Pictures

Today I woke up around 7:30 to another loud bang.  This time it was my brothers phone that fell of his top bunk.  So I decided whats the point in going back to sleep.  So I went downstairs got ready and ate some breakfast.  When I got down there I saw that like everybody else was up.  So my grandparents wanted me to play me a song on the ukelele so I did.  Then we started talking about random stuff and then we got onto the subject of pictures.  From that point until lunch we watched videos and looked at pictures.  There are enough  pictures to look at.  By the way in one blog I think I said defiantly instead of definitely.  So when lunch rolled around we stopped looking at pictures and ate.  Then until we had to leave looked at more pictures.  We had to leave early so we could pick up two other girls to take to Nelson for the volleyball tournament.  So today we met two New Zealanders who were actually exchange students from Germany.  Their accent was pretty cool.  When we got there I was not really looking forward to playing.  I found out I would be playing with 17 year olds.  I thought I would not stand a chance at going against these girls.  I did pretty good in the first game.  We won that one.  The second game was against a really good team that has been to real tournaments.  We lost the first and second match but we were really close on the third match.  This game was best 3 out of 5.  During the third match the coach put me in and I really did not know what I was doing.  My sister backed into me and blamed it on me and then at one point she got mad at me and said, "I'm going to kill you."  The next point we won so it was my turn to serve.  My sister lit a match and ignited the fire inside me because at that point I was full of rage against her and the other team.  Three aces later I was still burning on the inside.  An ace is when you serve the ball and the other team doesn't even touch it before it hits the floor.  What they didn't know was that a 12 year old just did that.  So I played pretty well until the end of the game.  I showed good control after the game because while the other team was doing up-downs I wanted to walk over to the coach and say I was 12.  Oh so tempted.  When we dropped of the nice German exchange students we went to KFC-and yes they have that here-and ordered a lot of food because we had a pretty big group.  We had leftover.  And then we watched 20/20 and how celebrities kids tell paparazzi to go away and stuff.  Then we heard about the cruise that had a fire and had to be towed to Alabama.  Oh and if you had not heard of it before, go to Goat Edition Taylor Swift on Youtube.  Very random and pretty funny.  They also have more but that is one of the best.  I think that is the ONLY song I will ever listen to by Taylor Swift.

Tick Tock

Today I woke up to a big bang.  When I looked over I saw that my brothers computer fell of the top bunk onto the floor.  He woke up like five minutes later and asked what the noise was.  I pointed to the floor to answer his question.  Then I realized my grandparents were coming today.  When I woke up I got ready ate breakfast-for the first time in like 20 years-and started school.  I just read a bunch of poems by Shakespeare and Robert Frost and answered questions.  I heard that my school is pretty easy compared to some peoples back home.  Then we started cleaning.  Around the time we were basically done cleaning it was time for my sister and mother to go and pick up my grandparents.  It was about a three hour drive to Picton.  During that time I got the sheets from the drying rack outside and made the beds.  Then I waited and waited and waited.  Finally I got really bored and went to do some random stuff.  For the first time in at least a year I got on instagram again.  Then I read some more for school and sketched some random stuff like the logo for my ukelele case.  Then I went downstairs to make dinner.  I made the most complicated meal in the world. Mac and cheese.  After my first incident with it I was hoping to not burn it.  It turned out all right.  Then I went to watch a documentary on Queen Elizabeth and what it was like to grow up in the palace.  Then I made some tea and watched My Kitchen Rules.  If you have not heard of it it is because it is based on people from New Zealand and Australia.  The two people I wanted to go home did.  Then random shows came on but I stayed downstairs because I couldn't think of anything else to do.  When they did arrive at 9:30 we had a short time to talk because everyone was tired.  My grandpa came in saying "The roads could not have been curvier."  I laughed at this because in the past two months I have seen curvier.  Then my grandma wanted ice water.  In New Zealand they basically do not believe in ice so you have to go to the store and buy these little things where you can make ice.  Also there is not a freezer in the fridge so you have to go outside and get it.  Then we asked them how Winter was going and they said it was in the 20's and it was snowing and sleeting.  I answered my saying it has been in the 20's here to because 20 degrees celsius is about 70 degrees and it can range from 50 to about 85.  Then we all got ready and went to bed.

