Have you ever watched the TV show American Idol? At my school, we do something similar, called Athey Idol. It is a chance for students at our school to sing in front of parents, teachers and fellow classmates. There were 31 acts, and a couple of the songs included, “Photograph”, “Keep Your Head Up”, “Say, Say, Say”, and “Still Haven’t Found what I’m Looking For.” There were about 300 people in attendance. I sat with a few of my friends. My good friend Caden performed “Say, Say, Say” with his brother. They did a great job! A couple of my other friends also performed and they were really good singers. The audience voted for their favorite act. Even though there was only one winner, all of them deserved to win. If you ever have the chance to go, I would suggest attending, because you will have a great time! (If you’re wondering, Caden is the one with the hat in the picture below.)

This last weekend my dad and I went to Seattle for a soccer tournament. I was going to play two games, against Washington Premier and Issaquah Gunners. We drove up there on Friday, with my friend Hansi, who is on my team. When we got up there, we checked in to our room. Then we went to the shuffleboard court across the street. We played for about an hour with my friend Kyle, who also got up there early. Then, we had dinner at a Thai restaurant. It was delicious! The next morning I saw the rest of my teammates and we got prepared for our first game against Washington Premier. Our team played hard but unfortunately they won 1-0. After the game we went back and watched some soccer and chilled out in our rooms. Later, we had dinner the hotel and watched the USA-Mexico game. Mexico won 3-2 in overtime. After  the game we went up to our rooms and went to bed. The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel buffet. Then we got ready for our second game. The field was very muddy, since it had rained hard last night. Unfortunately, they won 1-0. After the game, me and my friend Kyle had lunch at the Tipsy Cow Burger Barn. The milkshakes and burgers there were awesome. Then my dad and I drove back to Portland to attend another soccer practice, this time for RTC. After the practice I was very tired after a long weekend of soccer.

Next on our Road Trip we visited Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone was the first national park in the country, established in 1872. Now, as you probably know it is in the state of Wyoming, but when it was established, Wyoming wasn’t even a state! Theodore Roosevelt was president the time when Yellowstone was named the first national park. At the North Entrance, near Gardener, where we stayed the night, there is an archway called the Roosevelt Arch, that honors Theodore Roosevelt and his accomplishments. Back to Yellowstone, in Lamar Valley, near Gardener, we saw lots of herds of bison, also called buffalo, grazing and roaming freely. We also saw pronghorn, a type of antelope. Did you know that pronghorn are the fastest animal in North America? Yellowstone is one of the coolest places on Earth.  

The next stop on our Road Trip was Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole is located in Wyoming, which was another new state for me. Wyoming is the least populated state in the U.S. Back to Jackson Hole, we stayed at the awesomest hotel ever, The Hotel Jackson! The first night in Jackson, we had dinner at Merry Piglets. I had some tasty tacos. Also that night, we visited Ripleys Believe It Or Not. If you didn’t already know, Ripleys is a place with weird, cool and disgusting stories and artifacts. For example Ethan and I stood next to a sculpture of the tallest man ever, we saw shrunken heads, (nasty) and ever the largest ball of wire in the world, along with lots of other things. The next day we had breakfast and went to just outside of Jackson to a place with tram rides and lots of other stuff. We went on the tram ride up to Rendezvous Peak at 10,410 feet of elevation. It was awesome in Jackson Hole!