4 Wheels 4 Girls

At Spanish camp on Wednesday night (August 31), there was a really fun activity…

It was a game where you split into groups and you ran around finding counselors hiding under blankets. Then you asked the counselor yes-or-no questions in Spanish, like,”Do you have long hair?” or “Are you a man?” and you tried to figure out who they were. If they said yes, they signed a sheet that proved that you had found them. My group was Stella and Bella, and we were an awesome group. We were super fast and we were good at finding the hidden counselors. There was one counseslor at the end who was really hard to find named Alejandro, but we finally found him in the closet. Then we ran to Nelson, the one who was in charge of the game, and he told us that we had won first place! We were the fastest team! We exchanged a big round of high-fives with each other and Nelson, and then we sat and hung out with Vero until the other teams were finished. We had such a fun time playing… The Mystery Counselor Game!!! 😀

In the square with our new friend, Alana. Alana and Ana were on Dad's team for the mystery counselor game.

On the third day (August 31) of camp at El Lago Del Bosque, I decided to try the extreme challenge: get a super Español badge. *claps hands excitedly*

Super Español is this thing they do at camp where if you volunteer to wear the Super Español badge, you have to speak ONLY Spanish until dinner. (They give out the badges at lunch.) So I got a badge and tried to speak only Spanish all afternoon. It was REALLY hard. When I asked questions, I had to ask them in Spanish, and even when I was just playing with the other kids… I think you can guess the answer.

But… I survived! I spoke English a little bit, but for the most part I did fine. At dinner I turned in my badge and the counselors gave me a mardi-gras necklace in return. I’m glad I stepped up to the challenge, because it was actually fun! 😀

Every day at camp, we would have classes with a certain counselor. That’s where we actually learned the Spanish vocabulary and such.

My teacher was Vero, and I really liked her. The other kids in my group were Bella, Christian, and Logan. In our classes, we played games, did activities, and learned a lot! Vero was great at making things really fun for us, and yet almost every activity was educational. I actually liked learning Spanish in classes for once; I wish Spanish was as fun at school! 🙂

In class learning... spanish!

At El Lago Del Bosque, one of the classes I attended was a cooking class with a very nice counselor named Yamile.

For the first two days, my entire family was in the cooking class with me. There were about twelve people in the class altogether. On the first day, we made something called Arrolado de Papas, which was like a casserole from Argentina, where Yamile was from, full of potatoes, cheese, tomatoes, ham, eggs, and anything else you could find in your kitchen. Yamile said that the dish was good for using up leftovers. It was absolutely delicious, and knowing that my family, friends, and I had baked it made it taste all the better.

Chopping tomatoes for Arrolado de Papas

On the second day, we made a pastry called Pasta Frola, also from Argentina. It was made with mostly dough and strawberry jelly. I loved that, too. It tasted like some kind of tart.

On the third day, the only people in our family that were in the class were Stella and I. Dad, Jean, Ellie, and Ana picked another activity. So anyway, on the third day, we made another pastry or cake-ish thing, which I forget the name of. All I know is that it had lemon, cherries, and chocolate in it. Of course, this Argentinian dish was also extremely fabulous.

On the fourth and last day of cooking class, we made these little cheese balls from Argentina. They were basically just dough and two different kinds of cheese. They were simple, but phenomenal. Dad loved them so much that I shared some of mine with him.

I’m really glad I decided to sign up for cooking class. It was a great (and yummy!) experience!!!

On Monday, August 29th, we arrived at our week-long Spanish immersion camp.

It was at a place called El Lago del Bosque, and when we arrived, I felt like I was in a Spanish country. The activity center, offices, classrooms, cafeteria, and all the other buildings looked Spanish, and there was a great big courtyard with a fountain. Then we stepped inside the activity center to get checked in, and we went to a table with a counselor named Mariano. He was very friendly and welcoming, and I immediately felt better about the camp. I have to admit, I was a little bit nervous about speaking almost all Spanish for almost an entire week. So Mariano introduced himself, and then sent us over to Ana’s table, who was another counselor. She was very nice, too.

