Riding the train

Yesterday it was such a beautiful day that we decided to take the girls on a train ride - I had heard that the ride to Johnsonville is fun, relatively short, and takes you through lots of tunnels so that was the plan.

Much to our surprise the tickets were free! The metro service was offering a free day to make up for all the breakdowns they had experienced the past month.

You would have thought the girls had never been on a train before they were so excited! Look at the faces of the school boys watching the girls get on the train above - they probably can't imagine why riding the train is such a big deal when they do it every single day.


Ellie loved it and looked out the window and sang songs the entire time! On the trip home we saw some school girls holding their breath through all the tunnels and so I gave it a go - all the swim training has been of some benefit!

We had a great time - we had lunch at McDonald's, shopped at Toy World for a birthday present for a friend and headed back home. We were worried because our parking had expired at 2:44 pm and our train arrived back in the station about 3:20. As we headed over to our car we saw one of the parking meter attendants pass it and we thought we were done for - but funnily enough as we got to the car we didn't have a ticket :). We ended our afternoon adventure with grateful hearts!!

My Morning Walk

My ladies swimming group is planning an overnight tramp (hike) in March so I've been taking every opportunity I can to get some training. This morning I got to walk with a friend and her walking group and we went a way I've never been before - one of the beauties of Wellington is that there are so many amazing places to walk and you don't have to go far to get to them! We walked for two hours - with a coffee break about 2/3 of the way through - and it was beautiful! Here are some photos when we got up the hill to the Brooklyn wind turbine. I took the pictures with my phone and it looks more overcast than it actually was, it was a beautiful day to walk, not too hot or cold.

I'm growing older, but not up!

The title of this post is from a Jimmy Buffett song and I completely feel that way!! I am growing older but somehow I don't feel very grown up :).

I had a fabulous birthday weekend thanks to my great family and friends. I got some lovely gifts - one of which was a poem from Meggie:

The poem read: "A Mommy's Love" by Meggie Morrison

A mommy's love is like a river flowing. A mommy's love is like a teacher knowing. A mommy's love is given in a hug. A mommy's love is better than most other loves. A mommy's love is really great. A mommy's love is no debate. A mommy's love is ever so kindly. A mommy's love is ours only.

Later that evening we had dinner with friends at a yummy Wellington restaurant.

John and Marianne, Julia and James, Fleur, Matt and Alison

On Sunday our family did the "Round the Bays" 7K walk - here are the girls waiting at the bus stop. We rode the bus because there were thousands of people participating so we knew parking would be an issue. We were grateful we made it on as it was a very crowded ride and the bus only made two stops after us before it was at maximum capacity and quit picking people up.
Dugald took a group shot with my iphone but it was too fuzzy to post here as he was being jostled on all sides, but we joined Fleur and her girls, Matt and Alison with Pippa and Monty and another friend Linda and her daughter Libby as we walked.
The day couldn't have been more perfect weather wise!!
Later that evening, after a quiet rest at home, we went see the Wellington Phoenix (soccer team) play in one of the semi-finals for the Australian-New Zealand soccer league. There was a huge crowd and we hadn't counted on it being so difficult to find a parking space - we should have taken the bus again!! As it was, we circled the stadium looking for a park to no avail so we got in line to pay the $30 fee to park at the stadium. As we inched closer and closer we noticed that we were right behind Julie and a van-load of kids heading to the game. We texted hello and waved and whatnot and kept on in the slow crawl of traffic to the stadium. As we finally got near the entrance we saw that the stadium parking was full, at which point we had little idea of what were going to do next. I texted Julie again to ask if she knew of somewhere we could check and she texted back for us to follow her, that she had a plan. Well, to make a long story not much shorter, it turns out that Julie had an extra pass to park at the stadium which she passed back to us via Maddie. We got to park right on the Mezzanine level and made it to the game just after kick-off. Thanks Julie, you saved us!
It was an earlier game - 5 pm - so the sun was still bright.
It was such fun to be in the crowd of thousands - we learned all the local cheers. The game ended in a tie so they played another half hour of overtime at which point it was still a tie, so then we got to watch a penalty shoot-out which was VERY exciting, and nerve-wracking, but ultimately the Phoenix were victorious.

This is what Ellie thought of their victory.

Friends Week

This week we are concentrating on having friends over in the afternoon and yesterday Ellie got to invite a friend her own age to come play with her (while the big girls went to swimming). She looked forward to it for the entire week between the time we planned it and the time it actually occurred! She's been on play dates before but almost always with a sister, or two, or three and almost always with a friend slightly older. We spent the day cleaning and made fruit kebobs with marshmallows and anxiously anticipated Amelia's arrival. The girls played beautifully and the time went by too quickly but thankfully Ellie gets to go to Amelia's house next week and I think this may be the start of a beautiful friendship!

Today it's Josie and Katie's turn so we made the above for snacks - not quite as healthy as the fruit kebobs but a lot more fun. Tomorrow is Meggie's day and I'll have to see what she decides on for her snack. I hope she doesn't drag out the cookbooks for some elaborate bit of deliciousness but she just might as she loves to cook!

