the hectic life of one teenage soul...

So, apart from my previous mention of the craziness of homework and drumline, which is plenty enough to keep one busy and not give them much relaxation time, as previously mentioned, I now have the privilege and responsibility of being on the JV girls soccer team! It has been fun, and we have been winning a lot (which is always fun), but it has rearranged my priorities dramatically. My priorities are now, in order: soccer, drumline, homework, other (ex. ortho) and then sleep. Sleep, I have realized the hard way, is a privilege that must be earned through hard work and not that much homework, and not the necessity I have always thought that it was. Although this has its negative outcomes, such as having to take power naps in class and being constantly tire, I have found that there is always a positive way of thinking that I could create. But now I am sleeping a lot as it is winter break! Ah, winter break, the very sensations that those words create and correlations that I have with the phrase makes me smile. I think you all are aware of the feelings that the winter holidays bring.
So far my entire family is here, with the exception of the beloved sister, aunt, and daughter, Lauren. This has created a once again full house, no longer a lonely and generally quite library that this house has become of late. It is joyous and I can't wait for our family to be complete and for Lauren to return once again to California. As I leaned back to review what I have written so far, a perfect example on how simple things can bring so much joy. From my vantage point in the library, I can just barely see the Christmas tree, but I could clearly hear my funny brother holding his son, Quentin and making funny noises while Quentin smiled and looked intently at the tree. He seems so intelligent, yet he is only five months old! We believe that he was born to follow in his grandfather and father's footsteps, that baby was born to go to MIT. Now they are playing on the piano, and I can almost see Quentin's delighted reaction to the music that he creates with his father when he hits a key, as he is fascinated with music, along with almost everything else in this world. He is the sort of baby, that is content with watching the earth go by, and simply observing, as long as his parents are there to translate is odd noises for him, he is set.
Well now I must leave you and go Christmas shopping! HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE <3

Caroline

Update

So apart from going to Boston to visit the cutest baby there ever was, life has been pretty dull. My whole life has consisted of drumline, food, homework, and a occasional hours of sleep that I can manage to have. We've had 2 shows, 3 football games and a fair so far, with yesterday being the first day off that I have had to do whatever I wanted. I of course went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with Lauren Kristin Tiffany and Maisy. (Lauren already left before this pic was taken)

After Lauren and my mom left, everyone else and I turned to face a different Six Flags. This Six Flags had creatures crawling around screaming people in scare zones and a very dark amusement park. We ventured off to some rides, with happy faces, but soon everything changed...

While my dad and I were having a great time, taking pics like these... and the ones down below...



Tiffany, Maisy, and Kristin were truly experiencing the fright fest, and Tiffany actually became famous for her screams by other, they were the entertainment of the night. (Who needs scary people when there are a couple teenage girls screaming because someone is walking towards them and cowering together and fleeing through the wrong part??) They experienced things that I wished I put on video, but one guy that especially terrorised was this one

The bottom guy was my second favorite, after that guy with the rings that I took a picture with. The guy was simply walking towards Kristin, Maisy and Tiffany and the screamed so much and were backing up out of the scare zone (on the wrong side) It took the combined forces of my dad, my camera, and me to get all three of them to the other side, they were so terrified. All in all they ended up happy and scared, too scared even to go through another scare zone to Batman (that ride and Scream were my two favorites). All in all it was excellent and we were exhausted and satisfied.

cast off, Lake Powell, fires

YAY MY CAST IS OFF!!! :D but I have to wear a splint for 3 more weeks because apparently i broke multiple bones, which my other doctor in Utah failed to see, but all is well.. My family recently got back from a mandatory evacuation from the dreaded and highly deadly "station fire". So we packed up in about 2 min after being woken up in the middle of the night, and started the short trek down to Orange County to chill with our Kinnosen cousins until the order was lifted and we got power back in our house...which we now have. Although it looks like the moon over here and it smells extremely strongly of barbecue. School would've started for me today D: but luckily it has been postponed....until tomorrow. But anyway I'm just glad that I get to say that school started in September and finishes two days early.

Anyway, for Lake Powell. Well I can honestly say it was wayy fun :) and that all those wiplash wipeouts i had innertubing was worth it (ahem ahem uncle mark cough cough). This is a pic of when I wiped out, you see the big splash behind jessamyn?? ya, that was me.
But of course, I wasnt the only one to fall, with no help from the submarining tub either..