Stella at the plaza fountain

We picked out our Spanish names for the week from a list. Greta, my name, was on the list, so I picked that so I wouldn’t have to change my name. Dad’s Spanish name was Conrado, his Spanish name from high school, Jean’s was Juanita, Stella’s was Estela, Ellie’s was Ester, and Ana’s was Lucy.

Then we went over by a counselor named Alejandro, and there we picked our activities for the first two days. I picked Cooking and Jewelry. Then we went outside to make, decorate, and paint our name tags. We met lots more counselors, all of which were very, very nice. Then we played some games with the other kids and a few counselors, and I felt like I was really getting into the lifestyle there. It was actually extremely fun! 😀

I really enjoyed first coming to Spanish camp. There will be plenty of posts to follow, to find out more about it!!!

On Saturday, August 27th, we went to see the start of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota.

We found a photo of Lansing, IA at the visitor's center!

After the visitor center, we met up with our friends Amy and Emily and Amy’s sister, Chrissy. We all piled into the RV and drove eight miles to the headwaters, or start, of the Mississippi River. We went on a little walk to get there, and when I saw where the gigantic river begins, I was shocked. The water was like a foot deep!!! We all walked across the river and then we took a lot of group photos and we played around for a while. It was fun!

Crossing the mighty Mississippi at its very beginning

Jean and Aunt Janice crossing the Mississippi river

Then we decided to go back, but the kids wanted to keep walking on the river. So the adults walked on the path while us kids walked in the river. We met them at a bridge covered in gum, and they went back while we kept walking. Soon we realized that the water level was rising pretty quickly as we walked, so we headed back to the gum bridge. We decided to go back to the gum bridge and try to get out there ’cause we weren’t sure where else we could get out. So I got up onto the bridge, which was tricky since it was so far from the surface of the water, and then Stella and Ellie climbed up after watching me. Then I helped Ana up, and finally Emily, who was the hardest to help. When I was lifting her, I almost dropped her back into the river! But then luckily we all made it up safely.

Wading down the Mississippi river

We walked back to the gift shop and cafe, which were right next to the parking lot. It took us a good fifteen minutes to find the adults; it turned out they were looking for us too! Then we looked in the gift shop for a little bit and then left for Chrissy’s cabin. Whoo hoo!

We had a terrific time with everyone at the headwaters. I hope you had a good time reading this post!!! 😉

Our whole group (minus Chrissy!) crossing the very first bridge over the river

On Sunday August 21st, we drove to DeWitt, Iowa to go to our cousin Laura’s bridal shower.

It was a looooooong 3-hour drive, but we finally made it. The shower was at a cute little community center, and when we stepped in we made name tags and put our gifts on the table. Then we were served tea and lemonade and we sat down at one of the tables with our Aunt Mary, Laura’s mom, and a few other people. We chatted for a few minutes before we were served lunch. After we were finished eating, Laura opened her presents and we made a game out of it. We were each handed a bingo sheet, and we had to think of gifts that a bride would get at a shower. We wrote them down on our bingo sheets, and then we crossed items off when Laura opened them. If we got Bingo, we got a prize. If we didn’t… well, we didn’t. It was fun even though I didn’t win.

Then, unfortunately, the shower was over. We helped Laura load up her gifts in the car, and then we dropped them off at her house and we drove to Mary’s house. I enjoyed my cousin’s bridal shower!!! 😉

Yesterday, on August 18th, Uncle Mike called and invited us to go out on the river with him in their boat to go tubing.

We were all super excited. We got our swimsuits on, covered our bodies in sunscreen, (at least I did) and got all our stuff ready to go. Then, I decided to call my friend Alanna and invite her to come with us since she had never been tubing before. After much convincing, she finally said yes (she was terrified to do it) and we left the house to meet her down by the river.

