* Its raining again

Its been a while and we've been having some fun over the past week.

We've been watering the plants.

Having Mum/Grandma over for the day.

Picking up more wood with Dad/Grandad in the park.

Ara's had her first milo.

We've been to Emily's 1st birthday...a lovely cat cake there Em.

We've been taking Ara walking round the weekend markets. Infact Ara is walking just about every where...just not back up the drive.

Now we are getting ready to head off on a plane tomorow (I've been pointing to the ones in the sky telling Ara she's going to go on one soon).

We'll be flying from Whangarei (no long drive down to Auckland) then catching a connecting flight through to Queenstown. I'm worried about how Ara will take the flight but thats not going to stop how much fun we're going to have.

Well lots to do and with hope lots of cool photos to show you when we get back.

Babies to the beach on coldest day

We've been going well the last few days with the weather being nice to us for a change.
Really makes a difference to the mood of the house.
Ara is able to get out and walk just about everywhere now. Was talking to a lady in the 4 square the other day she was asking us if we had a pushchair.... Ara was running round the shop with her little basket. I said we did but Ara really didn't like it...and now I can say it was a bit of a wast of money as she really doesn't seem to need one.
I sent a Tex to Francis about walking along the beach the other day ... yes it must be colder now than what it has been all winter. So we wrapped up the kids and meet down the cove. We didn't end up on the beach as the tide was very high but there is a great playground just down a bit which we spent ages on.
We were really able to be coffee - hot chocolate Mums at the cafe too which was great.

We're still cleaning up from the storm a bit. Dave has had to stake up a few of our trees even though they have been in three years they still have been leaning over.
We've also got a bit of firewood to stack as well. Nothing like getting ready for next winter which is great.
Well no photos today having too much fun to get behind the camera.

* Well they are home

Ma and Pa are home. They arrived on the 18th and we managed to catch up with them on that night for Dinner. We were all a little tired. Ara spent a lovely time going through the suitcase pulling out her new things. I lovely green "helmet" (what babies wear in Thailand on the back of a scooter) but we'll be wearing when we head down south or on cold days round home. She also just loves the bright orange clogs and had to wear them this morning...As the photo shows she's still in her pjs with hat and clogs.

You can see Dave's nice big pile of wood that he's been cutting his way through from the blow downs in the storm. We've got heaps more to go as well. We've been offered one in the local park as well...a nice blue gum.

I'm such a proud Mama today my baby walked all the way down the shops and back by her self...maybe I should say she ran! She was most put out that we didn't get to go in the 4 square to get any thing but Chrissy let her put a pack of raisins in the basket just to keep her happy.

First time in ages I've had to sing a lullaby to get Ara off to sleep but she was asleep so fast it made me laugh. Think she's just so excited with all the walking outside its just been a great day so far.

A really lovely sun rise.

I guess we'll see more or Mum and Dad this weekend and hope to see some photo too...so far I've seen a snake...make my skin crawl.

* There was a drain...there was a river

If you have a look back at the post Cat Surfing you'll see a photo of the frost on the hills over behind Phillips place...and no river. Unlike this photo here. We had a large down pour of rain over night and the early hours of ....I think it was the 16th. While we did have wonderful sunny weather for this day we were stuck in due to the "river" going over the road.

The photo of the road is not at it highest point but even at this time it was not really a great crossing even with a larger vehicle. Ara was in backpack mode in the wrap under Dave's large coat as we walked down the road to see the fun.

On the day of the storm or the morning after I should say there was a large gathering at the end of the road...a chain saw party...cutting a gap for Jan and Pete and Allan to get out of their houses. Russ came along with two very large tractors and managed to get the logs right off the road. Ara spent a lovely time picking up pine cones (not in the wind!)

In true Dave and Megan style we wanted to check out the damage as soon as we could so jumped in our car to have a look round town. Heaps of pines down all over the place and in

some cases whole rows.

