Today, Friday August 10

By Jackson
August 10
Inverawe, Scotland

Today we went fishing and I helped catch a rainbow trout. The ones in the picture are now the ones I helped catch, they are the ones Molly helped catch. Mr Simon was dry fly fishing and it was cool to watch the fish come up to the surface, pop up and try to get the fly. First me, Dad and Molly went to one pond, then we went to another and then we went to another and everyone came.

There were some really feisty fish and I saw some jump out of the water and land. I also some some make a double splash.

We had a breakfast and I had two packs of Cocoa Pops! I had a huge brownie at lunch and ice cream at dinner. And I had a bunch of smoked salmon for lunch.

Learning about the Battle of Bannockburn, and the Mock Battle game -Aug 6

Learning about the Battle of Bannockburn, and the Mock Battle game.
By Jackson
8-6-18

Today I went to Stirling Castle and The Bannockburn Monument. When we went inside they did this whole thing that was 3D that was about the Battle of Bannockburn. We watched some videos that were about the whole war also. And then before the last video we did a mock battle and we renamed it the Battle of the M9 (the modern day road outside the monument) because In the battle, someone in the English side moved their horses over to what is now the M9 Highway. Then the Scottish side started moving some of their side over to attack the Calvary because they were very vulnerable except not to small swords.

Then the Queen of England moved over to where they had been fighting to where the Calvary had first moved. All the troops had been been killed in the virtual simulation. and then even more Scottish troops moved in and since they were attacking the Queen, a bunch of English troops moved over there. I had one of my guys over there trying to protect the Calvary and another one shooting at the guys with really long spears and with that troop, I hit a trap, so I lost half of my troop.
Slowly, the Queens troop dissolved away and the Queen died then the Scottish won.

Right before the Queen died, I sent one of my troops over to the King of Scotland, (Robert the Bruce, my 21st grandfather) but I went through the trap again and I lost a bunch more troops. But I couldn't tell exactly because the Queen died while they were still advancing but I don't think they made it because there were a bunch of troops guarding the King. When it ended, a bunch of projectors turned on and the Scottish flag was around all the walls and the guy in there that was helping us said "look up, see the flag?" And everyone knew what had just happened. The Scottish had won!

Then at the end, each "x" stood for each soilder that had died and the most were at what is now Highway M9. So that's why it was named the Battle of M9.

We were going to camp but we didn't make it before the game ended. Though my troops might have survived because when your shield turned dark and got an "X" over it it meant that they died and mine didn't have an "X" over it. But they might have all disappeared when the Queen of England died. But I can't remember if my troops survived or not. They all stopped fighting at the end.

Ok. Good bye. I'll see you later!


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Stirling Castle - Aug 6

Stirling Castle

By Jackson
August 6

Today I went to Stirling Castle. I got a picture with a statue of Robert the Bruce. I got a wooden cannon that shoots paper pellets from the gift shop. On the way home, I put it together in the car.

The most interesting thing about the castle was that I saw a cannon and the cannon balls it would fire.

I think I liked Glamis Castle better. It was bigger and there were more rooms and there were more interesting things that had happened. Although Glamis Castle didn't have a whole war that happened around it.

Bye bye.


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Sneezing Sheep - aug 5

By Jackson

I saw a sheep that sneezed several times. For a second I was like, "is that his heart beating? That's kind of weird." Then Mom came over and I said "what is that sheep doing?!" And she said "it's sneezing!"

And that is he sneezing sheep story.

Big Big Boat, part 1

By Jackson

Today we went on sail boat. When we got in we waited a little bit and then we started going and we went in between some giant rocks. And then after that, there was a wooden blue boat with three sails. We took pictures of it. Right after that a giant jet went about 60 feet right above our mast and it made a big vroom sound.

I was scared about getting on the net but then I got on it. And got on it again and again and again.

There were probably some fish under the boat the whole time.

Jelly

Dictated by Jackson:

Okay so, it starts out with trees are green and then the story begins. Today, at the beach, I saw people hunting for jellies… like jars of jelly… no, actually jelly fish! They were putting them on the rocks because they could sting people and it would hurt! Ouchie pazouchi! So I started looking for um jelly fish. And then we got a net and it got wet then we caught one jelly fish (just one) and then we did not quit! 

