Benjamin is Birthdayed

Benjamin is now 9! Sob sob. Born at 5:12 (that's a month before the day of his birthday!) on June 12th (see!). Yay!
For B's party he invited three friends (Quinn, Julia, and Jack) to this trampoline place, with HUGE trampoline courts where you can just jump, or bounce up walls, or play dodgeball (on a huge trampoline), or shoot at a basket, or bounce down a trampoline alley into a huge pit of soft foam.
Perfect for Benjamin. We only stayed an hour and a half, but that was plenty.
Then we came back to the house. Last year Mom and I had made this elaborate board game type thing in chalk on the driveway, with squares telling you to sing, or act something out, or pretend to be a gorilla, or move back or forward a certain amount of spaces, or imitate Benjamin, or go BACK to the gorilla square. This year Benjamin made one himself, and scrawled it on the driveway, but it rained! :(
Benjamin was crushed, but he and his friends kept themselves occupied back at the house.
The cats had a blast attacking party hats and flying around in wrapping paper.
That morning dad had made blueberry pancakes, which were had with blueberries, syrup, chocolate caramel hazelnut sauce, banana and whipped cream. Yuuuum. At least, yum until the cat knocks off the top of the container and starts EATING them.
Today we opened presents. Mom and Dad gave him a cool digital watch (and not one of those bulbous neon clunky ones) and a wallet. I gave him some cat sleepover tickets and a cool clear bubble umbrella. Benjamin also got some books, some gift cards, and then (dum dum duuuuuuuuum....)
A solar powered H2o remote controlled car.
It's like, this car, that's all cool with green and white and clear bubble windows, about the size of a small-ish book. You have to connect a bunch of wires and tubes and stuff to motors and things inside. And then (this totally geeks me out) it came with this whole gas station recharging thing! Like this cool elliptical cylinder thing with a clear curved plastic window with a little H2o logo on it and you can see the little chargy thingy inside it. And then (this is so totally awesome) it's attatched to this little green wire pump (kinda like you see at gas stations) that you PLUG INTO THE CAR in this little valve you attatch.
EPIC. Then you can hook a solar panel onto the recharger thing. Dad and Benjamin and I have been assembling that nearly all this evening (with breaks for cake and phone calls).
YAAAY BENJAMIN!!!
Finally, In honor of the birth of my brother, I compiled some pictures of my little Benjamin....

(Do you guys remember this from my Bat Mitzvah :) ?)

Okay, can't wait to post this tomorrow! Wish Benjamin a happy birthday! He says his plan for being nine is to be happy. Huzzah to that Benj!

~Julia

My Scheeeedule

I have a fairly busy schedule this summer.
Relative to a fairly un-busy summer.
It seems fair that I should have that up here so we can all work out plans and stuff. I'm actually planning to start a separate tab for my calendar year long - as things pop up I'll add them, in chronological order of course. So, I might as well start with the summer. Although I DO know events in the fall and school and stuff, I won't add those until August.
So here it is:

Benjamin's Birthday Party June 10 (Yesterday) Yay. Benj has three friends coming over Quinn, Jack (Lena's younger brother), and Julia. We are going to this TRAMPOLINE HOUSE. It's like, this HUGE building with this room built of trampolines, and some are all tilted and stuff. I'm writing this in advance, so that I can't give anything away (I actually started this post Sunday - oops!) and I'll have an official post on Benjamin's actual birthday.
Paideia camp June 11-June 22 (Starting today) :) This is a little summer thing at Paideia school that my brother and I have attended for... four years now? This is my second year at the Junior High center, which comes in two week sessions rather than three like B's.
Benjamin's Birthday June 12 (Tomorrow) I finally have a present! I do really creative cards, but it takes me forever to get a good present. Benjamin is turning 9. Go summery birthdays!Dahlonega June 15-17 (Next weekend) Dahlonega is this place in Northern Georgia. It was my grandparents' 50th anniversary yesterday, so we are meeting them there for the weekend. We might also be going to Costa Rica with them this winter as an anniversary thing, but so far that's just an idea.
Colorado June 30-July 5 Borthwick cousin reunion in Colorado! I've never been. Apparently you can ski there a lot. I don't think any of us are planning to sky. However, we're probably going to do this thing where you like slide down a mountain on some tube.
Carlos glass camp July 9-July 20 With Emma! Yay! Two weeks per a session. The first week is studying glass. The second week is making it! Benjamin is at Redwall for at least one of these two weeks.
Benjamin starts school August 6 Both Morningside and Inman start that monday. It IS a monday this year. I can't wait to get school supplies!I start school August 13 (A week after Inman) Still can't wait to get school supplies! I've been typing up my French notes and taking notes on 8th grade science brainPOPs.