We lost the power on and off for a few days and one day we lost it for 17 hours. I was beginning to wonder how much longer our freezer would last...my mind was looking into the days. But we did well as we can still get running water in the house...we have the fire and a large pantry.

The only damage we did have was my nappy line getting cut in half by a flying bit of roofing iron (iron not from anything is just waiting for the chicken house).

So what did we do all day?

Well Ara and I had a great time just hanging out together. She spent a lot of time in the sling (got to keep up with Attachment Parenting month)...we even baked a batch of scones, not as good as Ara's one from Playcentre thought. The follow on affect of this lots of time together was Ara slept REALLY well through the whole storm unlike Dave and myself. She must of felt really safe.

For my birthday Pat gave me a slow cooker book so combined with the gift from Kez and Alex all thoughts years ago we have been having some great meals. I even did a whole chicken which was just sooooooo good. Sorry for all the veges. out there but it really was good. Dave has also been mastering his chocolate cake as well.

As a final note it really made me laugh when Ara got into a mixing bowl (she's been going through the pot cupboards) and couldn't get out.

* Stormy Weather

We are still here!
We are just having a bit of a problem with some stormy weather. We’ve been with out power for a little while and the net is intermittent.
Will be back fully soon....I hope.
Love to all

Megan

Are you sure you want to come home?

Well everyone if you didn't know my Ma and Pa are over seas in the heat of Thailand....due to come home in 8 days after 2 months of trekking. Dave has just been reading the weather warnings...ie don't go out in the car! We've just had a really terrible night with heaps of wind and rain. I'm not even game enough to go out to check the rain gage yet. Maybe Ara and I will suit up in Dave's rain coat.

We've had very little sleep but some how Ara managed to sleep in until 7:15 not so for poor Mummy and Daddy.

Griffin is going totally nuts and desperate to get outside but he can not stand the wind in his fur. I think the day of the bite or the scratch might be looming.

Ara and I went for a very little drive down the road and back again. The creek over the back of Cliff and Phil is very swollen. It was not yet over the road when I went down but I could see that it was very close.

Cows were not all that keen on getting out in it. Most of the ones down the road where all up against the fence swapping shelter.

The roads are very littered with tree bits when we went out for morning tea Dave was laughing as he said they looked like they were molting.

The cafe was quite full and town was very blustery.

The wind has not let up all day and I've been watching from the family room as all my poor trees that Mum, Nana and I planted a few years ago have been leaning right over and turning almost inside out.

Asleep in July 06

I just had to put this one on as it just seems like such a long time ago...when we used to live in such a small room.

The first feijoa

Sorry the photo is so bad but its just so funny. Ara is trying to feed it to Griffin in the photo. It was about the size of Dave's thumb nail...and it was squished by these two in their mad rampages around the living room.

There have been quite a few red mornings now and it looks like we're going to have a few more wet days.

Dave has been painting today...no not the one he started before Ara was born a MUCH smaller one.

Me I've been baking...yes Mum I have to agree its not in the genes and I think I'll leave my little teddy bear cookies to the birds....once Dave and Ara have had a few to make me feel better.

Red sky in the morning

I woke up early in the morning....haha not that I get a choice now days....but I was treated to a GREAT red sun rise. True to the saying of Red Sky in the Morning shepherds warning

(or surf who ever you may be) it has been raining. More...again.

But now its fine and we've managed a walk down the road to check out the museum and other shops.

We had a great Late lunch/morning tea/early dinner at the pizza barn. Would like to thank everyone so much for coming down to be with us....really great to have you there.

Good to see Islay standing and taking her first steps....so exciting.

The next day we went down to my Mum and Dad's to have lunch with Dave's parents (Pat and Sewlyn are house sitting for Ma and Pa) Really lovely meal and Ara got to hang out with us all having a good meal as well.

I think I like this eating a larger lunch and hardly any dinner its worked really well for us the past few days...don't know what the productivity for work would be like if we did it every day.

Well I'll leave you with our last meal. A mix of cultures here.