Weekend on Waiheke

It seems like I'm finally getting on top of my blogging once again! I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we are now officially on summer holiday and are doing things worthy of writing home. And by "we" I mean the country of New Zealand. Most businesses close down for at least 2 weeks over the holidays. That means I actually get the attention of my husband for a solid few weeks where he doesn't have any work to do! Woohoo! We are definitely on relax mode and it feels great.

This past weekend our summer holidays were kick-started with a weekend away on Waiheke Island for our friends Melissa and Craig's wedding. We made the weekend even better by doing it with our dear friends the Bruffys.

The bach

Our amazing view

Friday night we took the car ferry over to the island. I've never been on a car ferry before and it was quite fun. We rushed to get tacos before boarding and we narrowly missed the ferry! I tell you it was worth it, but eating fresh tacos in a car is challenging. I had taco juice all over myself. We stayed up playing scrabble until midnight. This is how you get crazy when you're in your late 20's, early 30's.

Lucy Tacos!

Scrabble is serious stuff

Saturday morning we got up at hit the beach. Sorry to brag to all you back home, but it was an amazing day. The water was warm, the sun was hot and the breeze was just right. We met up with our friends Jess and Tom to waste the morning away.

Mommy and Elliot are excited  to get in the water!

Football on the beach, rough life!

That night we had the wedding at a winery with amazing views. It was a great wedding, with a great vibe, celebrating the marriage of 2 great people. We had a great time relaxing after the ceremony, doing the photo booth, playing bags and enjoying the beautiful weather.

The beautiful bride

The girls

The boys

Enjoying the beautiful day

At the wedding

Jess and Tom, lovebirds!

Me and Jess swinging on the tire swing

Beautiful flowers!

Sunday we wandered around with no direction and it was great. We took a drive, went to the beach, played a little football and relaxed until we took the ferry back. How many times did I use the word "relax" in this post???

We had a great start to our holidays and today we are off to Coromandel for Christmas with some friends from church.

Merry Christmas all!

xxTally and Will

Home Sweet Home

Minneapolis was our home prior to moving to New Zealand. We don't have any immediate family there, but something about it really makes it feel like home, even after being away for 18 months.

What a beautiful city!

 

As we drove up Minneapolis got several inches of snow, but luckily it was all cleared by the time we arrived. We saw lots of cars in the ditch and were thankful for all the plows/salters for keeping us safe! 

If I had to use one word to describe our time in Minneapolis it would be: COLD

This is what we woke up to Friday morning.

Our drive into the city from our friends' house. It is cold, but not going to lie, it made me quite nostalgic for winter. 

Hard to tell, but under the green light you will spot a cycle commuter. Remember that picture above, feels like -18 F??? There was dozens of people commuting to work by bike. Minnesotans are TOUGH!

We had a lot of fun in Minneapolis, spending time with old friends and…the biggest part of our trip to Minneapolis was….

We bought a house! 

Now this picture was obviously not taken when we visited, but we didn't linger much on the outside when it was -15. 

We are so excited to start a new chapter of our lives and are happy that we will once again call Minneapolis (Minnetonka, specifically) home. It really is a special city. We had/still have uneasy feelings about leaving New Zealand because we love it here so much, but we feel we are being called to return to Minneapolis for some reason (not sure what it is yet). We've been feeling a pull towards returning home next summer for some time, but seeing this house sealed the deal for us. It had to be a sign that this was the first house we've EVER toured. 

A champagne toast to the new home owners!

We'll be moving back sometime next summer and hope to spend time with all of you when we get back!

Cheers,

The Smiths

A Kitty and a Toddler

The time we spent with my family was focused around 2 things: Our kitty and our nephew. We didn't take many pictures, so this post is a little light on visual aids. Pretty much anything we did while we were in Ames revolved around Robbie's schedule and how much time we could get with our beloved kitty, Scutaro, named after MLB Marco Scutaro. We like naming our pets after MLB stars because they have the best names, but thats a different matter all together.

