Friday, January 16, 2009

We've Moved

Our new home.

How time flies! My 6 month contract finished on January 9th. To celebrate, we took a month off and caught a flight down to Christchurch. Our plan: rent a campervan for an entire month and explore the South Island.

This is one of those gambits that either pays off or ruins you. I freely admit that we were equal parts nervous and excited as the trip approached, neither Amy nor I knowing if we could pull off a month long, thousand mile road trip while living out of a van.

So far we've been on the road for 6 days, long enough to lose track of time and settle into a groove. We've been pleasantly surprised at how well things have gone, and I already find myself wishing that we had more time on this trip.

We move almost every day, driving about 2 hours per day. I eventually plan to post about the stuff we've seen, but I have to catch up on some other things first (there are so many other things to tell about even before I get to the trip; my climbing trip with Kraemer, our visit from our friend Robin)...

Thus far the risk has paid off beautifully. The other day I spent an entire hour pushing rocks off of a bridge into the river with Amelia. The kids have adapted beautifully to the travelling and we've seen things so amazing that they defy description (I know I say that a lot. Ask anyone that knows a lot about NZ and they'll tell you I'm not kidding- the things we've seen prior to this are like NZ Lite compared to the areas we're seeing now).

I'll be honest: my goal is to start posting about these travels within the next month. As you can see, it can get pretty remote here and thus internet access can be a bit dodgy (that's our van in the photo below):


The view from our new kitchen is worth it, though.


All of these pics were taken during our stay near Arthur's Pass. More to come, and hopefully soon...

Friday, January 9, 2009

Once upon a time....


Once upon a time there was a darling little girl who was clever and silly and oh-so-sweet. She wished and wished that she could one day, finally, have a birthday of her very own. She patiently waited while her Dad, Mom, and little brother all had their own birthdays. She patiently waited while all of her cousins, and aunts and uncles and grandparents and friends and everyone in the whole world had a birthday.

And then one splendidly lovely day, Amelia Kinsale Lovelace woke up, looked outside, saw her lollipop tree and knew that her birthday had finally, finally arrived.



And what a birthday it was!





Amelia picked lollipops all morning,




baked, designed, and decorated her birthday cake before nap




and played heaps of games all afternoon with her Kiwi friends



(including "Pin the parts on the Amelia").



Everyone partied the day away and Quinn somehow managed to lose his pants, but not his charm.



Amelia thanked her friends for coming to celebrate with her



and everyone snuggled up with a good book and a warm lap.


Happy, Happy 3rd Birthday Our Darling Girl!