Ohio Standage's and Cedar Hills Standage's Family Updates

I am extremely sorry this is so belated. But if you didn't get it from my last post, we went to Cincinnati, Ohio to hang with my brother, Stephen, sister-in-law Laura Beth, and their kids, Rachel, and the twins Maren and Michael three weeks ago. We did a lot of fun stuff while we were there.



Daddy giving a scripture



Maren and Michael chilling with Grandma!



Rachel chilling with Aunt Lar-Lar!



We went up to Kentucky to spend the night there and go see Mammoth Caves the next day. Upon our arrival, we went out for pizza. Yum!



I thought this picture was priceless!



Some pool fun at the hotel!



The next day, we went to Mammoth cave, which was really fun and interesting, and...didn't have HUMIDITY! The air felt cool and great!



Also that day, we went to the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. I think the kids' favorite part was making creations out of the lincoln logs!



Pretty inspirational, huh?







Monday was our "Fun"-day at an Amusement park called Coney Island. It was mostly kid oriented, but it was still really fun. Rachel went on a rollercoaster, and I overcame my fear of ferris wheels, and we went swimming at the end of the day!





Tuesday, we went to the airforce museum! I just love that picture of Stephen! That day, Great-Grandma (well, Grandma to me...) came up to spend some of the trip with us. We love you!



Wednesday was completely devoted to Harry Potter. I'm so happy we got to see it on opening day! Stephen and Laura Beth went first while we watched the kids, then we traded off!



Thursday was kind of another hang out day, but we went to the library and got a book that I had been looking for to read. My sister Juli and her kids listened to the audio book and loved it, so tried to read it to Rachel, but she's a little younger than Emily and Sadie, so she wasn't interested. I read it in only an hour or so, and loved it. Then I read about twelve chapters in the car to Mom and Dad, and finished reading it with Mom that day, Dad finished it on his own. We all loved it! I recommend it to everyone. You're kids will love it, and so will you, and you will learn a great deal! It's called "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane", by Kate DiCamillo.



Friday was zoo fun! This was one of my favorite parts, since I love animal interaction. This little guy started playing with my hair when I tried to leave. How cute!



Is this guy adorable or what? I can't believe Stephen thought he was ugly!



Eating lunch with the peacocks!





These three manatee pictures are dedicated to Alien! Rock on!



After the zoo, we got to tour the hospital where Stephen works! We're so proud of you!


Our last big day of fun: we went to Amish country. The kids loved playing on the homemade swing sets and gazebos, and we got some pastries!



Another fun highlight was that the kids enjoyed playing human bridge with me in the girls' room. Maren especially liked this, and kept asking me to play that and "Teddy Bear" in her room!



Can't wait to see you guys next summer! I sure love those kids!

So Far...So Fun!

Hi from Cincy! We made it here safely! So far it's been great, and I've had an awesome time with the kids. Yesterday, Rachel, Maren, Michael, and I played dolls, Earth Vs. Aliens with these strange block thingeys, hide and seek, and a pretend game outside. We haven't gotten very far into it, but once the wizard comes out of my bag and unlocks the door to the abandoned castle, then we'll be able to find the pin and give it to the magic orb, so it can tell us more about our quest!

Today, we're going to hike in some caverns or something like that and spend the night up there, so I'll update soon!

Love you!

Stuff in July so Far

Sorry it's been a while, but I have three major updates. I'll try to be brief.

First, we went to Maple Grove on a family camping trip with the two Billingsley families (aka, Aunt Janet and Uncle Charles, and Donovan and Becca) and Daniel and Stephanie, as well as the Gustafsons (yay! Cousin time!) A few of my favorite highlights from that was, the tree swing dad put up, the treasure hunt and crown craft Brinlee and I did with the kids, and the awesome creek. Unfortunately, we don't have pictures of any of those things. Hopefully, though, we may go camping again next summer when my brother Stephen and his family are visiting from Cincinatti. Speaking of which, we're leaving to go visit them tomorrow! YAY!!!!!!!!!



