun but long day.
On the last day I bought Trazz at the Natural History Museum. When I saw Trazz on the top shelf in the gift shop, it seemed like he was whispering into my ear "I need you. You need me. Come buy me and we'll be happy together."

This is Trazz.

The very last exact thing that happened in Washington D.C. while I was there we went on a dinner-dance cruise on the Potomac River. It was so cold there but after all the dancing, we were so hot we went outside. I had a really awesome time that night.

The next morning I had to get up and come home.

I enjoyed all of it and if I could go again, I would. I had a chance to go to New Orleans to help rebuild stuff from the damage of Hurricane Katrina. But that's when we're going to Yellowstone. I'd rather go help New Orleans rebuild. But there will be other opportunities to do things.

I thank my gramma and papa for sending me.

Test Who You Are and What You Like

2009-10-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

A friend sent this to me and I thought it was cool so I'm going to put it on my blog and see if you guys like it. All you need is a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil to write with. I hope you like it peoples.

Meaning of color and your Birthday

This is fun so see what happens, but do not cheat....

Don't cheat, If you are honest, this tells the truth. It's pretty good.. Write your answers on a piece of paper, and NO cheating! The answers are at the bottom.

1. Which is your favorite color out of: red , black , blue , green , or yellow ?

2. Your first initial?

3. Your month of birth?

4.. Which color do you like more, black or white?

5. Name of a person of the same sex as yours

6. Your favorite number?

7. Do you like Flying or Driving more?

8. Do you like a lake or the ocean more?

9. Write down a wish (a realistic one).

When you're done, scroll down. (Don't cheat!)

Answers

1. If you choose:
Red - You are alert and your life is full of love.
Black - You are conservative and aggressive
Green - Your soul is relaxed and you are laid back.
Blue- You are spontaneous and love kisses and affection from the ones you love.
Yellow - You are a very happy person and give good advice to those who are down..

2. If your initial is:
A-K You have a lot of love and friendships in your life.
L-R You try to enjoy your life to the maximum & your love life is soon to blossom.
S-Z You like to help others and your future love life looks very good..

3. If you were born in:
Jan-Mar: The year will go very well for you and you will discover that you fall in love with someone totally unexpected.
April-June: You will have a strong love relationship that will not last long but the memories will last forever.
July-Sep: You will have a great year and will experience a major life-changing experience for the good.
Oct-Dec: Your love life will not be great, but eventually you will find your soul mate.

4. If you chose:
Black: Your life will take on a different direction, it will seem hard at the time but will be the best thing for you, and you will be glad for the change.
White: You will have a friend who completely confides in you and would do anything for you, but you may not realize it.

5. This person is your best friend.

6 This is how many close friends you have in your lifetime.

7. If you chose:
Flying: You like adventure.
Driving: You are a laid back person

8. If you chose:
Lake : You are loyal to your friends and your lover and are very reserved.
Ocean: You are spontaneous and like to please people.

9. This wish will come true only if you send this to five people in one hour. Send it to ten people, and it will come true before your next birthday!

Well, peoples, I'm going to write about Washington DC tomorrow.
See ya'll peoples

I'm a Middle Schooler

2009-09-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

Guess what everyone. If you voted, school on the poll, you were correct cuz I'm a middle schooler now. I go to Lewis Middle School. I really like it. I see a lot of my friends there.

It's really different from elementary school. We have multiple classes. You get done with one you go to another. It goes on and on and on until school's over which is at 2:15 pm. I really like my teachers. Here's some pictures of them.

This is Mr. Konarska. He's my PE teacher.

I have PE every other day. Right now we're doing golf. I'm getting better at it as I go. It's a lot different than the Wii which is why I didn't do so good when I first started. I tried doing it like the Wii.

This is Mrs. Quesada

She's my science teacher. I really like her. And, I'm learning a lot from her. We're studying earth science right now.

This is Mrs. Maier

She's my English and social studies teacher. I really like her, too. I have her three periods a day because I have English for two periods. One part is language arts and one part is reading. She has a good sense of humor. In social studies, we're studying about ancient civilizations. I really think that' s interesting, unlike the stuff we were studying in social studies back at elementary school. That stuff was boring. This stuff is exciting.

This is Mr. Callahan, our principal.

He seems really nice. I haven't quite gotten to know him yet, though. I have other teachers but they didn't have their pictures on the Lewis website. The rest of the subjects I take are advanced pre-algebra, wheel and advisory. In wheel we're doing something called imathination. Right now we're making patterns with lines. In advisory on Monday, Wedneday and Friday it is reading days. On Tuesdays and Thursdays its "help with your math" day in which you can get help with your math if you need it.

I have a friend from karate who is in 4 of my classes. His name is Will. For the past Monday and tomorrow, Will came and is coming over after school to study together and then go to karate. He's a black belt but I'll be there soon.

This is Will--on the right. The other is.....me.

My Spare Time

2009-09-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody,

Today I will be writing about what I do in my spare time. What I usually do is that I play with my DS, read or play Bionicles. I have a lot of fun with my bionicles. My Uncle Jeff says the bionicles I make are cool. He also told me that I should look into being a bionicle designer. He said I should send them to the Lego Company.

Heres a picture.

I also sometimes play the Wii and talk on the phone with my friends for a long time about Pokemon.

Starting tomorrow all my spare time will be ruined. Do you people have any idea why? You can vote on the sidebar where I will put a voting poll.

Today is Labor Day. Today my Uncle Jeff is here and we're going to have a fun time. We always do.

I don't have much spare time because I am usually doing other things that aren't spare--like having friends over, doing karate and other stuff.

Bye everyone.

Talk to you next time.

SUMMER WITH KURT AND ME

2009-08-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

During summer at my house I usually have Kurt over to play. We usually play Wii and DS, then we have lunch in the fort.

After lunch we do some more DS, then we go in the pool. We have a lot of fun.

Then after this, we go down to the park across from my house. Sometimes he ends up going places with me, like he was supposed to go to dye wars at my church. But he got in trouble and couldn't come. It was too bad, I had a lot of fun.

This is a picture of Kurt and me.

Kurt is coming over again today and he'll be here shortly, so I gotta go. Bye,Bye

A Typical Day at Fattoria Viticcio

2009-08-09T00:34:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone

I'm back from camp. The first day was rough but then it got better. If I come next year, I want to go again but it will be in a different place. The first day was rough because I just got there and was tired and didn't know anybody. It got better because I started to get to know people.