Stupid Computers

Last night I started to download a movie when everybody else was not using the internet and at the rate it was going the previous night I figured it would take about ten days to download.  When I woke up I was surprised to find it was done downloading.  So I decided that I wanted to watch it.  When I started to watch the movie my computer sent me a message saying that my startup disk was full.  When I looked at the storage it said I had 0 gigabytes out of 120 gigabytes.  I was very confused because it said that the memory was full because of other.  My memory can get full with applications, music, movies, photos, backups, and other.  It said that other was basically 95 percent of what was taken.  So I started to delete old files, movies, and pictures.  I finally took it to my dad and said that he needs to try to fix it or I was going to throw it off are balcony which is basically a cliff.  So he did and checked the software and stuff.  Finally he just said that I need to delete more things.  Now I just pulled it up and it went from 2.56 gigabytes free to 68.23 gigabytes free.  So I guess I am all good now.  Then I started to do school. And FINALLY I decided to start literature.  Well I kind of got addicted to it because all you do is read a story from this book and answer questions.  I love to read so you get sucked into the stories and you keep reading and you realize that you just did six lessons.  Also before I started school the internet messed up so we went with no internet until about 8.  We got these little internet sticks though a while ago so we used those.  So while I was doing more lessons then I usually do my dad came up and asked if either me or my sister were done using one of those internet stick things.  I just had to finish one more lesson and then I took it down stairs.  Then I started to get impatient because Revenge was coming on tonight.  That is one of those shows where if you watch one of the episodes you are sucked in until they stop making them.  And guess who is sucked in with me.  My dad.  Nobody else likes it because it is like a girl getting revenge on people who have messed up her life.  There is a lot of fighting and planes blow up and stuff like that.  Anyway when it finally came on I sat there and watched it and that hour of my life went by really fast.  When I went up to bed I got on this drawing kick and decided to try and draw Senaca Crain of the Hunger Games because he has this really weird mustache.  I thought I did not do so bad either.  Then I went to bed while waiting for my grandparents to get here.  They arrive tomorrow.

Wet Dog and Volleyball

Today we did school and waited for volleyball practice.  On are way to practice we talked for a minute and my dad said "I have never seen the water so low," and my sister said, "IT'S LOW TIDE!"  I laughed at this because just about every time we drive by the ocean it is low tide and somebody always asks why the water is so low and my dad says, "IT IS LOW TIDE!  WHY CAN YOU NOT JUST GET THAT IN YOUR HEAD?!"  So we had a whole conversation about that at the table while eating dinner.  In the first practice (12-14 year olds) I felt like an idiot because it is hard to understand New Zealand accents because they talk really fast.  I realized that we Americans talk very slow compared to these people.  Anyway he told me a couple of things that I just could not make out.  Finally I figured it out.  People just don't care about practice here and they do not try hard.  In the second practice (15-17 year olds) it was better and I could understand.  The team I played with during the tournament was supposed to go to one court and play with the team I will be playing with this week.  It was good because I did not really want to play with all the boys and girls who did not care enough.  Brazilians were there too and they just kicked the ball like a soccer ball the whole time.  This practice was way more fun.  When we got home my dad was making dinner.  We had pineapple, pork, weird vegetables,  and rolls.  It was all very good but when I was cutting my pineapple into parts one decided to fly off my plate and onto the ground.  So I picked it up and put it on my brothers plate.  He could not figure out which piece it was until he asked if it was the one with the hair on it.  So he put it back on my plate.  So we were talking and I had just finished my pineapple and I look down and see all the pineapple eaten.  That includes the piece that fell on the ground.  So when I said that I think half the people at the table choked.  My mom said this was funny because of the face I was making and the way I said it.  For dessert we had this little pie thing with fruit on it.  When we ate it it had the taste of how wet dog smelled.  So I just gulped it down as fast as I could because I liked the outside and the inside just not the middle.  Later I just ate strawberries.  I never thought I was going to get a brain freeze from a strawberry.  Also channel two has some of the best shows I have ever seen.  This one show called Revenge is really good and I am excited because tomorrow night it comes on and I think someone dies.  Not happy about the dying part but the fact that it comes on tomorrow.

