Happy Birthday to Katy

Chris,

It must have been a quiet night in New Zealand. Katy also called about 4:30 to check in. Today is her birthday so we were very glad to hear from her.

It sounds like the home stays were either very good or very bad. She had a wonderful time and loved the family she stayed with. They had a surprise party for her birthday! Mom made a cake and decorated it and they had several gifts for her.

The Full On sounded like a lot of fun and Katy purchased pictures also. She said she got a "group photo" and a couple of individuals. Remember it was 4:30 in the morning so I didn't get a lot of details as to who was in the group, but I did get the numbers from the side of the pictures. Kate's photos are numbered: FULL1706160000312, FULL706150000310 and FULL706150000309. I hope we are able to find everyone else's, but if necessary we can scan our group for anyone who is in it.

She did mention that they had a big laundry event. Apparently, there are limited laundry facilities so a lot of people washed their clothes in the bathtub and then tried to dry all of them in the few dryers that were available. Thinking that I had instructed Katy fully in the washing arts, I was surprised to hear that her very light khaki pants are now very light pink khakis. "Of course you don't wash red and off white together, but why would it matter if you put them in the dryer together wet?" The light pink color is not as big a deal now that she stepped on a yellow paint ball and blew it up on the same pants. By the time she gets back these pants will be a modern art project.

She has taken about 700 pictures that were "too good to delete" on her digital camera and about 80 on the underwater disposables so I'm hoping there really are some great shots. I will continue to try and find the pictures that she purchased and pass on any info that comes up.

Thanks for the updates!

Denise Mersmann