The usual day at Fattoria Viticcio is that we wake up, have breakfast and then we do homework or some sort of work. I'm doing homework in the middle of the summer because I am going into middle school and I need to be ready. Also, Camilla needs to do homework too so it gives me something to do also. I do math and I do reading comprehension and I do my blog entries. For a while I did my reading for People to People. Now I'm done and I did the test and I got 100%. Sometimes I read my book Seekers, a book I got for my birthday. Since I finished the last Harry Potter book I had no more to read so I started Seekers. It's about three bears who get separated from their families.

Me Reading Seekers

After homework Camilla usually comes knocking on the door and we play. Then we eat lunch together or separate and then we play some more. Then around 2:30 or 3:00 we go swimming. Then after we get out, dry off and we watch TV in the pool room. They redid it so they have a big TV like ours.

Drying Off

Then for merenda (snack) we go out and get gelato. Sometimes we walk around the piazza and we see friends or we don't. Then we go into the COOP. The COOP is the grocery store in Greve. For the ones who have been here you would know what the COOP is. In the piazza on Market Days and other days we go in and see Bruno, my good old buddy at the gastronomia.

Sometimes my friend Tommy comes over. Today he can't come over because he is going to Austria and comes back 4 days after we leave for home. I'd like someone to come over today because Camilla went to go to her grandfather's birthday and won't come home until this evening.

Tommy and Me

Sometimes other friends come over too. They're usually kids from school here.

Whose Feet Are These?

They belong to Tommy, Me, Francesca, and Camilla. We're upstairs in my apartment.

Yesterday Camilla had dinner with us and slept at our place in the top bunk. It's fun when we get to sleep together.

Well, I gotta go. We're off to Panzano--a village up the hill.

Tomorrow I get to go to La Cantinetta di Rignana

See you next time.

I'm at Camp

2009-08-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't written in a while because I am having too much fun. Tomorrow I am going to a camp in the mountains at Ponte de Legno for 5 days with Camilla. It will be fun. I'll tell you all about it later.

Ciao--Bye

I'm back home

2009-07-24T23:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone I'm back home to Fattoria Viticcio. The first day when we got here we saw my friend Tommaso's parents at the coop. Then I went and got to see Tommaso. Here is a picture of him and me.

Then after we went to my home at Fattoria Viticcio. When we passed the sign that said Greve in Chianti I started singing, "I'm home , I'm home." I was so excited and I'm happy to be home.

At first, I didn't even want to leave San Diego but now I'm not leaving here. Oh, that's just like when I lived here for a year.

I've had a lot of fun here. Like three days ago, Camilla's family and I went to Aqua Village, a water park not quite like Soak City but fun. All the slides are fun but one. All go super fast down but there is one that goes super slow cause kids aren't heavy enough, I guess.

Camilla's more grown up this year but we still play like we always used to except with the balloons. There was no balloons this time.

We play with Happy Mais which is fun to make things with. I can even make a bike--very small bike. Here's a picture of penguins on the bikes.

Camilla and I have had so much fun on a donut in the pool. The donut is a green inflatable device that can carry you throughout the pool. Acutally, not that complicated.

I got to see my old tutor that I really like--Valentina. She did a lot of nice things for us. She gave us things and I got a really cool Leonardo da Vinci calendar. I'm Leonardo da Vinci's greatest fan. Next Thursday we're going to go to dinner with her and Ricardo.

The first night at Fattoria Viticcio, Signora Franca fixed her delicious, wonderful, unbeatable lasagna. That's Camilla's grandma. We all ate together like a family.

Signora Franca

Yesterday was the most amazing thing. It was so hot and muggy. We went to Castellina to get gelato and we ended getting two it was so good.

Well, that's all I have to say peoples. See you later.

da Casey

Sant' Antonio

2009-07-17T01:41:00.000-07:00

We're at Sant' Antonio right outside of Montepulciano in Italy, but, too bad we're leaving tomorrow. It's nice here. I've been coming here since I was 4. I love it here. Tomorrow we're going someplace else that also I love, Fattoria Viticcio.

I have two special friends here as you've known before--Sofia and Filippo.

Lately Filippo has been making me laugh, hard-hard-hard. I've been having a great time. Sofia and I get along very well and we laugh together. When I first came to Sant' Antonio we couldn't talk to each other. But, now, as you know, I speak Italian so we can talk with each other. And Sofia's doing a good job speaking her English. When Sofia and I are talking, she wants to talk in English and I want to talk in Italian--what, cosa, chi, who.

Two nights ago there was a big dinner here for all the guests that are staying here. It was really fun. The kids had pizza, pasta, meat and dessert. There's a lot of kids here from different countries but we all manage to communicate with sign language. Some speak English, some speak Danish.

We haven't been driving anyplace when we were here. We just stay here and relax and I get to play with Sofia and Filippo and other children. And everything you see is beautiful.

Yesterday I played with Sofia and Filippo all day. At lunch with them, Filippo made us all laugh. Then after lunch their cousin Olivia came. She's coming again today. We played hide and seek.

Then we went to Sofia's grandfather's palazzo--a really big house, a mansion basically, that's about 400 years old--in Sarteano. It seems about as big as a football field times two because of the upper deck. The ceilings have amazing frescos on them.

There were two boxer dogs and the female had puppies. They are so cute. There's one that looks like a baby Sofia's dog named Caio. I really want to take one home with me but we can't.

Then we all went to dinner and had fun and played. And then we came home and went to bed. It was almost midnight.

Here's a slide show of all that stuff I just wrote about.

See you in Greve.

A France Mountain Adventure

2009-07-12T08:33:00.000-07:00

Last week in France we were in Moustiers and we went in the car for a ride in the mountains. There were several places to stop and each stop we saw something new.

The first stop we saw a beautiful view along with a little black bird. I took this picture of it.

The second stop we saw a rock climber. It was very interesting (but unfortunately we forgot to take a picture.) I was worried that the rock climber was going to fall but then my grandpa told me that the ropes that were tied on to her would keep her from falling. Then I stopped worrying. When she finally got back to the top after walking slowly down backwards, everyone that was watching cheered and clapped. Then finally we took off to our next destination.

The third stop we saw eagles. They were pretty. Through the binoculars you could see every detail of their feathers, their whole wings--just every part of their bodies. I thought they were amazing as they gracefully soared through the air. Then we spotted stairs to go down a spot on the mountain where you could see things better. My grandpa and I went down and I saw my second eagle. We tried to take some pictures of them, but all we got was this but it's still beautiful.

Here's a picture my grandpa took of my grandma and me. For some strange reason, my gramma doesn't like this picture.

On the way home we got really low on gas. I was scared half way to death--that's what I used to say when I was small. But what I say know is "I was scared half to death." If we ran out of gas on those mountains, there was no chance of getting back home. Good thing we made it to a gas station.

If you ever go to Moustiers, I hope you get to do and not do something of these things.

