Snells beach 2014 (and dinosaurs 2014!!!)

I am very thankful that my children are awesome travellers.  We do quite a few long road trips (mainly cause we can't afford accomodation so we do epic day trips hehe) and going up north of Auckland is no quick journey.  By the time you take into account ONE park/toilet stop to stretch legs, ONE meal and the LONG trip from Hastings to Snells Beach...well, it is about 8 hours.  Big thank you to whoever invented Temple Run for ipad and Colour Doodles.  We love you muchly. We happily sung our way up the island (the girls know everything from Teddy bears Picnic to One Direction to Shania Twain to the Beatles!) and finally hit our destination: the beautiful Snells Beach. I am so aware of the blessing it is that we have an awesome Poppa and Oma who share the family bach with us every summer, what a huge memory tank for our children to get to experience these amazing beaches every year.  

Unfortunately, the weather was not forcast to  be fantastic.  Gale force winds and downpours of rain were on the agenda thanks to the end of a cyclone passing through.  The video rental place was packed (and thus, two new fans of Downton Abby were born on this trip) but we still made time to get to the beach, in our jerseys!  Kate and Luke turned huge piles of sea grass into "houses with tunnels", getting completly filthy and wet and having the greatest time while they were at it.  Jaimee hunted for crabs among the rock pools at Scott's Landing, picking them up and seeing how many she could find for her bucket (I made her release the poor things after!).  That was her favourite thing this trip she said.  We all walked across the tidal causeway to the wee island, which we had told the kids had real dinosaurs on it, so Kate climbed halfway up the steep cliff to find them.  I astounded my children by climbing a tree.  

Lots of movies (Jumanji was our family movie choice - another first for Marty too!) temple run challenges, doodle dice and rummikub games later...the weather started to improve by midweek....just in time for my old school mate Kathryn to join us for the day with her 2 girls. I was a bridesmaid at Kathryn's wedding, we have been friends since intermediate school and she now lives close to Snells Beach, so it was awesome to have a beach day with her and her adorable girls who are similar age to Kate and Luke.  We spent pretty much the whole day at the beach as the weather got better and better.  Thats the great thing about the Bach, we can hit the beach in the morning, come home for lunch and a quick nap for Luke and then back to the beach in the afternoon again!

I made quite a bit of headway on my book, and Marty and I played cards on the beach as the kids played in the sand nearby or rode their boogy boards in the shallow safe water.  Bliss.  What was really funny about our trip was that Marty and I are still in the middle of our Blogilates month long challenge, so all the kids joined in daily pilates video sessions with us!  It was so cute watching Luke and Kate do their best...although none of them lasted more then 5 minutes!!  One calf session had me unable to walk without a limp for the next day...i dare you....

Funny side story here - Luke has been awesome toilet training, pretty much did it overnight with no accidents.  But Marty had a real hard time teaching him how to FINISH his business before hopping off...meaning Luke was going to the toilet about 5 times in a row after we put him to bed each night (driving us nuts).  He would tell us he needed to go, do his little plop...then wipe and flush.  Then realise that that wasn't the end of it, so we would start all over again.  By the third night of this you could hear Marty's exasperated voice saying "NO LUKE - wait till MORE comes....PUSH!"  leaving me to giggle away in the lounge at the training taking place.  

On Thursday, the much awaited day with Poppa finally came around.  We LOVE seeing Poppa and Oma when we are at the bach.  Sadly, Oma hadn't been very well so couldn't come up, but she was certainly in our prayers...and sweet Jaimee cried on the last day because she had really wanted to see Oma too!  We had lots of fun with Poppa though, who took us out Kayaking.  We had one kid with each adult, all life jacketed up, it was so fun.  Luke wasn't impressed with his first Kayak because water kept dripping from the paddle into his eyes, but I was VERY proud of the girls, who both jumped out of their kayaks in deep water, swam over to and climbed up a ladder to a trampoline which was mounted on a huge concrete cylinder in the middle of the bay..and then crept to the edge of the tramp and peered over at the drop to the sea...and JUMPED IN! And then they did it AGAIN!  Then they swam back to the kayaks and climbed in for the return paddle to the beach.  I was really proud of their courage.  I did it last year for the first time, and almost chickened out then (I was all for it this year though!).  

