Bio of Connor Newton

                                                Connor Newton

Hi, my name is Connor Newton. And I am 19 years old. I was born in Arkansas and I have lived in Missoula Montana for 12 years. I have two lovely sisters, who are very smart. The younger one is still in high school and the other is still in college. I have two pets, my dog is a female boxer lab mix named Dixie. The other is a male cat named Peter. My favorite activities include, writing science fiction, running, target shooting, and hiking. One interesting fact about myself is that I have a mild brain injury, which has made it harder to learn in school. My expedition highlight was hiking the Grand Canyon and it was still cool to be back in one of my favorite places to be. I found real copper while in Queen’s Creek Arizona. This trip was very exciting and full of surprises, like the end of the trip dinner, which we usually do not have on the first expedition. My favorite part of the trip was that I hiked in the Grand Canyon for the third time in my life. I am here to plan for college and my 3^rd goal, which is to increase my confidence in physical and mental performance. By the end of this semester I hope to have a higher thinking level than I do now. I want to better understand myself in my thinking skills. This will help me react faster in dire situations. I plan to learn a lot from this semester at SOAR

Nolan Turner's biography

I am Nolan Turner and I am 12 years old. I am from Decatur, Georgia in Atlanta. I have a sister, Mary Martha, 2 brothers, Doug and William “Tiger”, and a Mom and Dad. I have 2 dogs, Mick and Keith (Rolling Stones), a cat, Timber, and my sister has 2 guinea pigs, Enrique and Augusto. I like to play Basketball, soccer, shoot my BB gun, and occasionally play golf. I am part Colombian (in South America), and I like to run. This was my first time back packing, and my first time in Arizona. I really enjoyed being able to hike in and out of the Grand Canyon. I impressed myself by hiking 16.3 miles, in 3 days. Here at SOAR, I’d really like to make new friends. I like having to challenge myself physically and mentally because when you’re done, it makes you feel that much better and that is what happened on this expedition. I had a lot of fun and made a lot of new friends. I can’t wait to blog about the next expedition.

Allen's first blog

Hi I’m Allen Otero. I’m 19 years and I’m from Tucson Arizona.

I have a dad named Walter. My mom’s name is Kim. I have 3 brothers named Scott Raymond and Mark. I also have a sister named Anna. I have 6 chickens 2 parakeets a tortoise and a box turtle and 2 dogs named Zena and Hercules. My favorite activities are bowling, fishing, and reading, watching baseball with my brother, playing board games with my grand parents, listening to oldies, country music and soft rock. An interesting fact about me is that I’m going to be a great uncle in April. My highlight of the first expedition is hiking down the Grand Canyon for the first time and going to Petrified Forest National Park.

The Grand Canyon Trip Alex R

Alex R

1/25/11

The Grand Canyon 

Hi! my name is Alex. I live in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I live with my mom and dad and they are both very interesting. I have a snake named Mario and a black lab named Roy. In my free time love to skateboard, snowboard, play video games and eat. Some facts about me are that I like reptiles, McDonald’s, and I have an iron stomach. On this expedition I went to the Grand Canyons and Petrified National Forest. The best parts of the trips where going to the Grand Canyons for the first time and looking at petrified wood.  

SARAH WOLFE’S Blog 1/25/11

My name is Sarah Wolfe and I just turned 18 years old. I live in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. I have a lot of members in my family. My mom’s name is Beth. My dad is Lee. My little sister is Kylie. My stepdad is Ron. My stepmom is Marion and stepbrothers are Nate and Zach. I have a dog named Jake and a cat named Sadie. I like to read books. I like to draw different kinds of patterns. I enjoy catching up with far away friends on Facebook. I love watching different kinds of movies. I have a boyfriend named Saiain. I like Hugh Jackman a lot. My first highlight experience would have to be seeing Las Vegas for the first time. One of the things I wish to accomplish while I’m here at SOAR is trying to manage things by myself without asking for help.

kyle nystrom (and cedric)

I am Kyle Nystrom. I am adhd, a gamer, a thinker, a foodie, and completely insane. I live in LA and enjoy many foods, especially spinach and artichoke dip, fried rice, udon soup, ice cream, teriyaki noodles, clam chowder, cornbread, grits, nachos, chimichangas, quesadillas, bbq ribs, burgers, chicken-fried steak, apples, bananas, oatmeal, yogurt, my pseudo pad-Thai, red dead root beer, my various suicides (mixed sodas), fried shrimp, yams, cranberry relish, almond butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches, watermelons, pineapples, biscuits, pancakes, cereal, chocolate milk, waffles, various pasteries, Finnish pancakes and various pies and candies.

This is Cedric. He’s a gnome. He enjoys gardening, landscaping, traveling, making feasts, and planning world domination.

This was a great first expedition. The group works pretty fast and there is very little arguing. It is a great improvement from my old group, though I do miss certain individuals.

Going the biggest hole in the world was fun. In other words, we went to the Grand Canyon. We hiked down south rim and up north rim in 3 days, which is rather impressive. Even when some people had emotional breakdowns, we banded together and helped them out. We also got to see the oldest visible layer of rock in the world (and its fun to say. VISHNU SCHIST!).  I think cedric is planning something…

Petrified Forest is cool. These old trees were buried in ash and then their wood cells were replaced with silica over thousands of years, creating cell-by-cell replicas of the trees in bright crystals. It’s incredible and beautiful to see.  Sadly, people have taken so many pieces from the park it looks almost barren. All that’s left is the large pieces no one could carry. It’s very sad, so if you go please don’t take any pieces from the park. Also, some clams were buried to, creating stone clamshells. However, I don’t believe that story. There must be secret colonies of land clams hiding somewhere… IM ON TO YOU CLAMS!!! YOU SHALL BE CHOWDERED!

We also went rock-climbing. I finally summited something! The view was incredible, even if there was a big copper mine in the way. Cedric got to summit to.

It has been a fun expedition, and hopefully base will be as good.

Random thoughts:

I miss my family and friends, but my homesickness is less then last year.

Quote of the trip: “when Charles dickens writes in run-on sentences, its called style. When I write in run-on sentences, it’s called bad grammar.”

Cedric keeps eyeballing my food. He’s not getting any of mine.

Sgnow

Gnomish literacy.