Celtic Night Performance

Well, it went super.  I had a great time and had fun.  Here is a video of me doing my dance.

Irish Dance

I have been taking Irish dance lessons for the past few years.  The group I dance with does a performance called Celtic Night in the Ellen Eccles Theater.  This year I will be preforming with other children.  I have gone to many practice sessions and tonight we had our dress rehearsal.  Friday and Saturday I will be preforming in front of a lot of people.  I am so excited and scared.

Horse Back Riding

I've been taking horse back riding lessons.  I go to a friend's house once a week to ride and be with the horses and take care of them.  I brush them and clean the corral.  It is fun for me because I love horses.  Then we go to the lesson.  I have my own lesson and I'm learning how to post and canter.  Below is a really old picture of me on a horse up in Montana.  The horse's name is Yeller.  It's not the horse I ride for lessons.  I will post recent pictures soon.

Ice Cream

I can't blog because I'm busy eating ice cream.

Starting Again

I have not written much in a while but I'm going to right now.  This is me in my cyclocross race in Victor, Idaho.  I got third place in the race, first place female.

At my Dad's blog, he writes haiku, so that's what I'm going to do.

At the start they go
Mostly mountain bikes racing
Your breathing is hard

I just went to Moab and had a lot of fun. I love the rock formations and the redness of it. I went on two hikes and a bike ride. The bike ride was at Klondike Bluffs at the north end of Arches National Park, and the hike was at the Moab West Rim trail, overlooking the Colorado River. I had lots of fun, and now here are lots of pictures.

Here are some cool rock formations.


Does this one look like a dinosaur?

Old Oak

I have a tree named Old Oak
Though my Mom says it's only 16
Moss and holes are on its limbs
Birds and their nests are in between

Gold Head Branch

I went to Gold Head Branch State Park. We hiked down to the steephead ravine and around Sheelar Lake. We saw many interesting plants like needle palm, lichens, and sundews. This is me sitting on a log over the stream.

This is a needle palm. They only live in ravines where it is warm and moist.

This is Sheelar Lake, one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever seen.


These are cool mushrooms on a log. They eat dead wood.


Dead logs are so full of life. This one has lichens. Lichens are fungus and green algae living together.

This beautiful forest creature is my mom in the saw palmettos.


Looking up from the bottom of the ravine.

These are sundews, living in the seeps on the edge of Sheelar lake. They eat insects that get stuck to their shiny leafs. Wet soils are low in nutrients, so they eat insects to stay healthy.

Payne's Prairie

I went to Payne's Prairie and saw many interesting animals. Like alligators, deer, egrets, and many other things. The alligators were sunning on the bank. On my way to the look out tower I saw two alligators asleep on the bank of the river with a deer right behind them! I do not think the deer noticed them, but it turned around and went away.

I also saw a very beautiful American egret. It's feathers look exactly like fur. Here is a picture.

Payne's Prairie is so much fun. Perhaps you can go there some time.

My River Trip

I have not posted to this blog in a long time. I've been busy. I went on a river rafting trip on the Green River in Desolation Canyon. It was really fun and there was a lot of rapids. We camped on the sand beaches and slept under the stars.


We saw some Native American rock art along the river. Really cool drawings.


My dad found a giant horse skull. We don't have a picture of it.

Hike

I went to a sled dog race in Montana. I got to look at and pet the dogs. It was a qualifying race for the Iditarod. It was fun to see them start the race. The dogs get excited.

More Florida Pictures

The best dog in the world.


This is salt marsh/palm island near Ozello.

West Indian Manatee

Here are some pictures of Missy, the manatee I met at Crystal River in Florida back in January. Manatees are an Endangered Species. She came right up to the boat and played with us like a kitten.

We cleaned her and she cleaned the boat. She had algae on her skin and so did the bottom of the boat.

Missy likes Crystal River in the winter because the air is cold and the spring water there is warm, much warmer than the ocean water. Manatees eat aquatic plants.

Did you know that Manatees have fingernails. They do. Their ancestors lived on land.

My Lake

Gray sandhill cranes are flying down
The sunset's color is sky-blue pink
The blue stem grass is golden brown
Our lake is colorful, don't you think?

The lake is blue, purple, and green
Lichens are orange, brown, and red
Sun dews are garnet (I don't know what that means)
Pine needles form my bed.

Last Sunday we went to Jonathan Dickinson State Park again to do a bike race with my Dad and his friends Jimbo and Kristen. We all raced and I am the girls 9 and under Florida State Cyclocross Champion. It was really fun and I won a medal. Here is a picture.

Is anyone out there asking, "What is Cyclocross?" Here is a video.

Wet Roots

We went to South Florida last week. Here are some pictures from my canoe trip at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Cypress trees are really cool. Because they need a way to get Oxygen to their roots which are always under water, they have "knees." Yes, plants need Oxygen for respiration just like animals.

Check out the "stain line" that shows how deep the water can get.


Red mangroves have "prop roots."

Hello Mr. Slider!
Here is a picture of me getting my roots wet at Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys.

This is my first blog post. I am in Florida and it is hot. You can't do this in Utah!


Last night my dad decided to burn down our house and yard. Actually, he was trying to only burn the brush pile. Here is a picture.

This was really fun. But, we went away to take my cousin home. My dad thought the fire was out. It was not. The next day our yard looked like this.
I really like ecology, birds, plants, and other animals. I like to study them. Here are some friends of mine. They are salmon that spawned and died. Their bodies provided food for other animals in the stream. That is what ecology is all about, interactions between living things and the environment.

Here are some more of my friends.

A few months ago, I went to Montana and saw a bighorn sheep.

I also like to ride my bicycle.

Thanks for reading. I will blog again soon.