Snowboarding at Crystal Mountain

There aren't a lot of places to snowboard in Taiwan, and usually people Taiwanese people will go to Japan if they want to ski or snowboard.  In Washington, we have a lot of mountains.  If the weather is cold and snowy, you can sometimes ski after winter!

Yesterday, I went snowboarding with my friend Bryce.  It was a lot of fun, and I want to share this experience (經驗) with you!

The mountains where you can snowboard are very far from my house, so you have to drive for about two hours if you want to get to them.  On snowboarding days, I have to get up at 6 am so I can get to the mountain early enough.  If you wait too long, there will be long lines of people and you'll have to wait, so you can't be lazy!

This is Bryce's car.  During winter you need to have a strong car that can drive through lots of snow.  If you don't, then you will have to find a friend who has one!

If you park (停車) far away, you might not want to walk!  That's why cars will come to pick you up and let you out where you can buy tickets.

Ok, I bought my tickets and I'm ready to go.  Wait.  Who is that?

Let's get a closer look.

Sunday was Easter, so the Easter Bunny showed up and gave out chocolate!

My friend Bryce helped carry my snowboard while I was taking pictures.

We took a gondola (纜車) up to the top...

...but this is what we rode to get back up the mountain after snowboarding down:

It can be a little scary to ride on these, because they go up very high, and you are just hanging in the air!  Don't worry, after you do it a few times it isn't so scary anymore.  I hate high places, and even I'm ok with it.

It's been three years since I snowboarded.  How did I do?

Well, I did a lot of this:

...and a lot of this:

...and when I got too tired I did some of this too:

Boy, snowboarding is a lot of work!  

You can't give up just because you keep falling.  Just get back up and keep trying!

I still remember how to snowboard!  Yay!

While I was doing stuff like that, my friend Bryce was jumping billions of feet into the air:

He flew so high into the sky that he needed help coming back down.  We had to get a genie to wish him back to the ground.

At 2:00 pm I was so tired that I couldn't snowboard anymore, so we put our things in Bryce's truck and drove away.  

Snowboarding is a hard sport to learn, but if you work hard and try out new things, then you can have a lot of fun.  Bryce likes to call snowboarding "The Sport of Kings".  What do you guys think?  Does it look like an awesome sport?

Well, you DO get to look at nature:

If you love looking at trees, mountains, and snow, then snowboarding might be the sport for you!

One last thing.  Did you guys notice the orange jacket I wore over my black jacket?  

That's a "safety vest".  It's never a bad thing to be safe.  Sunlight bounces off the yellow parts and makes you easier to see.  If you get lost, or you fall into snow, people will be able to find you without spending too much time.  Remember-

-Safety first!

Welcome to my house (part 2)!

So last time we were about to walk into the backyard.  What are we waiting for?  Let's go!



Oh, look!  There's my brother playing with a friend's dog, Baby.  He's helping the friend take care of Baby.  Baby loves to play catch...she can even catch a ball it in her mouth!



The pond is next to my brother.  We keep a lot of goldfish in here.  The goldfish need to be careful though.  If they get too big and fat, they can't stay at the top of the water, or a bird will come down and try to eat it up!  That's why my mom put a net (網) on top of the pond.  I love sitting by the pond in the summer to read.



This is one of the fences we have on the side of our house.



Those doors go to the dining room, where we just came from.  That big flat thing made out of wood is called a 'deck'.  It's a place to sit and eat or talk outside during the summer.  We built a roof on top in case it rains.  On the bottom right, you can see a small garden of leafy vegetables.



This is the rest of the backyard.  That big house is "the garden house".  It's where friends and family stay and sleep if they are coming to see us.  Right now, my brother lives there.  I sleep somewhere else...you'll see later!  Oh, and you might be wondering about that really small house to the left.  Well, that's where we keep all of our tools.  It's called a 'toolshed'.



We won't go inside the garden house because it's a little messy.  My brother is kind of a Messy Missy.  Why don't we go back inside?



See all those pictures over our piano?  They are pictures of Mom and Dad's families.  Let's get a closer look:







Ah, the pictures on top of the piano show our family!  Some of these pictures are really old!  The one where I am wearing red clothing...that's my brother and I graduating from high school!



Ok, down the hallway.  What's on our right?





This is our bathroom.  Most houses that are the same size have two bathrooms.  My parents have a bathroom next to their bedroom, but we don't need to go in there.  Before the new bathroom we had a bathtub, but not anymore.  Actually, more and more houses in America DO NOT have bathtubs, because everyone takes showers now!




