nz yay yay yay

Hi everybody sorry it took me so long to send this message I was in a 5K or 3.1 miles and came second only because I was beaten by a 16 year old. then we had a mix up I got a blank certificate

and a soccer ball as a spot prize so then I waited for mum to Finnish her 10K or 6.2 miles then I think she got 5Th out of the women so that happened and then we waited for the 5k prize giving

which was at ten and the officials did not put it on at ten so we waited for a hour and still no prize giving which I was angry about because I only got a blank certificate and the marafun was for little kids doing 2k and even they got a medal and the ended up with no prize giving for me and we also missed mums prize giving but by the end of the day we were angry so we went to burger king got something to eat because there was no food there so from now on I shall keep you posted on my running by.

NYC

Hi everyone I'm back in New Zealand and I am writing this post in Auckland. America was awesome but the one thing I forgot to write about. NEW YORK CITY this is what this post is all about. So the first thing that we did in new york was that we sat on a plane for 4 hours and I watched all the random NBC shows that were playing on the TV in the middle of the plane. You had to pay two dollars to get head phones but I had a pair with me so I did not have to pay for them. I was very surprised because on the way to America we had to pay for food. But this time we did not have to because we got some chocolate some crackers, salami and cheese so we were not hungry when we got to new york.It was the middle of the day when we got to new york and so we had to get to our hotel. But we could not take a taxi because Nana did not want to take on because the cost to much so then she and I thought that Rubin (my uncle) might of sent us a taxi but instead we went on a bus. We did not get off the bus on the first stop but we did end up getting off at the 42 st which was the second stop and guess were our hotel was it was on 75 st. So we HAD to walk all the to the hotel with our big packs with all our clothes in them. we got so tired so we had to stop like 20 times. when we got to the hotel w went to our room and we crashed on the beds we met Rubin at the hotel and he was laughing that we got of the bus so early.this is the first day I'll do more tonight I promise.

Two Days Left: A Reflection

I have just 2 days left in Jacksonville so I figured I would write about some of the highlights of the trip so far, reflecting on the people I have met, things I have done, and memories that I shall take back to New Zealand with me.

I've enjoyed meeting Raegan and spending time with Kelly and Dad. From the moment I got off the plane I felt that it was good to be here with them and that I would make the most of the time together. It was a shame that Dad couldn't spend every moment here with me, but I realise that he has to work so that we could enjoy cool stuff when he wasn't at work.

I've enjoyed meeting Dads' running groups and especially the Wednesday night sessions. I now have more confidence in myself as a runner and will try to maintain the momentum when I get home. I would like to get a scholarship to the states to run and go to college here so that I can spend more time with my Dad.

The places I've been that were cool was the Zoo, Cummer Museum, St Augustine, and of course Orlando. What an action packed weekend that was. The shops were pretty good too. I could of spent all my money in the first few days if Dad and Nana hadn't told me to wait until I get to New York.

I wish I could take the local bagel shop back to Dunedin with me as walking down there with Nana and Reagan and having a bacon and cheese bagel was worth the walk.

Going down the river with Billy, Mathew, and Dad was pretty great too. Seeing that Gator was pretty damn scary though. The lunch that Suzie brought was very yummy as well.

I saw some good movies, watched a few football games. Seeing, and not to mention hearing, those jets fly past before the game and at half time was very exciting. The game was fun as well. The food however is another story.

Carving pumpkins, eating pumpkin seeds, making meatballs,and of course eating chili with Kelly's' parents ( Jeff and Mary Jean ) and sister (Stacey), are also highlights.

Doing the bridges run at 6am with Dad, I also like the thing my friends from dads running group made me a a momento. They made me a card that was really cool.

Shelley, this is the spot for you eh hum. Pluto: everybody in the world thought Pluto was a planet. But at the end of 2008 the nation of science said that Pluto was too small to be a planet so they called Pluto a dwarf planet. The planet is so far out that the light from the sun tacks 5 and a half hours to reach it, compared to the 8 minutes it takes to get to earth. Also it takes Pluto 278 years to orbit the sun and we can orbit the sun 277 times in that space of time.