I was snorkeling and we were looking around and I saw a jar of jelly, no I got that wrong, jelly fish and another girl came over and saw it too and called her dad over and he threw it far away with a flipper. And then I went back over there when Dad and Molly got a net and we got the jar of raspberry jam, NOPE the jelly fish! So, we went over to the rocks to put the jelly there… the jar of jelly… no actually, the jelly fish. And then we went far far out and we caught six more jellies (not jars of jelly, actually jelly fish). And then we swam in the water and caught two more. And then I went back over and caught the last one which makes ten. TEN, can you believe it?!

Then we got in the water and jelly fish, that aren't made out of jelly that you eat, got itchy juice on sissy (Molly) and she was itchy, itchy, itchy, itchy, itchy. Then she got some vinegar and ointment to wipey, wipey, wipey it off. And then I got really big itchy itchies made from jelly juice, wait jelly FISH juice… YES! 

Capital letter —> capital letter

(I got wrecked) those are all in lower case

Capital letter

When I went to the rocks to go put the jelly fiiiish there, I met some boys. One kid had been putting all the jelly fish he got in a little pool of water. And one of the kids I met at the rocks put all those jelly fish onto the rocks. 

THE END

PS—Who's Shmeeme?

--

Leah-Elena Mycue
B.A. Psychology Candidate, 2019 | The University of Texas at Austin
Vice President of Membership | Texas for Expanding Opportunities
Research Assistant | Child Development in Context Lab
First-Year Interest Group Mentor | Texas Undergraduate Studies
512-820-9755 | le.mycue@gmail.com

Preparing for Paris 🇫🇷

As we're relaxing on the beaches and patios here in Ibiza, we've started talking about all the action-packed excitement of our next destination

So far, this is everyone's first pass at a list of things they most want to do:

Jackson
Go of the top of the Eiffel tower
Go to the war museum / (Ecole Militarie)
Go to the Arc du Triumph
Go to the place where everyone was executed during the Reign of Terror (Place du Concorde)
See the remains of the jail where everyone was kept and broken free from (Bastille)
See Napoleon's tomb

Molly
Find the duck pond, get the bread that the ducks like and feed the ducks
See the Eiffel Tower lit up at night
See the Eiffel Tower in the morning
Want to go to a cheese shop and see all the French cheeses

Leah Elena
Go to the Champs-Eysses
Go to the Louvre
Eat European sandwiches
Go to Luxembourg gardens
Eat escargot
See Sacre Coeur

Joe
Take whoever wants to go to the War museum
Go to the Notre Dame and be there for the Gregorian Chants
Return to the Café on the corner at Ile Saint Louis
Date night with mama
Walk around

Emily
All of the above
Show my kids the Paris that I love
Hang in the Parisian parks with my kids
Lunch in the Tuileries
Sainte Chapelle
Montmartre




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Movie quotes

By Jackson

Got a new one:

"And the air is getting thicker... and Leon's getting L A R G E R" -from the movie Airplane

(We watched a "best of Johnny from Airplane" video)

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Italian Postcards from Jackson

A collection of postcards from Jackson

Pointies for Jackson

Afternoon at the Forum and Colosseum

Jackson, mom and dad got to spend some time on our own on Thursday afternoon, exploring some Roman Ruins

Erculean

By Jackson

25 million years ago, the dinosaurs went extinct. A little over a million years after that, the ice age happened. Much later than that, technology was invented- and know it's everywhere. Haha!

Ok.

I liked seeing the plasters of the people by what was the water.

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Florence is kinda fun, kinda not fun...

