My life lately🫧✨☀️

 Heyy wonderful people! Today I'm here to give you some highlights of the past few months, as well as give you a recap of two of my summer trips.

Highlights from May + June:

May 5th: Choir retreat at a high ropes place, where we did this giant rope swing (I didn't do it though bc I'm not a daredevil LOL) but still had lots of fun at

May 6th: I stayed home from school because I had a sore throat.

May 11th: debate tournament which I worked really hard for, but could not go because I had Pink eye :( very disappointing

May 24th: fun day at school ft. line dancing and an extra long lunch.

May 28th: Field trip into Boston ft. a documentary about sea life, the Holocaust Memorial, and lunch at Faneuil Hall, where I bought myself a chicken parm panini, and a cookie dough milkshake

May 29th-31st: weekend in New Hampshire ft. the best chicken salad sub ever, mini golf and laser tag

June 13th: Field day, where we did a bunch of fun relays, and a tug-of-war (I fell in the grass and did a sideways breakfall :) ) and then I just played Uno off to the side with some friends because my science teacher had Braille cards, then a barbecue lunch

May 14th: graduation!!!! Amazing day, + went home from school at like 10:45AM with my mom, then went out to lunch at an Italian restaurant

June 17th: I stayed home from school because of class field trip I wasn't going on

June 18th: Last day of school! Where we toured the high school

So firstI went to the Braille Challenge and after that went to summer camp at the Helen Diller Vacation Home (not sponsored) in New Jersey. I was out the house from the 21st to the 29th, and I'm about to describe those days 2 ya! 

Friday, June 21st

So the flight left at 11 in the morn, which meant we didn't have to get up early, that was really nice! Me, Mom, and my younger brother Daniel went to the airport and kinda chilled for a while. I got a glazed doughnut and an iced (decaf) coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. Problem was, once we got off the plane, navigated LAX to find a bathroom and then the shuttle stop, got an Uber and had the 20-minute drive to the USC hotel, which is where all the contestants and their families would be staying, it was almost 3:00pm Pacific (6:00PM EST) which meant I would be getting ready for bed, because we wanted to stay in our timezone as we would be leaving the next day. We got some pizza from a place nearby, then went back to the hotel for the opening reception, which was just all the contestants going onstage and having their names read out. I just stood and watched because I wasn't a contestant, but my brother was so he went up. i also had this enormous silver pompom and kept trying to braid it into my hair (with little success).

Saturday, June 22nd

I woke up at about 3:00AM (Pacific time) which is about 6:00AM Eastern Time which is when I usually wake up. So that let me sleep in for another 3 or 4 hours. My mom and brother also woke up then so I chatted to them a bit. The shuttles to the building the competition was taking place in started leaving at 7, but when we headed for the first one Daniel had forgotten his lanyard upstairs, so Mom went to go and get it. We missed the first shuttle, but got the second one about 10 minutes later. Dan met another boy who played some of the same Alexa games as he did, so they chatted for a while when we were sitting in the courtyard eating breakfast. I listened for a while then went off to talk to some of the people my age. I had two breakfast burritos and a can of lemonade. Then it was time for everyone to go up to their classrooms. I went with Dan to his level's classroom (He's in the Freshman level by the way, and I would be in JV if I was competing, see my post about the Braille Challenge from a while ago) then I went to Starbucks with Mom and got a caramel frappuccino! There was whipped cream on top and I wanted to suck it all out, so I took the straw out intending to suck the cream off the bottom, but it ended up spilling onto my skirt. Not my best moment" Then I went back to the courtyard and listened to Harry Potter. Mom fell asleep in my lap and I played with her hair for a bit until everybody came outside for lunch. I had chicken tenders and Texas toast and coleslaw (which I didn't eat because I don't like it) and some lemonade and water (in a BOX) and chatted with Daniel and my friends Miel and Salome who are my age.

After lunch I listened to some music while chatting to Mom and somebody started popping balloons which was kind of annoying and we were kind of worried people would hear it while they were testing but I don't think they did. Nothing really interesting happened the rest of the day, except for a lot of chatting with parents about stuff. We went to bed at like 4:00 because our plane was leaving at midnight and we needed to get some sleep.

Sunday, June 23rd

Our day started out on an airplane. I'm not sure I should count the start of the day as Pacific time or Eastern time, but I'm just going to go ahead and do Eastern because we have to switch back at some point. We went to the airport at around 9:30 pacific and had our flight to Atlanta leave at 11:48. It was about 4 hours long, and sometime during those 4 hours we switched to the Estern Time, so we arrived at what would be considered 7:00AM. It was kind of hard to fall asleep, I fell asleep a few times but for only about 15 mins each, and the flight felt longer then it was. 

After having breakfast we hung out for a while and I just listened to an audiobook, then we got on another plane ride to Philly. 

