A Few of My Favorite Things

This one is for McCall. She is my favorite girl.

Do you know what my favorite things are? Dinosaurs.

Also lizards, bugs, snakes, turtles, Wal-Mart, D.I. I DO NOT love the boring store. I don't know why mumma and dadda take me to that store so much. But I do like the baskets at that boring store. There is this basket with no handles that you sit on and dadda pushes us around the store. I definately love that basket.

[Dad's Note: The Boring Store is Home Depot. Bridger hates Home Depot with a passion. The basket with no handles is the push cart. We bought some potting soil and sand, and that cart was a hit with the boys.]

Coin Size- What's Up With That?

This one is for 26. She's a wonderful triceratops.

I've been thinking about something very strange. Dimes are smaller than a penny but they are worth ten cents and a penny is worth one cent. Why are dimes smaller than nickels and pennies? That's just bizarre. You know what else is crazy? A dollar is 100 cents but it's made out of paper and you can rip it right in half. But you can't rip a penny! What's up with that?

Picture of the Week: Wacky at Wal-Mart

Sunshine at School

I'm almost out of school. I've already been in school 109 days.

Do you know what's a new song that we sing at my school now? You Are My Sunshine. We sing it every day. We always sing a song in school every single day and that is our new song. That's Weston's special song but I like it too. Weston has a froggy named Sunshine that plays that song. Braxton doesn't sing that song good. He sings it like a monster. When I go to school next I'm going to tell him to sing it right.

A Tough, Well-Hydrated Kid

This one is for McCall.

This is a picture of all my tatoos. McCall put just them on me. She knows how to do a lot of things. I am making a tough face. Do you know why I'm tough? Because I drink lots of water. Water is the best drink in the whole world.

Do you know what I just thought of? A good way to get your water is Easy Mac. I love Easy Mac so much. I eat it every single day. It has water in it. Then mumma puts a piece of ice in there to cool it off. That's even more water. So Easy Mac is definately a great way to get some water.

[Dad's Note: Easy Mac: The new generation of hydration! Hey, I think Bridger should pitch that idea to Kraft!]

Monday Mailbag: Daffodils and Hot Air Balloon Rides

Responding to Spring Flowers for Mumma, Grammy said...
Mumma is so lucky.. I love daffodils! Did you know they are the national flower of Wales?

I have a joke for Weston.. could you tell it to him for me? What do frogs drink?
"Croak-a Cola"

BRIDGER RESPONDS: Grammy, those daffodils are very pretty flowers and I knew mumma would like them. Are there lots of whales in Wales? I'll go tell West that joke...

WESTON RESPONDS: (laughs) I wish I could drink some croak! Maybe if those froggies don't like the croak, I can drink it for them!

Responding to Hot Air Balloon Time, Tiff said...
Congratulations, Bridger! I'm very proud of you for working so hard. I got to ride in a hot air balloon when I was in 2nd grade but I don't remember it. I'm sure you'll have fun and I'll be excited to see your pictures.

BRIDGER RESPONDS: Dadda took lots of pictures. It was so cool, Tiff. What color was your hot air balloon? Mine was red and white and it said "MAX" on it.

Responding to Hot Air Balloon Time, Tammy said...
I'm so glad you read every night so you could a ride on the balloon. I loved my ride on the balloon. I was surprised at how noisy it was, but it is soooo much fun. You will like it, just like your dada, Dustin, and Tyler.

BRIDGER RESPONDS: Tam, my hot air balloon was only medium noisy. But it was kind of noisy when the guy blew fire into it. I read 164 pages in those books! I want to go on another hot air balloon ride now.

Weston Fills In: I Love Sara Heavens

I am writing Bridger's blog tonight because he is trying to read sight words and he doesn't want to sound them out. He thinks those sight words are hard.

I was going to talk about Sara Heavens. I love Sara Heavens. She sings songs in our car. The song that she sings is my song. I love that song. It's special to me.