From Jackson:

On June 21st, we went to Firenze or Florence, either one works. I saw The David by Michelangelo. For lunch, I had a croissant cut in half with ham and whitish-yellowish cheese. I liked it. After that we got gelatooooo and Lilly dumped hers on the floor and while dad was cleaning it up, Molly dumped hers on the floor. Lilly lost all of hers, Molly only lost a teensy, teensy, baby bit. I went to the bathroom twice to clean my hands. In the bathroom, there was a door that said "Privato" (phonetically—privatoooo) and I thought it meant bathroom because in our rental house there's a bathroom that says 'privato' on the door. And I opened it and there was just a bunch of cleaning supplies—pretty boring, really. Then I walked out of the bathroom.

After that, I went to go have dinner. I didn't really like it (Florence) because so many people were smoking and there was a bunch of smoke in the air from cigarettes and cars by themselves. Then, we went on the bridge with a bunch of stores on it. When I first went on it, I didn't even know we were on a bridge. I thought we were still on solid ground. On the bridge I got a blue leather bookmark. It was 3 euros and it says Firenze on it. The bridge was fun, the rest was meh. Except the gelato was still good.

Bye-bye. (shmeeme too)

Pointies

By Jackson

Hi Pointies. I found these on two doors! Pointies are awesome.
Bye bye for now.
I'll see you on the next page. Or the one after that.

Our Day in Siena

By Molly

In Siena, I got a fan that was purple and has flowers on it. At lunchtime, we had pizza and Jackson almost got it covered in pizza sauce and chipped some wood off. But it's okay. I opened it and closed it and fanned myself all around town. And then when we got home I pretended I was the best fan opener/closer and fan fanner in the whole wide world.



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The Abbey

By Jackson

On Saturday we went to an Abbey and we met a Monk named Joseph ("Yoseph") and he asked us if we wanted a tour around the Abbey.  He said to wait here for a few minutes and then he would come back.  When he came back,  I asked him why the statue of Saint Catherine had scabs in her hands.  He said it was a good question.  I didn't really understand the answer, but at least I got an answer! Then we went to go look at the cave where the first Monk who started the Abbey lived in for six years before they started building the Abbey where the Monks live now.   He said that two kids from Germany - his Goddaughter and another boy from Germany said that Jesus's wound was on the wrong side from his heart, it was on the right side.

Then we walked in the entrance and he showed us some frescos that told about the life of the Monk I told you about a few sentences ago that started it.  Then we went through the church part and they were getting ready for a wedding.  Then I saw what Brother Joseph was talking about. And then I saw that the wound was too low for it to get to his heart and it was on a rib.  Then we went back to the church part of the church area and we looked at where the choir sits and there were really cool painting things made out of carved wood.  And brother Joseph went to turn on the lights behind them.   And then all of a sudden Lilly started screaming, so dad took her outside. Then Joseph started talking about some things that I thought were pretty boring, but then Lilly came back in and it made it pretty exciting. Then we went to go look at some more frescos about the life of Saint Bernardo Tolomei, who started the Abbey, and the artist who painted most of them was pretty funny because he painted on one painting a donkey with two legs and said because he wasn't fully paid it's not fully painted.  And the monks said, "but the donkey only has two legs," and the painter said, "well, I see a bunch of donkeys around here with only two legs," and he meant the monks.  

After that, we went to go look at where they ate and they go in range of age, the youngest in the back and the older you get the closer to the front. There are six monks who are elected each year who sit at the very front under a picture, like everywhere.  Then I looked at a picture and asked mom what it was.  She thought it was David and Goliath. And then we took a few pictures. And then I asked brother Joseph what it was and he said the picture was David finishing off Goliath, and so mom was right.  After that, we went to go to the chickens.  And once we got down there brother Joseph started feedidng them grass and he said the chickens liked it because it was natural.  So we all fed the chickens grass and then we went in to see the chicks in a little coup thingy, but it was bigger than a coup.  There were a bunch of hens in there and a chick was stuck on the other side of the fence and I helped it back in.  And brother Joseph gave us some eggs and he told us to make sure none of the chickens saw them because the chickens would go crazy and if they saw some were missing they would start pacing back and forth at the end of the day.  After that, we went to go to the gift shop and on our way brother Joseph went to get some bag and a tissue so that they wouldn't crack, and he found 3 more, so we had six!  