After lunch and a fun game of Doodle Dice, Poppa took us to Warkworth, where we browsed bric-a-brac shops and went on a bush walk along the river (Luke loved going under the "tunnel" - AKA a path under the bridge) before having a fluffy/coffee together in a wee cafe.  We finished the fun with some park time before heading home to a BBQ tea...ahhhh. Thanks Poppa!

We were so relaxed and having such a nice time we decided to stay an extra night...cause we could. Friday was stunning, and we were glad we had decided to stay.  We visited all FOUR local beaches on the one day, making sure our kids were completly beached out by the time we left.  We ended our holiday time up North with fish and chips on the beach for tea.

The next day was the looooonnnngggg trip home - and we of course decided to make it LONGER by stopping in Auckland at Butterfly Creek, cause Poppa had told us they had REAL DINOSAURS on display and we just couldnt miss that opportunity, not with a dinosaur NUT in the house (AKA Luke).  We didn't tell the kids where we were going, so it was all a fun surprise.  Look at what Jaimee drew on the way home....aww:

Butterfly creek was lots of fun, we saw a goat  being milked - check out Kate's concentrated amazement as she stares at the milk streaming down into the bucket.  Her and Luke stood at the end of this Goat staring for AGES - the man actually squirted Luke's hand as he leaned in a bit close (see the little puddle on the bench?!).  The butterfly room was gorgous, Jaimee stood in the same position for longer then I have ever seen her stand still before, in the hope that a butterfly might land on her.  They did land on her hair thanks to her lovely flower clip!  Kate worked the art of coaxing them onto her finger.  We saw the big crocodiles, but of course the star attraction was definitely....

The dinosaurs!!!  

Marty and I were both very impressed at the display - all the favourites were there and they were LIFESIZE.  I couldn't get a photo of Lukes favourite, the Diplodocus, cause it was just so massive, but here are the kids under its legs!  Each dinosaur had moving heads, blinking eyes and "breathing" tummys.  Not to mention the loud and different roars from each of them - It was very well done...Amazing.  When we first laid eyes on them, Luke huddled into daddy and said "Luke Shaking", and promptly fake shivered and shaked.  Kate covered her mouth in awe and a little fear and tiptoed around for a minute before she realised they weren't going to walk.  Some of their expressions were a bit freaky though, with those sharp claws scraping the air and their huge teeth gnashing.  

There were loads of photo ops too - I love the kids acting in the cage with the Raptor!!  All in all, a FANTASTIC holiday with lots of fun memories made.  We finally got home 11 hours after leaving the bach, but it was all worth it.

Resolutions

For those of you who were very brave, dedicated, bored and actually managed to make it through my last blog (5 torturous cute minutes of my kids doing a puppet show), you will be pleased to know that:

a - we had to sit through HALF AN HOUR of that.

and b - this post has nothing to do with my children!

I made a few new years resolutions, as I do every year.  This year I tried to keep them realistic and achievable in the hope that I may last longer then 2 days keeping them.  I posted them on facebook as follows:

I am pleased to report I am actually making headway on these goals a whole TWO WEEKS into the new year. Progress report:

Resolution ONE:  

Ok well i have enrolled. It's official - I am a student again! I even managed to score me a scholarship cause I am awesome somehow.  I am a little nervous about this undertaking on top of everything else I try and accomplish during the school term, but I know God will take over and thats good enough for me.  I start in February, doing just one paper a semester for 2 years (not that unachievable really after 3 years of teacher's college full time).  At the end I will hold in my hot little hand a "Certificate in Children and Family Ministries".  Note the use of Capital Letters because its Such An Important Title. hehhehe.