And now, I'm in Italy. I'll be posting soon.

Bye--Everyone

Eleven

2009-07-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

I’m eleven now. This year I had my birthday in France. I can’t remember the last time I had my birthday at home in San Diego. One year I had it in Miami, Florida on our way home from Ecuador and the Amazon jungles. I had two BIG birthdays in Italy and now France.

I woke up really early because I was excited for my birthday. My lazy grandparents wouldn’t wake up so I got dressed, went into the room and poked gramma to wake her up. She made me go back to bed and then I waited some and got back up and poked gramma again. She woke up and said it was too early to be up and so I played my DS some.

Finally they got up—hallelujah—and when we were all out of bed, they had presents for me. The first one was a Harry Potter DVD, the second was a bird watching book about birds in the United States and the third a book called Seekers that I was really, really wanting. It’s about bears going on a quest. I also got a tech deck. It is perfect for Provence because it has flies and bugs on it and there are a lot of those in here.

Then we went down to one of Kevin and Elizabeth’s wonderful breakfasts. Before we ate, Kevin brought me a fax and from my good friend Shannon. It said happy birthday and it had a gift certificate for a restaurant in San Diego called the Vine for a pasta I really like and a lava cake dessert. Thanks once again Shannon for the gift. I’ve never gotten a fax before.

After that we had a normal breakfast. Then, Kevin came out with a raspberry torte with Joyeux Anniversaire, Casey written in chocolate and two candles, representing eleven. Then the other guests, my grandparents, Kevin and Elizabeth sang Happy Birthday. The torte was very delicious. It was very nice of them to do that.

This is Keven and Elizabeth

The day before when I went out to play tennis with Kevin and Thomas (Thomas is Kevin’s son), we stopped at the bakery for some strange reason. Now I know why.

At night we went out to a nice restaurant for my birthday dinner and I got another surprise. Kevin called the lady in charge of the restaurant and told her it was my birthday so when they brought dessert it said happy birthday on it and they said happy birthday to me.

A couple days earlier when we were in Nice, it was special to have an early birthday with my Uncle Benny and Aunt Joyce who are just like family and I love them. And I get to see them when I get back home because they’re going on vacation in San Diego.

I can’t wait to get to Italy. See you there.

Bye, Everyone.

4th of July in France

2009-07-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

This blog entry is for People to People. It's the 4th of July and I'm in France.

I'm writing this because everyone who is part of People to People is supposed to write a blog entry or something about where they are on the 4th of July.

Everybody has a 4th of July but only the United States has 4th of July for our independence.

I'm part of People of People because my teacher nominated me for it. It is a leadership program where only student leaders who are nominated get to go. I'm going October 12, 2009 to Washington D.C. for a week. And this time I'm lucky, I'm going by myself. No grandparents taking care of me. I'm really looking forward to it. I can't wait.

Tomorrow's my birthday and I'm going to be eleven. Wow! That was fast. It seems like yesterday I was just in pre-school. Amazing.

Here is a picture of me in Arles, France.

It's Time

2009-06-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Guess what everybody--it's tomorrow. We're leaving for Italy tomorrow.

First we're going to fly to San Francisco. Then we fly to Frankfurt on a 747 like we did last time. I love the 745 because you lay completely flat when you want to sleep. And each seat a big TV screen that you can play video games on and watch TV. I'm going to be upstairs in business class. That's where I was last time. And also last time I was facing backwards. The plane was going forward but my back was facing that way. My papa has a lot of frequent flyer miles. That's why we get to go business class.

These is a picture of me sleeping and a picture of the TV screen.

I'll give pictures of this time, too.

From Frankfurt I fly to Nice, France. In France we're going to see our friends there for the first couple days. Then we're going to go to Arles and that's where I will be on my birthday. I'm going to be 13--psych--11.

And then, finally, we drive to Italy but we go to Bologna for two days. Then we go to Sant Antonio for a week. And then, FINALLY, we're going to Greve where all my friends are. I'm anxious to see my good friend and sister, Camilla

Well, gotta go.

Bye

Promotion day

2009-06-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the last day of school. It was also Promotion. I was being promoted to 6th grade. I made a slide show of pictures of promotion. When I got home from school there was a treasure hunt and at the end there was a big surprise. Wait till you see it.

Now, I'm a Middle Schooler.

My Awesome Hideout

2009-06-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, my grandpa and I started work on a fort. We worked hard and had fun.

Yesterday,6/10/09, I had my friend Kurt over after school. When we got home the fort was finished. My grandpa had finished it while we were at school. Here are some pictures of Kurt and me in the finished fort.

This is the outside of the fort.

This is Kurt opening the door.

This is me opening the door.

This is Kurt and I eating lunch in the fort.

(Wednesday is a short day at school.)

I even have a window. See me?

I hope you enjoyed my post, bye

I got braces

2009-05-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

I told you that when I became a completed nerd that I would let you know, so, that is what I'm doing. I just got braces last Tuesday. At first they hurt but a week later, you barely notice them. Here is a picture of me as a nerd.

I'm a real nerd now, bye

Karate Again!

2009-05-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

I'm almost to black belt. I'm one belt away from being a black belt in karate. I can't wait but it will be lots of hard work.

The test for sixth section was quite difficult. Our of 12 people only 6 came for the test and only 2 of us got to test. The two of us passed. My head instructor said the others weren't ready yet.

Here's a video of one part of my test. I'm the one in the front of the video.

One of the things I have to do to go to black belt is that I have to help teach the lower belt students for 15 lessons. I really like that. It's fun.

I also have to be able to do the splits or touch my chest to the floor with my legs spread out on the ground. I can sort of already do that. Why don't you try it?

Here's another part of the test. It is body control and concentration.

HARRY POTTER

2009-05-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

For some strange reason when I got my first HARRY POTTER book, my whole life changed and I started to like reading. When I was younger I never liked reading; actually I very much disliked reading. But now I've read 5 of the HARRY POTTER books, and in the process of reading the 6th. The reason I like these books is because they do many adventurous things that I would like to do and they use magic that sounds like it would be a cool thing to be able to do.

All of these books together are 3341 pages and there's one more book in the series.

Gotta get going to find out what Harry's up to, bye

Great Learning

2009-04-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

This is an example of pure learning taught in Mrs. Johnson's class.

This is game day where we learn to exercise our brains.

This is my group on the USS Midway. This place was very interesting.

Bye

My Da Vinci Experience

2009-04-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, on March 26th my school class went to the Air and Space Museum to see a da Vinci exhibit. We saw a lot of cool inventions and paintings. We took a lot of pictures and I put them into a slide show. Here it is.

