Our Book of Life

Yes, we did it! We climbed the Hakarimata's again. Still hard, still so rewarding!! 

Teancum really enjoys playing volleyball. He jumped right into the teams at boys high, and within a couple of weeks, he was in the 'A' team. They came runner up this season to a solid Hillcrest school team. An awesome group of boys. 

We were so excited to find out Uncle Mark was coming to town!  I was able to meet up with him for dinner and a movie in Manukau on the Thursday, then dad drive him down on Sunday to come to our ward and spend the day with us.  We all loved having him around and enjoyed hearing about his adventures. He showered us with cool gifts and it was just awesome to have my brother around again. The kids were so excited it was hard to get a serious shot of us all!

Karleen and I (my sister in law) have been fitness buddies since we have moved down here. We motivate each other to get up at 6am and run or do a fitness workout.  There is a summit called the Hakarimata's. A gruelling 1500 stairs up a continuous climb  for about 1.5-2kms. I does not sound like much of a distance but it is if you are stairing it 99% of the way.  Early Saturday morning, Karleen and I set out to conquer the mountain!! It was a lovely bush walk till the stairs hit. Yes they suck you into it.. Lol It was painful, and amazing. All walks of life, all shapes and sizea and all abilities.  Those coming down have big smiles on their faces. One lady coming down was trying to encourage us, she said keep going, your nearly there. We thought phew! Then she added, half way is just up there!! I tell you if I was not with Karleen I would have turned around half way. A bonus though at half way, our first bench seat on the trail!!  Needless to say, we made it to t...

Our new home is literally a 2 min drive to the huge Waikato hospital. All around us are medical specialists and sorts. Knowing our family, it's a great location.  I was talking to a sister missionary from Fiji as Kawea walked up to me I thought cool, I can show her how much he had grown in the last 4 years.... Until he said "mum we need to go, rakai's hurt himself". I look down and his hands were covered in blood!  Well, as it turns out Rakai had managed to run into the alluminium corner of a window that was open and the corner punctured his head. Off the the a&e.  Luckily Kawea and Arama are great in emergencies like that- seriously they could be emergency doctors or ambulance medics as thy are so cool, calm and collected- and know how to clam the patient down. He is all fine and well now. And thank you to whoever invented nappy San and spray on stain remover! 

As the farm is on the market, we have to take trips up to maintain it.  We finished a lot of work, and decided to head to the waterfall for a dip. I love seeing the boys swimming in such beauty. We will miss this. 

Today is the junior cross country. Rakai and renata are runnin in this. Rakai is very excited and has high expectations for himself. As he said the prayers for breakfast he asked that he could finish first in the cross country. When we said prayers after scripture reading, he asked if he could cross the finish line first I his cross country, then as an after thought he remembered to bless others too. He was soo cute. My baby may be small but he has the biggest competitive streak!! 

Arama and Kawea are heading off to Hamilton Boys High school. It has a high standard and reputation to uphold, I was quietly impressed that they have a merit and demerit system. They have detentions on a Saturday even!! You can get a detention for having your hair too long, eating in class and well heaps of things. It is about a 15-20min walk to school from our house. Seminary is about 5 min walk the other way and is not until 7am! Like, yay..  The younger 4 are going to Hamilton West Primary School. A whole 5-10min walk from home (about 3 blocks away).  I can't resist taking some new school shots and as you can see Kawea is 'loving' it. Hehe. 

It is an exciting time for us in Hamilton. Our new home is a couple of blocks from the centre of town. We have had to get used to street lights, and neighbours and electricity 24/7. It is great to be 3 doors down and across the road from cousins, the kids LOVE that. We are also a block away from the lake. It has a beauty of a playground and the kids can spend hours there. For those that like running or a walk, you can go around the lake and will take you between 1/2 to an hour to go right round. It's so pretty! (There is even Zumba but that's another story lol) We have also ventures to the pools on those hot sunny afternoons. The kids played and swam with their cousins and Karleen and I enjoyed just relaxing, lounging around an then going for a dip to cool down. It was so nice to just sit still and enjoy.  Hamilton has certainly made a first good impression on us! 

My dear friend and boss Looie, I will miss you gorgeous! Thank you T for taking the photo's

To make a long story short, we are moving! Arama has accepted a position in Hamilton. We finished the year out in kaukapakapa and start living in Hamilton in January. Everyone has new jobs, new school, and the farm is up for sale! A new adventure! 

T hurt his ankle at rugby the other week. After staying home Friday because he could not walk, and not being able to finish training on Monday, he asked to go to the doctors. I took him in first thing Tuesday morning. We are getting used to the doctors here, so my son had a bit of a laugh.. Here's why.  T hobbled into the doctors. The doctor says "hmm no swelling but a little tender here, so I think we will do an exray." T and I look at each other and I say, "does he really need an exray? He walked in here." The doctor then proceeded to tell me that sometimes people can walk on a broken ankle - I'm guessing he means hairline fracture or something.. And he ordered the X-ray.  X-ray was taken, and big surprise.. doctor said,"good news it's not broken" no, really (ok so pretend to be shocked!) He then says but he needs a moon boot. I associate moon boots with broken legs so I was again questioning him about the moon boot.. He insists, disappears t...

Being in Hamilton and so close to everything is great. The boys expressed interest in playing basketball this year which I was quietly stoked about. So, sent through the forms and thy wee placed in teams. With a hortage of coaches, Arama is coaching hikawera's team and I am coaching Renata's team and helping out rakai's team. It is really fun and so good we can walk to the YMCA courts (a whole one block over) play the game and walk home! Way cool!! Nauvoo and her friend Carmel come along to socialise. So, with 3 boys in teams we are now playing basket ball or watching basket ball 4 days a week. Yay! 

Standing outside Nauvoo's classroom today, I marvelled at this scooter rack for the kids scooters they ride to school. I had to chuckle to myself, cause there is no way in kaukapakapa you could ride your scooter to school, yet here thee are sturdy racks to lock, yes lock your scooter to for the day, outside your classroom. Welcome back to the city!!!!