8th grade - that's a wrap

Everyone gave a graduation speech.

Words the teachers used to describe Alia this year.

8th grade picnic at Lisabuela.

This year Alia had a forum project that she worked on the whole year.  She had to pick a research topic and answer a question.  At the end of the project she presented her research.  Her topic was: How is climate change affecting natural disasters?

8th grade end of year art project up for sale at the Vashon Center for the Arts.  Alia's is the top left.

Costa Rican Service Learning and Adventure Trip

 Alia spent 7 days in Costa Rica with her 8th grade class last week.  The trip was a combination of service learning and exploring Costa Rica.  I'm so happy she had this experience and was able to share it with a great group of friends and teachers.

After a long flight she stayed in a hotel in San Jose.

 

Here is lunch on her first day.  She said the pineapple juice was refreshing and delicious.  She loved the chicken and rice but said it was a meal she had every day there.  She didn't like the fried plantains or beans.

She saw a sloth!

She found leaf cutter ants for Avery.

She was able to stay with a host family in Turrialba for the week.  It was a great experience being a part of the small town and culture. She was able to learn more Spanish as her host family spoke very little English.  She said there wasn't any hot water and she had to take cold showers every day.  She also had to wash her clothes by hand and hang them up.  

Alia's host family- Milagro, Monserrath, Fancini, Marvin and Deiner.  

The group working on projects around the school.

She helped paint classrooms, work in the gardens, and fix things around the school.

Exploring the town of Turrialba and visiting a waterfall.

Visiting a local farm.  The food she ate was farm to table and fresh each day.  They helped to harvest crops like plantains and yucca plants.  Alia liked the big eared cows.

Alia didn't like the star apple.

They got to roast coffee, juice sugar cane and take Costa Rican cooking lessons.  

She bought local coffee since the beans from Costa Rica happen to be my favorite.  Every morning there was coffee served and they made it as a pour over.  She tried it but still thinks it's really bitter.

It's a simple way to make coffee the Costa Rican way.  You put ground coffee in the bag and pour hot water over it.  The coffee is more mild this way.  The wooden structure folds up nicely which will make it the perfect take along for backpacking.

She got to go ziplining through the canopy and whitewater rafting.

Giving a presentation in front of the school.

Getting ready to play soccer and host a Bingo night.  We all bought prizes for the Bingo night.  

Soccer is a much loved sport there and she said they lost miserably.

Learning a dance.

Visiting the tallest Volcano in Costa Rica.

Touring San Jose on what they thought was their last day.  They were supposed to fly through Mexico City but the day before their flight Mexico's volcano Popocatepetl decided to spew smoke and ash shutting the airport down.  They ended up staying an extra day in San Jose and rerouting through Houston.  

Spring Break- Las Vegas and The Grand Canyon

 This year we decided to fly into Vegas to do the next Meow Wolf and show the kids the Grand Canyon.  Our friends Sarah and Joe joined us on the trip and it was great to catch up and spend time with them.  

Moose traveled with us this time.

The first day in Vegas we were in search of a coffee machine called The Slayer to see if it lives up to it's $43,000 price tag.  Scott decided it did and said it was heavenly coffee.  The bakery/coffee shop that had it was called Mothership and they had great pastries too.

The walk from our hotel had fun sites along the way.  There's a giant praying mantis in the background.

The truck is doing yoga in front of a yoga studio.

For the first part of the trip we stayed at The Grand Hotel near Fremont Street.  Fremont is North of Las Vegas and the actual birthplace of the first casinos and neon signs.  The entire street, which is several blocks is covered and the night life was fun with many bands playing up and down the strip.  

The Grand had a nice pool too.  The only downside to any hotel in that area is the music is very loud at night which made it hard to sleep if you wanted to go to bed before 2 am.

Next stop was renting a car to see the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon.  We spent a few hours walking around the dam and then headed to the Grand Canyon.

As our luck would have it, the canyon was filled with fog.  This phenomenon happens about every 10 years, the last time was in November 2013.  It's called a total temperature inversion and happens when cold air at the bottom is trapped by warmer air at the top.  The canyon is directly behind Avery.

Same spot the next day.  As you can see there is snow on the ground.  We woke up to an inch or two of snow which is also rare this time of year.

It was very cold and windy with 70 mph gusts.  We did pack warmer clothes but not quite warm enough as we expected to hike and have some sun.  Most of the day we walked along paved trails on the South rim and took the bus to Hermit's rest.  I'm just glad the fog cleared and the kids were able to see the canyon.

We were happy to take the bus and warm up.

While we did have views, most of the day we raced the fog and clouds.  We did enjoy hot chocolate at Hermit's rest.

On the way home, we stopped in Chloride Arizona which is the oldest continuously inhabited mining town in the state.  It feels like a ghost town as there's only about 350 people that live there now. 

Looking good!  Moose wanted to be in the picture too.

Chloride is also home to a mural by Roy Purcell painted across the rocks up the canyon.  The road to get there was crazy but the kids thought it was worth it in the end.

On the way home we stopped at Ethel M Chocolates factory.

There was a nice cactus garden you could walk through.

Next stop crumbl cookies- today's flavors were carrot cake, chocolate chip, brownie and lemon.  They did a great job advertising on Tik Tok and Alia decided it was worth a stop to try them.  They were pretty good.  Chocolate chip and lemon were favorites.

When we returned to Vegas we decided to stay on the strip at The Venetian.  It is one of the luxury resorts on the strip with nice rooms and the restaurants and shops are all set up like Italian streets.

Our suite was nice and the hotel was fancy.

The entire Italian city had screens on the ceilings mimicking day and night.

Waiting for the Bellagio fountain to go off.  It was fun to watch and we noticed they move the jets around to change the choreography of the show from week to week.  

Fun view from across the fountain.

The ceiling in the entrance of the Bellagio has Dale Chihuly's stained glass. 

The Bellagio had the prettiest gardens.

We wanted to try one of the buffets in Vegas and decided on the one at The Bellagio.  There was so many different food choices for brunch and it didn't disappoint.

We got to celebrate Joe's birthday at The Yard house.  

The gardens at The Wynn were also beautiful.  

The Wynn had a Jeff Koons sculpture of Tulips.

Inside Caesar's Palace.  

We did an escape room in Caesar's called The Escape Game.  This is our favorite room so far and we were able to escape with 9 minutes to spare.  

Meow Wolf's Vegas location is called Mega Mart.  Like all Meow Wolf locations, it's an interactive art installation with a story line.  It appears to be a grocery store until you find the hidden passage ways.  We had to stop the evil corporation from taking over and ruining Seven Monolith Village.  

This is Seven Monolith Village.  You can get to the village through the tent that's in the grocery store.

One of the huts had another passageway back up to the corporate headquarters of the Mega Mart.  Over all, we liked this location too.  It was a totally different experience and the art and time frame represented Vegas more than the Santa Fe location. Our next stop will be the one in Denver.

Maia and Luna had a great time playing with friends while we were gone.