..well, even if you do get our Christmas card, this one will be a little bit different because it is written by
me, and not my mother, who spent 90% of the Christmas card talking about England and New York, and just 10% about what each person was actually doing. (
why did I get kicked out from my position of Castle Christmas card writer? I don't know.) Here is the deluxe version, written by Miriam Castle, complete with more pictures and special links to every vacation picture you need to see.
well, if anyone even reads my blog, you already know that we went to
England in the spring, and that we had an
amazing time. It has been my favorite vacation I have ever taken. Pretty much the beginning of the year was spent preparing for this vacation. And the timing was perfect, because in AP World History, I was in the Europe unit, so in class, we had
just talked about the things I saw in England. It was amazing. Also, the huge AP exam was a month away, and the British museum was a great place to review!
We also went to
New York and Philadelphia and other places in the summer. Which also was perfect timing, because it was some great summer preparation for AP US History! (If you haven't guessed by now, I'm really liking these AP history classes.) If you want to read more about what we did, click on the wonderful link. I guess 2014 was our lucky traveling year. Dad had wanted to take the family to these places for a long time, and I guess for 16 years, he put it off, but he figured, since I move out in a year and a half(!!!), we better get it done while we can, and it is amazing how my 2 dream vacations happened in the same year. who knows where we'll be going next!
so, now on to the family. all the important stuff my mom left out. now, do we start with the parents or with the oldest child? I don't remember how these work. I'll start with myself.
Miriam (aka me): almost 17, junior. 2014 was an important year for me. I turned 16 in January, and all of a sudden, my life began. I could drive, I could date! the first place I drove myself was to Cafe Rio to eat a celebratory pork burrito. not too long after that, I became the family chauffeur. Almost a year later, I still haven't had any car accidents and have enjoyed the freedom of driving to school and taking friends to lunch and being more "social" this year. I still take piano lessons, and had the chance to play "First Arabesque" by Debussy at Howard Castle in England! In addition, I learned all 15 pages to the 3rd movement of "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven and performed it in a competition and made it to the finals! I have accompanied for the choir, and in addition to
that, I teach lessons as well! I did the summer tennis city league and was almost undefeated (I lost
one match, but it went into tiebreaker), did private lessons all summer, and played JV Singles again for the high school team. I sang the National Anthem
twice for the school (once for a volleyball game, and for a basketball game). In addition to all this stuff, I am in 2 AP classes and I'm lucky if I ever get free time! It's a busy life, but I love it.
Wesley: 14, 8th grader who thinks he's in high school. This kid is just about as busy as I am. Wes is enjoying his second year at the gifted program at Provo High School (my rival high school). So, he
is in 8th grade, he just takes classes with fellow smart 8th graders at the high school. Who knows where he'll be next year. He has been taking ballroom classes at the school, and he has loved it. He thinks he wants to stay at Provo for high school just to do ballroom, but who knows. we're trying to convince him to go to Timpview with me. He is still taking voice lessons, and always chooses to practice at
night while I'm studying. He tried out for the school musical and got a small part as a townsperson. Wesley also played soccer this year and got red carded for slide tackling. He loves mountain biking, playing FIFA, and skiing. Now that ski season is here, no one ever sees him any more!
Justin: almost 12, 6th grade, Mom's favorite. If anyone asked Justin what this year was all about, he'd say, "Sports." Which is what he says every year. He played on his special soccer team with his friends again, and I asked him how many games he lost, and he said, "I don't know. like 3? But remember my last game when I scored 2 goals and one of them was a buzzer beater and it was 14-0?" He has become such a great soccer player, and I love watching him play! He is also doing bantam basketball again, and is a great point guard. He played tennis for the first time this summer on the city league, and he loved it! He and Mom would practice while I was at private lessons, and for his first year, he's pretty good! He can't beat me just yet, but then again, I've beat everyone in my family at least once. He is still taking piano lessons and is getting really good! He also started clarinet and plays in the 6th grade band. He did the ski program with the school in 5th grade, and loved it, and will start snowboarding in January. (You want to know how many times I went skiing this year?
Once.) He is always very happy, and can make anyone laugh. Maybe that's why he's Mom's favorite.
Mom- I'm not stating their ages once they get over 40. In the winter, she took Japanese classes at BYU. Before our vacations, she watched every British history documentary on King Henry VIII. She was a very supportive tennis mom this year, and would play with me every time we got the chance. She has tried to make it to all her kids' activities, which is a hard thing to do. She loves going mountain biking with Dad and Wes, and is still running races. she has only done half marathons this year. In her free time, she drives Dad to work on days I have the car, bakes cookies and other sweet treats, and works in her garden.
Dad- Has been married to Mom for 20 years now. Pretty impressive after having 3 crazy kids. He has been very generous in sharing his car with me since he refuses to buy me my own. It's very convenient since he rides his bike to work from April-November. When he doesn't, he usually agrees to have Mom drive him in the morning and have me pick him up. (I do let him drive at least once a week because I'm nice.) He went to China in the spring for a chemistry conference at some university (I can never remember which), and had some other conference in New Hampshire. He has been doing a lot of chemistry related things at work (well, he
is a chemistry professor at BYU). In his free time, he likes mountain biking and watching football, soccer, and basketball. His goal this year is to properly get me ready for the ACT (which is hard considering I'm ADD and only finished 1 section the first time I took it, and
he got perfect math scores), and to get Wesley to pass his classes.