We hung out with Daniel and Stephanie for Independence Day, and played a really fun game...ugh...trying to think of the name...I know it starts with a B...nope, don't know what it's called. But afterwards, we watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks from a distance. A lot of it was down low, which was surprising, but what we could see...STUNK! This was the year I would have preferred to go because of the singing group at it this year, compared to Brooks and Dunn, and Miley Cyrus from the years before. I'm not crazy about the Jonas Brothers, and I don't listen to their music, unless with a friend or something, but they're my favorite singing group out of those. And I was kind of wanting them to sing their new song "Paranoid" (Hey! I heard it on the radio at Seven Peaks, ok?)



Anyway, probably the best event that's happened lately was that on Sunday, Heather got blessed! It was awesome, but my favorite part would have to be that Stephanie's family, the Coleman's came up!!!!! We knew them in Georgia, and Charles (basically 13, as he puts it, since he's turning thirteen the end of this month) and Jessica (11) were like, my best friends ever! They're still really great friends, and still up at the top, even though I don't see them as much anymore. The funnest part was, they were allowed to come over and spend the night!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS SOOOOOOOO FUN!!!!!!!!



Yep, that's what's happened. I had to hurry and tell about those before we left for Cincy so that I would have to update FOUR things in one post.

A couple of minor things going on: I'm loving the Cry of the Icemark, the book I'm reading. I read it in 6th grade, but it bored me to tears, and I skimmed it. Then, during 7th grade, I found out it was a trilogy, so now I'm rereading it, and I'm surprised how little I remembered! But it's soooo good, like a classic fantasy with battles and creatures!!!



Lord of the Rings, in my opinion, is better than classic fantasy though. I can't really remember those books either, but I wanted to read those again this summer as well, even though the writing is hardish, because the story is like, one of my favorites. However, we left the first one at my brother's old house, so we don't have it any more. But I read the first chapter of the second one yesterday night and loved it. Maybe I'll get the first one at the library...
Anyway...Alien was trying to show me something from the last book yesterday, and got her own copy, and started to look through Appendix B (there are appendixes up to F, by the way, in the back of the last book). We learned SOOOOOOOO much!!!!!
Sam was elected mayor of the Shire 7 times, he had like, over ten kids, when I thought he only had Elanor and Frodo!!!!! Oh, oh, and...Pippin's son (I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HE GOT MARRIED!!!!!!!), who he named after Faramir, married one of Sam's daughters!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS SOOOOOOOOO COOL. And Merry lived to be 102 I think.

I want to be like that, so detailed with my stories like that. I mean, I seriously used to draw pedigrees for fun!



I would go on to talk about my new story, but I don't want to be a bore. I'll just tell you the names of my characters. Each one is a representative of each of the different kinds of people in this world I haven't named yet.

Sira Aquaris Quenzdaughter: Water Kingdom, Creek Tribe

Cassandra Stardust Falcondaughter: Sky/Air Kingdom, Cloud Tribe

Alio Treeroot Buckson: Earth Kingdom, Tree Tribe

Nymph Somethingorother Dunnowhosdaughter: Human

Frorin Firesparks Fransson: Last of the Light Kingdom, Sunlight Tribe

Jet Shadow Constanceson: Last of the Darkness Kingdom, Shadow Tribe

I don't know if I'm going to keep all the tribesey thingeys, I just sort of added them on there on the spot...

Anyway, that's about it. Oh, I forgot! ALIEN GOT A BLOG! Let's all give her a warm welcome to the blogging business.

So long for now, talk to you soon, love you all!

Faith, Trust, PIXIE DUST!

Sorry this post is so late from when this event happened. I haven't had a lot of time lately. Nope, summer didn't make my schedule any less busy. Well, anyway, I got back from Girl's Camp up in Heber Valley. The theme was Tinker Bell, and I have to admit that the movie is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
We did a lot of fun things while we were up there, but once again, being the lazy person I am, I'm going to use pictures...














