Sunday, April 24, 2016

The Goleys Go Camping!

It's spring break on Cape Cod- and everyone in my house knows that if it's not warm by spring break- we better get Mom somewhere warm! Recently, we bought a pop-up camper with my Mema. We love to camp, but sleeping on the ground and fitting my wheelchair in a tent gets hard. So, Mom said, "For spring break we drive south until it's at least 70 degrees!" A couple of days before we left, we looked at the weather and decided that Maryland was going to have good weather- warm and no rain! 
All packed up- ready to hit the road!
Dad looked online for a campground close to Washington DC- we ended up at Smallwood State Park. We parked in a nice spot and setup camp! The camp was right on the Potomac River and had a museum and a discovery center- it was pretty quiet while we were there.

Here we are, all set up!

It was really cozy...

We saw some cool things around our campground...
There were lots of trees nearby that had gotten knocked down by a storm- some had SUPER HUGE ROOTS!
Here is an osprey nest- it was super close to us on a pier in the water. It was really low to the water- not up high.
Hiking on The General's Walk hiking trail
Dad helping me hike
A GIANT Gypsy Moth nest
The playground had a really cool swing- just for me!
We visited an old fashioned farm
Haberdeventure- the house of Thomas Stone (he signed the declaration of independence)
We went to Mount Vernon, that is where George Washington lived. He was quite an amazing man! We toured his house and grounds...
I got to use a hammer to put a nail in this stump.
We saw a blacksmith making some horseshoes
Here I am outside of Mt. Vernon
Here is where George Washington is buried
Liam got a fife for his souvenir and we found a real fifer on our way out!
George, Martha and two of their kids
Slave memorial at Mt. Vernon
 We went into Washington DC one day too! We even got to take the Metro! We went to lots of Smithsonian Museums and the National Gallery of Art.

Sitting at the fountain in the National Gallery's Sculpture Garden

The water was so cold!

Wet toes
At the National Gallery of Art
 Our last morning at camp- ready to head home! Little did we know that it would take us 13 hours just to get to Rhode Island!

 Ready to go back to school tomorrow...



Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Our Table

Every night my family eats dinner together. We have lots of fun conversations at dinnertime, and I thought I would share them. We start our dinner with a thankfulness prayer, it goes like this:

Thank you for our warm house
For our friends and family,
For our food, we are thankful.

For Life
For Healing
For Joy
We are thankful.

After we say our prayer we share our high/low. High/Low is a game we play by each sharing the "high" of our day and the "low" of our day. The "high" is the best, or most fun, part of our day; and the "low" is the worst, or not fun, part of our day. My brother Liam always says that he has "No lows!" He is a really positive guy, and he seems to forget the bad stuff. I share my high/low by my family asking me about what I did that day at school, and then I tell them "yes" when they get to the thing I liked most. 

After that we each choose a card from our stack of Christmas cards that we get from our friends all over the US. At Christmas time we hang the cards around the doorway, but when it's time to take them down, we put them in a pile and choose three to talk about at dinner. My Mom and Dad tell us about the people in the picture, or who sent the card. Then we send them kind wishes.

Last summer we did a project every morning at breakfast and every night at dinner- we grew a Gratitude Garden! We cut out petals, leaves and stems. Then every day we wrote one thing that we were grateful for. At the end of the summer we had a garden on our wall!
Our Gratitude Garden
A few years ago we made a Thankfulness Turkey around Thanksgiving time. My mom is always looking for fun dinnertime things to do!
Thankfulness Turkey

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Winter in New England

I've been having lots of fun this winter. Not as much snow this year- but we still got to go skiing and sledding.
My instructors, my mom and me
Me with my Mom and her friends
I got some new skis for my wheelchair- not for going down the hill- but just over the packed snow.
 We did some sledding- I love to go fast down the hill!

Sledding!
My snowman
Over February break we went to Boston for two nights. Our hotel was right next to Paul Revere's house! It was really close to Mike's Pastries (which has the best cannoli ever!).

Mike's Pastries
Homework from my teacher (Thanks Ms. Tricia!)
Paul Revere's House
Outside Revere House on The Freedom Trail
We went to the Museum of Science and Legoland. 
Dad and I getting ready for the 4D show
In the butterfly garden- a really BIG moth
Addy and I looking at a giraffe heart
My mom and I getting our calories measured (see my chair on the screen?)
Laying on a bed of NAILS!
The first thing we got to do at Legoland was make our own mini-figures!
Dad helped me make a mini-figure
Playing with Legos
The red ninjago's name is Kai! I got a keychain for my backpack with him on it
The Legoland Giraffe


Then, on our last night we went to see the coolest show ever- The Blue Man Group!! We got to sit really close to the stage and had to wear a rain coat in case the paint splashed us. At the end there were four giant balls that bounced all over the audience and tons of toilet paper got thrown all over the audience!
Playing cool instruments before the show
Sporting my poncho for The Blue Man Group
Mom and I ready to get wet! (unfortunately we stayed dry)
The Blue Man
On our last morning we went to Faneuil Hall. We saw the Great Hall and the museum which had lots of old stuff. We had a snack at Quincy Market.

We also got to have a sleepover at our friend's house and went to the Discovery Museum near their house. 
Corey, Liz and I making a tower (I got to knock it down;-)
Packed in for the ride!
Our friends Corey and Alana

 My sister had her birthday party today at the ice skating rink. I love to go fast and spin around!  
Skating with my friend Hillevi

I love winter- but Mom hopes the snow is over!

Tri For Kai- 15 year old Edition

To celebrate me turning 15 we signed up to do a triathlon! Today I raced the triathlon as MYSELF. I have always raced in the past with Mom a...