Monday, May 28, 2012

My Spring Orchestra Concert

Recently, I had a Spring Orchestra Concert and this was my second performance. We practiced every Saturday for 3 months and played the following pieces.
  •  Medieval Legend by Michael Story.
  • Three Pieces of Bach by J.S. Bach
    • Sarabande
    • Minuet
    • Rondo.
  • Adagio Cantabile  (from Pathetique Sonata) by Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Mozart Alleluia  by W.A. Mozart
  • Cellos Ole! by Richard Meyer
The Medieval Legend is very loud and gets everyone's attention. It was the first piece that we played. Can you here how loud it is? Next, we played 3 pieces by Bach. The first movement was quiet and slow. The second sounded like butterflies flying in nature. It was a light song. The third movement was also loud and fast like Medieval Legend. Then we played Mozart Alleluia.  It is similar to Minuet because it has  light bows and has a friendly melody. The final song was Cellos Ole, a song mainly for the cellos. The violins and violas play soft and quiet and but the cellos play very loud. The cellos had a fun time playing this piece. It has many dramatic moments.

 The concert was so long that my mom only had enough room to film the first 3 pieces.






 Which piece did you like best?

Sunday, May 20, 2012

My Spring Break

Over Spring Break, we went on a road trip in a recreational vehicle. Over our trip we drove a total of 2,000 miles and through 4 states, California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.  We started our trip in Southern California and then drove through Nevada, into Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. We continued north towards Utah, and stopped at Lake Powell located near the border of Arizona and Utah.  After spending a few hours at the lake, we continued into Utah and visited Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.  We then drove west to Nevada and crossed into Death Valley located in California.  From there, we continued west into central California where we made our final stop at the hot springs. After such a long trip, we were all happy to get home to Southern California.  

Here are the posts that Miriam and I wrote about our trip. If you click on the name, you can find out more information about each location.


Vote here for your favorite post! 



Have you ever been to any of these States or National Parks?

Which post was your favorite and why?


Thursday, May 10, 2012

Death Valley

The dunes
We left the high canyons of Bryce Canyon in Utah,  located at 7,000 feet in elevation, and drove down to the lowest point in North America, Death Valley in the Mohave desert in California. It is located 282 feet below sea level. Mrs. Yollis also went to Death Valley and shared her photos with us. We arrived late at night, and it took us 12 hours to get there. At night, it was extremely windy and we heard the wind howl outside. We were all snuggled in our sleeping bags trying to keep warm.

Palm tress growing in the desert




On average, Death Valley has the highest temperature in the word. July is the hottest month with an average temperature of 116 F. But the temperature on the ground gets even hotter. A ground temperature of 201 F was once recorded. Luckily, while we were there, it was only around 80F. Death Valley gets really hot because it is surrounded by steep mountain ranges that traps the heat inside the valley.  The tall mountains also keep the rain clouds from on the other side of the mountain, leaving death valley very dry.  Even though the desert is dry, there are a few spots with green palm trees grow.

In the morning, we quickly got dressed and hurried out. After we got outside, we noticed that we didn't bring our hats, and it was very hot outside. We didn't want to get burned, so we tied our shirts on our heads to make mini hats. My little sister looked like little red riding hood with her red hat shirt over her head.Even my dad and my mom put on shirt hats. All of us looked very funny in our hats.






On top of a Sand Dune
We then went outside and saw huge sand dunes. They were beautiful, dark yellow sand, and had small patches of green bushes in a few places. The sand was very fine and felt nice and warm. They looked very fun to climb and slide or run down. When we climbed our first sand dune, we rolled down. I got really dizzy sliding down one of the sand dunes, but it was still fun.  My little brother Michael and our driver, Victor, went to the highest sand dune, and my Mom, my little sister Hannah and I went the third highest dune. We were just too tired to follow Michael to the top.  

While standing on top of the sand dunes, we had a competition of who can jump the farthest down the hill. Victor won first place, I jumped second farthest and Michael was third. We had a great time there. When we came back in our car, we were so hot and tired that we wanted to go swimming. Victor had a great idea of going to the hot springs near Bishop, California. 


Climbing up






Rolling down
















Have you ever visited the desert? 
What interesting things did you see?