There is another Sara Heavens that isn't Sara Heavens and me and mumma was driving and she was singing my song and it wasn't Sara Heavens. I don't like it if the real Sara Heavens doesn't sing it.

[Dad's Note: Weston is talking about country singer Sara Evans. She is to Weston what Alison Krauss is to Bridger. His special song is "Never Alone" from the Jim Brickman album, Escape. He knows every word. Mumma calls this her song for her boys. Sara Evans is featured on the album track, which we've listened to in the car for some time. But for some reason the radio version of this song features Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum instead of Evans. I agree with West. Sara is hands-down the better vocalist.]

I Could Be a Paleontologist

This one is for Tammy.

I could be a paleontologist, did you know that? Paleontologists know so much about dinosaurs that they can find a bone and they know which dinosaur it came from. I would love to find a dinosaur skull and dinosaur bones and put them together like a puzzle. I was just learning about mososaurs. They are swimming dinosaurs and they are very powerful. There are different kinds of mososaurs. Some have smooth backs and some have ridges, but they're all pretty cool. There is platecarpus and clidastes and globidens and tylosaurus. My favorite is platecarpus, but I like tylosaurus too because it sounds like my uncle Tyler. Maybe that could be his favorite dinosaur!

Control, We Are 'Go' For Launch

This one is for my teacher.

I went in a hot air balloon today because I won the reading contest! Me and Jane and Silas got to go and lots of people got to watch. A hot air balloon is so cool because it's this big balloon and a man in a blue coat turns a machine and fire goes up in it. That's what makes the balloon stay up.

When it was my turn to go up, I put my foot into this little hole in the basket and climbed in. Then it started to feel like I was floating and that's when I knew we were flying in the air. I didn't look at the bottom of the basket. I just looked out the side of the basket and my teacher lifted me up so I could see better. We were very high and when I looked down I could see all of the kids from my school.

When we came down it felt like I had parachutes on me. Then it was time to get out of the basket. I love riding in a hot air balloon. I definately need to do that again. There was no way I could have taken Stein up there. But I did take a dinosaur up there. Now that dinosaur's been in a hot air balloon!

[Dad's Note: I honestly thought Bridger would freak out once it came time to climb in. He did get a bit nervous the first time they ignited the burner, but he was ok after that. I also thought he might be disapponted that the balloon was tethered and stayed low. Wrong again, his first words after landing were "Dad- did you see how high I was?!"]

Jungle Barbers

This one is for Jane.

Did you know what I found out? That people who live far away in the jungle use piranhas to cut their hair instead of haircutting things. They take some piranhas and cut their mouth off and then peel the skin off the mouth and then the haircutter guy cuts people's hair with their teeth. I think that's cool.

I do not like getting my hir cut, but maybe some day dadda can cut one of our piranhas' mouth off and use it to cut my hair. That would be a haircut I'd like to get!

[Dad's Note: Ours are actually pacu, the piranha's vegetarian cousin.]

Wednesdays with West: Herbie

[Dad's Note: Today's launch was rescheduled due to weather. We're told it may be tomorrow or Friday. We'll keep you informed.]

This one is for Herbie.

I is watchin' this show about Herbie. He's a car that's alive. He's a crazy car and he can open his doors by his self. There is a cool car that's green that has lots of fire on it. Oh, it just showed it again. Now Herbie's bein' crazy. Herbie is in a race and he just winned that race cause he got more gas than the other guy.

I saw the real Herbie at Dizzy World. I took my picture by him at Florida. I love Herbie.

Dust Bites

This one is for an entimologist. I want to do entimology. That's bug-ology. I have to learn to read first.

I have a baby spider that looks like a dust bite but it isn't a dust bite. I thought it was a dust bite but now I know it's just one of those brown spiders. Mumma caught that spider and put it in the bag. Seems like every time I put a bug in a bag, it doesn't live so long. Like my ants are dead, my potato bugs are dead. My worms are dead.

