July 30 and 31, 2011 Long Drives, (The) Great Sand Dunes, Yoga with Yaga, The Colorado Ocean, and Catch-up Pictures

Now, you may be wondering why there was no post yesterday and why the today's post is going to be super long. The answer.......right after this brief commercial!

Sorry for the interruption but the answer is: I decided to merge yesterday's and todays adventure/story into one huge blog post! Anyways, lets begin the day (well, technically, yesterday)!
Yesterday, we were required to wake up around 6:30am so we could make it to the Great Sand Dunes. So, the drive to (and from) our destination was 5 hours so we were cooped up in the car for a little more than 10 hours that day.
When we finally arrived at the Great Sand Dunes, our first stop was the visitor center to expand out knowledge on this national park. After watching a very informative video, we walked onto the balcony and snapped a few pictures. Once we got enough pictures, we jumped into our car drove a bit further into the park (we only got this privilege because the uncomfortable car turned out to be a four wheel drive so we could drive a bit longer).

Believe it or not, that picture to the right is sand (and no, the picture is not made of sand, the mountain looking thing that looks closer then the other mountain is made of sand.
Ten minutes later, we began hiking (the trail was half a mile) but a few minutes later, it began raining so we ran back our car and tried to wait the storm out. Unfortunately, the storm didn't want to stop er, storming so we decided to come back another, sunnier day. While we were driving away, we stopped and watch these two, not so smart people stand on the top of the dune which is the most likely place for lightning to strike. I think I saw them praying.... Eventually, we arrived home and....I got hit by a screen door because Ty didn't bother holding the door for me. He assumed that I had my foot in the door. He assumed wrong.
The next day/today, we woke up and drove to this park to do a yoga class. This class was taught by my dad's colleague. This class was almost exactly like Friday's except that this class had some different poses and was outside so we got eaten alive by bugs. The class lasted for about an hour and we were given free stuff! Yaga gave out free Larabars for everyone and the girls were given these pencil pouch thing that contained some items. After the class, I ate a Larabar (the cherry pie one) and it tasted awesome. There's no other way to explain it.

Later on, we drove to the Colorado Ocean to meet up with Yaga and her family (her husband and her two sons). Now, you may be thinking, "There is no such thing as a Colorado Ocean!" and that is where you are wrong! There is this place called a Union Reservoir which a man-made lake/ocean. It was almost exactly like a beach but it was a) green and b) not salty (which is a plus). We stayed here for quite a while and then came back to our house.

And now, there is some things I would like to put on this post! 1) Here is what you've been waiting for! Below are the pictures of my brother's tennis trophy for being a finalist and there is a picture of the cute black cat below the other picture.

Before I move on to the second thing I have to say, I want to say something (else). This afternoon/tonight, there was a huge storm and the cat returned! This time, I was allowed to feed it some bread and carnitas meat.
2) The second thing I have to say is that I am getting my eye exam (for contacts) tomorrow! I can't wait for some random person to poke my eye out. Kidding! Bye!

July 21, 2011 Spanish, Tennis, 15 Minute Walks, and Cats

First of all, if you are reading this, I want you to write a comment, no matter how short! I feel like I'm typing/blogging to no one (okay, that may be true but....) and that is not a good feeling. Anyways, please comment on my posts and continue reading this one.
Today, I woke up early compared to yesterday. Yesterday, I woke up at 1:30pm and today I woke up at eight something! There's such a big difference between the two times. Anyways, after a ate a breakfast of cereal and some juice, my mom made my brother and I continue using our Spanish learning program. In this program, you memorize words and their definitions and then you are quizzed on the content of that section. The number of questions you got correct are added to the other questions you got right. To finish one disk, you have to get 1800 points. Everyone has different accounts so you can see their progress separately. Unfortunately, my brother (768 questions right) has a higher number than me (751 questions right)!!! At least he isn't on a different disk (we're both on disk one still) which would be a horrible thing.

After a few hours of reading and doing other stuff, my mom, my brother, and I went to this tennis court where we played tennis with these two boys (Randall and Kevin) that my brother met (and kind of made friends with them) last year when we were in Boulder. We played for about an hour and a half and then my mom, my brother, and I had to pick up my dad from where his work dropped him off.
Flash forward for a bit (actually, a lot more than a bit) and my family are just walking around the neighborhood and the shops on the outskirts of it. Eventually, we turned around and then began walking back to the neighborhood where we observed this community garden sort of thing and we tried searching for our mailbox with no luck. Soon, we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes so we walked back to our house for some ice-cream and such. The whole walk lasted for about fifteen minutes. I know, that's such a long walk.
Around the neighborhood, there has been many cat spottings. On the first day we came here, there was a cat waiting outside our door just looking at us. (it was cute!) Also, when we were going to the uncomfortable car, there was a cute black white cat just staring at the flowers that are in the front of the house. We saw some cats on our short walk, too. Four to be exact. There was the cute black and white cat, a white and silver one, and two others who's color I can't describe. Since my brother's pictures of the cats turned out blurry, I'll just put a picture of a cat I found off the internet. Bye-bye. (~_~)Meow.

July 16th, 2011 Akaroa, Blue Pearl, and Cute (but possibly vicious) Pets

Today, my family and I went to the city of Akaroa. Now, you must be wondering how we got there when we don't have a car (or not but thats fine) and the answer is...........we went on a "tour" which was held by an elderly man who's name I don't know. I don't really know if he even mentioned his name so..... Okay, I have to admit, this wasn't exactly a tour, it's more like a car ride with a chaffer who gives sporadic information. Well, the car is bigger, too.
Anyways, after 1 1/2 hours and two stops, we finally arrived at the beautiful Akaroa. The first store we wandered into was an awesome jewelry shop where all/most of the jewelry is made of real blue pearls. All of the things they sold was very stylish but relatively pricey. Then again, price didn't really seem to matter since you know that it's worth it. Here, the owners actually explain the process of extracting the pearl and told you how to tell the difference from the good and the best pearls. After browsing through other gift shops and jewelry stores, we came back to this shop and bought a ring, a pair of earrings, and two Abalone shells (abalones are where the amazing pearls come from). The website and email:
www.nzbluepearl.co.nz
pearls@nzbluepearls.co.nz

Once we exited the store, we began scanning the menus of local restaurants. Eventually, we ended up in a great (and kind of outdoor) Akaroa Fish and Chips place. Here, we had some delicious fish (and chips), a hotdog, some oysters, a cheeseburger, and clam chowder (and no, not like one of each. It's what everyone had put together).
So, since there were so many cute pets on this trip, I decided to donate a piece of a post for these little guys. Okay, the first animal was in the Blue Pearl shop and it was a super cute.

Wait a minute! Before you fall victim to it's awesomeness, be aware that you cannot/should not touch it. When I touched its nose, it growled at me and when my brother attempted to pet it, it barked at him!! That lowers its score on the cuteness scale but it's still amazingly cute no matter what!
Next up, we have this hyperactive bird that took forever to take a picture of it.

Sorry about the blurriness. It's like the bird just drank some coffee!! The third one we have here are the four cats at the fish and chips place.

Actually there was five cats in all but the last cat wasn't used to being around people. The other three cats were colored black and two of those cats were a mixed color of brown and black. I was allowed to feed these cats some leftovers which made my day. The last of the pets/animals are these attacking seagulls. They may not be very cute but they are amusing. One time, when my brother was about to throw a fry to the birds, a courageous gull snatched it out of his hands. We caught this on video but I don't exactly know how to upload videos. Only pictures. Well, that's all the time we have for today. Bye-bye!