NZ trip part 2

So we left sunny Tauranga and set off for Palmy. Auron was a little trooper slept all the way to Taupo. When i got him out I realised he was saturated...note to self, it is not a good idea to leave baby in swimming nappies! He didn't seem to mind though. So quick change of nappies and off to Burger Fuel for dinner, another item ticked off our to do list.

Auron started getting a bit grumpy at about Hunterville so stop to play in the park at 1030pm. On our way again and Auron SCREAMED the last 10mins of the trip and was inconsolable once we stopped. Oh well he soon got over it and and was a happy chappy. 

The next morning our family set off for the airport to welcome home our brother Elder Whaanga from his mission. He looks pretty much the same just fatter. He has a few plans for his future up his sleeve so it will be exciting to see him embarking on this next phase of his life. For those you who know Kevin he was probably one of the least likely Young Men to serve a mission. I don't think it was ever really it his life plan, but it just shows you that you never know what is around the corner. On another mission note my other brother Wane got his mission call the day after Kev got home. He's off to Adelaide in April. Well done Wane its been a LONG time coming! So in the next few months he will be able to go through the temple and be sealed to the rest of us. Hopefully Teina will be able to be sealed to us now too. Mum's looking into it I think.
Anyhow the rest of our time in Palmy was spent eating at all the yummy places we miss, annual sports at the park I however didn't participate unless you count the swimming that followed, in the rain no less. We headed over to Masterton for the morning to catch up with some more family. Um got a hair cut at my old hairdressers, my hairdresser is a little crazy and weird but does a decent job and does it fast.
Aarahi and I went out on a double "date" thing with my brother and his Girlfriend. We even left Auron with Teuila and Manasseh to babysit. We were about to head out and realised that our intended restaurant was already swarming with all the adults of the family (tonight we were kids). So we ended up at a really nice Thai place instead.
New years was spent at the Taratoa's. The theme was opshop and everyone made the effort to dress up. Aarahi Auron and I went as old people...well auron just went as an old fashion baby. SUPER cute though. The winners of the night were hands down Aarahi's brother and his family who dressed up as the Incredibles!

New years day we drove back to tauranga the off to auckland to catch our plane home the next day

A few extra notes:


Auron did really well meeting everyone, despite getting 2 teeth and having cold while we away. Not to mention the crazy bed times, not being fed whenever he wanted, and being in strange places with strange people, being dropped dragged around being put in and out of carseats, prams, constantly being woken up and having to sit still on the plane.

If you are ever thinking of flying Emirates is an AWESOME airline. Pay the little extra and go with them and I bet you wont regret it. We wont be flying with anyone else now if we can help it.

Don't they look AWESOME!

Welcome home Elder Whaanga

My family

Auron and his Cousin Ollie, they're about 4 months apart

Aunty Mei

Nanny Mary and Auron

Tearai and Emily. 

My Family 

The 5 of us

Playing with Uncle at midnight

My sister and Grandparaents

Love this photo...a little concerned about what Teuila is doing though

We managed to squeeze him into the bassinette on the plane

Uncle Teina gave Auron his breakfast every morning

Teina Auron and our cousin Joel

Uncle Richard

We went to say a hello to Aunty Jeanette at work

Then off to see our cousins Teina Auron Shilo and Claire

Home at last and exhausted

This is our Family: NZ trip part 1

So we are home from our whirlwind trip back to New Zealand. It was AMAZING but so so so busy so will have to break the holiday down into two posts I think.

We will start with Tauranga and Christmas. Uncle Jasen picked up from the airport and we hit the road for Tauranga which is where Aarahi is from. We arrived at the homestead late afternoon and were met by hoards of children and aunties and uncles. All but one of Aarahis eight siblings and their families were home for christmas. His youngest brother is still serving a mission in the Philippines.

Christmas eve was the night for presents as we had church in the morning and the house was sure to be chaotic with that many people trying to get ready. Following church on Christmas day we headed over to a big hall to have our christmas dinner. It was deliecious i must say. I was then a mad rush to clean up and get back to the house in time to skype Elder Matthews. He was allowed to video skype this year which was a real treat. He's looking good although he's picked up a terrible american accent which I'm sure he will lose...I hope. We talked for about 2 hours there were a lot of us to get through!

