POST by RAF: Hello Hula Hips!

Raf with his Hoop

One night my dad, Elizabeth and Alex were watching a movie and I was on my own computer, I was playing club penguin. “I will show you the game at the bottom when I finish” I said to my dad. Anyway, after my dad and everybody else were finished with that movie, I had to go to bed. Then my dad came up to say goodnight and he went out, but I said wait “can you leave the door open” and my dad said “no” and walked on. “Every time I ask him all the time he always says no.”

Chloe

The next day I saw a jump rope and a hula-hoop, I did not know who it was for so I just went downstairs, but after three seconds I run back upstairs to get it. So I opened the bag and got the jump rope and I jumped for like 3 minutes and then ran back upstairs to get the hula-hoop. 

I hula hooped for like 5 minutes. The hula-hoop I liked the most. I will show you a video at the end to show you witch one I like the most.

Then my dad got out of bed so I rushed upstairs with the jump rope and put the jump rope in its own place, then rushed downtairs to hide the hula-hoop. “I did that because I liked the hula-hoop more than the jump rope”. 

When my dad came down stairs he saw the hula-hoop and he said “ho ho ho ho now how did you open that? I can’t even open that?” and I said “are you saying that that hula-hoop is mine?” and he said “yap”.

 So everyday my dad would test me and my high score is 121 hulas. I think Chloe can do a trick with my hula-hoop too. Bye!

To learn more about Raffy, please visit our page, Our People 

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POST by RAF: Precious Pooches

Raffy with Rupert's dog collar

Hello today I’m going to tell you some things about the dogs Rupert and Chloe.

Chloe, the Labradoodle (3/4 Poodle, 1/4 Labrador)

One night at bed time my dad was not at home, so Elizabeth came up to say good night. After, when Elizabeth had said good night, Rupert came in my room, and Elizabeth asked me “Want me to keep Rupert inside with you?” and I said “well, he might scare me and I don’t know why!” So she took Rupert up to her room.

Raffy with Rupert, mischievous and loveable friends

Another day I was writing a story for you, the story was this one, and then Chloe came to me and barked and I think she was trying to make me pat her, so I patted her.

Raffy with Chloe's dog collar

Every time when I take of their collar off they act crazy. Every day the dogs and I have something like a play time so I play fetch, I pat them and I pat them on the roof of a shed (it’s very easy to climb on to the roof of Elizabeth’s shed, because the ground behind the shed is higher than at the front of the shed). I love the two dogs, even when they are annoying.

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POST by SEZ: Just LOVIN Legos...

Sezni turning 11 years old - sporting new lego toys from cousin Kias

On Thursday it was my birthday and my cousin Kias gave me a big ship. It has like three hundred lego bits to it. It has a sailor, a soldier, a patrol, and two aliens. The ship has missiles, rockets, and guns and it has a machine at the end of the ship. It has a tiny boat and the machine can grab the boat in the ocean and pull it back up. The ship also has suits for going in the water. It has two wacky tokay’s and gas and more! It took me six hours to build one big ship and with five people and a tiny ship.

I love my cousin Kias!

Sezni turning 11 years old, with his gift from cousin Kias

To learn more about Sezzy, please visit our page, Our People

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POST by RENZ: Fisherman's WAR

Lorenzy at Fisherman's Wharf

On Tuesday, we went out to the pier here in San Francisco. The pier is called Fisherman’s wharf. It is really pretty when you are right on the beach because of all the birds and the sunset is to die for. We went to the beach so that we could go ‘busking’ but when we got there, we just wandered around because it was amazingly beautiful and because it was cold.

Lorenzy and Rene, BBoy Dancing

We wandered around on the sand for a while and the guys did a little bit of tricking. Then, we walked slowly over to the pier and started to stroll down it. There were quite  lot of people fishing there so we stood next to them and watched them.

Lorenzy & Rene at Fisherman's Wharf (the pier)

There was an Asian lady and a man that had this strange looking net. It looked interesting and so we went over to them to see what they were doing. When they threw the net into the water, we saw a figure in the water that was dawdling towards us.

When it was close to us, he popped his head above the water and we saw that it was a seal. The guys started making jokes about it such as “Hey, his face looks just like yours!” We just stood there and looked at it. I thought it was weird because it was so close to shore. Then the man pulled the net up and the seal swam away.

