On the road again

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Palmerston North with Grandpa and Grandma, always a treat! We got there mid-afternoon on Saturday and the weather wasn't great so we hung out inside, here are Katie, Josie and Grandma playing Chinese Checkers. 

Those of you with young children know that it can sometimes be an exercise in patience playing board games together. . . I tend to save teaching new games for the weekend when Daddy is home to help. So thanks Grandma for patiently playing, they had fun.

We spent the night this time so we got to stay in a local motel - always fun for the girls!! They don't have hotels in New Zealand the way we do in America, but their motels are nicer than ours. They do have some nice hotels in the bigger cities, but since we need adjoining rooms and yada yada yada it's just as easy to stay in a motel. So we did. Anyhoo. . . . our bathroom had an enormous jacuzzi tub in it so I sent all the girls to get undressed for a bath. After waiting several minutes for Ellie I went in to find her jumping from her bed to Josie's and back again. 
Meanwhile Meggie and Katie were playing with the motel cat - he'd just sauntered on in to our room, fat as all get out, and doesn't he look thrilled to be picked up? 
Sunday was beautiful! We went to church with Margaret - it was the family service so Hugh didn't go, too happy clappy for him, smile. It was very interesting in that Margaret attends the Anglican church, but the person doing the sermon that day was actually the main pastor from the local Baptist church. He's also ordained as an Anglican priest. That is not a common combination! He did a great sermon and told some funny jokes and all and all it was a great service - God was glorified, we all laughed, and the kids were good.

We left after Sunday dinner and the weather was beautiful. As it is spring here it is also lambing season, so we got to see lots of scenes like this:

So cute! The drive is really beautiful along the coast.

Finally, we switched to daylight savings time over the weekend so we are now much closer in time to you all in the states. Woo hoo. 

Also thanks for checking on us about the earthquake - we are fine, it was too far away for us to even feel it.