Ugh! I'm too lazy to write captions for all of these, but you can get the idea can't you? I'll just say a few things. Dad got to go up to be priesthood on the first day. And yes, that is a glitter star on his cheek! We painted our toes with glitter, which had to do with being "clean, but not all," when Jesus washed the apostles' feet. It was Monday the first day we went up, so we had Family Home Evening with the relief society president, aka Queen Clarion (for those who haven't seen the movie, she's the queen of Pixie Hollow) about "crowns".
Tuesday, Zipline and Challenge Course Day. I was forced to be the guinea pig for the zipline, but I LOVED it! Our lesson that day was "Fly to your Heart" (the same name as the song Selena Gomez sings for the movie), and we got wings (may I add, that we made tutus before camp to go with all of our stuff we would get).
Wednesday, Hiking, Certification (we actually did it up at Camp this year), and skits. I'm not even going to put a picture of me in my outfit because I was the weirdo. No more needs to be said. Oh, and we got wands that matched our wings!
Thursday, We prepared a dance in our seperate cabins, like we did for the skits, but we all did it to the same song, which was of course, "Fly to Your Heart!" It's not that bad of a song...After dances, we had a crowning ceremony. We got white hats with flower clips on them (we each had one by our name for our secret sister box, {well, they called it Pixie Pals this year :)} but we didn't know they were clips until they put them on our hat/crowns. This is always the day at camp where we have a really fancy dinner and read letters from a certain relative. We had a turkey dinner with a fruity thing, I forgot what it was called. Then, of course, Testimony Meeting...the spirit is always so strong.
Friday, We got a REALLY cute necklace with a jar of green pixie dust on it and some pink and white beads (it's hard to describe, but it's really cute), and we got pixie sticks, and all sorts of stuff...And at the end we took a picture with our tutus, wings, wands, crowns, and necklaces before heading home.

I absolutely love the young women in my ward and I am grateful for the leaders and camp directors. I had such a great time! Though I could go on for ages about all those wonderful things, I won't get mushy. It was just great and fun and spiritual, I'll put it at that.

A couple of other updates: On Thursday, the beehives went to the Manti Pageant while the others were at EFY. And, I gave my first talk in church today.

I've started reading The Scarlet Pimpernel (BEST EVER, yeah I've already seen the movie) because I've been trying to get into classics more (and Mom and Dad say it'll help my writing). Well, because of all those cool words, I read with a dictionary and a piece of paper beside me. And it has really helped. And I would like to comment anent my jovial enjoyment I have of discombobulating every possible person I can, because I am being such an inciter by flattering you with chicanery. I can't help it, my lexicon is simply expanding as new words enter my pate. Well, this was fun, and I hope you assent. I now bid you farewell. Now, don't just stand there all stolid in confusion at my clever witticism! I'm sure you've got other things to do!


Anyway, love you guys lots!

The Trip to Maryland

So for the last week that dad was gone, we got to go visit him in Maryland. His hotel was really nice. Here's a recap of what we did in picture form (FINALLY! A post with pictures!)

Saturday: We went to the Baltimore Aquarium...






When we got back, I went swimming in the pool. There was a little boy there that kept throwing his ball in the water, though he wouldn't go in there himself, and so I'd keep getting it for him, and I started to make him laugh. Ah, don't you just love the little ones? A little later, a couple other kids came, a boy and a girl, and the girl was a couple years younger than me. I had to admit, it was pretty fun.





Sunday: We went to the Olney Ward that all my siblings (and, okay, me for the first five months of my life) went to church at. After that, we went to the temple Visitor's Center, and just kind of drove around our old neighborhood that I can't remember except for when we went four years ago and stayed with the Cobbs. Hehe...the famous shed...three cheers for Daniel!



Monday: Mom and I had gone to the Patterson's (friends from Georgia) house in York, Pennsylvania. Dad didn't come with us because he had to work. Catherine used to be my best friend when we were little before they moved, though I can't really remember it. But she's come to my house recently, and so we went and stayed at theirs. Monday, we went to...HERSHEY! Wherein, we went to...CHOCOLATE WORLD! Ideal place for the sweet-tooth Standages, right?







Oh, these I just HAVE to show!!! Only my friends would get this though, so just bear with me a sec...




Isn't it such a coincidence that they have hearts on the wrappers? Hehehe...STRAWBERRIES!