 Resolution TWO:

I have spent lots of time with the kids, not just because its the school holidays(although that certainly helps) , but because I actually made the effort to sit down and hang out with them.  We have been to the beach (Jaimee said I am the best mum in the world cause I took them even with daddy at work), played skipbo, built lego towns, done some art projects and oh yeah - watched terrible puppet shows.   I love that my kids think its cool that mum shares ipad games with them.   I have even managed to focus on home life enough to get Luke toilet trained.  This morning he went out to two shops and the library without any incidents - yay! To have all children out of nappies is a MAJOR accomplishment, which perhaps you may not understand remember unless you have kids under 6 years old!!

Resolution THREE:

This is a harder one because i love blobbing in front of the TV after the kids go to bed.  However, blobbing in front of the TV means I don't do any exercise, read any books, spend time with Marty...and I end up pigging out on snack food while I watch.  BUT that said, I am making headway here.  Yesterday I realised that (without really thinking about resolutions at all )I had series linked "The Bachelor, Australia" to watch when I saw it was coming on soon.  Not exactly stimulating wholesome TV and not really something that I need to watch if I want to cut DOWN on TV.  So I hit the delete button and the series disappeared from my life.  No Bachelor this year Nikki.  Instead, I have been exercising (more on that soon), playing board games with Marty (see, there is the date side of my resolution!) going to bed earlier and doing other constructive things like baking in the cooler evening weather.  Marty and I have booked in a weekend away in Gisborne for our anniversary at the end of this month which helps with this goal too - can't wait! :) 

Resolution FOUR:

I have not a drop of coke in my house.  I finished the last can at New Years and haven't replaced them.  Do I miss it?  Yep.  On these hot summer days, an icy cold coke sounds so so good.  But I know I am doing good things for my body and icy cold water doesn't leave me bloated or with regrets.   I have been doing pretty good on the chocolate side of things too - I only buy 1 block a week now for both of us (we were going through 2 blocks of choc or 3 boxes of scorched almonds a week for a while there).  Last night I only had ONE square, unheard of a few weeks ago.  The exercises part of my resolution has definitily helped me with this one, and also less TV (my trigger for snacking).  Of course, ask me how I am going during that time of the month and the answer may not be so positive!!!  

Through the exercise I am focusing on, and the resolution to eat better, I did get really inspired to make some changes though and made a list of all the good things I could feed myself and my family when I hear "I'm hungry" whined at me.  Yesterday ALL my home baking was done without a drop of white flour in it - I only used wholemeal, including for the wholemeal multigrain bread I made for toast.  Following from that "salad in a jar" idea floating around facebook, I made up 5 salads for my lunches with brown rice and loads of vegies in them.  I brought some of those baby tins of flavoured tuna and shredded chicken to add to each salad and yum - healthy lunches sorted.  Jaimee loves salad for lunch too.  

Resolution 5:

YAY! This one has been great, It has really helped with all the other resolutions I have, AND I am feeling (looking?) great for it.  I started doing pilates when we first got married and I brough the "Winsor Pilates" VCR Video set from TV for $99.  I love Pilates because I hate getting sweaty and all hot and gross.  Pilates is much more my style - all focused on toning and specific target areas.  I have tried lots of other workout DVDs, including some of those dreaded "make-me-die-hot-sweaty-and-puffed" ones, some of which I have loved but I keep coming back to Pilates.  Pilates has helped my heaps with taking on Gymnastics this past year too, I can plank longer then anyone else in the adult class!  So I have some new DVDs and equipment all catered for this form of exercise that I got a couple of months ago to re-inspire me, now I just have to get back into a daily groove.  

I am aware however, that my nature is to get really bored really fast with the same old same old, so I was delighted when one of the young people at church suggested I look at the website "blogilates" for some added flavour and a difference.  Well, after doing a few of her workouts on YouTube, i realised this instructor is TOUGH - she take pilates to a whole different level, with crazy amounts of repetitions (where normally I would only do 5-10 of each exercise) and unique pilates based moves.  Ew, she also does that dreaded cardio stuff, but even so - I have challenged myself to do her month long beginner's calendar.  I begged asked Marty to do it with me to help me stay motivated and to give us something fun new to do together each evening and he reluctantly agreed.  So we have moaned giggled our way through the first 2 days now, and It is not easy.  I knew I was in for trouble yesterday when I had this conversation with a teenage girl at church:

"Hey, I am doing that Blogilates calendar with Marty! We are on day 2 - Abs!"