Snuggling with Lala

My sister came down for the weekend and brought our nephew, Robbie. Then they decided it would be fun (for whom I'm not sure...) if they left Robbie with us for the week. So we had one toddler, four adults and one senior citizen (my grandpa) for the week. We had a great time doing some shopping and getting things organized for our move home next summer.

Getting dressed for Mexican Food :)

Some highlights of our time in Ames were: We got to eat Mexican one night complete with margaritas and mojitos. We ate a hickory park with the girl responsible for "setting up" Will and I, even though it was more of a loose arrangement than a formal set up. Will got to help set up Christmas lights in sub-zero weather and I got to buy lots of things from Target!

Dad teaching Will how to play cribbage

Robbie REALLY wanted to lick the chairs at the mall food court

One night I got to catch up with my good friend Jam-Fla. We used to rock it pretty hard back in our grad school days and it felt like we never missed a beat. It makes me look forward to reconnecting with old friends when we get home.

Robbie absolutely loves our kitty. He kept calling her what sounded like "Doh Doh" and we could not figure out why he was calling her that until my sister told us the babysitter had a cat named "Jojo" so Robbie had generalized her name to all cats :) It was terribly cute. Will was called "Guh Guh" (uncle) or "Good guy" and I was "LaLa" (Tally). Then we had "Bapa" for grandpa and an unintelligible whining sound for grandma. It was so much fun trying to speak his language all week.

Robbie trying to kiss the kitty. He kisses with his mouth open...

Overall our time in Iowa was spent relaxing with our families and staying inside away from the cold. Not the most exciting stuff ever, but it was just the R&R we needed (mostly Will) from being stressed and busy the past few weeks!

Stay tuned for our final US post about our days in Minneapolis…

Time on the Farm

Hello there!

Well we're back from our annual American trip home. I thought it would be easiest to break up our trip by geographic location. The first place we spent time was at Will's family farm.

There wasn't any snow when we got there, but it was a cold shock to our systems after not experiencing anything colder then 40 or 50 for a year…

We had a delayed Thanksgiving meal with Will's family. It was fun playing with the nieces and nephews again. Will was happy to get his traditional meal.

The rest of the week was spent hanging around the farm and spending time with family. It felt like we were just home for the weekend from Minneapolis. Here are some pictures from our time at the Smith Farm.

Aunt Tally and Miss Maya

With Will's grandparents

Caleb with Daddy and Uncle Will

Sisters-in-law

Brotherly love

Playing memory with the kiddos

Willie teaching Caleb how to play capwano

Playing football with the kiddos

Next up….Ames!

November happenings

 Wow, it's been a month since we last posted. I guess we haven't done anything super amazing this past month, but have spent a lot of time outside and with friends.

I've been babysitting for some friends a few days a week and that is really fun. He is such a sweet little boy and super easy (for the most part). We spend our days napping, going for walks and doing narrative play. I am channelling my inner Dr. Bliele to develop his language skills :)

The little guy I've been watching

Will has had a super busy month at work. He was almost working as much as he did in Minneapolis. Needless to say I was not pleased, but was nice to have some friends to keep me company in the evenings. He is finally starting to slow down, just in time for summer. In case you missed it, Will shaved his head for "Save for a Cure", a benefit for the Blood Cancer and Leukemia Society of New Zealand. It is growing back slowly, but surely with a few spots filling in slower than the others...

Evening BBQ on the rooftop with friends

On our weekends we've been camping again, hiking, going to the beach, and just spending time with friends, preferably outdoors.

Heading to Chicago, starring Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess!)

We took a 2-night camping trip to Raglan where we did a 5 hour hike. It was literally one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Check out the video below of me climbing down the steepest part where we had to use chains

Sunset on the Raglan beach

In the clouds

Coming down from the clouds

Finished! 5 hours and a lot of work later!

Setting up camp

We had our first official "beach day" for summer. Reading and getting in the nice cool water... I am so excited for summer to start, but I am being really serious about sun protection this year, so you won't see me without a hat this year!

Our first beach day of the year--me reading...

Will getting ice cream the kiwi way--no shoes!

We're heading home on Friday for a 2 week visit so maybe we'll see you soon. If not, we'll see you next summer when we move back to Minneapolis.