Tuesday: We went to Gettysburg! At this one area, there were a lot of rocks, and honeysuckles, so that's why all of us are climbing around on all those rocks. Man, Sister Patterson's youngest son, Joseph is so cute! He had this little camera, and it was digital and downloadable and everything! But he just walked around taking pictures! He called me Yoda, after I told him some of my nicknames. And at Gettysburg, he wanted to sit by me at the movie! John is WAY interested in History, and really liked this trip, even though he couldn't read the stuff. They keep the boys entertained in the car by listening to John Bytheway, which is TOTALLY AWESOME! I LOVE John Bytheway!












Wednesday: Mom and I were back in the hotel with Dad. We went and had lunch with one of my mom's old friends, Tamela and her daughter Katie.




Thursday: Annapolis, and the Pennsylvania-Dutch Amish Market. For lunch, we ate lunch at T.G.I. Fridays and I got this thing called the Endless lunch. AHHHH! SO GOOD! First, it was breadsticks, then soup, then salad! SO GOOD! I'm like, on a salad craze!!!!!!!!!!



Friday: Headed home. No pictures for this.

Sorry about the overload of pictures, but hey! I'm making up for all those pictureless, very long boring posts where I babbled on about books or roleplays or something.
While I was there, I read the first four (five are published) books in this series Alien's been raving about. They're awesome! They're called Maximum Ride. Sweetness!
Anyway, last night, with my friend Jessica, I watched Nacho Libre for the first time. Interesting experience...
Well, tomorrow I'm off for Girl's Camp, so I'll have something else interesting to put on the blog. Seeya then! Love ya!

The Last Week of School: A Look Back Through The Days

We had a pretty niftic (yes that's a word, discombobulated one!) last week of school with lots of fun stuff going on, so I thought it would nice to talk about them. I would have some pictures of what we did on Wednesday, because Alien sent me some she took. But...I lost them, and so I couldn't email them to Dad so I could get them from his laptop. Yes, Mom and I came to Maryland yesterday to see Dad for the last week he has to be here. We're still deciding what we'll do today. But anyway, back to school. It was Memorial Day on Monday, so there was no school. But here's what my friends and I did.

Tuesday: This was the day of the Mountain Ridge Got Talent Variety Show, so the classes were shortened. The schedule was a little whack because our A1 teachers needed to give us papers showing if we had any fees, but they had just barely fixed the machine, so I went to my A2 class, chorus. That was just basically a party. And the thing was, if you didn't bring food, you didn't get to eat. There was a LOT of food.
Then, we got to go to A1, which was science (I love my science teacher! I'm being a TA for her next year!) We made ice cream in a bag, which really ended up like creamy, milky soup with chocolate sauce and oreos. By then, I was stuffed and didn't want to eat lunch. Welp, I'm sure you can imagine how well that went.
A3 was boring, that's all I'll say...
A4, one of my favorite classes with one of the best teachers of all time, Creative Writing was last. We played games and had a couple snacks. Then, at the end of the day, we watched the show.

Wednesday: This day, the WHOLE ENTIRE SCHOOL (except for a few people) did a 5k! It was pretty cool because they closed roads for us. We even got sweet t-shirts! But like I said, sorry, no pics. At the end, I sprinted, and think I went faster than I ever had. That day, we had to stay in B1 until 10, and then after the 5k, until lunch. So the other classes were wackified. B2 was a half hour, B3 was an hour, and B4 was normal.

Thursday: This was the day we got our yearbooks, and spent the WHOLE DAY going to our classes and getting them signed. Pretty sweet, right? We went to all our A-Day classes one right after the other (classes were shortened), then I, since I have first lunch, went to lunch. But after that, the schedule was weird. You either have first or second lunch according to your 3rd period teacher, so next I went to B3, then B4, then B1, then B2. Weird, I know.

Friday: Well, this day was only an hour and a half. But we started off watching battle of the bands with the teachers (Man it was so cool to see Mr. Marsh and Mr. Meyers spazzing out!) I won't go into details, but I will say it was crazy...and awesome to see teachers all whack. Students started doing it too after a while, but then we had the choice of going outside. OUTSIDE!
Out there, we ran around, played tether ball, played volleyball, and eventually started throwing frisbees. Max was good, he was doing it with Coach Sheidi (I hope that's how you spell his name, but I actually never met him formally, because girls have Mrs. Bitton). Everyone kind of started coming inside, and the bell was to ring soon. By then, I had started hugging people. Man, I didn't realize that there were so many people who I didn't contact, but talked to at school that I was going to miss! It was all happily sad until Jessica and I realized we missed the bus. Mom had to get us.