This exhibit was special to me because I actually got to go to the place were Leonardo was born. He was from Vinci in Italy not to far from where I lived. da Vinci means from Vinci. So Leonardo da Vinci means Leonardo of Vinci. And one day I want to be as smart as him.

Bye everyone

The Fast Track

2009-04-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

IT'S THE FASTEST. IT'S ALSO THE SLOWEST RIDE IN THE WORLD. GET READY FOR THE FAST TRACK!!!!!!!!!!

Would you like to come and ride it with me for only $ 0.25?

4 EYED ME

2009-03-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I always thought it would be fun to have glasses. One day at school I had an eye exam and they said that I had a convergence problem. So then I went to my GRAND parents' eye doctor. There it was worse. They said I have multiple problems. I'm far sighted, near sighted and I have a convergence problem.

It took a week for my glasses to be ready. I couldn't wait I was so excited

These are my square style glasses I use at school.

These are my Harry Potter glasses I use at home.

Poll #1

Some people say I look like a nerd.

Poll #2

What's wrong with being a nerd? They are smart, they get good grades, they get scholarships for college, they're successful. So what's wrong with being a nerd? I want to be a nerd.

What To Give To

2009-03-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, today I was supposed to have a baseball practice but(t) it started to rain. But now for some reason the rain stopped. There's one thing good about that-- I get more time to write.

Each month my GRAND parents and I give $100,000,000,000,000 to some charity. I'm just kidding, we only give $100. But we don't just give it randomly, we decide as a family which charities to give to. We sit down together and talk about them and divide it equally. And sometimes I decide that I want to give to only one because at that time it just seems real important with the event that's happening.

So far we've given to Habitat for Humanity, Samaritans Purse, Smile Train and Doctors Without Borders.

Some others we might give to in the future are USO which helps families of Armed Forces, Feeding America which helps feed people who don't have food and Friends of the World Food Program which wants to stop world hunger. My grandparents know a lot of others but most of them I don't know. We'll decide each month what we'll do.

If you have suggestions or any other sites, please tell me them. I will gladly look into giving them some money.

It's important to do these things to help the world and all the people and less fortunate people who need help. God believes helping others is the right thing to do. I do, too.

Baseball and My Team the Orioles

2009-03-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, here's more baseball. If I didn't tell you yet, my baseball team's name is the Orioles. Last Saturday was Allied Gardens Little League Opening Day at the fields. I had a lot of fun with my friends. Here's my team picture which was taken there. Not everyone's in the picture. My friend Gavin had to go somewhere.

Can you find me?

Here I am--All dressed up and ready.

This is my baseball trainer, Brandon. Here he is teaching me how to catch. He hasn't learned Italian yet.

Here's a picture of him with me. When he's not teaching me, he's coaching a high school junior varsity team. He's teaching me really good and I like him. Hear that Brandon?

I hurt my shoulder in karate and am having a little trouble pitching. I fell and landed on it the wrong way. Now I have a bruised bone. It huuuuuurts.

Bye everyone.

Baseball Season's Starting

2009-02-25T17:01:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

Baseball season is starting up again and I'm playing. I'm on the team named the Orioles. They're from Baltimore--the real ones.

This is picture of our second practice and it shows me. Yeah, for me. This year my positions are going to be pitcher and catcher.

Now I'm taking lessons from a guy who played baseball in Italy. He played in Ravenna but he's American. He doesn't speak Italian like me so I'm going to teach him when I go tomorrow, Friday, 2/27/2009. This time he's going to help me with my batting which hasn't been going to well so I need to do some work on it.

My coach is really nice and I've had him before. He's the father of one of my best friends. His name is Kurt. I've known him since kindergarten. Here's a picture of us then.

See ya at the ballpark.

Cute but weird old fashion songs

2009-02-18T19:38:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone

Check these videos out. People think today's music is weird! But look at these. These are a lot weirder. These used to be popular songs. I like the Witch Doctor.

Don't eat me! Why would people like this?

The Little Blue Man is too sad at the end. Why did it have to be this way?

Why?

Witch Doctor--tell me the magic words.

Ooh-aah--ooh--e-ahhh--ting--tang--wa-a--wa-a--bang--bang. Now that is weird.

Snow Day

2009-02-12T22:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday after school when my grandparents picked me up, instead of going home we went to Julian to check out a campground that we might go to during Easter vacation. And to our surprise several times we went by little bits of snow. It got bigger and bigger and bigger until the whole place was covered in snow. My grandparents didn't know it was going to be there but I sort of did. We weren't prepared for it at all. I didn't have gloves and so my hands got cold. After a while they started burning.

I had a lot of fun in the snow. Papa and I had a snowball fight but gramma was just sitting in the car being a lump. And that's fact. I asked her to get out and she did once but then she said it was too cold and got back in the car. I love my gramma.

This is a picture of the beautiful snow when we first saw it.

This is a picture my gramma took when she was in the car.

Isn't that a beautiful picture?

Here's a picture of papa and me getting ready to do a snow ball fight.

The snow really reminded me of Italy when one day after school Camilla's family and mine went up to the mountain named San Michele and saw snow. That is a really good memory. All Italy memories are good.

P.S. My gramma's not really a lump. I really love her a lot.

Hi Everyone

2009-02-05T14:35:00.000-08:00

Do you see "Some of my Blog Followers" at the top of the sidebar? If you'd like to, you can sign up as one of my blog followers, too. All you need to do is click on the Follow This Blog link (it's above the pictures) and then follow the directions. But, I think you might need to have a blogger sponsored blog to do it. I don't know. Try and see.

I'd really like you to do that!!!

I Won!

2009-01-29T15:23:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,
I won a writing contest sponsored by the YMCA. The essay was about responsibility. I could have chosen caring, respect or honesty to write about but I wrote about responsibility. I had to write about what responsiblity means and someone who shows it and I wrote about my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Johnson. Here's a picture of the congratulating letter, the certificate award that said I won and my wonderful masterpiece.

I got two Sea World tickets for the prize and I will bring a friend with me. I'm hoping my Uncle Jeff takes us. Please...Uncle Jeff?

Here they are:
(You can click on the pictures and make them easier to read.)

The Monuments and Memorials

2009-01-27T11:51:00.000-08:00

There are lots of memorials I have seen but in Washington D.C. I saw a lot of special ones.

This is the Lincoln Memorial. I didn't get to go up the stairs because it was blocked off and the line was long.

This one is the Washington Memorial. It's the biggest of all. You can see it from all around, every direction.--and every spot of the world.

This is the Vietnam War Memorial. It was really sad. It had a picture of the person and a piece of Trident gum. The Vietnam War Memorial had the names of all the Americans that died in the war. There were thousands and thousands of names on it. Maybe even a million.

