Yes we are in Florida and having a fabulous time, but I am still catching up here on the blog from May! We went camping with the clan again up at Raetihi for our mid-winter celebration. We stayed at the Snowy Waters Lodge (thanks Fleur) which offered great accommodation for a group of our size. We had enough rooms for everyone and a nice big gathering area to eat and hang out in and it was a great base for heading out on other adventures - we went bike riding, walking and horseback riding. But first a few random photos. . .
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| Our neighbors got a new puppy, Blue. He is so cute! |
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| Meggie had her hair done and I thought she looked beautiful so snapped a few pics, she was less than cooperative. |
Now to the "camping". I followed the Sheppards up to Raetihi as Dugald was on a business trip and flying in to meet us the next day. We stopped for coffee in Bulls and the Moores caught up with us there - we were definitely the loudest customers in the place.
Once at the lodge we settled in for drinks and dinner.
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| Matt, Rich and Alison unwind at the lodge. |
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| Dinner prep. |
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| Julia, Sophie, Harriett and Meggie. |
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| Crazy Ellie, Josie, Izzy and equally nutty Ruth. |
The next day we all had a nice sleep-in while the kids frolicked outside. Then the adults walked into town for a coffee after which we all went bike riding while Matt went to collect Dugald in Whanganui. Thank you Matt!
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| Tom pulling Ellie and Ruth on some sort of cart. |
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| Petting Gypsy, the pony that lives at the lodge. |
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| Car selfie on the way to go bike riding. |
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| A great view of Mt. Ruapehu as we drove. |
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| Harriett, Sophie and Meggie ready to go. |
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| Ellie rode tandem with Simon - we must teach her to ride a bike! Oops! |
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| Home from biking and Daddy has arrived!! |
That night we made a yummy dinner loosely based on Thanksgiving, I made sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and pecans that was popular and a cranberry-jello salad that wasn't. It was all really yummy though. The kids divided into teams to make cakes from scratch and decorate them for a contest. Meggie was too busy before we left to organize her team to actually make the cake like everyone else had done, so her team's cake was made at the lodge from a box mix.
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| Meggie's team working on their cake for the dessert competition. |
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| Murray, Ross, Alison and Milena. |
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| Kathryn and Fleur. |
The final cakes:
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| Meggie's team's cake. |
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| Josie's team's cake. |
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| Ellie's team's cake. |
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| Katie's team's cake. |
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| Sandy, the owner of the lodge, and her son Blue joined us for dinner. Here Blue is playing peek-a-boo with the big girls. |
After dinner Sandy, the owner of the lodge, and her assistant judged the cake competition. Each team was judged based on how the cake looked and how it tasted, then Sandy asked each team to do some sort of talent presentation. Meggie's team was chosen the overall winner!
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| Harriett and Katie on dishes. |
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| After the competition we used Anna's cake to wish her a happy birthday, here Pippa and Harriett light the candles. |
Simon organized dinner the following night - fondue! It was a huge hit with both the kids and the adults, definitely something we need to do again soon.
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| Kids on dishes. . . |
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| While the adults eat. |
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| These two were soaked! |
On our last day we let the girls go horseback riding - we thought it would be a fun adventure and we were assured that it was safe for novice riders. When we arrived to pick them up we saw five saddled and riderless horses charging down the hill and across the street we were currently driving on to get into the place. Long story short all five girls had fallen off their cantering horses - this picture was taken after they finally got back. The riding place didn't handle things well but thankfully the girls weren't majorly hurt. It was scary though!
The whole crew!