Zeal and Abel

Today we woke up and went to this weird beach.  I call it weird because high tide comes in and when it starts to recede you can literally watch the tide go back out in just a couple of hours.  When we got there it was still high tide so there was no beach to walk on.  Then the water started to recede so we could walk on the beach.  We found shells that were really flat.  Also my sister found a starfish on a rock.  It was about the size of a penny.  After finding out the beach had starfish me and my brother started looking for them determined to find some.  The water receded enough for me to walk to a sand bar.  When I got over there I went to see what the birds were looking at.  When I got over there I saw two starfish the size of my palm.  I went and took them back to the bucket.  At one point we found three or four perfect sand dollars.  Also when the water receded enough to look through the seaweed I found a whole colony of starfish.  I went and showed my parents.  We found a lot of starfish.  My dad said we could each take two back and dry them out so we could take them with us.  I named mine Zeal and Abel because we found them in New Zealand and in the Abel Tasman Sea.  My sister named one of hers Patrick.  After that we looked for pippys.  They are like clams or oysters.  You can eat them so my dad wanted to collect a few.  When we got back we laid out the starfish and sand  dollars and went to take showers.  I was really hungry when dinner rolled around.

Day 58

Once again this will be a very boring blog.  All I really did today was practice my ukelele and do school.  All I really did for school was read.  I only read because I had a lot of reading to do and that was all I wanted to do.  In a few days we are going wale watching and swimming with seals so it should get a little more exciting other then "I did school today."

Day 57

Today we just did school and lay around.  I enjoyed today a lot.  This will probably be a very boring blog.  It will also be short.  I was doing school which involved reading Swiss Family Robinson.  I had to read this for school last year too so I know what happens.  I am now over 2100 views for my blog.  People from all over the world are reading it.  I know some from New Zealand, Brazil, Korea, and Germany have read my blogs.  That was only a small list of some countries I know of.  I can't believe I have already been gone 57 days.  It can go by really fast.  My grandparents are coming to visit us next week and I think if we do what we plan to do they will be overwhelmed with traveling.  I already am and the traveling has been spaced out a little bit.

Volleyball Tournament

Today we did not do anything but sit around and wait for the volleyball tournament.  With each passing  minute I got more and more stressed.  I wasn't sure if I was going to be playing on the same team as Hailey or on my own age team.  Then I started to wonder if they were going to be amazing.  When we got there Hailey found some team mates she knew so she went with them.  Then Allen, the guy who coaches, asked if I was going to follow them.  So I ended up playing on a 15 year old team.  They do this weird thing called saucer.  I did not really understand it until the second game.  I did not play a lot in the first game but Allen made me play in the third set.  Everybody was confused because of the weird rotation.  Even with everybody confused we won.  So before the second game he showed us how the rotation worked.  We were much better in the second game.  I got to play more and I got to serve.  Serving is my stronger suit.  My sister has been serving but missed some on purpose so she wouldn't serve the whole game.  I thought that by serving I could redeem myself from the previous game.  I served really good rockets at them and they could not return the ball.  I won us a few points but then I saw we were getting close to 20 so I served it out the back.  I felt that I had finally earned my place on the team.  He wants me to continue to play on that team.  He also said if I keep going to my age group practices he said he knew who he could use for demonstrations.  He also said I should probably practice with the 15's too.  I am not sure what I am going to do yet.  I want to say thank you to all the coaches that taught me volleyball.  If I didn't have the best coaches I wouldn't be as good.

Paddle Boarding

Today we woke up and headed down to the beach.  When we got there we rented some paddle boards.  We meaning the kids in the family.  A paddle board is like an oversized surf board that you stand up on and paddle around.  At first I went to the other side of the little bay.  It got rougher there and there were more rocks and kayaks to avoid.  So I paddled back to where my brother and sister were.  We decided to have a race.  In the first 15 seconds my brother fell of of his board.  A minute or two later I was at the finish line.  My sister didn't want to finish it because I was a good few meters ahead of her.  Speaking of meters I have been using those terms more.  I have learned a lot about myself on this trip.  I learned that I can contain my rage more then I release it.  I guess that is a good thing.  Today on the other hand I have defiantly  not contained it.  I hope this can carry on to tomorrow because I have my first volleyball tournament tomorrow.  In volleyball I can let of some team by hitting the ball as hard as possible when I hit.  For the rest of the time here I will be playing in a tournament every Thursday.

