Xterra

I'm no runner but the idea of trail running holds a fraction of interest in the furthest recess of my brain.  Candace was looking for running events to back up her effort in the Levin off-road half marathon and pointed out the Xterra trail running series.

As it happened there was a 10km night race on the 10th anniversary of mums death, sold.  As a non runner surely I could do 10km.  If not, well at least I could put some serious MTB light power on to the trail.

Got underway but it soon was apparent that there were a lot of people trying to squeeze into a little track, thus it was super slow climbing with a solid line of traffic, only spreading out on the four wheel drive tracks near the top.

Stunning views from the summit ridge looking down over Lower Hutt and Petone on one side, and down to Wainuiomata on the other.  Image below pilfered from the interweb but it looked pretty much like this.

Great run all told, more like 12km than 10 but damn good fun for a non runner.

10 years

Gone 10 years.  Nana Maureen would have been a great Grandma, wish she could have met our kids.

Spiders.....

As I walk through the garage, balancing a "way too big" stack of wood to carry upstairs, I notice a GIGANTOR spider flirting with my elbow and working his way up my arm. I start to dance, high knees trying to shake him off, until the thought hits me that dropping the wood would be more effective, so that I can access the use of my arms. I forget to move my foot out of the way first though. As I am dealing with the enormous pain on my toe I don't see the spider on the floor, so I strip my long sleeve shirt off in a flash, while yelling out to no one, "It's on me, it's on me!" I stand there in my tanktop/singlet freaking out and starting to really feel the pain of my toe. I cant relax though until I see the spider. I feel like its on every inch of me. I instinctively check in my shirt and guess who smiles back at me? So within about 2 minutes I was walking with a stack of wood, to being fully topless with a full on bruised toe, after having danced and yelled all to myself. At least I got to see that spider leave my body and KNOW its got nowhere else to hide. Not good enough though; I'm sure I'll be feeling the creepy-crawly feeling on my skin all night. Yuck!
P.S.  Don't worry Mom, it wasn't a white tail.

Ponies and Pirates....

We joined our friends in celebrating our kids turning 3 by having a Pony/Pirate Party. Everyone dressed up as either a pony or pirate; & in case you haven't figured it out, Mommy is a "My Little Pony flying unicorn pony", or so Emily tells us. Cameron was less than impressed with his pirate moustache. It lasted all of the time the photo was taken. 

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Cameron is a full on walker now. Loves getting up and being independent.

Emily's BFF Mia dressed up as a My Little Pony too.

The pirate crew: Bryce and Cameron; Cheryl, Guy and Will; Frances, Marcel and Emily's other BFF Nathan.

The kiddies riding their new ponies

The pony race is ON!

Captain 'Daddy' Jack Sparrow and his fellow pirates

Emily enjoying the egg hunt

Ponies can use trampolines too

Emily in awe of the awesome pony cupcakes Frances made.

"Oh my goo-ness! Daddy, look!"

She's not 3 yet, but will be soon. She can't wait!

Emily the Mommy

We are amazed at how much imagination Emily has and how motherly she has become with her dolls in the last few months. Here's a video of her singing her baby to sleep.
MVI 7298 from Candace K on Vimeo.

March Madness

 We apologize to our friends and family for delaying our next post for so long. We have had alot of changes in our family occur in the last 8 weeks and we are only just now adjusting to the craziness. Cameron had his first birthday which was fun to watch him make quick work of his own little chocolate cake. Cameron has begun walking on his own in the last few weeks and finally realises how much better it is to traverse on two feet than crawling. He wasn't sold on that concept for months and just loved crawling everywhere. 

In February, we found a weekend to get away to Napier to visit our friends Carl and Denise. Denise and I, and Denise's sister Julie went to the Barry Gibb concert at the Mission Estate Winery. This concert usually sells out each year and hosts its guests from about noon until the concert ends in its grounds. We decided to dress up 1970's style and have a bit of fun with it. Oddly enough, not so many other concert goers had the same idea and we were a bit of an attraction as we walked around.  Fun concert with more BeeGee songs to sing along to than I thought I would know.

Mission concert, looking away from the stage

Barry Gibb on stage at the Mission

 The next day we took the kids to the Napier Aquarium. Emily loved the big fish tank with divers and sharks, and moving walkway. Cameron just likes anything that Emily likes.

Can it be true?

The weather folks have put out this forecast for Wellington.  People living here are are usually pretty excited by one glorious summer day, and two in a row would be an event worth talking about.  Now this is something to get excited about, well at least for us cause we are house painting!

The whale

Whoa, look what washed up on the beach this morning, a 15m 44 tonne Sperm whale. Word got out and Paraparaumu beach became tourist hotspot central.

Emily's bike riding exploits

Two weeks ago Emily had no real interest in adventuring on her bike, then this happened.

It was like a switch, two weeks on and Emily has done a 2km ride and the bike goes with us everywhere.

Check out the action.
Emily the bike rider from Candace K on Vimeo.

Mr nearly 1.

He's getting older.

Christmas

Christmas with an almost 3 year old is super fun.  Christmas with a 1 year old is all about wrapping paper.

Santa and his reindeer were due a visit and they had to be fed. Emily got to helping prep a nutritious snack for the reindeer.  Santa was well taken care of also with a fine craft beer and a chocolate bar, I am sure he appreciated it.

Boom, Santa came to visit, awesome. 

I think Daddy cracked a beer at 12.01, as afternoon drinking is far more socially acceptable than morning drinking. I've never been too successful getting my extended family wearing Christmas hats, but my kids are going to have to get into the habit.

An afternoon sitting in the shade followed with GG singing songs to Emily, which she found hilarious.

A big day led to weary kids, early to bed for all.

Christmas Eve

Ah Christmas Eve, we love you at 30 degrees. Maybe not so much when stuffing the car with all that is now required for a family holiday plus Christmas.

The Christmas store, with Nanny

We met up with Nanny Cushla last weekend and she showed Emily around the Christmas Store at Kirkcaldie and Stains (a big department store in Wellington). They have Christmas displays with marionettes in the windows and lots of stuff to make Emily's eyes go wide!