A look at my charming cousins, they are not without fear either, especially because the longer you stay on, the more likely uncle Mark is to pull a flying stunt when you are pankacked or use his donught of doom or something truely terrifying (especially when you only have one arm)
Here is a grat view of my cast, oh ya, also Chase (phelpsy) who is
Marshall's friend was there
and heres a picture of Chase apout to be flattened by us O.o
And sometimes, Uncle Mark even tries to flip us....
But I think we survived that one
After a long day of hard work (and a very satisfied Uncle Mark) we all hang out on the upper deck, eating, talking, or playing dirty dora (the reason why Allie is cradling cards)

We also went slot canyon exploring, and we had to swim a long way into muck and bark that was an inch thick, and got permenantly into my cast....but this is as far as we could get our cameras
We also of course went wakeboarding, which unfornuatly I was not allowed to do due to the fact that I only had one arm. So I will only put up one or two pics. This one is when my dad wakeboarded, and the houseboat is in the backround (with some scenery)
Also this is Marshall getting really good air
Here is a good pancaking shot by the way Also, whitney and valerie enjoyed party hopping, which looks kinda like this

Another very exciting discovery in Lake powell was of the wildlife, such as the ring tailed cats (cauatis) and bold chipmunks

In case you were wondering about the chimpunk, yes, Marshall and Chase did get the chipmunk, but the chipmunk escaped with a marvelous feat of acrobatics through saran wrap.
All in all, Lake Powell was amazing, and I can't wait to go back

apen grove: moose stalking, moose sightings, and a moose attacking..

So I am now typing this by myself, having become a bit more used to my cast, which now is the colors neon yellow and neon green. Aspen grove was finished yesterday, and then we came straight to Lake Powell, which will mean that soon I will lose all reception. Aspen Grove was a hit, and a sweet one at that. While hiking mt. Timpanogos, (11,500 roughly) we saw a large quantity of wildlife, which included moose and mountain goats. The moose we saw in a little plateau on a cliff on our way up, and the moose was minding its own business eating ON THE TRAIL. So after we found the moose, and many pictures were taken, we started inching forward. But lo and behold, the moose was bound to find out sometime, and that happened when we were less than 5 feet from it. The moose then proceeded to start the charge hat was meant to kill or injure severely. Everyone in the group rapidly backed off and after a few moments of indecision, the moose backed off. We were then able to proceed hastily up the plateau.
+ - ~ ` =
This is finished after Lake Powell, but I will not include Lake Powell, but will wait until later, when the pictures are uploaded to proceed in that direction. Now, back to Mt. Timp....
When we were not that far from reaching the saddle, I was getting seriously discouraged and depressed, them, as I was half-heartily silently fighting my Dad to go back, my aunt Paula and my Dad combined to give me strength and to motivate me up. As we were at the saddle, all my energy boosts (my Dad claims that I came to terms with myself and it was all mental) kicked in, and I was in my element. As Paula was laboring from breath, and getting a little discouraged herself, I decided to give back some of that encouragement that helped my so well. When we got to the top, my Dad was slightly disturbed on how well I was feeling and how much energy I had, and proceeded to give me a lot of weight in my backpack. I then proceeded to half-run down the mountain, joking and laughing all the while.
Mt. Timp. wasn't the only thing that happened, Nick Porter also happened. He was an old kindergarten buddy of mine that moved away and after moving a few times, landed in El Paso, Texas. We reconnected and had a fun time. Valerie also got a lot of attention from a general audience of the male gender. The events that have happened as a result of that I will leave for Valerie's discretion on who to tell. All that I will say is that Aspen Grove was a great memorable experience, and the best Aspen Grove I remember!
I leave these tidings with the promise of Lake Powell shortly,

Caroline

the injuries of one soul

Nicole is typing this for reasons soon to be known:

First, I am in Utah. Second, I destroyed my wrist at soccer camp. And third, Nicole likes when I dictate to her... I recently got back from soccer camp at BYU which was way fun, and included some rocking dehydration, blisters (underneath toenails) and injuries. Whilst I was playing soccer, as a goalie, in a game called World Cup (brutal game, I tell you, brutal game) Norway shot a very good goal, and Cara is a center midfielder, so she has a very good kick. mwah haha I quickly went to stop the ball and while slapping away and SAVING THE GOAL, I snapped my wrist back and fractured it. I thought it was nothing, and kept on playing. But as time went on, and lunch came near, i realized it was becoming more painful instead of less painful. So I went to the trainers, and they wrapped me up and gave me some ice, and told me to go to the IPF trainers. After Lunch I went and they told me that they thought it was fractured.... Ok ok so they brought me to the hospital. and i had snapped my wrist in two.... Joyous day! Now I live in a blue cast which reads, "It's my birthday <3>

so for dehydration0-----

it was 90 degrees in the air so it was over 100 degrees on the turf we were playing outside on the turf... everyone was, like, really dehydrated, and we didn't have any subs, and since I didn't have enough "variety of fluids" i passed out on the field from dehydration. fun times..... lets just say I threw up a lot..... fun times again.....

ok well nicole is getting tired of this so she is attacking me/cilesslyr

babies, school, family

Hey everyone SO sorry that I haven't written since march, I can hardly believe that I haven't written for so long. A lot has happened since then, such as school being out and having a new nephew to add to the clan. School got out last month, and the reason why I haven't written since then is partly because I was waiting for Quentin to be born, and since then I haven't had a good excuse apart from the fact that I haven't gotten around to it.

My new nephew and Christopher/Megan's new son has been officially named Quentin John Palmer and was born on July 10, 2009. He was 7 pounds and 1 ounce, very healthy and happy. I will not suply pictures because I think that you should go to Christopher and Megan's blog because they will have more pictures than me by far (seeing as I have not met said Quentin yet).