When Alanna arrived, we got in the boat and rode to a quiet spot on the sandbar. We put up our chairs and hung out there for a while, playing in the water and relaxing on the beach. Alanna and I tried to find the lagoon to go swim in, but the path led to some BURNING hot sand that scorched our feet, so we turned around and went back. When we got back to the boat, Mike was attaching the tubes to the back of the boat. Yay! Alanna was still scared, so we decided that I would ride with Ellie the first time and she would watch. So that’s what we did. And you know what? She decided to do it!!! Ellie moved to Stella’s tube and she got on with me. We had such a great time! I wiped out twice, but it was still awesome. Alanna loved it, and she tubed with me for the rest of the day. When we took breaks at the beach, we always wanted to go tubing again!

Zipping down the Mississippi River

It was sad when we pulled in to the dock and had to stop tubing for the day. We had such an amazing day! I’m so glad Alanna got to come and share the fun with me! 😀

On Sunday, August 14th, our family went to watch the parade for Fish Days.

Waiting for candy to fall out of the sky at the Lansing Fish Days parade

We walked up to Main Street, where we would see all the floats go by. We were looking forward to seeing our cousin Kelly’s float for her hair and nails shop, and we looking forward to all the candy! Once the parade started, we got a bucket and started picking up all the candy that was thrown at us. We saw firetrucks, trackers, and other floats advertising businesses all over Lansing. When Kelly’s float drove by, Annie and Kristy, our cousins, threw extra candy for us. It was super cool!

The awesome Studio K float!

By the end of the parade, we had an overflowing bucket of candy. We shared it with all of our relatives there, and then we ate lunch and went to the Fish Days grounds. It was a great parade!!! 🙂

On Thursday, August 4th, we met our friends from Hood River, Lori and Sarah, to go inner-tubing with them on the Little Iowa River.

We met them at Lori’s sister’s house, and then Lori got in the camper with Jean and Dad while the four kids got in the pickup with Sarah. We drove to Decorah, the town where we would be tubing. We met everyone else at a picnic area. I was pleased to see that there were actually people around my age there. There was Gara, who was going to be a freshman in high school, and Miran and Chloe, who were going to be freshmen in college. Then there were Adam and Logan, who were going into seventh grade, and Keaton, who was going into eighth, like me. Lastly there was Summer, who was going to be a first grader. Then there were a bunch of adults, and that’s the people we went tubing with. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Gara had to go to choir practice, so she didn’t get to tube.

We ate lunch, and then we played a big game of Toilet Tag. It’s basically like freeze tag, except when you get frozen, you squat down like a toilet and wait for someone to “flush” you. After we were all exhausted and ready to tube, we took a group picture and then put our tubes in the water. It was freezing cold at first, but it was easy to get used to. At the beginning, the boys and Stel and I were at the front, but then I think she got bored with us and she drifted back to hang out with Lori and Sarah and everyone else. It was really fun, with all of us trying to flip each other over and whatnot. Then we came to our first set of rapids, and they were SUPER fun! Then we passed under our first bridge, and then we realized that everyone was so far behind that maybe we were supposed to get out there. We kinda waited for a minute, but then we finally saw them coming, so we continued down the river.

We came to a rope swing hanging high in a tree and lots of other kids were doing it, so Keaton, Logan, Adam, and I decided to try it too. It looked like a lot of fun! Summer and her dad, Greg, floated up by us while we were watching people on the swing, and Summer did it! She jumped into the water from the rope swing! Well, that just cinched he deal for me. I thought, if a six-year-old can do it, I can do it! So I did it; three times. It was great!

Then we decided to continue tubing, since everyone was way ahead of us by then. We hit some more great rapids, and, just as we were having a ton of fun, we had to get out! Aww, dang. We tugged our tubes out of the water and gave them to the adults, who went to return them while Lori stayed with the kids. We didn’t have much time to play in the water though, because all too soon the adults came back and we had to go. We said our goodbyes and then got in the RV and made our way back to Lansing. It was an amazingly fun day!!! 😀