Dust bites are little creatures that come into your house really fast when you open the door. They live in Europe. They look really freaky. They get by your bed. When they bite you, you can never sleep again. That's why I wish I would get bit by a dust bite so I wouldn't have to go to sleep. Sleeping's no fun and there's so much to do when you're sleeping.

Too bad though- I don't live in Europe.

Contest Results In: It's Hot Air Baloon Time!!

[Dad's Note: This week's Monday Mailbag has been bumped to tomorrow.]

Oh I definately need to talk about this reading contest. Guess what? I won! It will be me and Jane and Silas that get to go in the hot air baloon with teacher. Teacher read the paper and it said that we won. First, I was like "No way." Then, I was like "Yes!!"

Silas was so excited. He said "My first time in a hot air balloon!" It's my first time in a hot air balloon too. But not Jane's. This will be her second time. She says it's really fun. I sure like Jane.

I wish dadda could come up there with me- even Stein. But I probably couldn't bring Stein because it would be very hard to get him up there. Maybe I will take a picture of him up there with me.

I can take pictures of all the things I love up there with me and I could tell Silas and Jane all about them while we're up there in that balloon.

Thank you everybody that helped me win that reading contest!

[Bridger, Silas, and Jane lift off on Wednesday, weather permitting. We'll take plenty of pictures. Again, thanks to all that sponsored and encouraged Bridger in his reading!]

Made In China

This one is for Mumma.

I would like to go to China sometime. Madison has this dragon toy that has no wings but it can still fly. Hers is pink and blue and it has a sticker that says it was made in China. I want to go to China and get one of those dragons like Madison's so we can play them together. I asked dadda what would be a good day to go to China and he said he'd have to think about that.

[Dad's Note: The results of the school reading contest will be in tomorrow. Stay tuned!]

Picture of the Week: Spring Flowers for Mumma

Picked fresh from her flower bed!

Finding Stellaluna

This one is for Stellaluna.

Guess what I read today? Stellaluna. I love Stellaluna so much. Stellaluna is a bat that gets lost in the jungle. Then she lives with birds. I can't believe I found that book!

Today was my very last reading day. I readed every single day and I hope I get to ride in the hot air balloon. Thanks for everybody in the whole world for helping me.

[Dad's Note: THANK YOU, everybody who sponsored Bridger! We love you all very much.]

Wednesdays with West: Frogs, Spider Hats, and Flying Cars

This one is for my froggy.

We watched Meet the Robinsons right now and it is cool because it has cars and froggies in it. My favorite part of the show is the car part. There is a machine car that flies. There is a little kid named Lucas and he made a machine. Then a bad spider hat broke that machine. That spider hat's eyes turned red when he got naughty.

My other favorite is the froggy part where the froggies was singing. I have a froggy and I love him so much. He was to the pet store for a long time and we got him back. Now he lives at our house. He's a fireberry frog.

Granny from Tescas and Kelsi is at Wa-Mert right now. They are there for a long time. Maybe they are buying food. I think they are buying cake.

[Family Zoo Curator's Note: Weston's frog is a firebelly toad.]

Bridger's Reading Stats
Reading time: 20 minutes
Total pages: 31
Books: Frogs and Toads and Tadpoles Too

Alison Krauss Could Be My Dolly

This one is for Alison Krauss.

I was just wondering if Alison Krauss has a dolly. A dolly is when you find somebody that you love so much and they are your dolly. Mumma and dadda call each other dolly.

I don't think Alison Krauss has a dolly. I was thinking maybe I could be her dolly because I love her so much. The only thing is maybe she'd make me sing if I was her dolly. I don't like singing very much, but I would definately play my ukulele for her. I hope she likes dinosaurs.