"Oh cool...Oh wait, is that the ABC Abs video?  That is SO HARD....(and then follows explanation of horrible moves I will be tortured with that night)"

Yep.  She was right.  It was tough - and I normally don't struggle with Ab workouts, but that one required upper leg strength as well - my weak area.  And Marty found it super tough too...It has been quite funny watching my totally fit husband struggle through a plank that I can hold for ages.  FINALLY - I win!  

RESOLUTION 6:

Well, so far so good I reckon.  Please do ask me about these through the next few weeks, check up on me and hold me accountable because I really do want to keep up with them!  

Possibly the worst puppet show ever. Giggle.

The kids decided to "perform" a "puppet show" for us after dinner tonight.  I use these terms very loosly.  Despite about an hour of "rehearsals" this is the condensed version of what we watched! (psssst...you have to click the link on the word "this is" people!)

A honkey tonk New Years and a trip the next day!

The salon owner in Cactus, Texas had been found shot in his office. As the sherif of this honkey tonk town, I had closed the bar and all suspects were being interrogated. Was it Marty - country local karaoke champion or could it be Jude/mum - the local trailer park owner. We all had motive of course - Murray the angry carnival worker was his neglected son, and Anne Marie the barmaid was being paid for more then just serving drinks. And lets not forget TV reverend Jeremy and his shady double life wife Vicki lee! This was a night of honky tonk country music, a full bar...and a lot of laughs!!! I won't tell you who did it in case you borrow this little gem from us - but let's make it clear this is not a game for those who can't handle a little R16 humor....turned out the sherif (that's me) had quite a thing for dungeons and handcuffs!!!! 

With a BBQ tea to start the night off and a lounge (love that we have 2 lounges!) full of kids watching movies, this was a great evening by all. None of the children (not even Luke) were asleep at midnight but that's all part of entertaining with a houseful of kids. And there was no sleep in either - we left home bright and early the next morning for 4 days in masterton.  

My grandma (that's GumGum to us), aunty, uncle and cousins were all celebrating Christmas together on New Year's Day, and because I still hadn't met some of my cousins kids or seen my cousins for some years, we decided to tag along and join in the festivities! I grew up spending long school holidays with my cousins, listening to westlife, hitting the beach or walking into town via the holiday park - so it was pretty cool to watch all our kids enjoy a second generation of cousin fun. They were great together, and us big people were able to play a fun game of doodle dice as they played.  Lunch turned into dinner as everyone was relaxed and enjoying themselves - the sign of a good day for sure. 

The next day (the 2nd) was the traditional masterton family (horse) races day.  Marty loves going to this day with my aunty and uncle and their crew, and this year was no exception.  The girls loved playful uncle john, and we had a great day out with the kids being amazingly good after so many late nights! The kids made new friends with the other kids there, and were so so excited to go on the Ferris wheel. At one stage Luke threw his ball into the race track just as the horses were about to run and Marty had to jump the fence to retrieve it! We all had a dollar on a horse for each race, but only won back half the money we spent...ah well! Luke was so tired after all the fun he promptly fell asleep on the way home at 6:30 and didn't wake until the next morning.

After a lot more masterton fun visiting my Godparents whom I haven't seen in years, hanging out with GumGum at her place, spending time with the cousins at the park, visiting the pools and the big draw card for Marty - the weekly Friday night cards group...we headed home today (via a stop at Pahiatua playground) with tired kids in tow. Jaimee said as we packed up the car "I can't wait to get home - it's so comfortable". It sure is nice to spent time away....and just as nice to get home, even if home does mean grocery shopping, loads of washing and a massive vege garden weed!!! Hmmm...actually, I think I prefer aunty dis cooking away to grumpy kids here! ;)