Johanna Speaks

So, last Saturday, we had the Fourth of July fireworks at the lake club! A ton of people came to watch them! And that day, around 5:00 in the afternoon, my friends ( the Garza girls ) came over, and we got to hang out together! They were also going to stay the night that night and watch the fireworks with us!! Then, the next morning, my parents would drop them off at the park and ride. 

Here's what we did from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM. 

When the Garza girls came, Ria was in her crate in the house because it was very hot ( 117 Fahrenheit ), so I opened it and let her out. At first, she wouldn't come out all the way, but she did after a few minutes. Surprisingly, she was fine with the girls, which was amazing! She would let them pet her, too! After petting Ria, my mom said that it was time for dinner.

 The dinner was hot dogs and chips. She also showed us how to make Italian soda because she had bought everything for it. I thought it would taste gross because it has half-and-half cream with soda water. But it tasted pretty good when I had tasted it. But it was weird at the same time. But after taking more and more sips, it tasted good. My mom also put whipping cream on top! 

After dinner, we talked and went outside for a bit. Annie got Ria a pup cup ( whipping cream in a cup ) because Ria had never had one before. And Ria liked it!  She kept sniffing and looking for more food afterward. We made her "speak," too, which is always super cute to see Ria do because her bark is so high-pitched, and sometimes she can't even bark!😂 And she lunges forward when she tries to bark! Which is scary if you are right in front of her.

After that, we started getting ready to go. We all got into our swimsuits and put a shirt over them for afterward. We wanted to bring our rollerblades, but my mom said, "You guys probably won't want to rollerblade in this heat. So don't take them down." So when we got down to the lake club, it was, I think, already 7:30 PM or something. So we swam for a bit and then got out. We didn't have anything to do, and we still wanted to go rollerblading. So my mom said she would go back to get them if we wanted to do it. We went back with her to get them, then got them, drove back down to the lake club, and started rollerblading in the tennis courts. We did that for about an hour, and it was getting pretty dark, so we headed to where our parents were and started looking for a spot to enjoy the fireworks. We found a spot right next to the water with a full sky view! It was perfect! Our parents were somewhere else because they had already found a spot. My friends and I just wanted an even better spot! 😊 We stuck our feet in the water and waited and talked until the fireworks would go off! And finally, they did! 

The fireworks were amazing!! The ending was the best, as always! 

Here are the videos and pics of the fireworks I got on camera! 

After the fireworks, we went home, blew up the air mattresses, got blankets and pillows, and headed to bed. We probably fell asleep by 11:30 p.m. 

The next morning, we woke up at 6:30 and went outside, hung out with Ria, and had breakfast. Then we got ready, and I left to go to church early for music practice while the other girls and Sophie stayed home. My parents dropped the girls off at the Park-and-Ride on their way to their church because the Garza girl's church starts earlier than ours. 

Our community does the fireworks the weekend after the 4th of July because it's cheaper. 

I loved everything about last Saturday. 

I can't believe the Fourth of July is already in a few days! I hope they will have the fireworks because they might decide not to have them because it might be too windy and hot, so it would be dangerous. But you know, hopefully not. 

I can't wait to watch them go off! It's going to be super pretty!! 

My parents, this time, aren't going to be doing a whole setup thing like we usually do with our family, but instead, grab a few chairs, sit down, and watch the fireworks. Usually, we would bring a lot of food and have a whole dinner there, as well as drinks and stuff, and have a bunch of our friends and family come. I think Simeon will definitely be coming, but I forgot who else is coming. I know Noelle and Cameron won't be able to come because they have a lot of plans going on. 

I hope the Garza girls will be coming too. ( hi, Abby or Annie, who is reading this). I hope you guys can come because we could go to the pool next to the lake club and swim a lot together! 😊

I wanted to bring Ria with me, but my mom said that would be too much for her because of all the loud noises and people. She's probably right, but maybe next year, when she's a lot more people-friendly and is okay with super loud noises, we can go. 

So my uncle David and his girlfriend stayed the night for about four days and three nights! His girlfriend's name is Trudy. I like her a lot! And she's super sweet and nice! I can always remember her name because of Monk, and Monk's wife was named Trudy in the show. She probably gets that a lot. 😊 

So Trudy slept in Ezra's room, and Uncle David slept on an air mattress in our living room. Ezra went over to Noelle's house and stayed the night there while Uncle David and Trudy were here.

They came last Friday at around 6:00 p.m. and had delicious meat for dinner and drinks at our house! I asked my uncle if he could get me something chocolaty on his way here because I had been craving it, so guess what he got me? A whole bag of different kinds of chocolate bars!! 😃I was so happy!! He usually spoils us a lot! And that night, I ate a lot of chocolate while watching my favorite show and the adults were at the lake club having drinks. 