We stayed there waiting to see if it would come back. It did come back, but when it came back, it came back with a friend. Another seal. We kept on watching it and they would swirl in the water. My dad was further down and then he said “Here’s another one! There are three of them!”

The Cute little Seal

Once we got bored of looking at the seals, we walked down the rest of the pier. There were people swimming in the water. We took photos and did freezes on the wall. After we had gotten back to the cars we were all really cold.

From the beach, we went to the tricking place and we practiced with Brandon McCuien, a famous tricker that the guys are in love with because he is really good at doing flips in the air. We were there until two in the morning.

The Brien Family with Brandon McCuien, a famous tricker, in San Jose

POST by ANNA: Polident and Hoverounds

One lovely Minnesota day, I was driving down the highway as my dad dozed off in the passenger seat. I only had my driver’s permit at the time, but my dad seemed to have confidence in my driving skills.

We passed a large hardware store where a truck carrying four large, metal patio chairs pulled out in front of me. All was well; I maintained a safe three-second following distance behind the truck. Actually, it was much more than three seconds because I was paranoid that one of the chairs would fall out the back of the truck.

It appeared that the chairs were not strapped in, and in one of those “what if something terrible happened” moments, I thought “How funny, yet traumatizing would it be if the chairs all flew out of the truck bed?”

I continued to drive like a grandmother, daydreaming about poli-grip and hoverounds until I looked up from my speedometer and saw a large patio chair fluttering around between the air and the road. In that moment, I like to think that I became a superhero.

My senses were heightened. I could hear my dad breathing next to me. I could feel the hair on my arms blow in the air conditioning. I could smell the coffee my dad had left in the car from that morning. I could taste pure strength in my mouth, or was that my gum?

More importantly, I could see the chair in the road and feel the steering wheel in my hands. Thankfully, my exit was right where the chair had fallen out. I tapped the breaks with my pinky toe, slightly turned the steering wheel to avert hitting the chair, and pulled to the side of the road.

In the process, I really do believe that I hit the chair because I heard a loud noise and felt as if I either ran over the chair or hit the front corner of the bumper. At this point, my dad decided to wake up because I was nervously repeating his name. “Dad….Dad….DAD….” He got out of the car, as we were now on the side of the road, to look at the damage.

To our surprise, there was absolutely no damage to the car. I was elated because I always wondered what I would do when adrenaline really kicked in. What would I do if I had to save my own life, or the life of a lowly patio chair, or even the life of a beat up Chevy Suburban? I now knew. I taunted my dad telling him I had saved his life and mine, as well as the life of the car.

As you now know, I was a dramatic young gal. Today, I use this story as an example of how, often times, I am quite unlucky. Although it may seem like I am moderately lucky since there was no damage to the car, the fact of the story is A PATIO CHAIR FELL OUT ON THE ROAD IN FRONT OF ME WHILE I HAD ONLY MY DRIVER’S PERMIT AND MY DAD WAS SLEEPING. (Maybe I am still dramatic)

Another example of my lack of luck, misfortune if you’d like to call it that, was a day at summer camp a fairly recent time ago. That day I managed to pee my pants, trip and fall during a game of ultimate Frisbee, while the rest of the players came to a halt and laughed at me,  drooling all the while in front of the boy I liked.

Now, in Nicaragua, you would think my misfortune wouldn’t be able to reach me here, right? No. The Briens, who are pretty much the loveliest people I have ever met, have a serious case of the lack-of-luck. Say that ten times fast.

The sink will leak and then get fixed. Only though, if minutes before, the car tire pops, or the well runs out of water, or the horses run rampant through the neighborhood. Someone throws a rock in the pool. The showerhead pops off because of too much pressure.

The light bulb I take to move to the bathroom with no lights breaks in transition. I try to pick it up and burn my hand. I venture off to find a dustpan to sweep it into and there is not a one in sight.

My goodness, I love it here. That probably sounds sarcastic, but I have grown to embrace the lack-of-luck in my life. Of course, it can be frustrating at times, yet it  provides a good laugh everyday. The Brien family is truly delightful almost always laughing about the strange everyday mishaps that strike all of us.

POST by FRAN: Sizzling in the Sun

Ladies at the Beach: Elizabeth, Francesca, Lorenzy-Ella & Anna

Remember the beach called Playa Hermosa? Well that beach has a lot of memories. There is the time when we went crab hunting, and the time when we almost drowned because the current had taken us too far out.