My dad and Grossmama (That's grandmother in German) met us there and I had lunch (A very juicy cheeseburger and some chips) and hit the road. Then my grandmother had some Lunch Bars with her so I ate one of those too despite it being half melted😂 

After we arrived at our destination Daniel and I did a bit of unpacking and changed into our swimsuits to go to the beach. This is where I'd be saying goodbye to Dad and Grossmama for the rest of the week :( (It was a great week though so it was worth it) then after a few hours at the beach we all showered and finished unpacking. For dinner there was tortellini with cheese and garlic bread and a salad and then cannoli for dessert, and I also drank some fruity iced tea which was good as well. 

Then we went outside to play a bunch of different games and go on the playground. I don't remember all of them but there was musical chairs, and a game of hot potato to introduce ourselves, and a relay where we stood in two lines and we each had a cup of water, and we had to get as much water into the buckets at the end of each line as possible. That one was my favorite! It was really messy, especially considering everybody had to pour water into the cup belonging to the person next to them. Our feet were all pretty wet by the end. Then it started to rain (right on cue) and we went inside to do a few more games including a donut-hole eating contest (You have to eat it as fast as you can without using your hands) and a contest where you had to put an oreo on your forehead and try to get it into your mouth. Mine fell on the floor in the first two seconds💩 then I got a new one and ate it.

Monday, June 24th

We started our day getting up at 8:30AM, nice and late! Then we had the getting out of bed struggle because apparently a lot of people still think 8:30 is wayyy too early. I got dressed and then went down to breakfast and had the best choc chip pancakes ever, with bacon and hash browns that were really crispy but still really good. All the boys were going to an amusement park then and the girls were staying at home and doing crafts and stuff. I also took some time with my roommates caroline and Mikayla cleaning the room because if you have the cleanest room, you get first shower, and the cleanest floor overall gets us Diller Duel Points (Basically when you split up into girls and boys teams and then do stuff to earn points, then at the end of the week, some of the losing team's counselors get ice bucketed in front of everyone which is honestly very funny to watch😂) and then went back downstairs. I spent some time making beaded keychains and bracelet and listening to the crazy sounds of others' beads falling on the floor. Then we went to a nearby bakery kinda place for lunch, where I got a grilled cheese sandwich and some fruit, and a doughnut! After that we went to the beach. For dinner there was sesame chicken and rice and after that we all went to the beach again for the Diller Olympics, we played a bunch of games, my favorite being the 3-legged race, I partnered with my friend Caroline and we had a lot of trouble walking on the sand because it was slippery and slidey, and we died laughing like 50 times and then we lost😂 I also enjoyed the sack race, although it's another one that I lost, I fell over on the way back LOL. After that we went back to the house and played Jeopardy! and had a lot of fun. 

Tuesday, June 25th

In the morning we went to an amusement park nearby called Wildwood. Before the dry rides opened we all went to the water park, I didn't go on any waterslides though, I just chilled in the lazy river and the pool, except chilled was maybe not the right word because the water was all warm. For lunch I had a turkey and cheese sandwich with mayo, a kiwi strawberry capri Sun, + Lay's and a cookie, then went on some dry rides including the musical express (Spinny tilty ride), Moby Dick (Going side to side) riptide (Free-fall / up-and-down ride which I am very glad is not a water ride), and a few others, including the carousel. I washed my hair that day because I got Chlorine in it, but couldn't really wash it thoroughly because I was the last to shower and then dinner was ready. For dinner was fish and chips and then we all went to an ice cream place for dessert, where I had mint chip ice cream and hot fudge sauce. Then we split up and the girls went to Hoys (Which is a beach store) and the arcade. At Hoy's I got a cute bracelet that I still have, a 100 grand bar, a Heath bar, a Twix, and some sour gummy worms. Then at the arcade I played skiball, which I wasn't very good at, but still got some tickets, which I used to buy a pack of Swedish Fish, and then I played the claw machines and got an assortment of cute little squishies. It was also someone's birthday so the whole camp got cupcakes and sang happy birthday to her when we got back.

Wednesday, June 26th

The first activity today was goalball which is a sport designed just for visually impaired players, and beep baseball, which is an adaptation of baseball, but the bases make noise so people know where they are. So we all went to a local park and played boys against girls. In my group, the girls won goalball and I don't remember about beep baseball. After we went back to the house and changed for water activities, we had water balloon fights and just ran around the playground spraying each other with squirt guns. It was fun and afterward I just sat down to warm up before lunch. Lunch was mini pizzas, and we ate outside, and it got super windy and everything went everywhere! I managed to hold on to my pizza but as soon as it was finished all of my trash flew away and i never saw it again :P in the afternoon we had beach time and some of my friends worked on a creation for the Diller Island (Sand castle competition) and made a turtle crusted with shells they named Sandy and they apparently got a lot of compliments on it, which I didn't witness sadly because I was taking a beach walk with some other people and chatting. The water was freeeeeezing though so I didn't really go in it. Then I almost ruined Sandy because I didn't watch where I was sitting down Somebody told me to watch out though. After dinner which was mac 'n cheese and the best steak in the world, the girls went to Ocean City while the boys went to the arcade like I'd done the night before. We just walked around on the boardwalk while people got fries and italian ice and things, while me and my friend Caroline were looking for a milkshake place. We found one, and I got a cookie dough milkshake and Caroline got a s'mores one. Then it started to get really cold and windy so everybody sat in this overhang that had benches and stuff. My milkshake was amazing!