So that's what I did on the last day of school. It's so hard when school first gets out, because all year you've wanted it to be over, and when it actually is, it hurts. I cried last year when I left elementary school. The year you have to go to a new school is hardest. I learned that. Mostly because some friends go to different schools. Woah, speaking of school, it's so weird to think that in only four or five years, we'll all be going to college! Man, the time goes by faster every year.
Well, at the end of this, I'll just say how much I am grateful for my friends. When you have a bunch of friends, it's easy to enjoy them, but also take them for granted at the same time. I have no idea what I would do without you guys! You're probably the funnest thing I have, and you always know how to cheer me up! I love you all!
Have a great summer!

"May" I Present Some Updates?

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. School's been extremely crazy, and only now is it starting to slow down. So here's some highlights from the month of May.

1: On May 5,the fifth and final book in the Percy Jackson and The Olympians Series, The Last Olympian came out, and I read it in one day (yes, it's that good!).

2: Kris Allen won American Idol (YES! Now we won't have a creepy David Cook wanna be as the 2009 idol!)

3: School ends on May 29!!!!!!!!!

4: I get my braces off on August 19!

5: I'm finally going to start reading some classical books this summer (I especially want to read Jane Austen books, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. That movie is the best!), since I don't have to rush through my fantasy reading anymore (though I am sure to still do that too, since I am finishing a trilogy and starting two more series at once, and one of those series is actually three seperate series! I'll have plenty of books to read!)

6: I had my piano recital yesterday, and I got two new piano books. One is music from the films based on the books by Jane Austen (such as Emma, Sense and Sensibilty, etc.). The other is songs from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I already had The Fellowship of the Ring, and we're going to get The Return of the King later.

7: I had a great lesson today in Young Womens on Prayer, and I got an awesome new quote: "Life is fragile, and, therefore should be handled with prayer." I will add that to my list of quotes.

8: On Friday, Daniel and Stephanie spent the night, so Michele stayed for dinner. I was being super Auntie by walking Heather outside our house and only holding onto her with one arm, while pushing Shelby on the tricycle. When I was no longer holding Heather, I made the mistake to get on the trike to see if I could still pedal it, being so much bigger. I found I could, but not before Shelby started pushing me. Whenever I tried to get off, she would say, "No, Laura, get on!" I even asked her if she wanted a turn, and she said no. Fun, fun.

9: A boy two of my guyfriends are friends with is moving out of their ward and into ours on Thursday. He came to our ward for church today, though. I already know him and talk to him some, so it should be fun, since he's in my class.

10: I am working on three stories with my friends right now. One is with my friend, Madison, that we started a long time ago. We take turns writing the chapters, and right now she is writing Chapter 14 while I anxiously await her reply. I had to write Chapter 13, so it just made sense for me to do something depressing, you know. It's killing me. Also, I am doing two stories with my friend Alien. One is a roleplay, which I have explained before. The only difference with this one is that we each had two characters. So we did both of our characters in one reply, so we would put stars or the word Meanwhile... to seperate their replies (we almost always do our characters all in first person). That story is getting amazing right now as well. It used to be called The Four Kids, because we couldn't think of a better name, but now it is Everchange Wars. I also started a story like the one I am doing with Madison with the same friend. It's based on a not so old roleplay we did and really liked called Animosity (We called it that, because all the characters were half animals, but banished to Earth. They were in two different groups and they hated each other because their leaders, which happened to be our main characters, were enemies. We were both part falcon, but my person was a Whitewing, and her character was a Blackwing. So the name fits two ways, because it sounds like animals, and the two groups hate each other at first...at first). A few of the characters and the plot are a little different though. I'm not quite done with chapter one yet, though.

Those are some highlights from this month. Have a good Memorial Day everyone!