The rest of our time in Tauranga was spent relaxing and enjoying our family, on the last day we all headed off to the beach. It was a PERFECT beach day. The water was warm, the waves good, and not too crowded.

And now off we go to Palmerston North.

All 21 grandkids at the Marae

The 3 oldest with the 3 youngest

Nanny Kaye and Cumorah with Auron and Aarahi

ooo Someone found the big boys toys

Aarahi and Jaran

My two little helpers drying the dishes

Fun at the beach

Szharei and DiAhman building castles

What a busy weekend

The weekend has sort of crept up on me this week, not that I'm complaining it just means its closer to holiday time (6 days...not that I'm counting or anything). So Friday we went into town at 7pm, in an attempt to avoid the crowds, it was mildly successful but probably not worth waiting around all day for. We tried to finish our Christmas shopping and left with all but 2 presents bought. On Saturday Aarahi started work early and finished late, lucky it is the last Saturday shift for the year. On his way home he went and picked up my 6 year old cousin Bronte. She was coming over to spend the day helping me with making some Christmas presents and getting stuff ready for our Family Dinner on Sunday. She was a fantastic help especially with Auron. She entertained him, shared her lunch, and cuddled with him while they watched Harry Potter while I cleaned up the HUGE mess we made. In the Afternoon we went and FINISHED our shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!! everything is now wrapped and packed up into the suitcases to bring over next week. Man will I be gutted if they lose those suitcases! After Bronte went home, I got on with cooking/glazing the ham for Sunday. My initial plan was to skip church, yes I know naughty me, but Aarahi so kindly accepted the assignment for us to speak.

Oh we both have new callings at church. Aarahi is Young Mens President and I am an adviser in the Young womens.

Right so Sunday, talks went ok I guess. The topic was "Giving is the True Spirit of Christmas". When I was thinking about this as I was wrapping up the last of our presents I kind of felt like my Mum I guess, there are a ridiculous amount of presents all wrapped up, all carefully selected, for those that we love but not one present under the tree has our name on it. As a teenager or child this would have bothered me immensely but last night as I placed the last gift into the suitcase I felt happy, joyful even, at a job well done at the happiness Aarahi and I have found in shopping for each of the recipients. I have no doubt that the gifts will likely be forgotten after a week or two but it was more than a joy to give. It kept the kids in our thoughts throughout the year as we looked for little things they might like.

Ok enough of that, our christmas dinner we had here tonight was good fun. The food was good, we had glazed ham, roast pork, roast veges, steamed veges, salads, trifle (made solely by Aarahi, he even made the custard from scratch, with eggs and milk) choc ripple cake, santa hats, icecream, and probably some other stuff that i forgot. Man I feel fat. Can't wait to do it all again next week....and the week after.

We also opened some presents. We did not so secret santa with our family here and Auron opened his big present which he loved...see photos...

Well Auron's just broken into the cookie jar so better go deal to him.

Auron and Bronte watching  Harry Potter

I ATE DADDY"S MANGOES!!!!!!!!!! 

Auron and Tiarne. He got a new hat too!

Santa's Lil Helper

My big present, a Lightning McQueen motorised quad bike. I love it, its still charging at the moment so i will have to wait for tomorrow before i can give it a real ride.

He really does love it. Keeps trying to climb on but cant quite get his leg over.

Christmas baby in his new christmas top

Bronte making the Santa Hats

The leftovers, was too busy eating to take photos before most of the food was demolished

Santa's hat brownies

Aarahi's YUMMY trifle.

Choc Ripple cake

Um yes I am cute and I'm going to eat as much cake as I can while you let me

Yum eating the cookies....

Only 1 week 6 days!

Yup only 1 week 6 days til were coming home! (Aarahi gets annoyed and says I should just say 2 weeks so it seems like it comes faster)

It was Aarahi's birthday on Monday...it was a disaster so we rescheduled it for Saturday to make up for  it. He got some/lots of chocolate, a cake and the box set of Pirates of the Caribbean, which we haven't watched yet because our DVD player has suddenly stopped working. I also made him whatever he wanted to eat for breakfast lunch and dinner.