This one's the Korean War Memorial. It has statues of people with rain parkas on and that are walking through a field.

This is the WWII Memorial. Each state of the United States has a pillar in this memorial. This is me standing by the California one.

A lot of men and women have died in wars so that our country can be free. We need to appreciate them.

Awesome People I Met

2009-01-23T11:47:00.001-08:00

I met some people that are very important to our country. Can you guess which one is real?

This is George Washington and me. He didn't know what a blog was so my gramma had to say journal instead. He didn't know what a picture was. He said: "Are you making a portrait?"

This is Abraham Lincoln. He is two times taller than me. But where did his hat go?

Oh, here it is.

This is me and President Obama. He was really nice. He made good jokes. Don't I look like him?

And this is Snail. She's my good friend. I had a good time with her.

These boots were made for walking
and that's just what they did.
And now they can't walk anymore.
They're dead in D.C.
Poor boots!

More DC

2009-01-21T06:54:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, I'm going to tell you more about here in DC. Two days ago I got interviewed by channel 6 news. That night I was on TV at 10 o'clock. I didn't get to see it because that station is only in San Diego. Here is a picture of me being interviewed.

Here's a You-Tube clipping of it done by my friend Murph. Thanks Brian.

Later that when I went back to the Hotel to get some lunch I saw Gray Davis, California's former Governor, sitting with his wife having some lunch. I got a picture with him. Here it is.

When I met him, I got to talk to him, I shook his hand and of course got a picture with him.

Yesterday I went to the--- INAUGURATION. I was in pain because of the crowds, because of the cold and because I was tired. But-- I got through it. I'm glad I did too. If I didn't I wouldn't have been able to see President OBAMA get inaugurated and my class would have been very disappointed. Here I am, here is a picture of me.

Bye everybody, off to see the White House.

Haiku

2009-01-19T06:01:00.000-08:00

DC Dinner

DC and dinner

they both are really cool yo

DC and dinner

********

Breakfast

Breakfast is not good

no it really is not good

I do not like it

I'm here!

2009-01-18T07:06:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody I'm here, I'm in Washington DC. As you all know I'm going to President Elect Obama's (soon to be President) inauguration.

In a few days I'll be puting pictures on my blog from Barack Obama inauguration.

Yesterday I met Chiocciola, otherwise known as Eirin, and we went out for pizza but the place we went to was full so we ended up going to a mexican food place. We had a lot of fun. Thank you Snail.

See ya,
Casey

Washington--Off We Go to the Inauguration!

2009-01-16T05:30:00.000-08:00

Hi People,

I'm going to Washington now. See you there. I'll try to blog there.

Ciao

My Friend Brenda sent me this. It's cool.

Thanks, Brenda

My 5th Section Test--On My Way to Black Belt

2009-01-09T20:56:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody, I passed my 5th section test and I'm on my way to black belt. Only two more tests to go until I get to first degree.

Here's a video from my test. This is 6 kick form. Here it is.

I'm really happy that I'm 5th section. Now I can actually be in front of people when we line up to start our class.

Bye.

My Super Awesome Hat--Ready for D.C.

2009-01-08T17:25:00.000-08:00

Why Is Christmas Gone?

2009-01-01T15:10:00.001-08:00

Why does Christmas have to go? You wait so long for it and then it disappears like yesterday's birthday cake.

Then when it gets to New Year's you have to take all the decorations down. It's really hard taking them down. You love them all but, then, the next thing you know, everything seems blank and empty.

Like our tree that we took the ornaments down from is complete empty now. All it is is a pine tree. But a real pine tree is more beautiful because God makes it and it has pine cones in it.

This is our poor tree. Look at it. It makes me want to cry.

But the good thing is--we get to bring it all out again next year.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

2008-12-25T21:18:00.001-08:00

I GOT A Wii. My Uncle Jeff knew what I wanted and he got it for me and I am really happy. Here's a video of me opening it and it was really fun. He played the same trick on me that I played on him--putting a box, in a box, in a box. I really love my Uncle Jeff. He's the best Uncle ever!! Here's the video.

I hope that all of you had a good Christmas and Santa was good to you. And I hope that none of you forgot the real meaning of Christmas--the birth of Jesus.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T09:42:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve, everybody. Just one day till Christmas. I'm ready but it seems like just yesterday I was in Italy swimming in a pool. But now, it's too cold and it's almost Christmas and I'm not in Italy.

I hope it snows tomorrow, which it probably won't because it doesn't snow in San Diego. But, I wish it did.

Have all of you gotten trees already? We have a really nice one and we have about
50 presents under it. That's too much. I think I should give some of them away--just kidding. A lot of them I bought for my grandparents, my mom and my uncle. My Uncle after he comes back from work he stays with us on Christmas eve. Then in the morning of Christmas, my uncle and I both open our stockings in bed. And then I get my grandparents stockings and bring them over to them.

I always have a lot of fun on Christmas and on Christmas eve.

On Christmas evening we go to the Christmas Eve service at church and listen to the story about Jesus, the one who started Christmas. As you see, the word Christ is in Christmas because Jesus is the Christ and he was supposedly born tomorrow over 2000 years ago. Sometimes people forget that.

Also on Christmas eve, at night, before I go to bed, I get to open one present. The rest I have to save til morning.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Ho Ho Ho

Bye.

This is our sausage Santa. He's always been one of our favorite decorations and as you can see, he's already for Christmas dinner.

Receiving and Giving

2008-12-15T16:22:00.000-08:00

Receiving:

WE GOT THE INAUGURATION TICKETS. Woo00000000000-hoo.

I really wanted to get them to see the ceremony when Barack Obama is sworn-in as President of the United States. We got a call from our congressman who said, "YOU HAVE 3 TICKETS TO THE INAUGURATION CEREMONY." I hope it snows but gramma doesn't.

Giving:

Several weeks ago I did the shoe boxes again like I did la st year. This time there in plastic boxes and not in shoe boxes. I did that so the kids who receive them could reuse them for other things.

Samaritans Purse takes the shoe boxes all over globally to the kids that they want to give them to. Samaritans Purse gives them to poor areas of the world so that they can actual have something and they learn about Jesus.

In the shoe boxes were toys, school supplies, dental supplies, and accessories. I bought them with my own money that I saved during the year to buy them. I spent $63 on them.

Here's some pictures of me bringing and giving the shoe boxes to the place that takes them. It was the same place as last year.

Yo, Casey

My Teacher

2008-11-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone, this is my teacher Mrs. Johnson. I really like her. She is really fun and nice. She teaches me really good and I learn a lot from her. She teaches 4th and 5th grade seminar kids which is an advanced class. She teaches math the best but she teaches other things good, too.

