We've played at the beaches in our area, relaxed on some boat rides, and have enjoyed time with our friends in Gissy. The high point of the most recent boat ride was seeing dolphins! So keep looking until the end and you will see some Common Dolphins. It has been a dream of mine to see them in the wild, so yay for that! We are trying to make the most of everyday we have left in this beautiful county and spend lots of quality time with the people who have made it so enjoyable. Happy New Year:)
We stayed close to home over the holidays. It's been so nice to have relaxed time together to enjoy the beautiful area where we live. We really enjoyed a summer Christmas. It's so different from what we are used to that it makes it easier to be away from family. Although we do miss them so much and are excited to be closer soon!! We've played at the beaches in our area, relaxed on some boat rides, and have enjoyed time with our friends in Gissy. The high point of the most recent boat ride was seeing dolphins! So keep looking until the end and you will see some Common Dolphins. It has been a dream of mine to see them in the wild, so yay for that! We are trying to make the most of everyday we have left in this beautiful county and spend lots of quality time with the people who have made it so enjoyable. Happy New Year:)
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From the first stop on Santa's tour, let us say, Merry Christmas! Celebrating in tank tops and flip-flops still feels a little odd, but we love it. White sand and clean surf beat a white Christmas any day! Some of you may know this already, but we've decided to return home to the US. Liz and I spent several weeks praying, thinking and talking about what we would do next in our lives before we came to a decision. Then we changed our minds. Many times. We have absolutely loved our time in both Taupo and Gisborne, but ultimately, our decision came down to family. Skype is great, but our boys are missing out on real time with grandparents, cousins, aunts & uncles; and Liz and I have been without parents, brothers & sisters, nieces & nephew for too long. From a professional standpoint, it has been great to get experience in a much different health system and at a slower pace. But, it I'm to keep my ED skills up, I really need to be back in the States in a busy ED. So, we've decided to return to the States. More precisely, to Louisville, Kentucky. We'll be there with Matt and Kamille and the girls. I have a contract with an ED group in Louisville, and we've rented a home for a short term while we search for something more permanent. We're very excited to be returning, especially to be so close to family for the first time in a long time. So, Merry Christmas from the bottom of the world. Cardboard box remains undefeated as the greatest toy of all time. The boys were getting into character with their new pajamas.
Another visit from Karen, Kiwi Thanksgiving, adventures in Sydney, and other great things.12/18/2013 Well, as usual, I'm several weeks behind on the blog, but better late than never. Or maybe never is better. Now I'm getting self-conscious about my blogging. Look what you've done to me! Anyhow...Karen came back for a second visit and we had another great adventure. She spent a ton of time with the boys, even taking Elias on a backpacking adventure. Liz and I also managed to trick her into watching the boys for four days while Liz and I went to Sydney. We had an amazing time, and the boys seemed not to miss us much at all. We also had a couple of Thanksgiving parties to share a little of the USA with the Kiwis. Hi guys, it's Elias. Do you want to hear about my seventh birthday? I was so excited about the new Disney "Planes" movie coming out. I wanted to include a fighter jet from the movie in the theme of my birthday party. The plane I chose is "Echo" the Fighter Jet. I also read the book, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" by Roald Dahl and love it. I had the idea to combine those two things into one great party. My mom and I designed this drawing for the invitation... The toy library is a place where we can rent toys for two weeks at a time. They had a fox suit! I was so excited to wear it to my party. We turned a yellow shirt inside out and made it into a good Mr. Fox shirt. My Papaw drew a Mr. Fox on a piece of cardboard and cut it out. We played a game with it called "Shoot the Tail Off the Fox." (You'll understand why we played that game if you read the book.) We used a Nerf gun to try and shoot "tails" made out of streamers off the Mr. Fox. It was a cool game. My mom also made a fun scavenger hunt for us. Mini Reese cups were the prize! It was fun to share them with friends here because they are not very popular in New Zealand. Yum. We like making a pinata for our birthday parties, and this year I thought we would try and make "Echo." We filled it with candy and had a great time breaking him open. For a while I wasn't sure I wanted to smash him because he was so cool. We also used a fighter jet on the cake, this time it was "Bravo." We have made some good friends here in Gisborne and I could invite 6 of them. (Including my brother, it was seven, since I was turning seven.) We have a great but small back yard and so we thought a bounce house would be a fun thing for us seven kids to play on during the party. I hope you enjoy these pictures from my party. I wish I could have invited