7 Day Challenge

Well today I woke up did school then my mom came and asked me if I wanted to get a facial and my eyebrows done.  First of all I don't even know what a facial is so as soon as she said that my immediate answer was no.  Then she asked me if I wanted to get my eyebrows done.  I know what this is because I have an older sister and a mother.  My sister told my mom I was going to grow a unibrow if I did not get my eyebrows done.  She said that like two weeks ago.  So what was going through my mind was "Do I have a choice?"  In the end I was in the car headed to Nelson.  What seems like three years later we made it.  We were kind of late.  So the lady pulled me in the room with my mom and finished in less then five minutes.  In the end I felt like the penguins here stripped of their feathers.  Two hours after that we left.  We left two hours later because my mom and sister both got facials and either a pedicure or a manicure.  Once again I do not know what a pedicure or a manicure was.  So I asked my mom and she told me the difference.  When we got back home I asked my dad if he had heard any news about if the people who found my computer could ship it to us or not.  Luckily it will be here in the next two to three days.  Then I was bored so I decided to go do something other then sit around on my butt all day. I ended up working on my book and writing a song for my ukelele.  I also started sketching some of the stuff in the book.  I think I am loosing my ability to sketch.  I also found out that I will be playing in a volleyball game this Thursday.  I feel like my birthday is planning a sneak attack on me because it is coming up way to fast for my liking.  When I turn thirteen I know I will still feel twelve.   I also think that for the next week we as in people reading this blog and me should try to break at least one bad habit.  I think I am going to stop drinking soda.  Some friends back home did this for a new year revolution and they could do it.  If they can then so can I.  The other habit I am going to try and break-this may be surprising to some of you-is how I wear my hair.  Every day I wear a low ponytail.  When I say low I mean so low if I went any lower it would be on my neck.  So I am going to try to raise it up a little.  I am doing this mainly so people will stop bugging me about it.  I am probably stubborn enough to do it too.

New Zealand Volleyball

So today I went to my first volleyball practice.  I thought I was going to stink.  I found out though, that I still have some volleyball skills.  They do not do positions here.  It is kind of weird for me now.  Also you can not set the first ball.  New Zealand rules are different then American rules.  I also had the choice to stay with my 13-14 group or be with the 15-17 group.  I chose to stay with my age group.  The guy said-not to be mean-I would be one of the better players on the team.  I really wish I was back home playing with my normal team and amazing coaches.  I did not really talk to anybody at practice either so I didn't meet anybody new.  I plan to change that next practice.  You would not believe the sports you can do at school here.  The list includes volleyball, net ball, soccer, sailing, snow skiing, cricket, rugby, and equestrian.  That is just a slightly bigger list then what we have back home,