When we got to the gift shop, I tried to look for something that was cool and that said the name of the Abbey.  In the end ,I found two medallions that I liked and Molly got a silver cross for 25 Euro.  The monks said I could have my medallions for free.  They were supposed to be 2 Euro, 1 Euro each.  And I got 4 post cards. And when we left we said bye and brother Joseph gave us his email and asked us if sometime we could email him. We said bye and went back up the hill.  Me and Molly and Lilly all got an ice cream cone that had really sweet vanilla and cherry.  Then we got in our car and went home.  The end. 

Throwing Tigie Through the Window

By Jackson

We were all through Tigie in and out of the upstairs window. We all took turns and then Lilly started to try to do it also. It was hard to get it then we did. It enough times it was easy. On the last throw, mom was making a video and I threw it through the window and Tigie hit her hand on the camera! Bullseye! And then he flipped up and over the couch, landing perfectly on the ground sitting up (like in the picture)

-Jackson

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 a

Jackson's first travel post

Jackson
Day 2
June 12 12:24p
London🇬🇧 ✈️

I thought 💭I wasn't ❌ going to sleep 😴... but I did 👍 for five 🖐hours 🤗.


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Excitement is Mounting

We've spent the day packing and finalizing details and running around.  Now, it's our last dinner at home for awhile and we are all taking turns naming some things we are most looking forward to...

To drive through the  Italian countryside in a couple days- Joe
Pompeii!! - Jackson
A slower pace - Emily
Riding on the biggest ferris wheel in the world! - Molly
Lots of family time - Emily
Paris and seeing the Eiffel Tower! - Molly
I'm excited for the museums in Rome, Paris and London - but not really art museums, just the other kind - Jackson
Italian wine - Joe (and Emily, too!)
Fishing in Scotland - Jackson (and Joe, too!)
Eating breakfast with a view of the ocean - Emily
Getting to show my children around Paris - Emily
Going to see Hurculaneum - Jackson
We think Lilly is excited about a TransAtlantic flight - (not really, though)
Getting the best ice cream made anywhere in the world (Gelato) in Italy and France! - Molly
To see what the kids find most exciting, interesting and surprising along the way - Emily
Pasta!! - Molly, Jackson and Lilly (who just jumped up and down with her hands in the air and yelled "pa-ta")
Dance parties  -Jackson
Seeing the cities at night on the plane and seeing the ocean at night on a plane -Jackson
Cooler temperatures all summer long -Emily

I'm curious about how big Pompeii is and how big the wall around it will be - Jackson
I'm curious about what the cars will look like in Italy - Jackson
I'm curious about France - Molly
Why is Jackson obsessed with gummy bears? - Joe
Why doesn't Molly like bananas? - Joe

I'm going to miss my friends - Jackson
I'm going to miss fluffy - Molly
I'm going to miss kitty - Jackson
I'm going to miss whiskers - Molly
I'm going to miss Lilly's highchair - Emily
I'm going to miss our cars and Cabo Bobs- Joe
I'm going to miss the toilet I trust - Jackson
I'm going to miss my bed - Jackson (and Emily!)
I'm going to miss NOVA - Jackson

I'm excited about postcards - Jackson
I'm excited about European gummy bears - Jackson
I'm excited about seeing the original Statue of Liberty in Paris - Molly
I'm excited to see and feed the ducks in Paris - Jackson and Molly
I'm excited to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower - Jackson
I'm excited to see where the real Queen and Princesses live in London - Molly
I'm excited to be on an island - Molly
I'm excited to go to the beach - Jackson
I'm excited to sing "Cake By the Ocean" while being by the ocean - Molly
I'm excited about getting Kinder Bueno bars out of vending machines in Paris - Emily
I'm excited to ride the new tube line in the London Underground that they installed in the past few years - Jackson
I'm excited to see the green rolling hills in Ireland - Joe
I'm excited to see Saint Andrews and Italian food - Joe
I'm excited to wake up and see the river Seine outside my window - Emily
I'm excited to watch the kids experience other cultures, towns and people and learn to have fun without toys and props - but to have adventures and create fun on their own - Emily

What would you add to the list?