On Holiday....

Jayson has a two week holiday from school and we're really trying to A live it up! We attempted to hike to Rainbow Falls but it started to et dark and we had to turn back before we made it all the way. We went back the next day but decided to just park at the falls rather than at the other end of the trail. Less work, but still rewarding! Aidan found a bird's nest that he took for show and tell, which made up for some of the disappointment of not making it. The hike is sobeautiful that I decided to go back without the kids and run it. It's only about 7km so it's perfect to do once a day for a little recharge.

If you look closely at this picture, you can see why they call it Rainbow Falls....

Poor Aidan missed it....he was at school.

Walking back at dusk

If there is an accident waiting to happen, Aidan finds it! At least mud is soft.

When I took this photo, Jays and Aidan were having a brotherly moment (the good kind). Aidan told Jayson that he was his best (pronounced breast) friend. Jays very seriously replied "you're my best friend. I love you."

Jay took several pictures like this and claimed that he didn't do it on purpose. Was he fibbing or has my face become obsolete?

Another day we collected all of our cardboard to burn and built a little fire to roast marshmallows. They don't have graham crackers in New Zealand so we used some other kind of biscuit to make s'mores. Then Jay helped the boys peer through the telescope. The boys had the best time of their lives. As a matter of fact, Jayson really wanted to say the prayer for breakfast the next morning so that he could thank Heavenly Father for the camp fire. If that's all it takes, I have been trying waaay to hard.

Here's a picture of the back of the house. We live in the white half. Jay's parents built the top first then lifted it up onto beams to build the basement later.

The lens I had on my camera could not get a wide enough angle to show even half of the garden. Row upon row of tires stacked up with every plant imaginable sprouting out of them.

One day during the holiday we went to Rainbows End, New Zealand's only amusement park. What is it about boys and fast rides?

Charlie got to ride on his first roller coaster!

New computer=New Post!

Hooray for a new computer! Today I catch up then I can make smaller posts more often (ideally). March was a busy month for us...Jay and I spent a lot of time pulling up old carpet, painting, furniture buying, etc. We only have a bit more to paint and have new carpet. We're almost done with all of the light fixtures, and in another month or so we'll replace the toilet and old linoleum. We've got new curtains and curtain rods and a new (used) oven (a real oven! It only took me two days of scrubbing!) We drove down to Auckland last weekend to buy our new (very used) jilopy. It's just right for towing a sailboat and it seats seven. It is also very rattly. While we were in Auckland, we spotted a Pukeko! We also played at the beach.

There's an old tennis court hidden behind the trees and reeds down the road from our house and the boys like to go there to play. There's also a swing set.

We spent Jayson's actual birthday with Dean and his family, and Jay and Dean were up to the old antics, as you can see. We went to an indoor playground area called "Squirrels" or "Chipmunks" or something like that. The boys loved it.

Since we knew it was supposed to rain on his actual birthday, we kept Jayson out of school one day so he could come fishing with us. He caught a little thing that we threw back but the experience was worth it to him.

We spent the day in Paihia for Mum's birthday. After lunch we had ice cream and played at the beach

We usually have our lunch and dinner outside, which is great for cleanup.

Jayson noticed one day at school that he had a loose tooth! He was so thrilled and just couldn't stop checking to make sure it was still there. Later that day he was just checking on it while jumping on the trampoline. We recommend that method to anyone trying to pull a tooth out. That very night he had a visit from the tooth fairy. He was truly amazed that he didn't even hear her come in! He figures that she must be very small, like a fly. He also decided that she just turns the teeth into money, because why would she need all of thoseold teeth, anyway?

Here are a few pics of Aidan's school. They put their shoes in the shoe box when they get to school...it's generally considered very disrespectful to wear your shoes inside.

View from our breakfast table

We took a walk one day along the property line. The cows kept us company. That's what the big sticks were for.

The chickens were 100% "free range"until Jay decided that we were done with both roosters crowing right outside our windows.