Hello, nice people. This is our first week in a campervan that we named Tourtelvis. My family and I have been waiting so long for this and now that we finally got it, we are so excited. Tourtelvis is a campervan that can sleep six people, or in our case, four people and all of our luggage for a year! It has a kitchen, three beds, and a bathroom. One of the three beds is up above where the driver sits. We call it the pompadour because it looks all puffy from the outside. Tyler and I love it up there. It is fun to hang out there. Tourtelvis also has a TV and DVD player, so Tyler and I can watch movies. At night it is cold in Tourtelvis, but we have warm blankets, so it's okay.

Happy Birthday to me! I spent my ninth birthday in Tourtelvis. Tyler's birthday present to me was to decorate the campervan, so I woke up with streamers and balloons everywhere. One of my birthday presents was a Camelback, a backpack that holds water which you can drink from out of an attached hose. I love my Camelback and I wore it when we hiked to a waterfall on my birthday.

We also went to a petrified forest that day, which was cool because the old trees looked like rocks. We encountered a surprise there, when we saw an endangered yellow-eyed penguin really close up. He was just standing there in front of a bush and Tyler and I walked right by him as we were exploring the forest. I loved seeing it so close and I had a great birthday.

Another big day we'll be celebrating in Tourtelvis is Thanksgiving. We won't be cooking a big feast because the kitchen is really small, but we have lots to be thankful for, even if we won't be eating a turkey (we're planning to eat chicken). I'm thankful that nobody got sick in Asia. I'm thankful for going on this trip and learning a lot of cool new stuff. I'm thankful that all my friends and family at home still remember me and miss me so much. I'm thankful that I get to spend this whole year with my family--the only time we're not together is when we're in the bathroom, haha.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!