The next day, my mom, Sophie, Trudy, and I all went to a thrift store because we all love going thrift store shopping! Then, after we had finished shopping, we headed to the next! And we met up with my sister Noelle. So she got to meet Trudy, and after we were done shopping there, we went to Panda for some lunch. Then, from there, we went back home. By then, it was about two or three a clock. We were all pretty tired, so we rested. Then, we went to the lake club while Sophie swam in the pool. We played some card games and had a few drinks. There was also karaoke going on, so we listened to it while we drank our drinks. The karaoke was ok. Some of the singers were.😑 

Then we went back home. The next day was Sunday, so we went to church, and I played in church with my brother as usual. Then afterward, we went to Noelle's house for lunch! And Jonathan Moreton, Jonny, Nicholas, Cameron, Julia, Noelle, Trudy, Uncle David, Ezra, Mom, Dad, and I were all there. I hope I listed everybody! If I didn't, sorry. 

Then, after that, we went home and rested. Then everybody went to the pool and my mom and I walked down to the lake club with my dog Ria. It was also Ria's first time seeing horses! As soon as she saw them she started to pull towards them. At some point one of the horses took another step towards Ria, and Ria jumped back super fast but was totally fine. She was just scared of the movement. 

When we got to the pool, I walked Ria around the pool gate ( because dogs are obviously not allowed in the pool ), and the Ramirezes were there, so they started petting Ria through the gate. Then they had a lot of dog hair on their hands because they were wet! 😂 But they didn't care. Ria was totally fine with the Ramirezes cousins petting her!! She had never met them before, either! So that was a good socializing exercise!

After that, we took Ria back, but this time in a car since it was already getting dark. And Ria loves to go in a car, so that was good. 

The next day, I got up early, harnessed Ria, hooked her to my bike, and rode her on our street. Then, after that, it was time to go with our uncle, Trudy, Sophie, and me to a coffee shop where my parents and Ezra were going to meet us to say goodbye to Uncle David and Trudy because that day, they were leaving to go back home in Portland, Oregon. But first, my uncle told us, let's grab some breakfast at a restaurant! So we went to Black Bear Diner. It was my first time ever being there! The food was very good there. Then, we were on our way to the coffee shop when Uncle David said, let's go to Turtle Bay Bridge! So we went there, and some people were setting up something, so my uncle asked them what they were doing, and they said that it's going to be the 28th anniversary of Turtle Bay Bridge and they were going to have people doing some ariels and be doing flips while harnessed to the rope! I forgot what they called it, sorry. But I thought it looked super cool! We saw the people all the way at the top of Turtle Bay Bridge, which is super high!! And you know what my uncle said to the people way up there?? He said while opening his arms, "I'll catch you! " 🤣🤣 Trudy and I were embarrassed and were trying to pull him away and start walking back to the car. We were also laughing. 😂

We finally got to the car and drove to the coffee shop. We all had coffees and chatted until Uncle David and Trudy had to go home.

So we all said good bye and they left.😞

But we had a great time together while they were here! 

So this morning, my dad and I were training Ria to come to us whenever she heard our voice saying, "Come." We also make her sit after she has come to us. We put a leash on her and lightly tug, saying, "Come." When she does come on her own without us giving her the tug a lot, we give her a treat. She is getting the hang of it, but we will need to practice this daily with her. We have a thirty-foot-long leash, but we only use about four feet of it. At the end of our training, we did it about fifteen feet away, and she came to me. I already knew she would come anyway because she knows me a lot. But the only thing is if she would come to my dad. So we tried that out too and she was heading towards his direction but went a bit off at the end. So my dad tugged the leash towards him and said, " Come". And she did. 

We are starting to train her because she has a super high prey drive. When we are on walks, she literally chases anything that is moving, such as people ( even though she is scared of people, she will go bounding towards them if they are jogging ), dogs, cats, birds, and deer. I try to snap her out of it each time, but it just gets worse and worse every day. So, we also need to teach her to " leave it." I've been watching videos on how to stop dogs from chasing anything that is moving fast. Here's a video I found:

My dad wants to teach Ria someday how to salute, too! 😂 So I searched it up, and there's a thing called the " Shy" trick, where the dog puts its paw over its head for a few seconds and then takes it off. But instead of us calling it the " Shy" trick, we can call it " Salute!" It would work the same. 😁 

Ria's been pretty good lately but is still scared of people. She isn't scared of my mom petting her, which is great! I think she lets my dad pet her, too, but I forgot. Sophie is fine with petting her, but Ezra definitely isn't. I still don't know what's wrong with Ezra and Ria. For some reason, Ria hides or runs from Ezra whenever she sees his face. And she even one time tried barely barking at him. This is the first time we've heard her bark because she's never barked at anything yet. But she will probably start barking at things the longer she stays here. 

But she is making more and more progress. Oh, and she loves going on bike rides! My dad started taking her on some just on our street, and after that, I started doing it a lot. She lets my mom put on the leash, which is good! But not my dad yet. We will be going camping soon in July, and I can't take Ria because my mom said that I would have to be around Ria all the time, and that isn't fair to me. So I have to leave Ria home for two days. And I don't think anybody will be able to put the leash on her except me or my mom, but hopefully she will let our friends do it because they live near us, and Ria is totally fine with them petting her, and she actually loves their family, which is good. I just need to invite them over to try it out because they will need to exercise her a lot while we are gone.

We took Ria to the lake and swam! She loves swimming and rolling around in the grass, and she's super cute when she does that. I bought her a thirty-foot leash so she can explore and have fun as if she were off-leash. We probably won't ever take her off-leash when we are at the lake because we are scared she might run off or something. But she loves it!!