Driving a Monster Truck?!

Only in New Zealand would they let a 5 year old boy drive a monster truck. Yes, that is exactly what happened!  Yesterday, we arrived at the Monster Truck Place, and we all boarded the BIG YELLOW SCHOOL BUS MONSTER TRUCK:

I was scared out of my mind! I could handle a lot, but really, a monster truck?  Anyways, we all had a turn driving the monster truck! We drove up hills and down, and through a little river, over bumps so large, we got rattled in our seats.  The highlight though was when we went to the little oval loop, and ALL the kids were given a chance to drive. Josh was in his glory! He loves watching monster trucks, so can you imagine being five years old, and now being able to say to his friends, "yep, I drove a monster truck!"  He did everything, gas, steering, and he was amazing! Jordan did great too, she was as safe as safe could be, while Josh started off with a little bit of a heavy foot!(lol!). Taylor did great too! She thought it was like a walk in the park and fell asleep for some of it.

After we were given a chance to go on an ATV ride. Once again the smile on Josh's face was priceless! He rode with his daddy, while Jordan rode with Auntie Koren, and I stayed back with Taylor.  After we cleaned ourselves up, and heading to a nice restaurant to celebrate some big "birthdays" of the year. It was a fabulous day!

Today we are recovering from our excitement, and headed to the beach with our kids and Jack and Ben. We played around, and this afternoon we are going to head into town to either the toy museum or Puzzle World. Pictures from this morning at the beach:

Yesterday we went for a walk, so I had to add some pictures from that too! Until next time!

How does Santa arrive in New Zealand?

On a bike, of course!!  Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a great Christmas! It's been a busy last few days with events planned with our family reunion!

Christmas Eve, we went for a really nice boat ride, and hiked up a mini mountain where we got to see some rare birds- WEKA. One particularly liked Josh, and thought about pecking at his feet.  We were able to play on beach, go swimming, and then enjoy a nice bbq dinner.  Here is a picture of Josh with the Weka:

Here is Taylor enjoying a walk on the beach after the hike:

On our "down time"  Taryn and I have taken the kids to a few nice beaches. The kids really liked playing in the beach, and with the hot weather, it has been perfect beach weather!Some beach photos for you:

Tomorrow is the day Josh has been waiting for! He gets to ride in a monster truck, drive an ATV, and go karting... This will be the highlight of his trip for sure!  Hopefully it won't take me as long to update our trip next time!  Until then!

Two more days of Adventure!

Hi everyone!!
Yesterday was a busy day, where we took the kids to tackle their first mountain (mt. Iron)... Taryn and I honestly didn't think the kids would make it to the top, but with a little whining and some bribing about being the only kids at their school to climb a mountain, they both did it!  They were both very proud of their accomplishment (as were we!).  The rest of the day was spent visiting with their cousins, and playing their new favorite sport-cricket.

Here are some pictures of Josh and Jordan at the top:

Today, we ventured off to Queenstown, which is about 1 1/2 hours from Wanaka. Here we went up the Gonala, and went Luging down the mountain! The kids loved this (so did Taryn!) And then we watched their older cousins Budgy Jump! Jordan claims she wants to do it, but not until she is 16.  Here is some shots of the excitement today!

Finally we went to the park for some leisure time, so here are some photos:

And finally a little glimpse of paradise that we see everyday! This picture was on our drive home from Queenstown today.

Jordan's Trip

New Zealand is on the other side of  the world, so it is summer. In New Zealand they still speak English but they use different words that have different meanings:

• HOT DOG      means     CHEERIO
• TRUNK          means      BOOT
• CANDY         means       LOLLIES
• DIAPERS       mean         NAPPIES

Today I met my cousins for the first time.  They were fun to play cricket with.  This is a New Zealand sport that I will talk more about soon.  Maybe I will even teach it to my class.  Off to go have some LOLLIES!  Have Fun at the Christmas Concert! (FROM JORDAN)

If you can believe it, we are finally here! It was a bit of a rough start, as Taryn forgot Jordan's passport on the printer of the computer, and had to drive the whole way back and be back before 1:30... our bags were checked at 1:28 pm, at that point we had to RUN to our gate after checking security, where we just made the plane by two minutes.  Yes, we were the family running through the airport!  The kids were so well behaved on the airplanes, and really the long trip was a lot easier than I thought! We did get some luck as there was ONE seat open on the plane, and it happened to be near us, so Taylor had a little sleep on it!  

Jordan was lucky enough to hand out "lollies" on the plane! We arrived in Queenstown after 33 hours of travel, a lot of stress, but a lot of fun! Here is a picture of the kids outside the last airplane we went on! 

We rented a car and here is the kids in it, on our drive to Wanaka! They were in remarkable good spirits!

Today they got to meet their cousins for the first time, and also got play cricket which they LOVE... I have a feeling we will be playing a lot of cricket here, and we will be teaching their friends this summer! Today we also got to play in the sprinkler:

The Jet Leg has been okay, Taylor is having a hard time adjusting, and I was up with her from 2 am until 4 pm... Tomorrow, more family arrive so the kids will have even more family to play with!

OFF WE GO!!

FLu and all!... Yep we got the flu... but have been puke free since 11:00 pm last night, and hoping to keep it that way! The kids are hyper and ready to go... I don''t think they really know how far and how long of a trip its going to be! 

Josh is wanted to tell his class that he is going on three planes today, and two cars. One car daddy will be driving on the wrong side of the road!

Jordan wanted to tell her class that we have LOTS of bags!!

Wish us happy travels! (off to back the last minute stuff, and to get Taylor dressed!)

The Countdown is on!

How many more sleeps until we go to New Zealand?!  Five more sleeps! This blog is for all our family, friends, and teachers to read about our adventures in New Zealand!  Jordan, Josh, and myself will be posting on here for everyone one to see! Can't wait to get there!

Jordan's turn:  Clicky the elf is watching us! So we better be good!  We have three planes to go on and it's going to take two days to get there! I hope I can sleep on the airplane!