Over spring break, many Newton High School students went on fun travels out of state or even out of the country. For seniors, spring break can be a good time to go on a senior trip or just take a fun family vacation. Some students visited Mexico and the NHS choir attended Branson, Missouri for a competition to sing and perform. So many other places were explored by students over the break.
Two best friends, seniors Elena Vanderweg and Abby Koontz, flew to Mexico at the start of spring break and came back at the very end. They were constantly moving around the country for about a week and visited four cities in Mexico, including Guadalajara, Morelia, Guanajuato and Ixtapa Zihuatanejo. Vanderweg has family in Mexico, so it was easy to find a place to stay.
“We went out to eat every morning in many different places. We went to visit the pyramids, malls, and little shops, we went to the beach, and biking, we went to a mummy museum and at the end of the day, we would go out for dinner and go try a new ice cream place every night,” Vanderweg said. “My favorite food was at this restaurant called “Pelican” and I had these steak fries that were called “Pelican Fries” and they were delicious. I still can’t get them out of my head.”
After Vanderweg’s Tio and Tia told her in the summer of 2023 that she was invited to come visit them in Mexico, her mom booked plane tickets. This was Vandeweg’s first time flying. Overall, Vanderweg enjoyed the trip, particularly visiting the beach.
“My Tio planned everything out, somedays I woke up and had no clue what we were going to do. This was my first time flying, we flew on American Airlines and I really enjoyed the Biscoff crackers they handed out,” Vanderweg said. “My favorite part of the vacation was going to the beach called Ixapata because you could play sand volleyball with people you don’t know, tanning and swim in the waves.”
Like Vanderweg and Koontz, senior Jaden Avendano also visited Mexico, but on a ship. He went on a cruise called the “Royal Caribbean” with his family and started at a port in Galveston, Texas.
“My grandma surprised us with the cruise so we could have a family vacation. We decided to go on the cruise to spend more time together as a family, especially with my grandparents,” Avendano said. “We only stopped at two places. The first place was Roatan, Honduras and we did over an hour of ziplining through the forest then we went shopping at some of the shops around the port. The second place was Cozumel, Mexico where we took a boat to the main island and explored an underground river, then did some shopping around the port.”
Avendano really enjoyed being with his family and visiting an underground river but was excited to come back to see his friends and sleep in his own bed.
“My favorite part of the cruise was hanging out with my family every day and my favorite destination was Cozumel, Mexico when we got to visit an underground river,” Avendano said.
NHS choir went to Branson and performed by dancing and singing. Sophomore Olivia Buffalo was mostly prepared for the performance as they practiced every gold day. The group performed all “Grease” songs.

“I wasn’t too nervous to perform, but we did do some little changes before performing so I was scared for those changes,” Buffalo said. “Our choir prepared by practicing every gold day for an hour and a half. We also had a small clinic right before we performed with a clinician in Branson.”
The group did many other activities like going to Silver Dollar City, eating at sit-down restaurants, riding go-carts and going to the Branson landing.
“When we went to the landing, I ate at Saltgrass Steakhouse and got Kilwins ice cream. We went to a Hurts Donuts that was like connected to the place we performed in, where I got some good coffee and a donut,” Buffalo said. “My favorite part of the trip was Silver Dollar City.”