Aarahi's passport came this week aswell which is a relief. They had sent back his application form because he hadn't signed it. They said that once we sent it back it would take atleast 2 weeks for it to be processed and have the passport sent out to us. This would have ended up being only 2 days before we were due to fly out, but it turned up the day after I sent off the signed form. Blessings or what! Speaking of blessings I went to pay our power bill this week and realised once I got to the post office that our power company had given us a $400 credit for being loyal customers for ONE whole year. That's like 6 months FREE power!

On Thursday Auron and I went to the city to go see Anita (we stayed with her family in Brisbane). She was playing in the National High Schools Volleyball Tournament. Her team did really well and it was really awesome to be able to go and see her play. I almost didn't recognise her! On our way there we took the wrong train and got a bit lost on the way home.

I went a picked up some material and other things from Spotlight to make Auron some of his Christmas presents and to make some things for our Christmas dinner we are having here with my Aunt Uncle and Cousins next week. So it's been a bit of a busy sewing week, not so easy when Auron wants to "help".

 This little Pukeko is a climber, he climbs on everything! He climbed up on the couch and then over it. Here he is having a break in the middle. He's also figured out how to climb out of bed (our bed). The other day he got out of bed before I woke up and wandered off down the hallway to get up to some mischief. I found him playing in his room pulling all his clothes off the shelves. 

 These are Aarahi's attempts to baby-proof the TV and Christmas tree. A wall of nappy boxes washing baskets and toys

Trying to keep the baby away from all the cords behind and inbetween the couches 

Anita and Auron at the Volleyball

Sydney!

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was so much FUN. We left Melbourne at 730am for Sydney Saturday morning, unfortunately we had to be at the airport at 530am ugh too early. Auron's first flying experience went well, the seats on the airline we were on were the most squishy seats ever though.It was literally like a tin of sardines. The flight went really quick though. We then caught the train into the city and did a little sight seeing. Well pretty much just the Opera House and Harbour bridge we didn't have too much  time on our hands. We also went for a walk around the Botanic Gardens and the Harbour. It was such a BEAUTIFUL day not a cloud in the sky. We then met up with Aarahi's cousin Ashleigh and went up to our hotel. We actually stayed at Rydges which is where we stayed for our wedding. The room was pretty much exactly the same too which was cool. We then headed off to the wedding where Aarahi got to see a few of the guys that he served his mission with. I on the other hand got to hear some of the mission stories which I'm sure he intentionally neglected to tell me. When we got to our table (all mission boys and wives) we were the only ones there for a good hour or so seeing as the rest were late or didn't show. That was fine with us though we lots of the entrees ourselves....what fatties. There was SOOOOO much food! it was a huge wedding around 300 guests. We actually saw our friends from our ward there, surprised much! There was heaps of dancing and FIREWORKS! yes fireworks inside haha it was so much fun.

We left before it ended because....did I mention we left the baby with Ashleigh? well I was having too much of a hard time being away from him. Its was the first time he's been looked after by someone other than us, and 4 hours was enough, lol mummy wasn't coping without her Pukeko. Turns out he was perfectly fine haha.

Today being Sunday we slept in late then went down the the Hotel restaurant for breakfast which was a mix of cereals, toast and bacon and eggs etc. It was only an extra $10 on top of our room and you could eat as much as you wanted.

We traipsed back into the city had an icecream from Baskin Robins (it's a really nice icecream place we don't have in Melbourne) then back to the airport to catch our flight home. We finally made it home at 6pm this evening and we are exhausted...Auron on the other hand is full of beans.

Here are some photos from our adventure....

 Auron's new portacot. We got it for our travels back home because its folds down small enough to fit in my hand bag and only weighs a few kgs.

 Waiting waiting waiting for the plane

Pretty Harbour Bridge

Our big standing up baby. 

Opera House with Daddy

The cool little train that we didnt ride on because it was stupidly expensive

Our Uglyness

There was a Pohutakawa tree in the Botanic gardens.....

....and this is what it looked like haha

Riding the horsie

Playing on the grass. He didn't quite know how he felt about it but after awhile he got used to it.

 

Crappy iPod camera photos.

Waiting for the plane to take off sucking on my dummy so I don't get sore ears.

And lastly on our travels we found a street for nanny Kaye