Tunnels

On the Queen's birthday 2009 (Queen's birthday in New Zealand is called 'the Quin's birthday) we went spelunking at North Head, Devonport. We rugged up, got our torches and set out to explore the tunnels under the reserve, built to store artillery and ammunition at various times in history when invasion was not very imminent at all.Don't tell Mickey, but Charlie thought it was on a par with Disneyland.

A gorgeous day at North Head, Devonport

Netball

Last week Gracie was invited to be in the Year 1 netball team, as they needed an extra player. She played her first game on Saturday, and did a great job. Netball is not a game ideal for five year olds! The no stepping rule, the 3 feet rule, the complicated rules about where each player can and can't go on the court...pretty tricky, when you think about it. The predominant feeling amongst all the players was confusion, and amongst the parents, amusement. Gracie caught on pretty quickly though, and figured out that if you jump up and down a lot with your hands in the air it looks very much as though you know what you're doing.

One Sunday afternoon I took a nap and woke up very late, thinking (in some alarm) that the kids had been extraordinarily quiet and good at entertaining themselves. I went downstairs to find that a couple of ducks had waddled up to our front window. A very substantial part of a loaf of bread was missing and the kids were thrilled with their initiative in giving these ducks some afternoon tea. I was worried that ducks would be falling out of the sky their stomachs bloated with inordinate amounts of bread. However, it seems they survived that first feast, and since then occasionally drop by for some more crusts, to everyone's great delight. We've also had a hedgehog snuffling around out there.

Auckland Museum

We enjoyed the Maori cultural performance at the Auckland Museum very much. We learned quite a bit about Maoritanga. That's Grandma standing beside the tree.

Sky Tower

We finally made the trip to Sky Tower and took a 360 degree look at Auckland. If you look carefully you can see our house from here.

Wainoni Park with Grandad and Grandma

We had a lovely time with Grandma and Grandad at Wainoni Park in Greenhithe. The park features a slide designed with large bottoms in mind.

Cousins

We loved being with our extended family at Pah's funeral. Our girls were thrilled to discover so many little kindred spirits. This clip shows them preparing to pose for a group photo.

Pah's funeral

Pah

On 30th March, 2009, Rich's dad, Robert Keith Hunter passed away. He was a wonderful father, father-in-law and grandfather. We miss him, but are peaceful in the knowledge that we will meet again, and honoured to be a part of his eternal family.

Easter DVD

Rich has been helping with a campaign in NZ and Australia which is inviting people to request a free copy of this Easter DVD, 'The Lamb of God'.

Last weekend, this video was the number one viral video on the Internet. This was one of the most amazing talks we have seen on the Saviour's atonement.

Painting a School

On Saturday, Rich, Charlie and Grace helped give a local primary school a facelift. Around 600 volunteers from our area here on the North Shore of Auckland painted, weeded gardens, planted trees and generally gave the school a spruce up. It was a fun morning and we managed to get more paint on the walls than on ourselves.

Welcome Ted

Yesterday we picked up our new little puppy. After several goes at naming him, we decided on Ted. Other names considered were:

Sparkle
Eddie Narain
David
Guy
John
Decorum
Chaos
Magician Grasshopper Fatt

He is sweet and we're all very excited to welcome him into our family.

Draper Temple Dedication

The LDS temple near our home in Draper was dedicated a couple of days ago by Thomas S. Monson, president of the Church. It would have been nice to have been there. Draper is a lovely city and we loved living there for 18 months or so. Our friends there are excited that a temple is now just a few minutes away. Read more about the temple dedication here. This link will take you to a short video about why Latter-day Saints build temples.

Tasmania

At the end of February we took a quick trip over to see Joey and Pah, and Janny, David andRuben. We had a wonderful time being together after too, too long.
We visited Joey and Pah each day, played with Joey's fascinating collection of little things, blew bubbles and went for long walks. We took Raffy for a walk and watched him do tricks. We chatted, lunched and laughed.

Birthday Girl

Josephine is 2! She had a big day, with a lovely new shiny ball and a lots of other surprises. By dinner time it was all too overwhelming, actually. Nothing like a duck cake to chase the tears away, though. Happy Birthday, beautiful girl.

Create

Rich just found this inspiring video on YouTube. It's called "Create."

Official Family Portraits - New Year 2009

Desk and wall calendars are available at all quality dollar shops.

Family Christmas

We loved sharing Christmas, barbies (both types) and much more with our lovely family visiting from Australia. The cousins hit it off...(well, the big ones did at least).

Draper Temple Opens Doors to Media, Public

We left just a couple of months too early for our family to have the chance to tour inside the new Draper Temple of the LDS Church. We had taken our children up to the site a few times when it was under construction. The LDS Newsroom site has some photos and videos on it. Rich will try to visit when he is in Utah in February, as the public open house goes for a couple of months. We used to watch the builders' progress from our front yard.

Christmas Eve in New Zealand

We have been in New Zealand now for almost two months. Laura's parents, her brother and his family, and her sister and her family joined us this Christmas. We have been enjoying our time in our new home with many of our dear ones. These photos were taken on Christmas Eve 2008.

catching up....

Well I guess we're only a couple of months behind on posting now - can't upload any photos of Disneyland or NZ yet, as I have no idea where the cable for the camera is. Could be in any one of 200 boxes! Will get to it asap.

Summer!

We went for a splash and a play at Thanksgiving Point on the last day that Grandad and Grandma were with us.