Places I have eaten:

McDonald's

Wendy's

Chicka'fil'a

Quiznos

KFC

Burger King

Moe's

Einsteins Bagels(10-20 times at least)

Burger Rush

Larry's Giant Subs

Smoothie King

TGI Fridays (thank god it's Friday)

Seven Bridges

Ruby Tuesday's

Sbarro's

China King

Orange Tree Hotdogs

Fu Hung

Outback Steakhouse

Dunkin Donuts

Cool Mouse

European Street Cafe

Bono's BBQ

Angies Subs

Aungus Steakhouse

Sorry Mum, but my diet starts when I get home.

Personal running bests so far, I have run three. 1: Bale and Trail 5km, 2: in the 400s' during training, 3: in the pumpkin run 5km.

Big Feast Day

Yesterday, we also had a feast. You may ask, what did we do with the pumpkins. Hang around long enough and you'll find out. We made them into Jacko Lanterns. The steps to making a Jacko Lantern were:

1: We had to draw our pumpkin face. I drew a frankinstein (see whether you can tell which pumpkin is mine below). We drew the faces so that we knew what to cut.

2: Then we used a big knife to cut the top of the pumpkin off so we could do the third step.

3: We had to spoon all its guts out and we then we cut the eyes and every thing with the big knife.

4: Then we put the candles in the pumpkin and we replaced the top.

The job was finished and we took photos of the jacko lanterns. Also kelly used the pumkin seeds from the guts that we spooned out. She put them in the oven with butter, salt, pepper and garlic and I thought that I would not like them but guess what, I loved them.

You may think that this was enough to consume my day but then I helped Kelly make stuffed shells meatballs for dinner. It was a lot like cannelloni, as we put Ricotta cheese and Parsley in them. For dessert I made caramel apples. They were yummy.

Running the Pumpkin Run

Hi everybody yesterday I ran the Pumpkin Run. The Pumpkin Run is called the Pumpkin Run because we ran in a massive graveyard and there were lots of pumpkins. The pumpkins were the only way to know the race course. I followed the pumpkins that were the out line of the race track. There were 607 people in the 5k race I came twelve out of all of the people and I got a 14 second pr because last time I ran it in 21:53. This time I ran the race in 21:39. Then I found out something and that was that I came 3rd for my age group. This was OK, but I thought that I did better. We were there for the 5k prizegiving. Because I came third we were waiting for the 11-13 age group. I heard that someone came third and I thought this weird. So then there were only two more plaques left. Then I thought I came second but then some other persons name was called out. I was about to leave to go to the car and then I heard my name and I turned around. Then he said I came first so I was like yay I came first wippie. Then we went to watch Dad finish and he ran the 10 miles!! There were 425 people who were in that race and Dad came fourth out of all the people. If he had gotten one place higher he would of got 100 dollars. Then after the race you can pick up as many pumpkins so you wanted so we got three. This is going on to my next story wich will but right up next in my blog.

Running

Hi guys I decided to write about my success in running yesterday. I ran 8 miles if you do not know how far it is that's 14 k, and at the end of that, we did 400s . I ran 4 400s and got a personal record for it 1:26. This weekend I'm running five k at the pumpkin run and this is a race where you run in a grave yard and you have to follow the pumpkins to get to the finish line. Also over here Halloween is so big there are stores that are only for Halloween and you can get massive bags of lollies. Also with the race on the weekend there is a boy who runs it in 20 something minutes so I am going to try and beat him.

These are the characters that I hung out with.

This is the nascar gopher we do not watch
nascar but he had goggles and looked
professional.

Me and curious george try to look bigger than
we are now.

Hey scooby doo where's shaggy, well I guess
with my hair I could be him.

If any body knows who this is tell me my
dad says not to talk to strangers but he
offered me a worm and I could not resist.
By the way he's woody wood pecker if found
please call me so I could get my worm.

