Peng's Family
Naomi Peng
By Naomi Peng
December 27th, 2010
This year went by very quickly once again. We went to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Capital Reef. I went to Gator Camp over the summer for four nights to practice gymnastics. I continued playing the violin and got into the Alachua County Youth Orchestra, and am also in my school orchestra. Once again we had our spring recital and winter recital with our teacher Ms. Kim. Of course, I am also still doing my favorite sport gymnastics. In this Newsletter, I want to share with you my major activities and the shocking adventures I had this year.
School
This year I graduated from Talbot elementary school and entered into Lincoln Middle School. I really enjoyed my time at Talbot with the program and friends. I particularly enjoyed the Science Engineering Communication Mathematics Enrichment (SECME) program. In SECME this year, my team won the award in the Egg drop competition and the surprise design. In the Egg Drop competition, we had to design a container that is sturdy enough so the egg won’t break when someone dropped it from a tall platform. The ones that didn’t break go into the second round and get dropped from an even higher platform. Then the eggs that still didn’t break get compared by size and weight. Whichever one is the smallest, wins. In the Surprise Design, we had to design a tower made out of straws. Before the competition, we didn’t know what we were making until we got the instruction, which is why it is called surprise design. Our tower ended up being 6ft and 4in. My team was Emma, Harold, and me. We all worked hard and made a great team. Every Wednesday we worked together at Talbot after school. It really helped us to win the award and develop a good bond until we all left Talbot in June.
Naomi graduating from Talbot
SECME Champions
Since August I have been having a great time in middle school. I can’t believe that I am half- way through the school year already. It feels like I just started. I have six teachers and love them all. I have learned a lot from our history teacher, Mr. Fowler, even though his class is probably the hardest out of all of the subjects. I have kept up good grades and continue to. I have all “A’s” and hope to keep up the great work. Speaking of history, we went to a very old national park over the summer; Yellowstone.
Our Big Trip
This year’s trip to Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Capital Reef was one of the best yet. Everywhere you looked was gorgeous and relaxing. Sometimes I couldn’t even fall asleep in the car because I was afraid I was going to miss a really cool animal or something. But then of course, sometimes I was just dead asleep because I was exhausted. On July 13th we landed at Salt Lake City, UT at 11:00pm. The next morning we woke up early and started driving to Wyoming.
When we were in Grand Teton, we stayed in a little small town near Grand Teton called Jackson Hole. In Jackson Hole, we went White Water Rafting the first day we were there. There were tons of Rapids. The biggest one was called Big Kahoona. At one of the rapids I was sitting at the very tip of the raft straddling a rope and we went through it while I was on top and, you guess it, I fell off the raft and was carried away by the rapid. The water was freezing! It was 52 degree Fahrenheit (or 11 degree Celsius). After I had fallen into the water my mom was really worried but Lucinda was just looking at me laughing. It wasn’t scary at all I was even laughing in the water while I was trying to swim toward the raft since I was a lot lighter than the boat, I floated faster. The guide said I was the youngest to fall in. Lucinda of course just jumped into the water on purpose when the guide said that in a certain area, people could jump in if they wanted to. Nobody jumped in but her. White water rafting was joyful and full of amazement and shocking moments.
Snake River White Water Rafting
Jackson Hole Visitor Center
The hotel we stayed at was wonderful. It was called the Wyoming Inn. Every night from 6-9pm there were freshly made cookies. There was also a very scrumptious complimentary breakfast.
One night we went to a park in downtown Jackson Hole. The gate to the park was made out of moose antlers. Inside the park there was little ground chipmunk, squirrel things but smaller, called pikas. They would look at you for one second and then scurry under the boardwalk. Then another one would come out and walk up really close to you and almost touch you but then suddenly race away. That evening, we ate at a restaurant called Gun Barrel Steak and Game House. We had some special meat from wild animals. My daddy had bison steak. I tried some, it was yummy. It sort of tastes like regular steak though. Mommy had elk and Lucinda had bison ribs. I was not very adventurous and just had regular steak. Thinking back, I wish I had some other wild animal meat.
