Over the summer I did a lot of traveling! My mom and I flew down from Massachusetts and moved all of our things in one day with the help of my uncle. We are currently living in a townhouse in Agoura Hills, CA. About 3 days after we settled in, I got to go visit my dad who lives up in Lancaster, and spent about 3 ½ weeks with him and my stepbrothers and sister. I also attended a 2-week math program at Stanford University and got to experience what college feels like. Then 2 days after I got home, we went on a road trip to Wyoming to visit my mom’s boyfriend’s (Wes) family. It was a 17-hour drive and on the car were Wes, my mom, my aunt Jasmine, and myself. We were there for about 1 ½ weeks and stayed at his dad’s’ cabin in Dubois, Wyoming. Two of my favorite experiences we had were going horseback riding and riding the ATV’s! After the 17-hour drive home, I realized that the next day I was going on another trip to Washington to go see my grandparents, but at least this one was only a 2-hour plane ride. I spent exactly one week with them and had a blast, as always! After returning home for the fourth time, I was done traveling, well at least for a while, but I still had an adventure to look forward to, SCHOOL! I was frightened and excited at the same time, but am still looking forward to it!

I started school September 1st at AEWright Middle School. It’s been 5 days since I started and I am liking it, as well as my teachers. The funny part is that all of my teachers are females. I think my favorite teacher so far would have to be my science teacher, Ms. Wessels. I made a lot of friends and I’m happy to be back ay school, but the work can get a little trying sometimes, it’s definately a lot more work than 6th grade!

For Second Winter Break, I went to California to visit my dad. No one but my dad and his girlfriend, Sulema, knew I was coming, not even my little brother or little sister. So when I arrived at the house, I waited outside while my dad and Sulema grabbed my stuff and my little brother’s cake, since it was his birthday, and went inside without my brother noticing. After I got the okay sign, I went up to the door, and rang the door bell. I could hear my dad telling Anthony (my little brother) to get the door because it might be one of his friends. When he opened the door and saw me, he stepped back as if he couldn’t believe his eyes, and all of a sudden you could barely see his eyes start to water, I could tell he was sooo happy to see me and I was happy to see him!!! That day he turned eight!! We didn’t tell him because in his we wanted it to be a surprise.

While I was there I also got to see my new baby brother, Dominic Bryant Saldana. I got to hold him for the first time; that was exciting. He was born on my dad’s birthday December 28th. He is a chubby baby with chubby cheeks, just like I was, but that makes them even cuter!

I had a blast with Sulema, my little sister Celeste, my new little brother Dominic, my other little brother Anthony, and of course my dad!! :)

At school I have a key pal, which is someone that works at either, Draper, MIT, or IBM. My key pal works at Draper, and sometimes I get to go visit her. She tells me about everything that has been going on at Draper. Also on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have computer lab, which is when I get to go on my email and email her.

My computer lab teacher set every 6th grader up with a school email so we could chat with our key pal.We are also writing a Biography for our them, about their life, and what growing up was like for them. It is so much fun! I was so excited that I got ahead of everyone, and finished writing the biography. ( It is 6 paragraphs long, 2 pages)

As I said before, in Mexico I went to the Teotihuacan pyramids which I thought were pretty cool. I climbed all the way to the top of each pyramid, and was always the first one up and down. My mom wanted me to choose 3 things I liked the most about the pyramids but I actually enjoyed the whole trip, I thought it was very interesting.

The “Pyramid of the Sun” was built between 100 A.D and 150 A.D. Then was rebuilt about 50 years later. The first time it was built it had a temple at the top which made it 249 feet tall and 738 feet across one side of the base. The Pyramid of the Sun is the third largest pyramid in the world. These pyramids were twenty five miles northeast of what is now Mexico City.

Here I am in front of the “Pyramid of the Sun.”

In this picture it shows me on the top of the “Pyramid of the Sun” before anyone else that was on the trip with me. When people get to the top of the pyramid they like to raise their hands to get solar energy from the sun, so here i am also doing that.

Another pyramid I got to see was the “Pyramid of the Moon”. This pyramid was built in the first century after Christ. Then it was also rebuilt about 50 years later. During the rebuild it was made to be the size it is today. Today this pyramid is 138 feet tall and 492 feet across one side of the base.

In this picture you can see the “Pyramid of the Sun” on the right and the “Pyramid of the Moon on the left.

The people of Teotihuacan believed in Gods and would sacrifice anybody, including children to get rain. Only priests were allowed to climb the steps of the pyramids for rituals and ceremonies. The Teotihuacan pyramids were abandoned around the year of 800, because they had very little water since it never rained.