Too many stories! On this occasion I will tell one of the most ridiculous and recent stories that has happened at the beach yet!

Fran & Billy at the Beach

It was a bright and hot day. The sun was strong and powerful; it could burn pretty much anything, including skin! I think you know what I’m going to talk about now. The last time we went to the beach we forgot a very important item… It is something that helps you not to get burnt to the crisp!

We got to the beach all excited on Saturday afternoon and we didn’t worry about anything, we just played and had a really good time. We watched the sun set, we made a camp fire and cooked hotdogs over the fire. We couldn’t have asked for more fun.

The next day we hit the beach without the very important item on our sensitive skin. We went to the tide pools and climbed the rock walls. Lucky, my dog, even climbed up!

Up on the ROCKS: Lorenzy, Anna, Yordy, Franny, Lucky & Sez

Then we went to the house to have something to eat because we wanted to hit the other side of the beach, where the waves are.

We ate Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) and had some fried cheese and then we all headed down to the waves, again without the very important product on our shoulders and back.

We were only thinking about having fun and taking pictures and living while we're young. We dug a hole and buried Rafi up to his neck; we gave him a mermaid shape in the sand around his buried body.

We were at the waves from eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon! We were having so much fun and weren’t thinking about our skin or the sun…

When we got to the house, Granny said “you guys look so much darker!” and that’s when Mum finally realised “I left the sun cream at home!!” 

We were careful for the rest of the day so we wouldn’t burn too much more, it was really hard! Then we made the camp fire, but this time we tried to sit a little farther away from the flames. We saw everything differently! We still had a good time but we were beginning to feel the sting on our backs.

The next day was a nightmare! Nobody could move like they used to! We were all stiff! It was the worst feeling ever! I regret not putting on sun cream! In the water I had to have my front towards the sun instead of my back! I almost died because of the stinging pain! I will always take sun cream to the beach now!

Fran being splashed by Yordy

POST by FRAN: Playing en la Playa

Setting up for our first night in the WILD...

Everybody love the beach, right? I know I do! My friend’s parents own a beach house on a beach called ‘Playa Hermosa’ (witch means beautiful beach). They kindly let us go and use their house on the beachfront for a few days. Playa Hermosa is about an hour's drive away from our house.

A lot of people we know own houses on that beach, but they only go there for holidays. So we always get the whole beach to our selves. This time nobody was there except three couples that stayed in a resort just off of the beach and we only saw them like twice. But other than them, we had the beach all to our selves!

We left for the beach on Saturday at 3pmish. It was a squished ride. We had all the luggage neatly thrown in the boot and then Lucky, Anna, Yordy and I were in the back seat with our heads banging up against the roof! In the middle seat was Mum, Lorenzy, Billy, Granny, Eliezer. And in the front were Dad, Grandad, Sezni, and Rafi.

Girls being girls: Liz, Fran, Renz, & our newest recruit, ANNA!!!

We were squished into an eight-seater car with a dog! We were all excited about the beach, we just weren’t that excited about the drive to get there!

We were about a third of the way there when Mum says, “WOW, the dog is doing better than I thought!” She spoke too soon! Just after she had said that the dog vomited all over her back! It’s bad luck sitting in front of a dog that hasn’t traveled before! Mum didn’t say much after we got the toilet paper and wiped off the dog vomit.

We got to a little village that was twenty minutes away from the beach and Mum said, “We need rice and matches and plastic plates!” So Dad stopped at a venta (a shop that is built in to someone's house). Lorenzy and Eliezer jumped out and asked if the lady in the venta had rice, matches and plates.

“Dad I want to run to the beach!” Sezni yelled at the top of his voice. “Me too” said Rafi like a little mouse. “Go ahead! You turn right at the end of the street” Dad explained to the both of them. “So this is right?” Rafi held up his left hand, “and this is left?” pulling up his right hand. “No, the other way around!” said Dad, not really explaining it properly to them.

Lunch, with Franny Brien

“I got it Dad!” Sezni replied, as he started running off with Rafi following shortly behind.

Five minutes later Lorenzy and Eliezer got back in the car with three match boxes, ten pounds of rice and three bags of plastic plates. Dad started driving, “Let’s catch up to those boys.” We turned right and then went on. “Where are they?” asked Grandad. “They wouldn’t have come this far!” said Mum. “Go back! We missed them!” Mum started panicking.

