Sunday 22 April 2012

So long Henry

Henry is our car. He is a 1994 Nissan bluebird. We bought him a week or so after we arrived in Australia. It was a bit of an ordeal, being naive and all about buying cars and doing grown up things in general. He was a bit beat up, but ran pretty well. The stereo has never worked, the front passenger side door has tricks to open and lock it but he's been a good car. Slowly he's been dying though. At present my door handle is pretty much broken of, he make a grinding sound whenever you turn left among many other noises, the back light is smashed from when someone rear ended Aarahi, he is also missing his front grill...we lost that on the motorway in Brisbane. We now affectionately call it his "airflow system".
On Saturday we thought it was time for Henry to retire so we headed out to get a new car. We found a pretty black sports wagon...we arn't mentally ready for a people mover yet. We have named the new car Percy. He's a 2008 Holden viva spot wagon. It has a CD player and MP3 point....a big deal when you haven't even had a radio! Plenty of boot space for all the junk that comes with kids etc.
In other news, adjusting to the time difference has been a bit of a mission especially for poor Auron. He didn't even seem too phased when we got to USA but the return change has really hit him and as a result me too. We've had a week of 5am starts, which is pretty bad for a kid who usually sleeps til around 8! One day though he slept from 4pm til 6am straight I had a crappy sleep though because I kept worry that he wasn't breathing or something! that is a long time for him to sleep usually lucky if we get 6 hours straight.
We finally got our tax return back...well part of it. We still need to sort out part of it, but it should be worked out soon enough. We also received a letter in the mail saying Aarahi had been under paid for the majority of last year and that he will be back paid. This is a huge blessing seeing as he has just taken 2 weeks unpaid leave from work.
We really loved our travelling experience, and will definitely be doing it again with kids in tow. We wrote a list of places we want to visit. The list is as follows: New Zealand, a big trip there doing the south island and of corse visiting family, it's always a bit embarrassing when other people have seen more of your country than you have! Japan, South America, Thailand, some pacific island, Switzerland, and I'm sure as time goes on we will add to the list!
Oh I bought a slow cooker this week. Our old one is sitting in Mum's garage (sucks that half our stuff remains in another country). So far weve have some YUMMY corned beef, there have been some intense cravings for this over the past few weeks. Today I made a chicken soup/stew (because I don't like chicken soup). I've jsut finished making some scruptious cheese scones to go along side. Its a perfect chilly day for it. I have many plans for this slow cooker, it was a score at $30! yey for Target homewares sales!!!!!!!!!





Tuesday 10 April 2012

Happy Birthday Teuila! it's a.....

This year Aarahi and I were thinking about what we would get Teuila for her birthday, and we decided how about a new niece or nephew? So on the 26th of October we will be expecting baby number two.

So the pregnancy details for the first 3 months or so.
Weight gain: like 5 kg's with Auron I gained over 30 so hoping for less this time

Cravings: it changes but mostly veges and anything asian

Morning sickness: More like all day sickness up until I was 11weeks, then Aarahi gave me a blessing and never been sick since, lucky cos we left on holiday a few days later

Feelings: I feel a lot happier about this pregnancy, I'm not too sure why. I think it's a combination of things. One reason I think is because when I found out I was having Auron I was more relieved than anything because we were told I wouldn't be able to fall pregnant naturally. I never enjoyed being pregnant with him and often felt guilty because I should be grateful for being pregnant. Secondly, my body is already ruined so I'm not so concerned about that this time around.

Well that's about it. To those few people that already knew thanks for keeping your mouth's shut it was much appreciated!


Los Angeles

This was our last stop before heading home. We stayed with one of Aarahi's mission companions, his trainer in fact. We arrived late on Wednesday night and were completly shattered so pretty much went straight to bed. On Thursday morning we hit DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!! WOW it was so much fun. I had been there once before when I was 12 but I think I enjoyed it more this time. They have done heaps of improvements to the waiting times for rides.
Disney really knows their stuff, everything is done to perfection. What I really liked was the baby nursery which had little old ladies dressed up as nanny's who showed you to a special room to change baby, they had supplies of baby food, nappies, formula, wipes etc. It was particularly cute.
Auron loved to go on the rides, his favourites were the Finding Nemo ride where you go down in a submarine and search around underwater with Nemo and his friends. He also loved the Buzz lightyear ride which is a ride where you ride around in these little carts shooting targets (Aarahi was quite taken by this ride too). I really liked the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It's a small roller-coaster (no big dips etc) that goes on a trip through pirate territory soooo cool.
The fireworks were spectacular, can't forget that. I also got the corn-dog I had been wanting all holiday, and it lived up to my expectations.
On Friday we hit Laguna Beach for the day. It was a beautiful day, too cold for swimming but nice for just laying in the sun and playing in the sand. After the beach we went to visit the Newport Beach Temple which was beautiful. It's been really cool being able to see so many different temples which are so different to the ones that we have been used to.
On Saturday we just relaxed before we headed into LA to catch our plane back to Melbourne. Auron was awesome on the plane yet again. He fell asleep as soon as the plane took off and we popped him in his little bed and he slept for 8 hours straight then another 3 hour nap later on. We arrived home in Melbourne 9am Monday after leaving LA on Saturday night. I honestly don't want to see another plane for a long time. We did 8 flights in 2 weeks. But in a few weeks we are off home to NZ for a few weeks but that will be enough travelling for us for a LONG time. I'm glad we didn't go with the original plan to fly home  to NZ later this week!


Captain Hook's Ship











The NZ display on It's a Small World ride

The Disney Castle



Doing my drawing at LAguna Beach



Newport Beach Temple


Las Vegas

Oh boy I feel like I'm in sin city or something. It is definitely something different that's for sure. Our hotel is beautiful, our room is huge....the size of your downstairs Ta'ala's. Our view is pretty lame suring the day but at night it's really pretty all lit up with lights etc.
We've eaten at the restaurants at the hotel a few times. Wiremu would have liked it. The had lots of veges and roast. I have been dying for some veges and finally got a HUGE plate full. They do a thing where you fill up your plate with veges and different asian sauces and they cook it all up with either beef or chicken.
Aarahi's cousins have been taking good care of us. His cousin Wendall picked us up from the airport and we went back to his cousin Talbot's for the afternoon to meet his Aunty and Uncle (lovely cute old couple who still call each other pet names).
Today cousin Talbot was our personal chauffer/photographer/tour guide as we ventured out to the famous Las Vegas strip. Oh what a site that was! I dont really know how to describe it. Just crazy crazy crazy. HUGE buildings, billboards with half naked girls on them, the works. There were some pretty cool sights to see though. The water show at the Bellagio was pretty amazing as well as the incredible atrium inside the hotel. We also enjoyed Caesar's Palace. There is so much to take in and there are people EVERYWHERE.
We were lucky enough to be able to go and visit the Las Vegas temple. It was so PRETTY. It is an amazing building, surrounded by huge mountains. It was such a contrast to the strip. We are really glad we had the opportunity to visit.
Later that night we were able to meet cousin Wendall's family. He has a lovely wife and four gorgeous kids. Auron loved playing with the kids and they made him some cool paper snowflakes out of paper which we will take home and hang up in his room.
Wendall took us on a little tour of the strip and downtown Las Vegas on the way back to the hotel. The strip seemed even more crazy at night. There was no way I wanted to get out of the car! It's been such a fun time.














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