We just had a big project due last week. It's called the Above and Beyond project. Mine was on Leonardo da Vinci. I did a model of one of his boats. Here's a picture of my project.

I also did a poster board with his inventions and paintings. And I did an example of the way Leonardo always wrote backwards with backwards writing. I also had to do an oral report and Mrs. Johnson said I did a really good job. Here's a picture of me doing my report.

Ooh ahh ooh, gotta go. Bye.
Next time, it's "It's Starting to Look A Lot Like Christmas--American Version"

My Brothers and Me

2008-11-18T19:21:00.001-08:00

Peace, yo. My brothers and me are in this video. It's really funny, so check it out.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Kip-Up

2008-11-15T17:14:00.000-08:00

I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!! I finally got my kip-up--that's a karate move. It's really hard at first but then you get it after quite a while and here's a video of me demonstrating it. I have to be able to do it to get to the fifth section in karate.

After fifth section, I will only have one more test to go till I'm black belt.

I Sent My Letter to President-Elect Obama

2008-11-07T17:05:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we sent my letter to President-Elect Obama--My Hero. You can see it down here below. I also put a copy of the blogs about him in the envelope.

Can you pray that it will get to him. If it gets to him, I'm hoping that he'll invite me to the White House and that I'll get to meet him and the new puppy that he's going to get for his girls. (I love dogs!)

I pray for Barack Obama every day that he'll be safe.

You can click on the pictures to make them bigger and easier to read.

Mr. President

2008-11-04T22:35:00.001-08:00

Here's Our New President
I'm So Happy

I'll be in Washington D.C. at Barack Obama's inauguration. I can't wait. I wonder if I'll get to meet him? We already have our plane tickets so who wants to come with us.

YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

Off to school now. Bye, Bye.
Zooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmm

Obama and Me

2008-10-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

Guess what!

Barack and I are similar in many ways.

We both have one black parent and one white parent.

And we have both been raised by our white grandparents.

Like me, he never saw his Dad when he was young.

This is another amazing thing: Barack's daughter is ten years old born on July 4, 1998. Her birthday is one day before mine which is July 5, 1998. Isn't that amazing?

This whole thing makes me feel really exited. I'm writing a letter to him saying that we are similar. Hopefully, it will get to him. I will pray for that. I really hope that if he gets the letter he'll invite me to the White House on his private jet.

He is my new role model and hero.

If you're insane, vote for McCain
Stop the drama, vote for Obama

See ya,

Casey

What I Did This Weekend

2008-10-12T18:25:00.001-07:00

I've been pretty busy this weekend.

First, I went to baseball practice on Saturday morning. Then I came home and put up my halloween decorations. Here's a slide show of all of them.

Then I had my friend Sammy over and we made videos of our bionicles doing extreme stunts. Here's one of them. We make our own bionicles. We usually don't follow the instructions. We used most of them for stunts. My favorite one is when one of them went down the hill on a skate board. I liked that one because at the end it looked like something mysterious flipped the skateboard over. But, I really flipped it over.

Today I went to church. I really like church. Today we learned about how God is all powerful. Like when I asked God to help me on my social studies test last week and I think I did pretty good but I'll find out tomorrow. At first I was scared to take the test but now I'm feeling pretty good about myself.

After church I had a baseball game. We lost. But I got a good hit and scored a run except when I slid to second, third and home I made my butt sore. My favorite positions are pitcher and catcher.

When I got home from baseball, I had a huge lunch. Then I practiced my karate. I also practiced my violin and I did my book report project. Here's a picture of it. It's a wanted poster for Smythe.

Then I started to type my book report. It's looking pretty good so far. I'm going to keep up the good work.

Finally, I got to play. Ah, Ah--the homework's taking me away. Ah...Ah... Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Violin Casey

2008-10-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

I just got a violin and I'm going to take it to school for strings practice. I chose the violin because last year in music when we did the violin that was the instrument that I liked the most.

Scratch, The Dog

2008-09-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

Did I ever tell you about Scratch? He's my dog. When he's happy, he snarls. Like this:

Isn't that charming!?

Did I ever tell you about how he got his name? If I did, here it is again. It was one day after school and we went out to the car. I noticed in the car that we were going a different way so I asked where we were going. They my grandparents said: "Didn't you want a dog?"

Then when I got there, it took me an hour to decide. And then I saw him--a cute, adorable, small puppy who was very wiggly by the way Then we went outside and the sales person wanted to take our picture. My grandmother was holding the puppy and I was standing right next to her. Then the puppy scratched me on the lip and it started bleeding. So then I was crying and said: "I know what I am calling him." So that's how he got his name--SCRATCH.

A HAIKU

Scratch is a puppy.

Scratch is such a cute puppy.

And he is squirmy

That's all the time I have for today, folks. Bye.

The First Week

2008-09-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

It was horrible!! Just kidding. It was really good and I hope summer never comes. Actually, I do hope it comes; otherwise, I wouldn't see Camilla.

The first week of school was really fun because my teacher is fun and she makes learning fun. This year I have Mrs. Johnson. We all did a lot of laughing about the planet Uranus because it sounded like your anus. Mrs. Johnson was laughing, too. And then we read that Uranus is very cold and windy and may be poisonous to humans and its a gasseous planet. That is so funny! Get it?

Also the first week, on the last day, wasn't so good. Someone teased me about me liking someone and I got mad. I got unmad because my 3 friends, Jordan, Sammy and Dorothy, got a purple puppet and came over to me and said "I'm Mister Purple" and then I started laughing and got addicted to that puppet. Then I was all better. The rest of the day was very fun.

This week I also went to my first baseball practice for Fall Ball. It was a lot of fun. My coach is one of my best friend's dad. I also went to karate 3 times and my friend Ryan Willweber came over to swim and I had an Italian lesson. I had a really fast week and busy, too.

Today I went to Soak City with my Uncle Jeff--the best uncle in all the world. Soak City is a water park. I had a lot of fun going on water slides. There's also a pool that waves come when you hear an alarm. The waves hit you and when you're on a tube they can knock you over.

I'll tell you what happened to me. My uncle pushed me into the wave and when it hit me I went flyyyyyyying off my tube. I almost landed on a guy. Good thing I didn't.

Here's Uncle Jeff and me getting ready to go to Soak City.

Gotta be going now, Bye

Back to School Time

2008-08-31T16:08:00.000-07:00

It's almost time to go back to school. I got a new backpack and new shoes. My feet are bigger than my gramma's. Here's a picture of me ready to go back to school.

