michael and scott

My good friend from BYU Michael and his partner Scott spent a morning with us!   Scott is an ice skater on a cruise ship and the ship stopped in Auckland for a day.

tired boy

ganets and muriwai

Auckland museum

Another of our favorite places to visit in Auckland.  Wonderful for rainy days.  The Auckland Museum.

Our friend Erika came with us!

endless summer

This view from our front porch is one of my favorites.  Trent in his bucket.  Maya sitting close by.  Enjoying the fresh air before bedtime.

Trent liked to use his bath water to water the plants.

eating sugar

Trent has a serious sweet tooth and was thrilled when he found a bag a brown sugar that he was able to get into before I caught him in the act.

He does a great sad face.  This is what happened when I took the sugar away.

Such a sweet, sad, sugar face.

Mr T was a bit happier when I gave him a bath in a bucket on the front porch.

Before I was able to clean it all up he went back to check for more.

mauhurangi regional park

Some of the most beautiful parts of Auckland are in the regional parks.  Over Christmas we decided to tour as many as we could.  We managed to get to 21 of the 26.  

zoo trip

The silluette of a kereru in a tree.

Max in his adventure hat.

Trent and Lonnie with an elephant.

Feeding the giraffe.  Notice that Max is not wearing shoes, like a good Kiwi kid.

camping

So behind on all the adventures we have had in the last several months....but Calla asked for this cute photo of her and Max and because our computer is somewhere between Auckland and Salt Lake City our blog is the only place I can access it.

We are going to miss our friends in New Zealand.

moving on up

We can finally confirm that we are moving to Salt Lake City in April.  We are sad to leave New Zealand, but we are thrilled to live closer to our family.