The Royal Wedding (and our trip to Auckland)

I know most of you, if not all of you, were among the two billion people around the world watching Prince William marry Kate Middleton but I had to include some of my favorite pictures here for posterity. The wedding coverage in New Zealand started around 7pm last night - I was very glad I wasn't in America where it all began around 3 am -  and ended sometime after midnight. In honor of the occasion I made us a British-inspired dinner of Beef Wellington, roasted potatoes, minted peas and roasted asparagus. Meggie made us some bread pudding for dessert. After dinner we retired to the playroom to watch events unfold on the "big" screen and the girls settled in for a slumber party. I was shocked that Ellie stayed awake until we turned out the lights around midnight (we decided to record the kiss on the balcony and watch it today) and was also the first up this morning. That girl has energy! There was a big party in Karori that I debated attending, and I'm sure it was a blast, but in the end I'm glad I decided to watch at home with my peeps. Like everyone else of my generation I remember watching Charles and Di get married and I hope that last night my princesses-in-training made a memory that will last a lifetime.

We all decided we absolutely loved the dress and that William looked dashing in his uniform but Meggie thought he looked better with his hat on. Of course the cathedral was awe-inspiring and Dugald really enjoyed the music. We all did, but he did in particular. It was so fun to see all the ladies and their hats (not sure what Princess Beatrice was thinking though, eee gads). For some beautiful pictures that I couldn't put into the blog because I'm not that technically savvy click here, it's worth a look!

All the above images are from the BBC website.

In other news - Meggie sent me an email the other day with two grave errors. She wrote it to "Mum" - who is that?? - and she wrote "realise" instead of "realize". This Marsden education is beginning to frighten me.

Dugald and I went to Auckland for the night a few weeks ago - Mercy Ships was having an alumni reunion and Dugald had a part to play in the evening because of his role as Chairman of the New Zealand Board of Directors. I wasn't planning to attend because it's hardly ever worth the work involved in sorting the children out to only go away for one night. However, I received quite a bit of "encouragement" from some friends still in Mercy Ships (not Dugald, he was pretty relaxed about whether I went or not) to support him and make the effort. . . so I went, and of course I'm really glad I did!! Prior to the event we got to have a lovely dinner with the other board members and their spouses as well as with the evening's speaker, the Honourable Phil Heatley, and his lovely wife Jenny. I happened to sit right next to Jenny and we hit it off and exchanged numbers so that we can reconnect in Wellington when she returns after the school holidays.

Dugald did a fantastic job, as always, and I was so proud of him! The event was held on a ferry and we sailed around Auckland Harbour. Dugald's nephew, Ben, also joined us for the evening having served onboard the Africa Mercy last year.

We stayed with our dear friends Fay and Trevor who generously loaned us their car as well and it was great to reconnect with them. We had a lovely, relaxing day Sunday - sleeping in, brunch in Parnell and then some quiet time together in the Koru lounge. In fact we heard an earlier flight for Wellington announced as we were sitting in the lounge eating the free food and reading and we looked at each other as if we should maybe get on it since we were ready and immediately went "Naaa."