Catch Up 2

I can't exactly remember where we went next so I will start with what I remember.  On the next little drive we almpost ran out of gas but we made it to a town right on time.  Then a couple hours later we got to the final destination.  That drive took us about seven hours.  On long drives like that I think about random things.  I have realized that while we are in the car and nobody is talking that I just think.  I think about random things like how touchscreen works.  I came to the conclusion that it is friction.  Also my brother and sister wear there monster beats and listen to really loud music.  My brain takes the songs and kind of plays it over and over in the background then if I start to think about the music it comes to the front.  Anyway when we got to the next place I got a queen sized bed.  The only problem was we did not have internet.  Because of are week trip people think we are dead.  ATTENTION! IF YOU ARE READING THIS THEN WE ARE NOT DEAD!  So we went to sleep and woke up on Valentines day.  This day I remember best.  We drove about a hour and a half to get to Milford Sound.  On are way there we entered the Fiord Lands.  The Fiord Lands have huge mountains that are snow capped.  Since it is summer time the snow melts a little bit.  This causes there to be a waterfall about every two seconds on the mountains.  They can look small but are huge.  You can only imagine how big a waterfall is when it looks big from half a kilometer away.  So we went through this little tunnel to get to Milford Sound.  You can not go that direction during the day because of rock falls.  These are huge avalanches of rock falling off a mountain onto the road.  You might not want to not get stuck in one of those by yourself at night.  When we got to Milford Sound we borded the little boat we are going to stay the night in while we cruise around the Milford Sound.  I was a little afraid of going on that boat because we had to turn around in the Tasman Sea.  The Tasman Sea is extremely rough.  While we were cruising around we saw a huge waterfall.  The guide said the waterfall was bigger then Niagara Falls.  I didn't believe him.  Anyway we got near are area where we would stay overnight then a big group of dolphins came and were following us in the boat.  This boat holds about thirty people.  So all those people were going to each side of the boat to watch the dolphins jump out of the water.  There was a little dolphin that they said might be two to three weeks old.  Once we parked for the night it was only five.  So we had a choice of kayaking or going on a boat ride.  I chose the kayak and made my dad too.  He was unstable in the kayak.  It looked as if everybody else was fine in theres including me.  I kayaked over to see if I could see some of the most rare penguins in the world.  I paddled near the shore and saw three.  The guide said that I was very lucky to see them.  When I got back in the boat the guide was talking about how sometimes the seals come and feed on the fish attracted to the lights on the boat.  He also said that the little deck in the back can have a seal on there resting.  But he said that is during the night.  We went to dinner next and had the most amazing meal.  It was not as good as Jane's who owns Haurata but still very good.  Then my brother and sister went back to the room while I went with my mom and dad to see some videos and pictures they have taken.  One picture he showed us was the roughest time in Milford Sound.  It looked rougher than the Tasman Sea  Then shortly afterwards he showed us a picture of the Tasman Sea.  Just slightly rougher.  Just looking at the picture almost made me throw up.  The next morning we woke up at seven so we could eat breakfast.  Then we turned around in the Tasman Sea which wasn't too bad.  Then we had to pack up.  I got everything packed so I went to read on my bed.  That day we drove as far as we could and stopped by a place to visit the main Cadbury factory.  The guide was really finny and nice.  They also gave us a lot of chocolate.   Because my brother did't want to I got to drop one ton of chocolate.  Then we drove more and stopped at the next place because it was getting late.  In the morning my dad got an email asking if we had lost a computer I knew it could't be me but when my dad told me to check I could't find it.  So right now it is with the people on the boat waiting to get shipped back to us.  So I'm using my moms computer.  We drove home that day.  The next day we did not really do anything.  Now finally today I have volleyball practice with some New Zealanders.  I really hope I don't stink at it.  Also this doesn't sound like me but I am starting to write a book.

Catch Up

Ok so we have had internet problems so I have not been able to blog, do school, or skype people back home.  The day we started driving was Thursday or Wednesday for you guys back home.  We drove until we got to this one point where we got out to go look at this bridge.  We thought it was just going to be a bridge you can walk across to get to the other side.  Well you can go across the bridge, pan for gold, and come back on this zip line thing.  The bridge was pretty scary.  It turned out to be wire that was as round as a quarter  with some tubes of metal for the hand rail and the sides and floor were that metal stuff you can use for a fence.  It was very bouncy because my dad decided to add an extra hop in his step.  Well we walked around for a bit then I went panning for gold and got some pretty good slices.  Then me and my dad went back across the bridge to watch them come down the zip line.  My brother and sister went first and said it was pretty cool.  Then my mom  came across but right in the middle she grew an extra set of arms and legs.  It turns out that she made one of the people who work there come with her.  It was pretty finny.  The motel we stayed in was pretty good that night.  I had to sleep on a futon.  The next day we left that town and headed toward the next.  We stopped at a national park to go on some trails.  On the first trail we got down to the end and took a break.  You had to go through this little cave to get to the bank of the river.  When I got there I saw a huge rock maybe three feet away from the shore.  I thought I could get up there pretty easily.  I was wrong.  At first I tried to build a bridge with some rocks.  The water got pretty deep really fast.  The rocks did not work so I took my shoes off and waded into the water.  I couldn't lift myself up because it was too high.  There was this log kind of out further that leaned against the rock.  I was about to give up but I finally stuck my foot on the log crawled up and made it onto the rock.  I climbed to the top and my dad took my picture.  When I got down he showed my the picture and there was one ray of sunlight shining on my head.  We all thought that was pretty funny.  Then we got to the next place and it was really nice.  We woke up the next day and I got to pick what we did that day.  I choose to go on a tube, that you would go down on a slide with, down a river which led to a glowworm cave where you got to stand around drink hot chocolate and have a little candy bar.  It sounds pretty easy and fun but after hitting about three million rocks with my but I knew that this was not fin and games.  For some reason I always went down the fastest on the currents.  The water was warm in the river but then we got out.  I forgot to mention they make you put on a wet suit with booties a long sleeve shirt and some nice warm socks.  When we got to the spot where you enter the glow worm cave you had to slide down on this piece of plastic on a mud slide into water.  When I flew in I thought I was going to get hypothermia.  The water was extremely cold.  Anyway we floated into the cave and didn't go far because it got deep pretty fast and the water got colder.  When we were by this little underground waterfall we had hot chocolate and a candy bar in the dark.  The glowworms glow in the dark a pretty blue.  After that we walked back to the car and headed to the shop.  When we got there you took your wet suites off and got in a hot tub.  Then we headed back to the hotel.  In the morning we had a late start because the car battery died.  But we finally made it to Franz Josef so we could ride the horses.  The mountains here are huge and snow capped even in the hottest month.  It looks amazing.  We went on the horse trek and I had a horse named Cheeto.  The horse was ok but she wanted to eat everything in her path.  Also my knee hurt while we were riding the horses.  That was not my favorite experience.