Hi everyone this is a post about the place called Islands of Adventure. in Orlando. At Islands of Adventure we first we went to Marvel Town and went on the Hulk Roller Coaster twice one after the other when we first got there. That's the biggest ride in the whole park. Then we went on the Doctor Doom Fear Fall ,that is like the giant drop at dream world, but this one shoots you up to the top then bounces up and down. Then we went to the Spider man 3d Adventure and that was cool as well. Then we went to Toon Lagoon and that's when we got wet and froze to death because we went on the ripsaw falls which is a log ride and it has the steepest drop in America. Then we went on the Pluto's Rat Barge and we got even wetter. It was 9 degrees that day and people were at home with their fires on, that was really bad. Next we went to Jurassic park and we went on the Jurassic park ride and that was a cool ride. We went through the places that they went to on the movie . We went up a ramp and Velosaraptors jumped out then a t-Rex jumps out in front of us and puts it's mouth where we were going but then we dropped to the end. The next place we went to was the Lost Continent and we went on my fav ride called the Duelling Dragons and you could choose whether to go on fire or ice, fire was the best, and so we went on the front of it and it was awesome because you come close to each other and spun over each other. That was the best ride ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We went on all the rides at least three times as the queues were so short. Nana picked us up for lunch and then we went back to do a spot of shopping for a few goodies.
I then went back to the pool and met up with a German boy and we had fun playing with my water toys.

universal studios

hi everybody yesterday I went to universal studios`and I went on every ride and my favorite one is the rock it rip ride. I got a video of it.

Wet "N" Wild!!!!

So here's the deal, I have to leave the hotel to go to Universal Studios, But wanted to get some pictures and video uploaded from yesterday to keep all of you up-to-date with me and my trip. You will see picture of my favourite slide and a video (even though it is sideways) of me coming down the Der Sturka. I thought this ride was the scariest and my Dad went down the only ride which was higher and scarier than this. His ride he had to hope into a pod and they shot him out without him being ready. I will add more info and pictures of yesterday and of COURSE today this evening so WATCH THIS SPACE....wish you were here mum and Jake!

New York, New York!!!!!

Here is just some of the things I am going to be doing in New York. I'm excited about seeing the largest Halloween parade in the world. On Sunday I will be watching the New York City marathon. Come on Paula Radcliff. Also, we are staying at a fancy hotel called Helmsley Hotel New York. Here is a link to pictures of the hotel: http://www.newyorkhelmsley.com/

today

Hi people today I went to Fort Caroline. At Fort Caroline we had a look at the remains of a fort. There was not that much there but it was still cool. We saw a native American (Indian) tepee that had the shells of the shell fish that they ate. We also saw a moat but it was not very deep and the moat had a walk way instead of a draw bridge. This is also the first place in America to be discovered by the Spanish.We also saw Henry the dog. OK get this, Henry and his owner were walking around and Henry was not on his leash. The owner let him roam around and down to the wharf. There Henry goes and finds a nice patch of pelican poo and he rolls in it. Henry was a black dog but he came out white and he smelt like rotten fish. Some school children tried to clean him up a bit and he then became a grey dog. Also Henry's mum comes from Dunedin!!!!!! Florida
When we first got out of the car there were some people who locked themselves out of their car with the car still running, and at the same time the windows were up. They could not open the car so they called triple a car service to help them.
I also bought a civil war map that showed were the civil war was.Then we went to a place called Larry's giant subs, it's better than most other sub places I've been to. The theme there was all about gorillas. ie king kong
Mum sometimes calls me Ruby Tuesday and if your laughing right now I've got a whole food chain named after me and the Beatles made a song about me. Today we went to dads' running store and I had fun and met new people and I made a bet with Ben that Chris could not get a coke on his own.








This is where the spaish came up the Mays River (now called the St Johns River) in 1564 .
The Spanish brought Oranges to Florida.

Hi people well this post is updating a post called Orlando because I am going tomorrow!!!!!!! (Singing) I'M SO EXITED I JUST CAN'T HIDE IT. So I decided to tell you were I'm going first which is wet and wild.

The main rides that I'm going on are the brain wash Der stuka the storm mach five and bombs away so that's the first theme park I'm going to two more yay.