We turned around and went back to where we started, “Have you seen two little boys?” asked Dad. “No,” was the reply. “Let’s go left just in case.” Dad said. “You’re driving!” said mum. We went left and asked two girls if they had seen them, “Oh they are two little white boys? Yeah they ran down there.” “Thanks!” We got to the end of the road, which forked off into four ways, we went straight.

Lorenzy, Eliezer, Lucky and I got out to look for them, “SEZNI...RAFI!?”

After looking for ten minutes Sezni and Rafi came out from the overgrowth crying. “We got lost,” Sezni explained as he climbed into the car. “Did you guys follow my instructions?” asked Dad, wondering why they had gone wrong. “We went this right (putting up his left hand and then we forgot the rest so we just kept going! sob, sniffle, sob” explained Rafi.

Fran & Billy in a tide pool

We got back on track and every one was silent for a while... nobody had anything to talk about. We were all squashed into our car. We were all hot, “Can you turn on the AC?” complainingly asked  Lorenzy. The windows were rolled up and Sezni pushed the AC button. The AC made everyone much happier.

We got to the beach and in total it took us an hour and a half, but when we got there we didn’t care about the long prison ride in the car, we went to the water and just played and had a really happy afternoon.

We forgot to get gas so we cooked over a little fire that took us ten minutes to start. We ate hot dogs with onions! The first day at Playa Hermosa was probably the best. We went to bed at nine thirty, we thought it was like eleven or something, we were all so tired!

The next day I woke up at nine, Yordy had his music on and was practicing tricking with Sezni and Rafi on the sand by the beach house. Mum and Dad were sleeping, so was Anna and Lorenzy upstairs. Eliezer had gone for a walk with Billy.

Franny & Yordy enjoying the rock pools with Lucky

I went into the kitchen and got something to eat, cerial. Anna came downstairs and grabbed some too. After breakfast I got my swimsuit on and went and sat on the sand looking out at the beautiful ocean. Mum eventually woke up and came and sat with me, then came Anna, followed by Lorenzy.

Mum did a little devotion and after the devotion we went and ate more breakfast! Once we were all full we all got ready to go to the pools by the big rocks, thats when we realised that we didn’t bring any sun cream! Oh well. We hit the beach without it, besides my quinse is coming up and I need to get rid of my bad tan lines!

Fran, Yordy & Billy, enjoying the freedom of being at the Beach

The water was so nice and refreshing, but the sun was so hot and we were so vulnerable! The first full day at the beach was so nice - I had friends and family with me enjoying the entire day!

We dug holes and buried people in them so that you can only see their head! We climbed rocks and looked out on the ocean. We looked where the sky met the water. I drew a little and we just had a lot of fun!

Renz, Anna, Yordy, Fran & Sez on the rocks (with Lucky of course)

In the night we made another fire, this time a lot bigger and closer to the water. We roasted marshmellows to flames! We went on a walk and went for a swim for two minutes (we got scared)! We took a few silly pictures and did silly poses. We listened to music, it was so much fun!

We walked up the beach and realised that every step we took there would be some glowy stuff that would glow and then disapear. We decided to run back to make it look like the glowy stuff was chasing us. And when we got back to the fire we all laid down and looked up at the sky, it was a moonless night, filled with stars!

“Wow it is beautiful!” We all eventually said these words out loud. I spotted a shooting star and that’s when I finally said these words, "Nights like these are the ones I appreciate the most, when you're with your friends and family and eternity!"

POST by FRAN: Family Fun in the Sun, whilst getting some serious Tricking Done

Competition time!!!!  Saturday morning was interesting; I woke up with a stuffy nose and a sore throat. All the tricker boys had gone home except for Yordy and Eliazer. I cooked some eggs and made myself some tea. The boys were sitting outside on the couches watching tricking videos of Michael Guthrie and Vellu Saraela, and their other tricking heroes.

I went out and sat opposite them and began to eat my scrambled eggs. Then I said “let’s go practice tricking after this.” They looked up at me and nodded their heads very slowly. “Well Mum said that we could do a little competition with the little kids,” I said. Then there was more excitement in their response “dale pues!!! (Ok then!!)”