Downtown Jackson Hole
Gun Barrel Steak and Game House
The next morning we went to the Grand Teton National Park. Our first stop was Jenny’s Lake. We had a choice of either taking a boat across the river and walking 2 miles, or hiking there directly for 4 miles. Lucinda wanted to walk so we had to hike 4 miles! On the hike to the water fall and inspiration point, we saw lots of wild flowers and plants. We also saw bear scat (poop). The walk was long and strenuous and the weather was very hot. Thank god there were trees so I could have at least a little shade every once in a while. When we got to the waterfall, we were able to see a couple of people climbing up the mountains. Lucinda and daddy wanted to do that. I think they’re crazy. When we reached the Inspiration point, the view was so pretty, the blue sky, the turquoise, tranquil lakes, all the trees around it, everything was picture perfect. On the way back, we took the boat because we were all too tired. When we got back to the car, it was 3:00 PM and we still hadn’t eaten lunch! It felt like my stomach was going to die and burst open. After we had our very late lunch, we went to Jackson Lake and took some pictures of the great views. I was so tired that I even fell asleep and mom, dad, and sissy were looking at a huge dam and I was still in the car, although every now and then mom came in the car to check on me. That night, we had a nice easy dinner but almost every minute something funny would happen and we would start laughing. I could barely eat my chicken because I was laughing too hard. Even after dinner Lucinda and I were still laughing so hard our stomachs started to hurt. The next morning we started heading up to the much anticipated Old Faithful.
Jenny’s Lake
Scenic Drive at Grand Teton
On the drive there, we stopped at lots of places to enjoy the views and take some pictures. One of the places we stopped, there was a reflection of the mountain on the water. It was so elegant. The reflection in the water was almost an exact copy of the mountains. On the way, we saw lots of bison. We got so close to one that it felt like I could almost touch it.
Big Bison
Naomi at Old Faithful
We were so lucky when we got to Old Faithful; there was about ten minutes till the geyser erupted. Our good friends went with us to Yellowstone but we had different plans. One of the things we planned on doing together was watching Old Faithful. They waited about 50 minutes in the hot sun till we came and showed up. Old Faithful was amazing! It shot up about 120 ft into the air! I loved it except for the fact that afterward the rotten egg smell blew into our faces. Then we took the trail to go look at the other geysers. It was so windy out, that somebody’s hat flew into the geyser. When we were trying to take a picture, the wind was blowing in the same direction as we were standing, so the sulfur gas was coming in our direction too. It was horrible, the air around us was hot, it was hard to breath, and it stunk like crazy. I had to hold my breath and close my eyes. When we couldn’t take it anymore we would yell to Mom -- the picture taker “Hurry up!” so we didn’t have to stand there any longer. When we walked through the whole trail, we went back to the place where Old Faithful was and it was about to erupt any minute so we waited to watch it again. After we ate lunch, Old Faithful was about to blow again so we hung around till it erupted. Then we went inside and got ice cream. After that we went to see more and more geysers. By the end of the day I was tired of seeing geysers. I also had the smell up my nose.
Old Faithful Trail
Old Faithful Trail
That night we stayed at a different hotel, it was called Grant Village. Near the hotel there was a little park called West Thumb. When we went there, we saw lots of elks there. One of them was like 20ft away from us. When we were heading toward the parking lot, there was a mommy elk and a daddy elk on one side of the trail, and the baby elk on the other side. On the walkway people were taking pictures. The mommy elk tried to bulge at them to scare them away but they thought that was funny so they stayed there. But that was actually dangerous because the mommy elk could attack people in order to protect the baby elk. After a little while, it started to rain really hard with lightning and thunder, we ran to the car. For dinner that night we went to a restaurant by Yellowstone Lake. The sunset was so beautiful and the whole sky was pink and orange. The whole sky looked like it was in a forest fire. The next morning we went to look at waterfalls. One of the falls was lower falls at Canyon Village. In order to see the fall, you must hike to it. Since the fall was so steep, the walk there felt so long. We went back and forth and back and forth until we reached our destination. The sound of the water fall was so loud that you could hear it in the parking lot. The gushing water was so powerful that you could feel a mist of water if you leaned over the fence. The water looked blue and then the sudden drop made the water turn white.
Daddy Elk
Lower Falls
Sunset at Yellowstone Lake
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
The waterfalls smelled like it just rained and it was a very refreshing until we went to one of the mud pot places. It was VERY stinky. The sulfur smell was very strong we got out of there in 10 minutes. We quickly took a look at some and then left. The last beautiful place we went to was Grand Prismatic Spring at Midway Geyser Basin where it looked like a rainbow. The water was so pretty and clear blue. The edges were brown and gradually turned red, then orange and through the rainbow colors. I was starting to get used to all the stinky smells and water until we went to Capital Reef.