A lot of family business has been going on, apart from the fact that there is a new soul in our family (that, I might add, has yet to have a threat to his life by my dad, who has been known to comment of eating children :) ), our mom is in Boston helping the kid and the family as in with tradition. Meanwhile, or fragment of the family in California has been partying and doing almost everything we couldn't do with mom in the home, including making cookie dough and eating the whole thing raw without making cookies, eating food she would never eat, watching movies she wouldn't watch with us, etc. The watching movies portion includes the fact that we're going as a 'family' to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, something that she would never do, partly because no matter what the time of day is, if there is Quittich, she is sleeping. Before she left though, there was a large number of birthday's in June, which included my mom and dad's, Lauren's (just look on her blog 2 posts old and you'll see), and Megan's. In the end of June, the Merill's (cousin's) came and wrecked the usual cousinly havoc, and before that, the Jacobson's came, which meant much screaming by the youngsters of a particularly mellow Hadley because they were stone frightened of her. A joke that I appreciated that Allie cracked a couple days ago when Samantha said that she had met a dog that was more mellow than Hadley was "whoa was it dead?" A true testament on what we think of our lovely lazy dog/bunny/seal/pig. Well I will write once more in July before I'm off for Utah!

Caroline

birthdays, drumline, babies...

Much to talk about, much to talk about!! Where do I begin?? Well, I did have m,y birthday in Feburary and it was a special occasion because 3 of my cousins that i NEVER get to see from Michigan were conveniently located in San Deigo with my grandparents at the time. So
I went with my parents, Samantha, The 3 cousins, and my grandparents to California Adventures (its right next to Disneyland and is an amusment park also). After much fun in the sun and bad times to go on water rides, we headed home. Now throughout this whole time (even a couple of blogs ago), my sister in law (sister really, she fits so perfectly with our family) has been pregnant. I didn't tell you earlier because I was sworn to sercrecy. But the word has already spread so I might as well continue it. Megan is now 6 months pregnant to a very active baby boy. Most call him Q, couple of my friends call him BBQ (beastly baby quentin). But the name descided is Quentin John Palmer. He is very active already, just like his father and loves to move. I look forward with a steadfast eagerness torwards my new to-be nephew. Now we land in march, the ify time between Spring and winter. March in traditionally not a month that I look forward to, the month i call dreary and long, because in boston its usually cloudy, the snow is gross, and it gets in a weird stage of weather. Also there are no school breaks AT ALL in March!! But this year was different, this year was the first year of high school drumline. So two weeks ago was my very first compition and we packed up la Canada and drove our way 7 hours to Union City, which is right next to San Fran. After our failed attempt to go skydiving 3 times, it was time for the show. We had warmed up, everything was looking up, we had had an excellent warm uip, and we were pumped up. So we ran on and set up, only to have the pit's sound system BREAK. So we trudged our way through pretty well all-things-considered. Example, the sound system wasn't working so our synth wasn't working, and so we should've just collapsed, but we pulled through. Anyway we got a bad score, but it still wasn't the worst! Afterwards we watched He's just not that Into You and watched YouTube forever. On Sunday we went to Alcatraz (I know, ur jelous) and I might get pictures up if I ever get around to it. After that we went the Fisherman's Warf and ate at Bubba Gump which was delicious. We finally headed home with a good experience to cover up the disapointment of the show. And then yesterday we went to Fontana (about 45 min to an hour away from La Canada) to go to our next show. This time we were determined not to screw up. Once again we had an exellent warm up and we pumped up but a bit more nervous. We went and preformed, with no malfunctioning of the sound system (to our great joy). We played amazingly and were satisfied with our playing and impatient to find out what we got. No one would tell us our score until the award cerimony to we all waited through the delays and everything, miracuasly keeping most of our hair in tact. Finally our coaches came to sit with us as the awards started and they looked mad and said that we should've done better, thus furthering our tension. As they called out the placements from bottom to top, we all held our breath and squeezed each others hands as placement after placement was called with their schools, and we were not there. Finally the fourth one was called, and the coaches were like, that should've been us and bla bla bla. Every1 was on the edge o their seat with adrenaline pumping and the want to scream. The judges paused for what seemed forever before anouncing 3rd place. They said that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place groups got such outragiously high scored that they were being places in the next highest level. They called third place, and by this time our coaches were starting to break with their facial expressions. We were not called. Our reps to recieve the awards were tapping their feet with impatience as the 3rd place people took what seemed like forever to get their trophie. They called out 2nd place, and they called out La Canada!! Everyone in drumliune immediatly stood up and were screaming and hugging we were so happy!! One of the reps had to actually retrain the other one because he tried to run up he was to esatic. Then, they called first place, and we had lost by 7 tenths of a point, thats .7 compared to the 3 point gap between 3rd and 2nd place. But we were so happy we did't care!! Well that's the climax of the story. I shall write sometime hopefully in this month, it all depends.
ps.
Read my brother's blog!!
It's really interesting

-Caroline