Dugald and I got to have a date on Valentines Day thanks to our nephew Wills - it was our first since our sweet Lucy left to go overseas and it was very nice to be out together, alone!

I hear Wii Sing sounds coming out of the playroom . . .

Another Linky

Since it seems many of you linked to and read my last post I thought I'd introduce you to another blog that I discovered a few months ago and have really enjoyed. As you know Dugald and I met while we were both working with Mercy Ships. I stumbled upon a blog written by a girl currently serving onboard the Africa Mercy and I find it so inspiring and in many ways it takes me back to my time with the charity and I thought you might enjoy it too. Click here to read more. Dugald is Chairman of the Board of the New Zealand branch of Mercy Ships and our hearts are still very connected to both the mission and the people involved.

Meanwhile this blog is mostly just a place where I chronicle our lives in lieu of a photo album, journal or any other form of preserving memories so I will update again soon with our happenings. We are very excited to be attending our first Wellington Phoenix (soccer) game at the stadium tonight with Lloyd and the gang.

Lots of love from all of us!! xx

Beautiful

This is one of the most beautiful things I have read in a long time - enjoy!

Foxton

This Saturday we ventured north to Foxton Beach to join our friends camping before heading over to Palmerston for a visit with Hugh and Margaret on Sunday. It was our first camping experience in years - the last one being when Josie was a baby and we were so cold we left to go home in the middle of the night.

While our friends tented it we rented a very spartan cabin and only stayed for one night rather than two - we are breaking ourselves in gently. The weather was beautiful and we had a great day at the beach in the sunshine. I didn't take any beach photos this time because I somehow managed to break my favorite lens on the beach in Riversdale. However I did take some photos that evening during dinner prep.

Dugald, Matthew, Richard and Murray fire up the grill.

Meggie was great at looking after Ellie as the kids wandered the campground, she's a great big sister.

Josie digs into dinner.

The kids ate their sausages first - I never could get them all in the same place at the same time, but this picture has most of them in it!

Meanwhile the adults enjoyed pre-dinner drinks while the children ate.

Katherine, Fleur, Milena, Kathryn, Alison, me and Linda.

Murray, Dugald, Matthew, Richard, Simon and Mike

We actually had a very delicious meal - I am learning more and more about how to camp. While all our tenting friends had brought their own cooking utensils, cutlery and whatnot I was at the mercy of what was in the cabin - thus my salad contribution was served in two frying pans. I opted for beer instead of wine but had I chosen the wine I would have had to drink it out of a coffee cup.

We ended the evening roasting marshmallows over a camp stove and never have I missed graham crackers and a Hershey's chocolate bar more, but the kids didn't seem to mind and went back for seconds, thirds and fourths!

I am really loving this stage of our lives and the fun friends that are in it - it's wonderful to have children old enough to make these kinds of outings fun but still young enough to enjoy being with us!! Long may it last.

Love to all. xx

Two Years Ago Today

Today is Waitangi Day and the two-year anniversary of the day we moved to Wellington! I can't believe we've been here two years - if you want to read about our first days in Karori click here, or just look at the archives on the right for February 2008. The biggest difference I noticed as I reminisced was how much the girls have grown!

Someone told me that it takes two years for a place to really feel like home and I completely agree. We all now feel settled in our life here and are quite content - but it took some time to get to this place! I think I've said this before but I think it's a great privilege to live in different places and I love the people God has put in our lives, the things we have learned, the experiences we have had - but it also is bittersweet in that there will always be something we long for in the place that we aren't in at the moment.

In many ways our lives remain the same as they were in Texas - we still homeschool the girls, we keep busy with lots of extra-curricular activities, we love our time with friends. But in many ways our lives are different - we only have one car (and that's all we ever need), we walk a lot more from place to place, we seem to spend more time with friends on trips and things (I think that is a result of the children being older), we don't see Dugald as much because his job has been more demanding, we've learned to live on less as the cost of living has surprised us, we've learned to live with less control of the indoor temperature of our home, we are learning about the Kiwi can-do spirit - it surprises me in so many ways, things I would have bought or hired help for or whatever I'm surprised to find my friends saying we can do on our own.

The differences in living in a smaller country versus a bigger country are huge too - and like everything both good and bad. I love how resourceful people here are in general, how it is a natural part of life to recycle, reuse, fix rather than replace. I love how the shops close at 6 pm every day (except the grocery store, it closes at 10pm) and are only open until 4 pm on Sunday. At first that drove me absolutely crazy but now I value how it makes sure people spend more time with their family and friends. I am even getting over the price of going out to eat - at first it killed me because there are so many great places to eat here but they seemed so pricey - but it has forced me to cook more and us to eat at home more and have friends over to our home and that is a good thing.

We came here because we thought that was how God was directing our family and we had our own understanding of what He might want us here for - to spend time with Dugald's side of the family, to get to know his culture, etc. We have done that, but I think God had much bigger reasons for bringing us here and even though it has been difficult at times I am grateful and I feel like He has grown me up a little bit in my understanding of Him and in my ability to trust that He has the very best plans for me - not the happiest, easiest or most comfortable - but the best and that He is faithful in all things.

We welcome visitors to our humble abode and would love to show you our great town so come visit us - it's worth the effort and the long plane ride!