Summer

Longer days dark shades 

Escapades in the sun's rays 

Saneness summer saves 

Wallet Chase

"Uh..Dad...your bike...Dad stop!!"

It was a hot Saturday morning and we had just gotten out of the rough forest canopy from a long fifteen mile ride through The Rusty Bike Trail and my sudden outburst stopped Dad in his tracks. Hitting his brakes, he turned to me.

"What's the matter?"

"Your bike bag is open!" 

With a quick jerk of his head, he scanned the open bag. 

"Is my wallet still in there?!" 

Rummaging through with his glove donned hand, he found no evidence of his brown leather wallet's presence. Exasperated, he began to turn his bike around.

"We have to find it." He said roughly, "It could be anywhere....it could be back up that gravel driveway.." I gulped...that was roughly the entire way back.

      Meilee began to slowly turn around and started to follow slowly behind. Sprinting to catch up with Dad, my gears clicked like mad and my legs began to burn once more. Meilee dawdled in the back and began to turn into nothing more than a tiny silhouette on the blacktop.

"Meilee come on! Get up here!" I yell, "We need to catch up to Dad!"

Turning back around, I sprinted once again to catch up with him. I could tell he was frustrated by Meilee's sense of urgency towards the situation. So I decided to sprint in by myself to allow him to stay with Meilee. 

      I dived in headfirst, out for blood and any clue of where the wallet had gone. I scouted the ground, checking every bush or tree that it could have happened to have fallen out at while holding my pace. Whirling in and out of obstacles and weaving my way around the trail, I began to climb a hill when I noticed an unfamiliar addition to the trail. Picking up the treasure, I quickly recognized it as one of Dads bike tools. Smiling, I held it out. 

"Hey I found one of your tools!" I said proudly, "Let's keep an eye out. If this fell here, your wallet's bound to be around nearby." 

      Handing the tool to him I, once again, began my hunt. After not even another two minutes up the trail, I found my theory to be correct. Laying open in the middle of the trail was none other than Dads wallet. I flipped it open to reveal his drivers license. 

"Your wallet! I found it! It was right here! I was right!"

Dad hurriedly caught up to me. Holding up the prize, I triumphantly handed the wallet to him. He skimmed through it to be sure of no missing items and when he was finished, his sweaty face showed a mixture of relief and satisfaction. 

"Good job, Avery." 

Beaming happily, I began to jump back on my bike to ride down with them. I was so giddy, I ran into a tree when Meilee and Dad were in front(and not watching)-no injuries(and even after that I was smiling). I was just glad that the wallet was found with everything inside intact and still there(and that it wasn't super far in the trail, regarding the fact that we were all entirely pooped after the ride). After the ride, we went to the beach and celebrated with ice cream from Dairy Queen. It was a good day. 

Recent Update

Hello guys! Sorry for being gone so long. School has been taking up most of my, er, somewhat of free time. I have been in cheerleading and track so far. Cheerleading in the early fall, and track this spring until late May.  Not to mention the fact that I was trying to test out of English freshman midterms and finals(which I successfully accomplished). Now I am starting high school in sophomore English. Yay! 

But anyway, I am planning on making a comeback on my blog. I have decided that I will be writing on here at LEAST once a week, whether it be a story from the past, recent happenings, family adventure retellings,  poems, and even just random thoughts. Once again, sorry for being off for so long. Stay tuned! 

P.S. My little sister, Meilee, will also be writing often as well. Read up on her story on the mountain bike trails we recently rode on right on her blog! Link here.

http://meileesworld.blogspot.com

Thanks! 

Paint Chip Pictures

These are two recently finished pictures that I have created, using paint chip samples. 

The Dead River Falls Adventure!

     Located two miles west of Marquette lies the Dead River falls, a series of falls and rapids that also include several dams on the Dead River above and below the stretch with the falls. With beautiful scenic views and the occasional thimbleberry bush along the way to the larger falls, what could be better? The only difficult obstacle was the....um..whole way there...? Let's just say that the trip to the larger falls was not your average walk in the park. Not only were there rocks, boulders, tree roots, and lots of trees in the way, but also slanted, steep mountain-like hills to climb up and down. But there were more than just climbs as obstacles; lots and lots of odd cuts needed to be made(for us at least, cuz we kinda started off on the wrong side of the river when we got to the falls)in order to make it to the falls. 

      But in the end, it was all worth it. With the beautiful scenery and a nice dip in the clean, refreshing water when we got to the falls, I was won over. On our way to the falls, we had to overcome several obstacles, and one of those obstacles was having to cross the river(like I said earlier, we accidentally started on the wrong side of the river). Finding a good spot to cross was not the easiest considering the fact that none of the rocks full-on led to the other side of the river and none of us were really up for getting wet in the river(except for lucky little Mei, who had water shoes on), but in the end, we ended up having to take the risk. While we were climbing the rocks, dad wanted a picture so Meilee and I both sat on a rock, so as I placed my hand on the rock, I felt something sharp, and as I looked down to inspect the odd sharp object, I flinched, thinking that the thing that the item used to be connected to was still connected to it and that the whole thing was there. 

      When I finally realized that it wasn't connected/alive, I picked it up. It was a crayfish claw!

Pretty cool, huh? :D

Anyway, when we finally made it to the falls we decided to take a break and we ended up taking a dip. Not only was the water quite refreshing, but we also had the chance to jump off the rocks near by the waterfall and dive in, which was a pretty great experience. On our way back, we hopped rocks to get back to the other side and picked(well, more like I picked)some thimbleberries.

      Anyways, it was a really awesome trail and being able to witness the beautiful falls as they cascade over the sharp jagged rock edges was truly an amazing sight to behold.

Make sure to check out Meilee's page!

http://meileesworld.blogspot.com