Those are the stairs up to our second floor, but don't worry about them.  Just turn left and walk straight...



...well, not straight into the door.  First, you have to open it.  Duh.



This is my mom's office.  This is where my room is...for now.  I don't think she wants me here for the whole two years.  I'm a bit of a Messy Missy myself, but I also don't have many things.  Back in Taiwan it was always hard to sleep because my neighborhood was SUPER NOISY.  Well, now I can sleep like a baby.

That means I can sleep really well, without waking up.  That's a good thing, because you love Tr. Stephen and you want him to sleep really well :p

Ok, let's go upstairs for the last part of the tour.



At night, you can hear our cat running up and down the stairs.  She's a big cat, so she makes a lot of noise.



This is our computer room, but it's pretty much my dad's office.  This is his computer...



...and this is where he practices the trumpet.  Oh, by the way, this is his trumpet.



He has a mirror so he can look at his mouth when he plays.  It's kind of like speaking English, you have to pay attention to what shapes your mouth makes.  That's why I always look like this when I speak:



Alright, let's take one last look from the 2nd floor windows.  First, front yard:



Then, back yard:





And this is where I live now, back home with my family.  I'm very happy but I also think of you guys often.  I hope you all are happy, healthy, and fantastic!

Hey guys! Welcome to my house (part 1)!

Hi TH 6!  Do you miss me?  I miss you too.  Now-

-wait.

Why are you walking away?

Hey.  HEY, I SEE YOU.  I SEE YOU!  COME BACK HERE!



Yeah, sit down.  You'll like this, I promise.

Everything is great here in Bellevue.  The weather is cool, but the air is fresh and clean.  The neighborhood is full of colorful flowers.  I get to see my family and friends every day, and I'm not very busy.  I don't start school until July, so right now I have A LOT of free time.

Today, I'm going to show you around my house.  Hope you enjoy it!



This is our house.  My dad, mom, brother, and I all live here.  Our neighborhood is called Newport Heights.  We usually have three cars out in front, but my mom and dad were away when I took this picture.

Here are some pictures of my mom's garden:

My mom's garden doesn't just have flowers...




See those two bushes without leaves in the middle?  Those are blueberry bushes.  She also grows a lot of fruits and vegetables for us to eat!

How about we go inside?

This is our living room.  If you look really carefully, you can see our cat Shadow sleeping on top of the sofa.  Here's a closer picture.

 

This is one of Shadow's favorite spots because she can look out the window and she what's happening.  What are you looking at Shadow?  Maybe she thinks I'm annoying...

Did you pay attention to anything else in our living room?  Something from a holiday?  Yep, you guessed it!

Easter is in two days, so my mom put up a bunch of decorations.  My brother and I are too old to do Easter egg hunts, but that's ok!  It still looks cool!

Let's walk through the living room...

...and to the kitchen!

Tr. Stephen says, "Turn to your right!"

Now, open the door.

Tr. Stephen didn't say, "Open the door."  AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What kinds of food can you see in our refrigerator?  Where do you think meat goes?  How about vegetables?  How much milk do we have?  How many eggs do we have?

If you look to your right, you can see our microwave (above) and stove (below).  We use these to cook food.  I like to use the microwave because I'm a little lazy.  Only a little, though.

On your left is our sink (where we wash dishes) and our dish washer.  I wash dishes all the time, it's one of the chores I like doing.

Our dining room is straight ahead.  In America, some families have a wall between their dining room and our kitchen.  In our house, the kitchen and dining room are right next to each other.  It's very convenient (方便).

What's that on the table?  It doesn't look like food.

It's a card game!  Not Magic, this one's called Netrunner.  It's about people who can go inside computers.  Crazy stuff, huh?  It's a new game my brother bought at the store.

Oh, look behind you.  There's a big door.

What's inside?  Don't worry, we're not playing "Tr. Says".  You can open it if you want...

Ah, this is our pantry.  Most houses in America have one.  The pantry is where you put your food that doesn't need to be cold.  This is where you will see bread, cereal, and food in cans.  Are there any foods you know about?  Are there any you have never seen before?

Looking to your left, you can see the door to our backyard.  

We will be going through these doors in Part 2.  I don't want to make these posts too long or they might be too boring to read.  Let me know if you like this post, if it's too short or too long, or if you want me to do something different.  You can also let me know if there's something about America that you want to learn about.  Maybe I can do a post about it.

If you have any questions, you can ask me in the comments below.

I hope you guys are doing ok in Tree House, and that you like Tr. David.  

Until Next time!