Tonight's Reading Stats
Reading time: 22 minutes
Total pages: 65
Books/Sections: Tyler is Shy; Our New Baby; Endangered Reptiles- The Marine Iguana; The First Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life- Under the Sea

Monday Mailbag: Dromeosaurs, Grown-Up Work, and the Goodyear Blimp

Responding to Singers, Fiddlers, and People Under Water, Kristen said...
You asked if I liked dinosaurs...and I must say, I do VERY much!! :D My little sister also loves them! And you know, thinking about it now, it would be pretty awesome if Alison sang a song about dinosaurs! Did you know her son, Sam, loves dinosaurs too? What's your favorite dinosaur Bridger?

BRIDGER RESPONDS: No way! I didn't know Alison Krauss had a boy. That's a pretty lucky boy. If he likes dinosaurs, maybe he could come over and we could play. My favorite dinosaur is all the dinosaurs- even crocodiles, snakes, alligators, lizards- every reptile in the whole white world and the whole white space. But right now I'm thinking of a dromeosaur, or raptor. Probably one that has short feathers that is hunting for his prey. Oh I just saw a very pretty picture of Alison Krauss.

Responding to Helping Hilly Give Blood, Steph said...
I would be willing to bet Hillari was grateful for your help with her blood donation. Maybe medical school is in your future.

BRIDGER RESPONDS: Stephy, I'm going to do all of the 'ologies' when I grow up- even doctor-ology. Is that one of the ologies? I could be a people doctor and an animal doctor. It would be cool to be a dinosaur doctor in the time of the dinosaurs. I will do all kinds of work when I grow up, like clean my room or play on a 'puter like dadda.

Responding to School Reading Contest, Grammy said...
I sent you some moolah for your contest and I hope you win. If you want to take all those special people and Stein though.. the school might have to get a Texas size balloon.. or the Goodyear Blimp. Ask Dad to look that up for you!

BRIDGER RESPONDS: Grammy, here is a picture of a blimp. That's a funny name.

Thank you very much for the money for my read-a-thon! It makes me have special feelings. Oh I hope I win that trip in a hot air balloon.

Responding to Did Jesus Really Live Again, Ammon said...
Thanks for sharing your feelings about the ressurection. You truly shall live again and so will I thanks to a loving Savior. You're awesome. It's so fun to read your blogs.

BRIDGER RESPONDS: Ammon, I know who you're named after- that guy who cut off bad guys' arms. I was learning about him one time at church. That guy was true blue.

Tonight's Reading Stats
Reading time: 21 minutes
Total pages: 8
Books/Sections: First Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life- Dromeosaurs; Fantastic Frogs; Amazing Snakes

**4 Reading Days Remaining! Thanks to so many of you who have sponsored Bridger's reading so far. We are very grateful for your generosity. If you haven't yet and would like to sponsor Bridger, click on the PayPal box in the sidebar!**

Did Jesus Really Live Again?

This one is for Kelsey, the one that lives with Ryan. This is a picture of me and Kelsey at the Easter egg hunt.

Easter is about the resurrection. John the Baptism baptized Jesus. He dunked his head in the water, then his whole body, then brought him back up. Then some bad guys put nails in his feet and his hands and they stabbed a cross on his side. So he died.

Jesus was dead for 3 days in the tomb. That's a cave with a little bed and some sheets and it had a big, big huge boulder in front of it. Then an angel came and moved the rock and he came back alive. And so shall I. Now I know what that part of the song means- "and so shall I."

Did Jesus really live again?
Yes, when the third day came.
He wakened and he left the tomb.
He called Mary's name.

And of the fish and honeycomb he did truly eat.
Did Jesus really live again, after he had died?
Oh yes, and so shall I.

That's what the last part of that song means, that I will live again after I die.