All the little boys: Sezni, Rafael, Billy, Brian and Oliver were all playing Wii inside, on the volume-less and colourless television that some good friends of ours gave to us. I walked over to them and asked them, “Who wants to have a tricking competition?” Many voices came in both English and Spanish “Yo… Me… I…yo quiero! Me too!” “Well get something to eat and then we will start the competition!!!” “YEEEEAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!” and then running feet was what I heard, if the TV had volume I would probably have heard the cries from the ‘Super Smash Bros’ Wii game as well!

I have seen little boys eat fast and slow or not wanting to eat at all, but this was the time when I saw boys eat like lighting! They were in the kitchen and when I got to the kitchen they were all outside warming up for the competition.

They all had their serious faces on. I went inside “Mum, we are ready!!!”  Mum came out with a birthday bag that looked full. “I’m coming!” She said in a rush. It looked like she had brushed her hair with a pillow and threw on the first thing that she saw in her wardrobe!

The just-woken-up Mum went outside and said “OK! Who is ready for a competition?”  There was screaming and yelling and a lot of noise. “OK then… Round one… Sezni vs. Brian vs. Fran…” she said as she wrote it down in a note book. “Round two… Jed vs. Billy vs. Oliver… ” there was some giggles at that one and then “round three… Lorenzy vs. Rafael. And last but not least, round four, Yordy vs. Eliazer!”

We played some music and started round one on the saw dust, Sezni, Brian and I were all against each other. The battle began with self-centered Sezni. He did a few kicks and then he did a round-off and a back hand spring. Mum clapped and then Brian did his thing. He did some kart wheels and a back hand spring, but tricking style is mainly kicking.

Sez, Brian and Francesca in our backyard, Saturday morning, Tricking Competition

Then it was my turn. I did a few kicks and I tried to do this side flip that I was learning but I freaked out and fell down on my side. I then did a back hand spring but I didn’t land it properly. I told Sezni “go it’s your turn” so he did his thing while I was making a pile of saw dust so that I could fall in it. I went back over to the other side so that I could get a running start.

It was then Brian’s turn so I waited till he was finished and when he moved out of the way I ran and jumped and did a front flip and landed on my feet but I was really low to the ground and I fell back to sit on my bum. Mum started clapping and cheering “wow!”

After that I don’t remember what the little boys did but the music finished and we were lined up; me, then Sezni, then Brian. Everyone else were judges and on the count of three they would point to the winner… one, two, tree… Sezni!!! Sezni won the floor because of his kicking.

The Judgement: Sezni is CHAMPION in backyard Tricking!

Next was the round between Dad, Billy and Oliver. Dad stole the show of course but Oliver won because he did a kart wheel. Then it was Lorenzy and Rafael. Lorenzy can’t do anything except go up in a bridge and run around her body without moving her arms, but that is not tricking that is break dancing. On the other hand Rafi can do a back hand (head) spring and a front flip. So Rafi won that one.

Dad in Tricking Heaven, with our lab - "Chela"

Then the real battle came… Yordy vs. Eliazer. Eliazer just started practicing tricking but he isn’t afraid to do it, Yordy has been practicing for a year or so, so he is pretty good. They were both doing front flips and half-moons and other stuff but Yordy suddenly did a double front flip and landed it like I landed my front flip! Yordy hasn’t been trying really hard to practice the double front flip, but yet he still did it!

Yordy Tricking

Yordy won that round because he was better than Eliazer on the floor. Next we went to the trampoline. And it was all the little kids for the first round and the second round was Yordy and Eliazer. The first group did front flips and back flips and back hand springs… I did a back flip with a twist. Yordy and Eliazer picked the winners… Third place was Brian, second place was Sezni and first place went to me.

Francesca Flipping

Yordy and Eliazer were next. Eliazer did a lot better on the trampoline, Yordy didn’t do that much because Eliazer was the one doing all the flipping! When they finished it was our turn to judge, we all voted for Eliazer to win and he did win.

Yordy y Eliazer on the trampoline

Once we all got our prizes the little boys went back to playing ‘Super smash bros’ on the Wii and the “older” people sat outside on the couches. We were all exhausted but we had a really fun morning. Mum went to have a shower and Dad went back to bed.  Saturdays are really our only days of rest! And Tricking is really tiring.  

Francesca Winning the Tricking Competition