This week we are house sitting for our friends again - you remember that beautiful home we stayed at in October? While we are out here, we thought it the perfect timing to go hang out with friend (and the kids beloved Sunday School teacher) Bex at her home in Waimarama. Bex invited us out for lunch, a trip around the family farm and a swim at the beach. The girls raced up to her at church that morning, giving her big hugs and jumping up and down with excitement to be going to her house!
We had such a lovely BBQ lunch with Bex, Ken and Judy, chatting about homemade preserving, fruit trees and fairy lights. Thank you Bex for filling my girls plates, pouring them drinks (and making sure they were EXACTLY the same size) and listening to their chatter as you sat with them while the rest of us chilled! The girls just love you, and its so great to have awesome adult role models investing into their lives like that.
After our tummys were all full and happy, Ken gave us a tour of his dog breeding area. These purebreed puppies were beautiful!!! We learnt a lot about dog breeding as we chattted, it was especially interesting to hear how Ken sells his puppies up to 2 years before they are even conceived!! This helps him select the correct mum and dad for the customer's needs. He even had these 6 week old adorable critters sitting on demand already! Luke loved the puppies, watching them with great interest. The girls liked the puppies, but cried at the noise the adult dogs made with the excitement of having visitors! Not really dog people huh! lol
Then it was off in the heat to see the chooks and ducks. My girls love hunting for eggs, I am very keen to get some chickens myself, I love the idea of animals that earn their own rent! We have the perfect area under our fruit trees (no grass, just dirt) for chooks, it is just a matter of making a run for them and a nesting box. Dad....project for you?! We all stroked the chickens (who knew their were so many varieties) after I watched Bex pluck one out of their run easily with amazement!
We were all sweating by now, and agreed it was time to head to the beach. Waving a happy goodbye to Ken and Judy we headed off. Bex took us to her favourite part of the beach, far away from the crowds. After checking the waves like an expert, we decided it was safe for boogy boarding! Us girls hit the waves and had a blast cooling off together, despite being nipped by a crab (me) and losing sunglasses (Bex). Jaimee is becoming a bit of a pro at this boogy boarding thing, just like any good kiwi kid! As we were getting dressed and waving goodbye to Bex, we could see big black clouds over the hills rolling in quickly. I had already spotted some flashes of lightening and we could hear the thunder. We weren't QUITE fast enough, and pretty soon it was directly overhead. The girls ran screaming and crying to the car as thunder boomed and cracked over us, and fork lightening started a bush fire on the hills that had the local fire sirens sounding. I watched with disbelief as another lightening fork split over the water. Marty had disappeared to put the kids in the car (they were shaking with tears by now) and I had all the gear and a very puzzled Luke with me just staring around him, not sure what was going on. We finally got back to the car just as the rain started in earnest. Jaimee chatted loudly and non stop all the way home, a sure sign of her adrenaline rush! By the time we got back to the Strides home, the rain had stopped, the sun was out...and we all hosed off to jump in the pool for an hour!
It was a very fun day out, and the kids slept very well that night!! As I write this, the girls are back in the pool just outside the open door, where they have been for the last hour. Luke is chilling on the couch with a DVD - exhausted after two day with no day sleeps and a tumble off the climbing frame. Marty is on a 2 hour bike ride around the valley...and I am about to pour my second cup of coffee. Bliss.
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