Our Final Mission - by Landry

Today my family went to the mission San Diego de Alcala. We needed something to do while we waited for our flight.

 

This mission was the first mission ever built out of all 21 missions.

The church was very big and it had a lot of gold.

This is an actual fort made by Native Americans.

By Landry

Mission San Diego - by Kennedy

Mission San Diego de Alcala was built in 1769.  It was also the first mission that ever existed in California.

Mission San Diego de Alcalas church was built with the mission. Mainly all missions have churches that are really colorful but I noticed that the San Diego mission was the opposite.

These seats where people would sit at meetings. The wood is more than 100 years old.

In the garden of the mission there are lots of plants including the cactus you see in the picture.

A Day in Tijuana - by Landry

Today, my family and friends went to go visit Tijuana, Mexico. I have crossed the border to other countries but never to Mexico.

 

We went to the candy store and got a whole bag full of candy.

 

This is the fence/wall that separates the US from Mexico, also known as the border.

 

Thousands of people cross the USA/Mexico border every day and we were some of those thousand people.

By Landry

Visiting TJ - by Kennedy

When we went on our trip to San Diego we desided to go to Tijuana, Mexico for a day. We drove near the border, then walked across the border with our passports.

We went with our friends Skyler and her dad Sloane. Tijuana is a pretty poor area but it is a pretty one as well.

The border of USA and Mexico already has a wall/fence with high security. Why does Donald Trump want to make a wall twice as tall?

We ate lunch in a little restaurant that had good burritos and a mechanical bull. Also, I ordered a non-alcoholic strawberry margarita. 

A Really Long Training Run - by Kennedy

 A week before the San Fransisco Marathon, Nat, Arushi, Landry, and I ran 10 miles on a dead trail.  It was a warm up for the big S.F. run.

We ran behind the selfie taker ( Venky ).  Venky was timing when to do the running and when to do the walk breaks.

We also ran with my mom's running team RUN365. RUN365 is a running group in the South Bay that trains for the San Francisco and Berkeley marathons.

After running we went to Dunkin' Donuts with Nat as her birthday present and reward for finishing the run.

It Begins With Me - by Kennedy

On a beautiful weekend we went on a walk with our mom from our house to Target.  I brought with me picker uppers and a bucket to pick up trash.

I love to help our community by picking up trash.  If no one wants to clean our community then our neighborhood will not look good and will make our Earth dirty.

A lot of the trash is in the areas where I normally see people who don't care. When we got to Target I emptied the bucket make it weigh less.

On our way there and back everyone was staring at me like I was weird. I don't care what people think about me because I am doing the right things for our community and country.

Climbing - by Landry

Today I went to my friend Natalie's birthday party. Natalie is on my soccer team along with Bridget, Christina, and Marina.

When we first got there I told myself I wasn't going to do the super high walls because I was scared a lot. Once I did it twice I got over the fear of the heights. 

By Landry

Olympic Trials in San Jose - by Landry

This years Olympics will be held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. For every sporting event in the Olympics there are trials. In the trials national teams are chosen.

There are 4 events for gymnastics: floor excersice, vault, uneven bars, and balance beam. 

The trials were for the women only and they were held at SAP arena in San Jose. There were a bunch of booths outside the arena and it was open to the public.

Gabby Douglas is my favorite gymnast. This is her on the balance beam.

A women made this sculpture out of sand and a lot of people took pictures of it. It took her three days.

By Landry 

US Olympic Trials - by Kennedy

Weeks before the Rio 2016 Olympics there was the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for the Women's Gymnasics in our hometown of San Jose. We went to see who gets picked for the U.S. Team.

We went to a booth that had real Olympic medals to take pictures with. 

The stars of the night were Gabby Douglas, a two time U.S. Olympian, and her partner and teammate, Simone Biles.

Both nights were crazily loud. Whether it was people clapping or screaming they were outrageously exited to find out who will make the Olympic team.

The team was Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and finally, Ally Raisman.

Holiday Weekend - by Landry

On Fourth of July weekend my family went to Santa Cruz for a 5k and a 10k. Kennedy and I ran the 5k and our dad ran the 10k.

Our race started at 7:15 the 10k started at 7:00. I think I started off to fast.

The race was three laps and the third lap was different than the rest. When I was coming around the first lap my mom told me that Kevin Durant had just signed with the Warriors.

The position that I was in very quiet because there was no one around me. I liked it because it made me go faster to catch up to the people in front of me.

There were a lot of people at the finish line. After the race there was a pancake breakfast.

Since the race was in Santa Cruz the Santa Cruz Warriors were the main sponsors.

After coming back home our cousins went swimming with us at our grandparent's pool. We all had our 4th of July bathing suits.

That night we went to our uncle's house. There we watched the fireworks and had a BBQ.

By Landry

4th of July Weekend - by Kennedy

On 4th of July weekend we did a 10 mile run in 

The Lexington Reservoir with Allyssa. When we were done we drove to Santa Cruz for the weekend.

We woke up on the 4 to to do the Firecracker 5k. There were many kids doing this run.

We ran 5 miles. It was a good competition.  The old man behind me was 77 years old and got 1st place in his age group.

At the end I raced a boy to the finish line to earn a 2nd place medal in my age group.

Since I medaled and tried to go fast my mom is supposed to give me thirty dollars.

At the end of the day we celebrated the holiday with our family and friends at David's house.