Swim or Die

Swim or Die
            Mom and dad were on vacation in Alaska which meant that I had nothing to protect me from my older brothers and sisters.  This is the story of how I learned to swim.
            Joseph was visiting here at home and he told mom and dad that he’d take care of things if they wanted to go on a vacation.  So they did go on a vacation.  Which translated into Joshua was doomed!
            One summer day when my brothers were swimming, they decided to put floaties on me.  Floaties are flotation devices that are placed on the arms.  Then they threw me into the swimming pool.  Who would do that?  Why would they? 
            I think I just stood in the shallow end of the pool and floated and cried.  Unfortunately I knew that they were serious and that I had to learn to swim or die – well sink anyway.  I actually don’t think they would have let me die but things could have become very uncomfortable for me so I learned to swim.
Joshua Wilford 2007

My baseball story

My baseball story
It was only a couple of weeks ago when I got a major-league ball. (A; s game with the old man) I kept waiting for a ball to come my way. But no a ball came in the 1-2-3-4-5 wait a ball is coming ‘Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ITMOOVEDAWAYFROM ME!
Dang it!  My first baseball game that I actually liked and I didn’t get a ball yet.  The innings continued onward 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th.  Other people caught balls.  The ref actually gave balls to some people.  We were sitting up too high and too far away.  So the game ended and we had no ball so we were walking home a bit disappointed when we got to the B.A.R.T. station it was more crowded than ever.  Then a ball came rolling past us and landed on the B.A.R.T. tracks.  I was the only one stupid/brave enough to go and get it.  I was careful not to touch the electric rail….or any rail for that matter.  And that’s how I got my baseball.  P.S.  When we arrived at the parking lot we walked around for an hour looking for our car.  The lot was almost emptied out.  Dad thought our car had to be stolen when we learned that there were two parking lots.  Our car was in the other one.
THE END
Joshua 2006

Saddlebag

Saddlebag
This year I went up to Saddlebag twice. The first time was with mom, dad and Whitney. We took a boat up to the end of Saddlebag and then walked up to Steelhead lake. It was fun until Whitney decided to take off. She started walking really fast and left us. Mom was worried about Whitney. I didn’t worry about her and neither did dad cause it was easy to find the car – you just had to walk to the end of the Lake.
Well, we got back to the car and Whitney wasn’t there. We looked for Whitney for over 2 hours. I cried. Mom and I said a prayer. We were both very upset and worried. Mom and I reported her missing to the ranger station. Dad stayed up at the lake with a bunch of people and were searching for her. They found Whitney and all was well. It was a scary scary time for all of us.
The next time I went up to saddlebag was nicer cause we didn’t lose Whitney cause we didn’t take Whitney. Dad and I went fishing. The only fish I remember catching was a puny one. I had a good time there.
Joshua 2004

Antelope Island

This summer when I was on vacation with mom and dad and Amy, we went to Antelope Island. It was a very hot day. We started hiking up a hill when I noticed a bunch of sticky cobwebs. I didn't want to hike any farther because I really don't like spiders. Then I noticed one or two spiders. We kept walking. But then we couldn't walk any farther without running into their big sticky webs. Their webs were strung right across the trail where we were walking. A few times we didn't see their silk and walked right through it. The web was really tough and strong and made us feel icky when we ran into it. The strings were really really strong. Then we looked around and saw thousands and thousands of spiders - maybe millions and I'm not exaggerating. The spiders were called Orb Weaver spiders. Every now and then there is an outbreak of them and last summer was one of the biggest outbreaks anyone ever remembered. I didn't want to go back to the car. I didn't want to even move when I realized how many spiders there were and how they were all around us. Well, I was really glad to get out of there and back into the car because as we were walking back we started to realize how many spiders there were and we got really scared. Mom and dad and Amy started throwing rocks at the big huge spiders to see what the spiders would do when we hit them but our aim wasn't very good. When we got to the visitor's center, there were even orb weaver spiders outside of the windows there. We got a close up look at their stomachs because they were right on the outside of the window.

Joshua's 2003 Christmas story:

I learned, I like, I can

I learned to ride my bike and to swim. I like to jump on the trampoline with daddy and Aaron but Aaron isn’t here this year.

I like the tree house and Joseph built and Matthew.

I can read now. I am doing good in school and I am especially good at math and art.

Sometimes I go hiking with our family. We went on a really long hot one last summer. It was hard.