Skiing

Competitive freestyle skiing is my favorite sport.  When I am not on snow, I'm training in the water or on the trampoline. When I started skiing as a two year old kid my parents didn't know it would turn into a year around sport for me!

Here is a picture of me and some of my team mates. (I'm in the yellow helmet.)



This is on slopestyle.  A 360 mute grab.



A couple of weekends ago I had a big provincial competition.  I had a really hard weekend.  I have never done so terribly.  I came 18 in big air (whoever gets the best trick wins - I got the biggest air but other kids were throwing a little better tricks, and I couldn't land my spins.) 15th in moguls (3  big bump sections on the course with 2 jumps in the middle) and 14 in slope style.  In slopestyle there are rails - mettle poles on their sides that you grind - boxes which are like rails but wider, and jumps.  




I have never done so poorly. I am always top 10, and most of the time top 5 and some times top 3.  I was VERY frustrated BUT... this weekend was not a complete fail, because I learned some things.  I learned that you're not always on top of your game, some times you are going to fail but that just gives you strength because you don't want to do it again.  I learned that I need to work harder and push myself to my very best. 

Never ever give up, live your life to the max.  As Abraham Lincoln said, "For it is not the years in your life that count but the life in your years."

While it was my worst competition ever, it was my little sister's first and best.

She has decided to follow my tracks (and my brother - who is out with a broken thumb) and she got 2 gold metals in her first provincial competition.  Moguls and slopestyle.  I am very proud of her.

My Baptism

A few weekends ago we had a camping trip with our church, and I was baptized.  Now some of you may be thinking that I'm too young to be baptized, but baptism is not about your age, it's about what you believe.  And I know what I believe. 

Maybe you are reading this and you don't know what baptism is, or why I decided to be baptized.  I've actually wanted to be baptized for about a year now.  I don't believe that you HAVE to be baptized.  I DO believe that you HAVE to know God and have a relationship with Him.  I didn't get baptized because my church or anyone said I should, but because I publicly wanted to stand up for what I believe. 

I know that as I get older things might get harder, but I know who I am and what I believe.  I know what I stand for and where my faith lies. 

If you don't know God yet, you can just talk to Him.  He made you, He knows you and He's been with you your whole life.  He knows everything about you, even your thoughts, and all your mistakes and He still LOVES YOU.  :)  He wants to have a relationship with YOU!  The God who made the universe wants a relationship with you!  How cool is that?!?  Get a Bible.  Start reading in John, it's got a lot about Jesus.  (The Old Testament has a lot of amazing stories about more ancient things, places and history.)  Find a good church and go to it!

Here is a short summary (testimony) of my faith.   This is what I live for.   I shared this at the camp before I was baptized.

My Testimony

My name is Samuel.  I am ten years old.

I was blessed to be born into a family who has known and loved the Lord for generations and generations.  I never had the experience of NOT knowing God, and I don’t ever want to.

I believe in the one true God.  He is my saviour.  He sacrificed Himself, not just for me, but for all of us.  

I want to make it clear to the world that Jesus is the one and only living God.

I know that God has a plan for my life and I am going to follow Him where He leads me and find out what that plan is.

I choose to be baptized now because I believe in the Lord with all of my heart, and I choose to follow Him for the rest of my life.



My mini movie for ski camp.

Here is my movie....

I made this (with our friends) in hopes of winning a free ski camp with Olympic coaches at Whistler, BC this summer.  While I didn't win I did come third and they gave me a discount to go to camp.  The camp is amazing.  I will be training for 8 days on the Whistler glacier on moguls and slopestyle.  (Big air, jumps, tricks.)  In the afternoons I will be on the water ramps and trampoline training.  I hope the coaches will finally allow me to start flipping.  Back flip that is!  I can't wait.




http://youtu.be/0qa0Mp7zRVY

History in the Making

Wow! Have you been watching the news ?!?





For the past number of days we have been watching history in the making!  President Hosni Mubarak is no longer wanted by what looks like most of Egypt. Mubarak has been the dictator for the past 30 years and the people want change.  They want a democratic republic.  They want freedoms like choosing their own government, freedom of speech, (real) freedom of religion, freedom of the press and many other freedoms that Canadians enjoy without even thinking about them.





The people are protesting and it has been getting worse every day.  There have been many peaceful protests and there have also been many fires and stores broken into and robbed.  The looters have even broken into and tried to rob the Egyptian National Museum, where King Tut's mask is.  The citizens actually linked arms and guarded the museum until the military got there.   The police were too mouse-hearted to do anything and they hid for days.  The police have always been known to be on the president's side and are known as corrupt.  There have been prison break aways with as many as 5000 criminals escaping.         



Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Israel is very concerned and worried about Egypt and whether or not the government will change.  If it does will the peace treaty that has held for 30+ years be upheld and honoured? 

Canada and other democratic countries are all saying that we support the people and their need for freedom, and are asking Mubarak for a peaceful change.

The military are now guarding the Pyramids of Giza, the police are finally back on the streets and there are long line ups for food.  There is a "million man march" planned for tommorow (Tuesday) in Cairo, but Mubarak has shut down all the public transportation, buses and trains, because he doesn't want it to happen. 



There is concern that if Mubarak is out, who will take his place?  It could be worse.  It could be a radical Islamic regime, where the woman all have to wear masks, girls aren't allowed to go to school and where terror is the law.

What happens in the next little while here will be very interesting and important to the Middle East and to the whole world.  Watching all of this makes me feel very grateful to be Canadian.  I have so many freedoms, I cannot even name all of them. 

Skeletal System (Part 1)

Did you know that...

:Bones are actually what produce your blood? (Red bone marrow.)

:In order to live your body needs good food (minerals and nutrients), exercise (to keep your bones strong) and sun?

:Sun is what gives your body vitamin D?

:Your bones store minerals?

:There is a fluid in between your skull and your brain?

:The fluid in between your skull and your brain actually protects your brain?


We are just starting the skeletal system so prepare for learning impact! 

True Heroes

There are lots of different types of heroes and some people think heroes are like this.



These are some of the people that I think of.

Sports Heroes like:

Trevor Linden



Roberto Luongo



Sidney crosby (when he scored the gold medal goal)





Alex Bilodeau



I got to ski with Alex before he won the gold medal at the Olympics. He is my hero in my sport.



Rick Hansen



Terry Fox



Maybe favourite authors, like

CS Lewis or JR Tolkien





Or great political heroes like

Winston Churchill



Julius Caesar



Alexander the Great



Martin Luther King



and Stockwell Day - he's our Member of Parliment for the Okanagan and I like what he stands up for.



Other greats like:

Galileo
Leonardo Da Vinci



Thomas Edison
Michelangelo
Albert Einstein



Mozart and Beethoven





But some of my BIGGEST heroes look like this...



and this...



Maybe they don't look like heroes to you yet. Even like this, they are heroes to me. They are two of my Uncles. But here are some more pictures of them. They are REAL HEROES! They are Canadian Military and they have been around the world to defend and bring peace to other countries and to protect us and our freedom here at home.





They have both served in Afghanistan.



These pictures were when they were in Kosovo.





They are not usually serving together, but a few times they have seen each other. Uncle Paul is a medic and Uncle Michael is a Lt. Col. This is when Uncle Michael was in Europe, flying helicopters.



See... REAL HEROES. I am very proud of them.

Body Worlds

We are studying the human body right now, so this past weekend we went to Body Worlds in Vancouver. It really was not creepy. There were some things that were a little bit gross when you first saw them, but you got over that pretty quickly because it was just so amazing to see the human body without skin; just the muscles and ligaments, nerves and tendons.



If you haven't heard about Body Worlds it is an exhibit that is at Science World Vancouver right now.

BODY WORLDS has over 200 real human "specimens", including entire body "plastinates", organs and "translucent body slices". They are preserved using a very special technology called plastination.

It shows excellent examples of how the body works and how the ligaments and muscles work in the different ways that you are moving.

We saw right inside the body and saw all the organs, the skeletal system, the digestive system, the entire nervous system, all the tendons and ligaments and the muscular system. I can't even explain it. You have to see it to understand it. But I'll tell you this...

God sure made our bodies intense and incredible!

We saw a healthy lung, a smoker's lung and a coal miner's lung. The difference between the healthy lung and the smoker' lung were amazing and disgusting. The coal miner's lungs you have to see for yourself. It's like looking into the night sky in the middle of the night, with clouds covering the stars and no moon. Pitch black. This picture doesn't show the coal miner's lung. Sorry.



My favourite one was definitely the skateboarder. It showed all of the ligaments, tendons and muscles and how they would be reacting when you did a one handed handstand.



What doctors in the past wouldn't have given to see the body like this!



I would recommend that other people go to see and learn all about the amazing human body. Even my six year old sister enjoyed it and thought that it was amazing. She probably knows more about the human body than you! (I'm just kidding - well maybe.) But we've been studying and she really does know a lot!