I'm not sure who my teacher is going to be this year but it is probably going to be Mrs. Johnson. If you're not good in her class, she says she's going to hang you from the fan and spin you on high. I was in her class for math last year but she doesn't really hang people from the fan, she just says so. She wanted to hang someone but she couldn't or she wouldn't be a teacher anymore. This is my last year in elementary. Next year I'm going to middle school.

Since I've been home from Italy, I've played with my friends, been baptized and had a sleep over party. I didn't get any sleep that night because I was watching TV. I was the only one awake in the house and nobody else heard the TV. Then in the morning, Tyler woke up because Kurt was snoring and so Tyler woke Kurt up.

I also had another kid over the next morning to go swimming. His name is Ryan. The four of us had a lot of fun.

Here's all four of us in the spa.

I can't wait till school starts.

Well, gotta be going now. See you later, bye.

Bye Italia—Hello San Diego

2008-08-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Today we’re leaving Italy and going back home. I can’t wait to get home although it is sort of sad leaving Camilla. Waa-waa-waa waa waa. I can’t wait to see Scratch and my Uncle Jeff and my friends.

I have a big day coming up when we get home. It’s my baptism. My friend Uncle Benny is going to baptize me at the beach or should I say in the bay. And also it’s going to a picnic/barbecue.

The last thing we did in Italy was a get-together with my good friends, Judith, Barb and Art, Mary, Rita and Lina and new friends Maurizio, Rhian and Michele. Rhian is from Wales but she lives in London. She’s a professional cellist and plays with Elton John and other rock stars. I had fun with Rhian. We went swimming and we played the Nintendo WII.

Rhian and Me

Barb, Art and Me

Judith and Me

Mary and Me

Oops—it’s now 4 days later. I’ve been sick and so I couldn’t finish this. Sorry for the wait, folks. I had the stomach flu and slept 20 hours out of 24 for three days. And today I’m better.

Today’s the party for the Benatti’s and I can’t wait for tomorrow because I have my baptism. Baptism means showing everybody that you love God and that He’s your Savior.

This is my Uncle Benny. He’s a missionary. This was taken several years ago when I was little.

By the way, I’m bald now. I don’t have my mohawk anymore.

Well, see you later folks.

Lara

2008-08-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

Last Friday my first Italian tutor came to Fattoria Viticcio. Her name is Lara. She was my tutor in San Diego when I was first learning Italian before we went to Italy. She lives in Mantova now. And she came a long way to visit us. I really like her. I had fun with her because we went swimming and played soccer and frisbee. Camilla liked her, too.

Me and Lara.

When she was my tutor she was really good. She made it fun to learn and made it less scary to move to Italy.

She gave me a cool constellation thing that shows and tells the names of the constellation. I don't have batteries yet so I don't know what it does. I am really interested in scientific stuff like that.

That day Valentina came to meet her. Valentina came because they were both my tutors and both really good ones. Both made learning fun.

Lara and Valentina

Laura was really surprised about my Italian because when she taught me I didn't know one single word except ciao, spaghetti, pizza, lasagna and pasta. My mom thinks if you say pizza or any name of food they're speaking Italian.

We all went to the piazza together. For her it was interesting. But it's not as pretty because it's a parking lot now. I really appreciated that she came. Thank you, Lara

Gotta go. Bye

Why I Don’t Want to Leave Italy

2008-08-07T01:48:00.000-07:00

You know why I don’t want to leave Italy? Here’s a list.

Camilla, Camilla, Camilla

I don’t want to leave Camilla because she’s my sister. And she’s really fun to play with. She’s fun to play with because she doesn’t like a lot of girl things. She doesn’t even like Barbie. She likes to play with stuffed animals, go outside and play and go swimming, like any normal girl.

We built a little house outside and we play in there a lot. We built it out of wine barrels, wood pallets, tarps and thick wooden sticks on top. We watched my DVD in there and then we went back in the house. Then it rained and I remembered I left my DVD player out there. When I went to get it, I got shocked. Good thing I didn’t get hit by lightening!

This Is Our House

I also like her because we talk a lot and never stop. When I stay at their house, every night Alessandro has to come in and tell us to go to sleep and stop talking. He says “shhh. Sono le dieci. Dormiti.” That means: shh. It’s ten o’clock. Go to sleep.

I also like her because we never fight or argue or anything. And, she’s pretty.

The Scenes, The Scenes, The Scenes

I also don’t want to leave Italy because of the beautiful scenes. You don’t see anything like this in any other country. That’s why I really like Italy. When it’s turning dark, the clouds turn a pinkish, orangish, reddish color and it’s so pretty.

And from our house that we built we could see a big view but now we can’t because there’s a bunch of wooden sticks in the front but we can still get to it.

The vines are really pretty. One of the most beautiful places was Campastrello. It was pretty because there were vines and a big pretty sky and there were really tall mountains with green on them.

The Whole Landini Family

I am going to miss my whole Landini family plus Sara. They are all nice and fun. Alessandro makes mozzarella in carroza which is fantastico. He also makes hamburgers fantastico. He’s fun because he plays with me. Same with Nicoletta.

Signora Franca is a really good cook. I always like her food. She is really nice to me, too.

Sara’s not a Landini but she’s still really nice. She really likes chocolate especially chocolate chip cookies. My grandma makes her the cookies. They are the best chocolate chip cookies other than the ones Barbara gave me.

Finally, I Will Just Miss Everything About Italy

I really don’t want to leave but I’m coming back next year for 4 weeks. That’s the good thing.

Gotta Go, Bye

Per Casey Da Gramma

2008-07-27T03:30:00.000-07:00

We saw this dog yesterday and thought of you--wonder why?

Isn't he cute?

We miss you lots. Do you miss us or are you having just too much fun?

See you in a week.

Lots of love,
Gramma and Papa

Hodge Podge

2008-07-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody, I just got back from Garda, Como and Milan. We were only in Milan for two days. I went there to see the duomo, see the Last Supper and meet a lady named Sylvia who is really funny.

The duomo was pretty boring but huge. And we went on the roof of it and it was really, really, really high. I thought I might fall. The roof was really fancy but not colorful. It was white with a lot of carvings and gargoyles.

The next day we went to see the Last Supper. And it was really cool considering I like Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings and stuff. It was cool because the walls looked like they were going back like an actual house. It’s a painting of when Jesus had his last supper with his disciples until he was crucified.

The best part was Sylvia. I thought she was going to be serious adult like person but she wasn’t serious at all. She was fun and made me laugh by doing tongue twisters but in Italian and really funny things like in a picture sticking her tongue out. Here’s her picture doing that.