Thursday, June 27th

This morning was another all-camp activity, instead of splitting up, and we were playing carnival games, + this big ol' inflatible bouncy house waterslide which I did not go on because I didn't like it the year before, then in the afternoon us girls went into the lake and I put my feet in but didn't really swim in it, I sat on the beach and chatted with Caroline. Also we were walking we were passing right by the lifeguard who happened to blow the whistle right that moment it was so loud and startled me so bad😂  there was also a playground and I swinged on the swings for a bit and they were really hot so I had to pull my shirt down to cover my legs but it was alright. 

We got pizza for dinner and went for soft serve ice cream for dessert (I got vanilla with brownie pieces) then had a scavenger hunt where basically we broke up into two groups and just walked around Avalon taking photos and seeing how many things we could check off. We never got to find out who won though🙁 We then got back together at a park because every Thursday they do a concert there apparently so we saw a cover band perform Abba songs and I did a lot of singing and dancing and let's just say my voice did not wake up on the right side of the bed the next morning (which is to say I was a little hoarse but that's ok) it was really fun. I was also carrying around a disposable water bottle that I got because I had a headache and then I forgot it at the park which is why it's good I didn't use my real one😂 Then all the girls decided to play hide-and-seek on our floor and that was fun too and a great end to the day 

Friday, June 28th

Last full day at camp. First things first we had breakfast then had the chance to pack and stuff, mostly I just sat around LOL —The boys were going to a store called Fudge Kitchen, the girls (like me!) would go later, and then one of the counselors put sparkly tinsel in my hair and then we went outside and played on the playground  until it was time to go to the yacht club. So we went there and went on a yacht ride which was super fun and some of the tinsel fell out of my hair but that's fine. After that we went inside and had chicken fingers and french fries (yacht club classic LOL) and I also had a coke while we listened to a guest read a poem about the importance of a sense of humor. Then the girls went to Fudge Kitchen and I bought a half pound of cookies and cream and a half pound of chocolate marshmallow. Then I bought Daniel a round pound of choc chip bc I forgot to give him money when he went. Once we got back the whole camp went to the beach and chilled and Daniel got a lot of sand in his hair and then dumped a bucket of seawater on his head to try and clean it😂  little brothers can be so weird😂 we got back to the house an hour later than usual at 5:00 and dinner was delayed til 6 so we could shower and change. So I showered and changed into my pjs because we had to pack the rest of our clothes, and then we had a dinner where I just had a cheeseburger and some fries. After dinner was the talent show, and my talent was with Caroline, guessing Taylor Swift songs, we'd practiced all week and I think I did really good, and so did Caroline!!! Then in the middle we just had a big impromptu dance party😂 after everyone's talents were done, the counselors announced all the camp awards, I got one for being the biggest Swiftie!!!! It is currently hanging on the fridge <33 then we went inside and me and the girls played hide-and-seek and stayed up late, it was super fun!

Saturday, June 29th

We all got up at 8:00 today instead of 8:30 and brought all our toiletries and things downstairs - and our suitcases had been brought there the night before so they were there. I had And for breakfast there was doughnuts and pop tarts and I got a chocolate doughnut! And then we all sat down and started watching The Greatest Showman while everyone got picked up. Very fun week :)

I went to another overnight camp as well, called Camp Exsighting Adventures (also not sponsored) but I'm going to recap that in a different way, in a list format, of just all the things I enjoyed about it. Here goes: 

Having all my best friends in my cabin 

Lying on the floor of the gymnasium bc why not

Facing my fears on the low ropes and walking all the way across it. 

Playing gaga ball and blob tag

Word-song association (Pick a word and then someone else tries to think of a song with that word in it)

Jamming out on the loud tambourines

Singing karaoke!!!!

Bracelet making

Only realizing at the end of the week that jewelry wire is superior to string

Tie-dyeing!!!!!!!

Counting how many times I bumped my head on the bunk above me (I got 7, a new record!)

Ice cream and caramel sauce🍨

Canoeing

Losing Connect Four but still having fun

The really nice coffee shop I stopped at on the way home

Messy burritos

Discovering the joy that is plain, untoasted bagels

I hope you enjoyed my recaps! What did you do this summer so far? Which method of recap did you enjoy more? Feel free to drop a comment down below!