The Big Trip

Today we did nothing and then my mom and dad started talking about a trip to the south part of the south island.  The drive back would take 18 hours if we did not take any breaks.  So they figured part of it out and said that the best trips happened when there is not a plan.  I hope that it is a good trip.  It will last around 10 days and when we get back me and my sister will join the college volleyball team.  College here is 7-12 grade.  I'm not sure what the grades before are called.  I also forgot to mention that we were on a tsunami watch after a magnitude 8 earthquake happened in some islands just north of Australia.  I never heard if there was a tsunami or not.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday we really did nothing because we couldn't find anything to do.  But today we went to Nelson to watch the beach ball volleyball tournament.  They would not have equal teams or something if me and my sister played.  If I understood correctly then I saw an Olympic contender.  It was either that or she tried to get in but didn't.  But she is ranked number one in New Zealand.  After that we drove around Nelson to find a place to eat.  We stopped at this little place and we ordered.  I ordered pork ribs and they were the closest things to what I would consider regular food.  I'm not sure how many there were but a little while later my family was just staring at me because they were all done and I hadn't even made a dent in the mound of barbecue and ribs.  So I got a takeaway box and we left.  At some point we ended up in a music store and for the first time in my life I saw an eight string ukulele.  It was very weird looking.  We left shortly after that and headed to Starbucks.  Me and my mom hate coffe so we always get something from the coffe free side of the menu.  It was really good.  Then we headed home.  When we got there I did school.  If I do the next three days of school all on math I will be finished with math.  I'm not going to do that but all I have been doing is science and math.  I finished grammer for the year before we left Haurata.  I have read 18 books and is working on my 19.  I will be finished with it today.  I haven't started literature yet and I have to rea a lot.  I think I'm not going to work ahead to ninth grade.

Bad Weather

I have been blaming the bad internet connection on the cloud cover.  Yesterday we had terrible internet and I could not get on my blog.  Yesterday we went to a dry cave and from several hundred years ago there were bones of extinct birds that have fallen in the holes to the cave.  It was really cool but a lot of people from the 1900's had came in and destroyed some of the stalagmites and stalactites.  We went home afterward because it was raining.  Last night a big storm came through and it was raining hard and the wind was really blowing.  The wind blew just right to make the sound of people screaming.  Also because of the pressure it made my sisters closed door bag against the frame.  All the sounds made it in my dream and turned it into a nightmare.  I finally woke up and it was 3 in the morning.  I went to bed around 1 and woke up only a couple hours later.  The wind kept raging so I read my book until 5 in the morning and the next thing I knew my dad woke me up for school at 8.  It was a sleepless night.  I am also debating if I should be in this beach ball volleyball tournament.  I do not like to loose and I'm afraid I will do terrible and make the team loose.  I do not want to drag everybody else down with me.  The tournament is tomorrow.

The Beach

I'm really starting to run out with some titles.  Yesterday we got to the next location.  I'm not really sure how to spell this town's name either.  Yesterday we just traveled so nothing interesting there.  Today we woke up and I decided to not do school.  We left my sister behind to do her school and went to a restaurant to eat.  Afterwards we headed down to the beach to have a look.  My dad said the beach was made out of rocks instead of sand.  Also the water is really clear here.  The water is about as cold as California beaches.  My brother wanted to stay at the beach, so my dad stayed with him and took pictures.  Me and my mom went back to the house.  Eight years later we made it.  Afterward we did nothing.  That is basically the day.  (This blog might not make since.)