all my American (and Taupo) friends and family to my party too. Hopefully telling you about it is a small way we can share it. I had a super awesome seventh birthday. It made it even better that my Memaw and Papaw were able to come! We apparently don't learn well from prior experience, because we decided it would be fun to fly the whole family back to the States. There should be no question of our love for our family after flying about 80,000 person-miles round trip for a visit. I had a conference I wanted to attend in Breckenridge, so we worked out an incredibly complicated travel itinerary and packed our bags. We flew Auckland to Sydney to Detroit to Columbus. Overall the boys did well. We split time between Liz's family near Columbus, Ohio, and with my family in Louisville, Kentucky. We had awesome time with family, and we got to see Kosmo! The boys played non-stop with all their cousins. I then went on to Colorado for a 4 day conference before flying back to Auckland. Liz stayed with the boys at her parents for a couple weeks. Karen met her there and made the very long return trip to Gisborne. It was a great visit, and it's good to all be back home in Gisborne, with the extra treat of having "KK" with us. Day 12 (8 April) We cooked up a little breakfast this morning, and Liz struck up a conversation with a young German lady who was an herbalist of some kind. She went on to tell us all about how modern medicine doesn’t work and that the real answer to any disease is found in the root of a dandelion or some-such. This sort of thing happens a lot to me for some reason; I choose to keep my mouth shut. Because really, what’s the point? It’s like arguing on the internet. We drove north a short ways to the beginning of the Routeburn track. Liz and the boys had some quiet time in the campervan and did a short little walk while I went a little farther afield. I walked about 9km up to the Routeburn Falls Hut. The trail is fairly flat for the first seven km along a sapphire blue river, then ascends steeply up into the mountains. I passed a guy carrying the biggest backpack I have ever seen. He wasn’t all that big; maybe 150 pounds. He said he was carrying 100 pounds of gear, including enough food for twenty days on the trail. Pretty hard core. Anyway, I took a little break up at the hut and then went back to the campervan. I would love to do the whole of the Routeburn track sometime before we leave NZ. We had some lunch and then drove back through Queenstown, picked up some groceries, and were on our way. We drove past vast sheep paddocks that are the home of the sheep that supply wool for my favorite clothing, Icebreakers. I feel a certain kinship with this land and the merino sheep it feeds to make my buttery-soft wool clothing. If you ever find an Icebreaker garmet, buy it. Over the last twelve days I’ve rotated three merino wool shirts and haven’t become a bit “wiffy” as they say here. Day 13 (9 April) We drove along Lake Pukaki to Mt. Cook National Park. It was overcast and a little rainy. The visitor center at Mt. Cook is really impressive though, so Elias and I didn’t mind wandering around in there while the weather cleared. We cooked a big lunch and ate in the park, preparing for our long walk ahead. We were planning on walking the ten km round trip up to Hooker Lake. The valley runs along the river with views toward Mt. Cook most of the way. The clouds cleared for a while and we were treated to spectacular landscapes. Elias was, once again, and hiking machine. He seemed to run most of the way without a bit of complaining. The lake was amazing. It is fed by a calving glacier that descends from the western aspect of Mt. Cook. There are little icebergs floating throughout the lake. This walk was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. It was nearing nightfall when we departed from the park, and we drove on toward Lake Tekapo to camp for the night. Getting near the end now. Well, after 3,700km, 14 days, and 3 changes of clothes later*, we've managed to survive our camper van tour of New Zealand's South Island. We kept a brief journal for each day, along with some of our favorite photos. Since it would be an heap of memories and photos to drop all in one post, we'll let you live it day by day over the next couple of weeks. So keep checking back. *Some statistics may apply to Jared only. Day 1 (28 March)
Drove Gisborne to Wellington today. Took the Interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton. The ferry was a good experience. The boys were entertained by the play area and Disney Junior. I would loved to have sat on the deck with a bottle of wine and the full moon, but the crew probably wouldn’t have been keen to supervise our children. We stayed in AA Marlin Motel. It was straight out of the 60s; the carpet and drapes were probably original. Long day, but boys were great in the car and excited to finally be on the South Island! Even though we are so far from home, we have experienced a lot of love over the holidays this year. We of course miss all you family and friends back in the States, but God has provided some very kind and loving friends for us here in New Zealand. Christmas was definitely unique this year, but overall, very relaxing and fun. As most of you know, it's summer here right now and this is the big school summer break as well, so the atmosphere is very laid back. I think "kiwis" (as New Zealanders are called) are