Summer 2003

Piano Recital, June

I've played piano for two years now, and I gave my second year-end recital in June.

I played Brahms' "Hungarian Dance," which I began practicing in April. It took a long time for me to get all the parts of it right, but I only made one small goof at the recital, so I thought I did pretty well.

I asked not to take piano lessons for the summer, though. I needed a break from all that hard work!

UW Summer Cay Camp, June-July

As soon as school ended I started three weeks of day camp at the University of Washington. It's the same camp I've gone to for four years (except the theme changes every session; this time it was food). Some of the same kids go every year like me, and so I have friends there. I had a really good time.

In science, I dissected a squid. In art we made shrinky-dinks. I didn't like creative writing so much, but drama was great. Our class put on a semi-rap version of "Hansel and Gretel." I played a wolf [right] plus a couple of very minor characters. Mr. Kelly [at left], our instructor for the past couple years, is totally awesome.

The Bos Family Visit, July

When we went sightseeing together, people thought we were three Dutch brothers (until I opened my mouth)!

Jan's sister Annemiek and her husband, Peter, and kids, Jolien, Sjoerd [far left, 12] and Stijn [middle, 10], arrived from Holland late in July. They stayed a few days before leaving in our R.V. to travel around the western U.S. for three weeks.

While they were here we had a lot of fun, even though we couldn't speak well to each other. We played basketball and GameCube, had water fights (it was really hot), and ate big family meals. They're beginning to learn some English in school, and I'm trying to learn a little Dutch from them.

Flag Football Camp, July

This Skyhawks camp was a blast. I really liked it. Each morning we practiced skills, and then every afternoon we scrimmaged. In one scrimmage we played I made five touchdowns! The weather was super hot that week, but we took lots of water breaks, and when the field sprinklers came on, we ran through them to cool down!

ID Tech Computer Camp, August

At the beginning of August I attended ID Tech Camp for a week of instruction in game creation. It was a really cool camp! It was held in the Mechanical Engineering building at the University of Washington, and for lunch we got to walk across the street to the HUB and buy Pagliacci pizza, then play football and other games. The rest of the time we worked on our programs. (Other groups of kids were learning C+ programming, robotics, and even video production.)

My instructors were great. J.V. [left] was really fun, and __ also helped me a lot. By the end of the camp I'd made my own Star Wars computer game, complete with music, a dynamic opening, and three levels of play!

The last couple weeks of August I had a really good time. First I went to Skyhawks basketball camp. It wasn't quite as fun as football camp, but I learned some good skills to help me next winter. The next week Jan's family returned from their western U.S. tour, and I stayed home and hung out with them until they left. The last week of summer I went to Idaho with Dad, Suzy, and Brennan, and we had a really great time. I didn't want to come home—especially not just to go back to school!

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