9

Another movie I went to was 9. Guess what Nana, I threw the ticket in the bin (or as American's Say it, "Trash Can."). So you can't see it now. 9 is a good movie. But you will have to see it to know about it. So look out for it. Here is a screen shot from the movie.

cloudy with a chance of meatballs

Hey, I went to see Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. It's coming out in New Zealand and it was funny. Yes it was. I was the only one in the movie theater as American kids are in school. I got to see it in 3D, which was awesome. So I could laugh and not get told to SHUT UP!! Thats always good. So when it comes out I think you should see it.

Ginnie Springs

Yesterday I went to Ginnie Springs for the day and it was fun. See whether you can find out what Ginnie Springs is?

Well I went with my dad and this lady Suzy and 4 other boys who had the day off school. It was columbus day. We floated down the .... ..... on some tubes. It was awesome! When we went down the ..... we saw a gator. One of my friends freaked out, but I'm not going to say who though. After we finished going down that river we decided to go snorkeling because there were springs everywhere.

When we went snorkeling we saw a lot of fish. Then we looked around and there were under water caves everywhere. I tried to see how far down I could get but I can not hold my breath and swim down 100METERS!!!! But that's OK. I also caught a fish but it got away.

Out of the four kids I was the youngest. Here are some pictures of our trip

Running

Hi guys and girls. Q Why don't people post? A because no one reads my blog oh well. This post is about the running I have been doing well over here. There was a 5km race that was called the Bale and trail. My time for this run was 21:50 although that was because the humidity was at 98% and the temperature was 32 degrees Celsius. I was the first person to finish that was under 18years old and I came 5 over all. A week ago I was running in 40 degree weather and it was also 100 percent humidity. There was no rain and I ran 12 kilometers and almost fainted by the end. But I didn't thank goodness. Speaking of running my mum ran the national road relays in Christchurch and her team came 2nd. That's pretty good mum. So that's all I've got on running. I don't have any pictures but tomorrow I'll have alot of stories to tell.

St Augustine

Hey everybody this is a post about St Augustine. We went there on the day that dad ran the 21 k race. We got to the information center and bought a tram ticket that goes to 15 stops and we had payed for the old jail and the museum so we could go see them. First we went around St Augustine and looked at all the old buildings and learnt about the history of St Augustine.We also took photos of things then we stopped first at the old drug store.The old drug store looked old inside and out and I checked the old medicine and they looked gross. there were also old toys and things like that and dad brought some berries they were goji berries. Photos of drug store.

Ripleys Believe It or Not

Hi this is another post about the Ripley's Believe It or Not place that I went to 4 days ago.

This is a Ferris wheel that was inside when you walk in and it's made entirely out of Micano. It was 50 TIMES BIGGER THAN ME and was made from 250 THOUSAND pieces.

Here lies the body of dentist DE Neille in the biggest cavity he'll ever fill that's what it says pretty funny.

This is a carving of a palace that is bigger than me and it was made entirley out of camel bone.

This is actually is a sculpture of one of Jim Shores friends.

football game

Hey guys and girls, yesterday I went to a football game basically American football. It was the Jacksonville Jaguars vs the Tennessee Titians. The Jacksonville's mascot is called Jackson De-Ville. He's a jaguar and he rides around on scooters and stuff like that. Weird I know. There were 68,000 seats at that stadium, but they all were not filled, so it could have been bigger. We were near the top of the stadium in row 219. It was a good seat, but as the game started a big guy sits in front of us, yep. Just before the game the jets that were with the air force flew over us. They were so loud that I had to cover my ears loud. The food there is so fake. There were people with nachos and the cheese looked so fake it's was orange and it looked like plastic. So I did not have any. Half way though the game a marine marching squad came out on the field and did there marching with guns they were SO GOOD!! All in sync and everything stood straight with out moving a muscle. The team that won was the Jags. Yep that's what they call them, 37 to 19 yay. by the way here are some pictures. Also I put a video on here if you look closely you can see little men those are the players.


Picture of the fans!!




Me and Dad (looking old)

new stuff

Hey guys and girls, on Saturday I watched Dads race, then after it, there were the marines , because it was the marine corp half marathon so they were there with all their weapons, guns, trucks and artillery.
















This is the food that they eat on missions.