This is all for now! Check for updates/edits in my new calendar tab!
~Julia


P.S. Okay, so I meant to post it yesterday and do a b-day post for Benjamin today, but I forgot to post this yesterday, and I ran out of time to write the b-day post today. Sorry!

Mugging Monkeys

Startling development on the Indian sub-continent:
People are being mugged.
By monkeys.

These monkeys are SO EVOLVED - or rather SO ADAPTED to human behavior and environment, that they have learned to rob innocent shoppers in roving gangs.
These aren't just random monkeys hanging out and begging for food. These monkeys are ORGANIZED. They can smell which bag has the freshest bread, which cart has the ripest fruit, which tub has the organic vegetables. If you give them the lesser loaf, apple, or radish, they will bite you (would a monkey want a radish? I honestly have no idea)

These monkeys rove in gangs, taking over huge proportions of cities. There are signs everywhere: DO NOT FEED THE MONKEYS!!! But people still voluntarily feed them. You see, it's a Hindu tradition, apparently, to feed monkeys on Tuesdays and Thursdays to honor a monkey god. It's cruel to force Hindus to stop their religious practices - but their religious practices are resulting in monkeys mugging people!

And the monkeys aren't just randomly ganging up on people either. If they know you buy a lot of food, they will camp out on your lawn. These monkeys mean business - and if pressing their faces against your windows 24/7 is what it takes, then they will do it.
It's very hard to go to work, or school, or even just the park if you are under siege by monkeys.

You have to rent a monkey to pee on your door so the smaller monkeys will go away.

I have no idea how much these Rental Monkeys cost. I tried looking it up and I got a bunch of commercial monkey BUYING sites. If you find a genuine price range for Rent-a-Monkey - specifically for peeing in your house and yard in India -  let me know and I'll update this. (Giving you credit, of course)

The next thing you know, they'll just sell bottled monkey fluids with little pumps that you apply yourself. Like a vaccuum or a washing machine. A chore. "Danny, go spray the monkey pee!" I mean, ew. What sort of a job is that? Or people come around in a garbage truck to do it on the curbs of sidewalks? As a public service? Oh, better go cover up the mailbox, wednesday is monkey pee day!

That is just bizarre.

Anyways, this is like a HUGE problem in India now.  Honestly, I didn't even know there WERE monkeys in India.

On one woman's blog, she said that when in India, a monkey flew out of no where, screamed, and nearly pushed her off a balcony.

If you don't believe me, watch this video!

~Julia

Take Nothing but Pictures

Impressive rock formations! This is the lake to where we hiked upon our arrival.

Granite. Lot's of Granite.

This is called El Capitan. (Ca-pee-TAN). Expert climbers rope their ways to the top. 

                                            This is the outside area of Fort Nobear. Pretty cool.

Us in my bunk.

Tree hugger! :) We are one with nature... somewhat.

Squirrel!

River/mini-fall! 

The surprising and yet convenient water fountain/sink thing.

PRETTY RAINBOW YAY.

Somewhere under the rainbow....

The dreaded Mist Trail. Dum dum DUUUUUM.

Behold the glory of Vernal Falls. It was rather scary, but less scary than clinging next to i

             Benjamin next to the waterfall. FINALLY a railing! Bottom of the falls shown to the right. 

Pretty view. That little lump on the granite is Half Dome.  

Triumph! Now it is time to head back doooooooown.

Winding down with marshmallows. Tasty.

All geared up for hiking the next day.

My agony in the pebbly gulch.  Notice the stepping stones that were like 5 inches underwater and thus COMPLETELY USELESS.

B's chariot.

Beautiful reflect-y lake. Photography by Dad.

Marmot

Mom on her perch.

At the top! *pant pant*

Benjamin sunbathes as he recharges.

The Amazing View. Yaaaaay.

Mom and B tromp valiantly through snow and ice on the way back down.

Benj and I are now tough, seasoned hikers. Huzzah!

Benj and I are actually completely exhausted.

 That's all for now!

I haven't downloaded B's pictures yet from his camera, so I might add one or two pictures this week. Hope you enjoyed the pictures! I have a lot of other pictures from california, but I will save that for another post.

See yooooooou.

~Julia