Lucinda and Naomi at Grand Prismatic Spring
Naomi at stinky mud pots
Capital Reef at Utah is like a desert with very little water. It is full of different shapes and kinds of stones due to the water and wind erosion on the earth’s surface. There is a natural bridge called Hickman’s Bridge and we took a hike to go look at it. We didn’t know, but while we were hiking, it was about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. My face was all red and I was sweating to death. When we finally got there, we found a tiny tree to rest on while taking pictures. It’s amazing how stone can form into such great shapes. It looked just like a regular bridge where a car could drive over the top while a boat could go underneath. After we hiked back down, we bought homemade ice cream since we were all so hot and exhausted.
Capital Reef National Park
Naomi hiding from the sun in a cave
In addition to going to Yellowstone over the summer I also went to Gator Camp. It was over five days and four nights. This is at the University of Florida and we had lived in student dorms. My dorm buddy was Ashley Jones. Every morning we would wake up at 7:30 and get ready into our leotards and stuff. Then we would walk to the mess hall and had breakfast. After breakfast we would go to the gym and do gymnastic until 12:15 pm. After lunch we would do even more gymnastics and then go back to our dorms and have free time until about 6:00 pm. In the evening, the groups would all walk to the O’Connell Center and have open gym. At the end of the week each counselor was to pick a camper to be Camper of the week. I was very happy to be chosen as the camper of the week by Nicole Ellis (a gator gymnast) who was my counselor. I was also very fortunate to have the Gator gymnast coaches.
Naomi and head Gator Coach, Rhonda Faehn
Naomi on bars with Assistant Gator Coach Robert Ladany
Over the summer we had the opportunity to go to Disney very many times since we live so close. We got a very good deal and went to all four theme parks. I like all of them but enjoy Animal Kingdom the most. We also stayed at the Swan and Dolphin resort over Labor Day weekend while we were visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Swan and Dolphin resort had five awesome pools. I had lots of excitement with my dad in the pool. He would throw me in the air and then catch me or I would stand on his shoulders or something else crazy like that.
At Magic Kingdom
We love the water ride at Universal Studios
Lucinda and Naomi with Jungle Book characters
Having fun at Swan and Dolphin pool
Other activities
With all the things going on in school, I still have a bunch of other activities, such as visiting friends, playing violin and doing my gymnastics. In the summer, I visited Anneliese’s lake house quite often. She is a very good friend of mine but we don’t see each other often because we went to different schools. At her lake house we would usually fish and swim in the lake. On the fourth of the July, we watched the boat parade after lunch and fireworks in the evening at her lake house. We watched many world cup games together and celebrated her 11th birthday as well.
Naomi caught a fish!
At Anneliese’s lake house for birthday party
July 4th boat parade at Lake Santa Fe
Boating at Lake Santa Fe
I also started ACYO (Alachua County Youth Orchestra). We practice every Sunday from 5:30 to 8:00 pm. Our winter concert was on Dec. 12th 2010. We were at the Performing Arts Center all day. From 10:00am to about 9:00pm. We played two concerts, one for Stop Children’s Cancer at 4:00 and another for our parents at 7:30pm. After our last concert we had a recession with lots of yummy food and desert. During the concert, we played Sleigh Ride, Silent Night, White Christmas, How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place, Symphony NO.5, Overture to Nabucco, A Festival of Carols, The Christmas Song, Hanukkah Highlights, and The Polar Express.
Once again we had the violin recital over the spring in which I played Concerto in A Minor by Vivaldi. In the winter concert we played as a group and it turned out to be really well especially since there were three new students that had never played in a recital before.
Naomi’s first ACYO concert
Naomi at Spring Recital
Gymnastics is still my passion. This year I skipped level 7 and moved up to level 8. I practice 20 hours a week and am now in the optional team and compete in the winter-spring season. Our first meet will be on Jan. 15th, 2011 at Tampa. Our third meet will be in Chicago, IL and is the biggest meet in the country. Some people even come from Puerto Rico to compete at this meet. Even though I do lots of gymnastics, I still manage to get all the things I wanted to accomplish done. I also have kept my grades in my school work at all “A’s”. I am very excited for the upcoming season and hope I do well.
Naomi at Sun Country
Naomi loves gymnastics
Have a wonderful Winter Break and I hope you are doing well too. Have a great holiday and Happy New Year!