For Christmas my family and I went to Colima, Mexico to see family members that we don’t’ often see. We were there for about 11 days. In those 11 days we did so many things, it felt as if we were there for a year. While I’m there my uncle lets me work in his shop and I get to be the cashier. On Christmas everyone went to my aunt Chayo’s house and we ate, and shot fireworks.

Below is a picture of my grandma and I on Christmas Day!

We also went to Mexico City to see my godparents, Claudia and Victor. They took us to see the pyramids; that was so much fun but then again very tiring since we had to climb all the way to the top of each pyramid and they are very tall. The tallest pyramid there had 261 steps. They also took us downtown to little shops where we saw dancers that would hang by their feet and swing around, that was cool! You can see them in the picture below.

Later this week, I will write more giving you more information about the pyramids.

For Halloween, I went to Washington because my moms boyfriend, Wes, graduated from the fire academy.  just happened to been on the weekend of Halloween. I got to see a lot of my family members that I don’t usually get to see. For example, my uncle Jessie came from California and Wes’s mom ,Dianne, came from Florida. I dressed up as a donkey and my aunt, Jasmine, was a hippy. I got to see all my friends from Cascade Ridge. Even though I keep in touch with them, It was nice to see their faces again.

On the plane ride down there, the plane was practically empty and the row we were in had no one but us there and the row behind us also had no one in it, so i went to the row behind us and laid down on all three seats, so my mom also had three seats to herself. It was the best plane ride we have ever been on.

This last weekened my mom’s friend (Xochilt) was in town. She had to go to a few meetings at her old college, Wellesley College, and needed someone to take care of her baby Sebastian, so my mom and I tagged along to watch him.

While Xochilt was in meetings, my mom and I went on a walking tour of the college. Xochilt gave us a map of Wellesley College and talked to us about all the places that would be nice to go to while she was in the meeting, so we did.

Some things I learned about Wellesley are the following: it’s an all-girls school, has very pretty architecture, is in a cute little town, and it is right next to a lake. While my mom, Sebastian, and I were walking around, we ran into the art center and museum. Since I am starting to get into art, I asked my mom if we could take a look inside. While I was looking around I saw three paintings that I thought I might be able to do, so I took a picture of them. I hope to be able to work on them soon.

Another place we went to in Wellesley was the shopping center. As we were walking past the stores, my mom spotted some really cool rain boots, so we went inside and they had so many different styles. When I found a style I liked we asked for my size, and of course it was a dream come true. They did have my size and it was a perfect fit. So my mom bought them for me and since she really liked them she asked if they had her size and of course they did, it was another perfect fit. But she wanted a different style, and now we both have awesome rainboots!

This past weekened my mom and I went with her friends to a house they rented in Western Massachusetts, near the Berkshires. We got to see some really cool fall colors, like this tree:

We got to go apple picking, it was so much fun! At the Hilltop Orchard there was a trampoline and when we were all done picking apples, we all got to jump on it!  

When we got to the house, we got to do several things, for example: play board games, kick the soccer ball around, got to see a cat eating its dinner (a live mouse). There was one board game that was really hard to solve, called: One Way. Here are Min, Iliana, and I trying to figure it out!

But the coolest thing I got to do was jump in a HUGE pile of leaves. Thanks to Cristie who not only jumped in with me but who also taught me this tradition! In this picture are me, Cristie, and Donovan.

My great great grandma died today in the morning. Since my mom knew i would start crying, i just recently found out and just like my mom thought i started crying and decided to write about her. My great great grandmother was the best in the world and for that i know she is going up with god who i knew will take good care of her and that she will become an angel, and will always be looking down at us. My great great grandmother died at the age of 103, which means she lived for a long time and in all those 103 years I bet she was happy just like I always saw her in a smile. Now before i stop writing this I just wanted to make sure my great great grandma knew that I love her with all my heart and she will always be with me in my heart. I LOVE YOU GREAT GREAT GRANDMA aka. Nina Chuy!!!!!

This last week I got to go to camp for three days and two nights. Everyone in this picture was in my cabin. The three things I enjoyed most about camp was that I got to dissect a turtle, build a bridge, and we also went on an night walk which was fun but at the same time a little scary since I’m scared of the dark. But my ultimate favorite thing about camp was the food, let me put it this way it’s better than you could ever imagine. We got a full meal everyday, first breakfeast, then lunch, then dinner, and last but not least dessert!! The thing I didn’t really like was that at sometimes the staff at Nature’s classroom got a little mean, and there were A LOT of rules, so it was a little like school. But other than that it was fun!!!!!