Tonight's Reading Stats
Reading time: 20 minutes
Total pages: 3
Books: Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures- Platecarpus; The Ultimate Book of Dinosaurs- Built For Fighting; Uncovering T-Rex- The Cardiopulmonary System

Picture of the Week: Easter

Tonight's Stats
Reading time: 20 minutes
Total pages: 12
Books: Spiders' Secrets

Easter Eggs and Melting Snowmen

Did you know you can color eggs? Yep. I made lots of eggs for Easter. I drawed pictures of dinosaurs and experiments on them. Then you put them in the color water and they turn colors. Here is some pictures of my eggs.


Today I read a book that is very special to my teacher. It's one of her favorite Christmas books. It's a good one about a little girl and her snowman keeps melting. I don't see why she couldn't just take her snowman and put him in the freezer until it got winter again. That's what I would have done.

Tonight's Stats
Reading time: 20 minutes
Total pages: 17
Books: Lilo & Stitch, Sadie and the Snowman

All of the Ologies

This one is for Gammy.

Guess what? I'm watching more Nigel Marven shows and the one I watched first is coming on again. That tells me that all the Nigel shows I just watched will keep coming on all night! That means I will stay up all night to watch them.

Nigel Marven is a zoologist and adventurer. When I grow up I want to do all of the 'ologies.' I want to do paleontology, marine biology, herpetology, entimology. That's what I'll do when I grow up.

Today I read a book at Gammy's I want so bad- Stellaluna. Oh I love that book. It even has a Stellaluna that comes out that you can hang in your room. I just don't know where I would find that book to buy it.

[Dad's Note: Few books really touch the Dinosaur Boy's heart like Stellaluna, the story of an orphaned fruit bat that is adopted by birds.]

Tonight's Stats
Reading time: 20 minutes
Total pages: 15
Books: Clifford's Christmas; Under the Bed; Stellaluna

Nigel Marven is On Our TV!

This one is for Grace because she gave me this book.

[Get ready, boys and girls, Bridger is a chatterbox tonight...]

Tonight I read about pachycephalosaurus, dilophosaurus and deinosuchus. I read them in those same books I read last night- the same books from Wal-Mart that I said rocked last night.

I watched a Nigel Marven show before and now there's another one on. The other one was about piranhas. There was a dead chicken and it was in the water. He must have pushed it out there and the piranhas attacked it and just left it bones. I hope the piranhas we have don't do that.

This one is anacondas with zoologist and adventurer Nigel Marven. He is swimming with the anacondas. Now he's holding another anaconda. It looks like a baby. Oh dang! Now he's walking in the water barefeeted and there's anacondas in there. He's saying he can feel one under his toes.

Now he's trying to catch it. Caught it. This one's a big one. He's saying that anaconda's in the boa family. They are fascinating. This one's a male. That means he's a boy snake. When you hold them you have to hold their head really tight or they will bite you.

Now it's a commercial. Hah! This guy is saying he plays with his toy boats in the toilet. Oh great, another Animal Planet commercial. Actually I like those ones.

Now the show's back on and there are people in the jungle dancing and playing drums and Nigel is sleeping on a chair like a cowboy. Now he's riding a cow- I'm not kidding you. Why on earth is he riding a cow?

Man, I can't believe we have Nigel Marven on our TV! I can't believe it. You never know what Nigel Marven is going to do. I'm not afraid to touch snakes like Nigel Marven. I even wish I could get a snake but momma says abso-freaking-lutely not.

[Dad's Note: Awesome- another classic Bridger TV narration. We actually don't have piranhas, but we do have pacu (a close relative of the piranha), which really freaked out our Venezuelan Dish Network installer a couple weeks ago.

Nigel Marven is a Crocodile Hunter type who has done several dinosaur specials and is occasionally featured on Animal Planet. Bridger thinks Nigel is the coolest guy in the world.]

Tonight's Reading Stats
Reading time: 30 minutes
Total pages: 8
Books/Sections: Colossal Book of Dinosaurs- Pachycephalosaurus; Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures- Dilophosaurus; Mammoth Book of Dinosaurs- Deinosuchus

Dinosaur Stories That Rock

This one is for deinonychus.