She also brought me two books. One of them was the first book she ever read. I’m looking forward to reading it. It’s in Italian, of course because she is Italian but speaks English. She’s lady Mark Twain—or should I say Alice Twain. She uses that name sometimes. Thank you Sylvia for the books.

Here at Viticcio I have a friend from last year who’s back. Her name is Caro. She’s from Belgium. She’s really nice and fun to play with.

This is Caro and Me. See My Cone Nose?

Caro Is A Lot of Fun

I’m not going to be writing for a while because my grandparents are not going to be here. I’m staying with Camilla. My grandparents are going to Croatia. I won’t have a computer to blog on. But don’t forget about me.

Gotta go, Bye.

Harder Than Cats and Dogs

2008-07-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Two days ago we went to Switzerland. When we go there, we had trouble finding parking but when we did, we went to the waterfront of Lugano and got on a little tram. This is me sitting on the front of it. I got to drive it—just kidding. The tram took us on a round trip around Lugano. There were a lot of obnoxious people on the tram, talking loud, loud. Then my gramma said “Can you get any louder?” And they got louder. I was glad when we got off the tram.

The lake was really pretty. There was a big fountain shooting water up high. I wish I were on top of it so that I could fly. Then I was so hungry that we went to Burger King and I had a crispy chicken burger and chunky fries except my grandparents ate most of the fries.

When we went back to the car, we drove to a really cool chocolate factory but it was a holiday so they weren’t working. We went in the museum that they had and saw some chocolate things that looked good. You know how burglars break in and steal precious things? This time they are going to break in and eat precious things.

We saw a video on making the chocolate. I’m eating some of the chocolate right now. It’s white chocolate and it’s good. Then we went into the store and bought some chocolate—a big package with a bunch of chocolate bars and a separate bar for my Uncle Jeff and Tommy chocolate bears for my friend Tommy.They gave a way a lot of nice samples. It was all good except the dark chocolate.

There was a red and white cow out in front of the museum. And here it is.

On the way back it was pouring rain harder than cats and dogs—just like the title. Good thing my papa was a good driver. I was so scared but I didn’t panic. There was thunder and lightening and dark grey clouds. It also hailed a lot. We were in the mountains and so it was especially dangerous.

So we got home and then later when I was going to bed, I looked outside and there was a huge flash of lightening. It went kachow! And it went all night.

Gotta go, bye.

My Gardaland Adventure

2008-07-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Monday I went to a place sort of like Disneyland but not as big. It is called Gardaland. It is really cool. I have been really wanting to go there. Back at Fattoria Viticcio I played a game called Gardaland and now I have actually been there.

I wanted to have either Camilla or Tommaso come with me but they couldn’t. So at first I said “then I’m not going.” But we went and I ended up having fun with my grandparents instead. It was a good family fun day.

The first ride we went on was called Ikarus. My grandpa went on it with me but my gramma was a scaredy cat. It was a really cool ride that spun around and went up in the air. Here’s a movie when Papa and I were on it.

One of my favorite rides was 793. First it lifted you up in the air and then dropped you about 130 miles per hour. I felt like I was going to die. Gramma didn’t go on that one either.

My most favorite was the Magic House. It is so strange I can’t even describe it. I don’t know if we were moving or the walls. My gramma went on that one. She fell off but me and my grandpa didn’t. Just kidding because if she fell off she’d get squashed by the ride.

The second one was Fuga da Atlantide. We got really wet on that one.

But my favorite of all of them, of all of the rides, was Tunga—just kidding. That was the worst one cuz we were going one kilometer per hour and all it was was mechanical machines that made noise while we were on the boat. I used to think that It’s a Small World at Disneyland was bad. It still is bad but not as bad as Tunga.

My actual favorite was Mammut which means mammoth. I liked that because it was a ride where you went up, down, around and sideways but no upside down. I felt like I was going to fly out back. The trouble with that one was that the line was super long.

The other things I liked weren’t rides at all. We saw several shows. One was a Gormiti one. Another was Hollywood Dreams. At the beginning there was a teenager singing Hollywood Dreams that’s still going through my mind. We also saw a really cool ice skating show. One guy could actually do a back flip on the ice and not fall down.

The best show was Tornedo di Camelot. The announcer of it was a donkey. Here he is.

In the show at the beginning there were two knights—red and yellow. We were on the yellow side and so we were cheering for him and he won. Then he had to fight the evil skull champion and he won again. He pretended to cut the bad guy’s head off—snap!

We finally got home thirteen hours later and got a good night’s sleep.

This was me shooting. I had a very high score. It was really fun. Bye, Bye

My New Friend Kate

2008-07-06T03:48:00.001-07:00

Last week at Viticcio I met a girl named Kate from Seattle. Camilla and I had fun with her. Here’s a picture of Camilla, Kate and I having lunch together in our apartment.

Kate was 8 when I met her. Her birthday is July 2 which is three days before mine. Mine is July 5 which was yesterday and I didn’t enjoy it because I had a horrible ear ache. Read my blog entry My Horrible Birthday.

Kate had a birthday party with cake at 8:30 pm. It was fun. Then Camilla came and gave Kate two little bouncy balls. I gave her some presents in the morning. This is a picture of Kate and I at the party.

I really liked Kate but she drove me batty because she always said—I’m a power ranger, pokemon, yu-gi-oh, gormiti, dragon slayer and at the same time I’m a unicorn. She said it in a very high voice.

I hope I see her again.
See ya..

My Horrible Tenth Birthday

2008-07-06T03:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a horrible day even though it was my birthday when I turned 10—double digits. We left Fattoria Viticcio and went to Lake Garda but I haven’t even seen the lake yet. It was horrible because I had an ear ache and we didn’t know what was wrong with it. We just knew my ear was hurting and then later when we went to dinner, by ear hurt so bad that I was crying. Our really nice waitress offered to take us to a farmicia that was open because the one that was near where we are staying was closed. I couldn’t eat my ear was so bad.

After dinner I had to go to the hospital’s emergency room which in Italian is called “pronto soccorso.” There was really nice doctor who looked in my ear and said that I had an infection from swimming too much. He said we needed to go to a farmicia in Lonato that was open 24 hours a day. If we didn’t have a GPS it would have taken forever to get the hospital and to the farmicia. Lonato was several kilometers away—about 10. We had to get ear drops and pain pills; they start working right away.

But the good part of the day was I got a card from my Uncle Jeff with €13 inside and I got a phone call from my Uncle Dan and Aunt Glennis wishing me a happy birthday. They called all the way from Auburn, California.

When we got home from the hospital and the farmicia, my grandma put my ear drops in and then I went to sleep. By the time I got to sleep, it was after eleven o’clock.

Gotta go, bye……P.S. Fred says ‘hi.”