more laid back than most in general, but summer here in Taupo has really been the definition of that. A lot of people grill out and swim in the lake on Christmas. Most workers also experience a big holiday break over Christmas, so lots of gatherings and people out and about. Taupo is a central destination that people like to vacation or "holiday" at, so it's been busier than usual with all the "tourists" :) We kicked off our Christmas fun on Christmas eve with a family that has become dear to us, the Goddards. They are an energetic, kind, and giving family with eight kids! We carried on Jared's family tradition by eating Mexican food on Christmas eve with these friends. We also sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus over some Pavlova (popular NZ dessert, basically a yummy cream puff) topped with strawberries and cream. Then they took us to an off the beaten path cove to watch the sunset. The kids hopped in the water and paddled around and we experienced a beautiful gift in the sky that night! We had a low key Christmas morning enjoying the boys opening presents and got to Skype with family which wasn't quite the same, but special to feel like they were close anyway. That afternoon another family that have become friends, the Gummers, invited us to Christmas lunch. They had a wonderful spread complete with roast turkey and Christmas pudding! We ate and chatted, and ate some more. They were so kind to include us in their family celebration. The following day we took off for Gisborne to visit our good American friends, the Didiers. We stayed with them four nights and it really felt like a family visit. The kids have really hit it off, and Tom and Jared got some more surfing in. They also took us to a beautiful waterfall/natural rock water slide that the dads had to try out. We cooked together and stayed up late playing games. Then this past week we went on a camping trip with another family that has graciously welcomed us into their lives, the Russells. They have two young boys as well, James is Cohen's age and George is four. Louise is very modest, but she was a chef for awhile and we have enjoyed some of her wonderful creations! We were camping in style with her in the "kitchen." We are very grateful for all of your prayers and for the God who graciously gives us so much more than we deserve. We hope you had a wonderful holiday too. Thank you so much to all the friends and family who mailed Christmas cards all this way too, all of your smiling faces light up our kitchen hanging around the door frame. It's so appreciated, we miss you! We forgot to add some pictures from our family Thanksgiving celebration in Gisborne with the Didiers. Jared got to surf for the first time with Tom. Michelle and I pulled off a great lunch and the kids had a ball playing on the beach. It's been good for our hearts to have close friends from home nearby. Although we do miss you family! Enjoy :) I recently organized a Thanksgiving party with our homeschool group. I wanted to contribute something American to the great group of families we've met here, so on Friday we celebrated. I encouraged the kids to come with an homemade Indian headband or pilgrim hat. We had way more indians, but who could resist bright colors and feathers? There were about 60 people in attendance! My great friend Frances helped me organize it all. We had 3 craft tables where you could watercolor fall leaves, make pinecone turkeys, write something you're thankful for on a leaf for the thanksgiving tree, or do a pilgrim coloring page. The highlight was the food table. I encouraged the making of pies. There was pumpkin, pecan, apple, butterscotch, chocolate, and then cupcakes etc. My lovely parents mailed over some tissue paper turkeys and candy corn. That is a candy they don't have here. The kids were very fond of it. Then I told some history of the pilgrims, a story about Squanto the indian, and we read Psalm 100 together. I needed to do some good research about the history of it all, because I honestly didn't know details about the first Thanksgiving. Something I was proud to learn more about were the official proclamations George Washington and then Abraham Lincoln made to declare Thanksgiving a day to give thanks to God. "The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God... I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens" -Abraham Lincoln It's easy to stray away from what the holiday was originally created to do, credit the source of the One who truly has given us everything we have. Life for us in New Zealand has been pretty awesome so far. Jared has a job he enjoys, we have made some wonderful friends, and we can't get over the beautiful scenery. But there are struggles with uprooting your family and moving to a new place too. Personally I still have little patience with my boys sometimes, speak in a way that is not kind, and am just down right selfish. Being so far away from family and friends I know really well is challenging, but I never have to be far away from the One who can comfort me like no one else. (Although Jared is a great comforter, he works a lot still and I'm talking about God:) I'm reminded that not only do I need to be mindful of all that God has given us, and thank Him, I need to rely on Him more everyday. God is the source of my strength and is with me (and you) wherever we go. Thank you Lord! |
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