I have a great idea for my blog! I've been reading these wonderful stories in these dinosaur books we got at Wal-Mart. These stories rock! [Dad's Note: That's a new one.]

Here's the deal- I'm going to have dadda write some of these stories on my blog so that everybody in the world can read them! Whoever writes these stories is a good writer. I learn lots of stuff from them. Like how a deinonychus can judge his jumps. Judge means he looks at the dinosaur he wants to kill, then he can tell how far to jump. I learned that brachiosaurus loves cool water very much, just like me.

[I suppose I'm legally ok to reprint some excerpts from these stories. Heck, I'm sure these authors could use the publicity. What I'll do is create a 'Stories' section and post them there. The boy really loves these stories.]

Tonight's Stats
Reading time: 30 minutes
Total pages: 10
Books/Sections: Colossal Book of Dinosaurs- Deinonychus; Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures- Brachiasaurus; Mammoth Book of Dinosaurs- Albertosaurus

[Thanks to all of you who have sponsored Bridger's reading so far. He appreciates it very much. If you would like to donate, click the PayPal box in the sidebar.]

Omeisaurus, Dolphins, and Sharks

I just did my reading tonight. I was really wanting to read this book about dinosaurs that has stickers where you read the page and then put a sticker on it. Hilly gave me that book a long time ago. We read about sauropods and I found out there was this sauropod called a omeisaurus. Paleontologists first thought he had a club on his tail, but actually they found out that the club was from another dinosaur, not the omeisaurus!

Then we read the dolphin part of my sea book. I learned about that if a dolphin is sick, the other dolphins will take care of it. So I hope that means that the other dolphins at SeaWorld take care of Stein because he is very old and has no teeth.

Then we read my shark book and I learned how to tell a mako shark from a bull shark. The bull shark is gray and the mako shark is kind of blue. I did really good sounding out my words tonight. That means I might get a good note from teacher.

Tonight's Stats
Reading time: 23 minutes
Total pages: 5
Books/Sections: Sharks- Overview; Under the Sea- Dolphins; Dinosaurs!- Jurrassic Sauropods


[Dad's Note: Please check the link to the right titled "Support Bridger's Blog" to see why Bridger is giving his reading stats.]

School Reading Contest

My school is doing this reading contest where the winner gets to fly in a hot air balloon with their teacher. Oh I want to go on that hot air balloon! A hot air balloon has this basket on it and a balloon's on a basket and you're in the basket and you go up in the air.

If I could take whoever I want up there with me I'd definately take Tiff and Tammy and my whole family. And Nigel Marven, Bear Grylls, Jack Hanna, some dinosaurs, and Alison Krauss. Oh, and Stein the dolphin without teeth. We'd have to take a big tank of saltwater up there for Stein, though. I'd also find a really good entimologist to take up there with me.

I will read 20 minutes a day so I can win. I hope I win because that would be so fun!

[Dad's Note: Bridger's school is holding a read-a-thon fundraiser. Bridger's goal is to read 20 minutes per day for the next two weeks. Students may ask people to sponsor them by making a donation of any amount as he reads. The student in each class who meets his/her reading goals and brings in the most donations for reaching their goal receives a ride in a hot air balloon.

If you see Bridger regularly and would like to sponsor him, you can make a cash or check donation in person. Anybody else in the world who would like to make a donation can do so by clicking the PayPal box in the sidebar of this blog. Those of you who live outside the U.S. may choose to donate using your national currency via PayPal.

I really don't like the idea of soliciting funds- especially from friends and family. So please understand that there are no expectations here. Bridger thought his blog would be a good way to get the word out (ever the little marketing exec) and we figured we'd throw it out there for anybody who would like to donate.

Bridger really wants to win a hot air balloon ride, and if he can earn it I think it will be really good for him. So sponsor him if you'd like- and only if you'd like- and watch for daily updates on his reading status.]

Picture of the Week: Killer Whale Tank