Tuesday, June 16, 2009

First Week & A Bit!

An over due update! Where do I begin? I'll start from the Thursday night (28th May) ... Maddison was vomiting, so that was nice! 3 changes of bed sheets, several showers and finally she fell asleep in our bed about 2am. I hadn't finished packing and was a bit jittery about that, but couldn't leave Maddison and I was SOOOO tired! I think I actually went to sleep before she did ;-)
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Anyway we survived and in the morning I took her to the Dr's as soon as they opened just to make sure she didn't have anything nasty or contagious (and no she was fine ... actually you wouldn't have known she'd been up half the night!). Raced home and finished packing, hung up the washed sheets on the clothes horse for Lyndon to deal with when he gets back hehehe ;-) and off we went in a taxi to the airport.
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Here's Aaron at KL airport in the boarding lounge peering out watching luggage etc. being loaded onto our plane.

He enjoyed spotting the train everytime it went by as well (top left corner).
Flight from KL to Singapore was good, we were a little late leaving, but only about 5 minutes late landing. We gathered up the kids and our bags and headed to the transfer desk to get our seats for our flight to Christchurch, but when we got there Lyndon discovered he'd left his man bag on the plane and it had all our passports and travel documents in it! Whoops ... he left in a mad hurry looking slightly green. Aaron told me he needed to go to the toilet, so I had the task of "herding"4 pieces of cabin baggage, 2 excited kids and me to the toilets!! By the time we got back to the lounge Lyndon had just arrived back with no bag and looking very very green! Oh dear now what! Then we heard a lady say ... "Are you Mr Lyndon?" Yes! Oh here's your bag!!! :-) WOW how lucky was that?! And everything was in it! So by the time all that had happened we had to dash to the train to get to the next terminal. Here's the little angels on the train!Then we had a fast walk (why is it that there is never any travellators when you need them???) to the gate we were boarding at. I got the stitch, a blister and sore arms from carrying Maddison! It was about a 20 minute fast pace walk, puff pufff pufffffff! And I kid you not they shut the door on the plane as soon as I stepped inside! I stepped in, heard this 'thud' glanced back and the door was shut!! We made it ... after all that! :-)
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We didn't get the seats we had requested when booking our tickets (with a bassinet, but actually it worked out better sleeping wise for the kids).
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Aaron spent some time drawing while waiting sort of patiently for his screen to be turned on hehehee

Maddison just played phones!
This is why these seats were better ... I could put the armrests up so the kids could rest on my knee! Over half the trip they were like this :-) Aaron was really good, he watched a bit of a movie then just lay down and went to sleep. Maddison took a bit longer but she had a good sleep too.
This is what we saw out the window as we neared Christchurch! We were 20 minutes early too, so we can't have held the plane up too much!

And this sign greeted us as we walked out to the car!! (Don't see signs like that in Malaysia!)
It was a gorgeous day, the kids had a bit of sleep in the car on the way to Lyndon's parents (takes about 40 minutes from the airport) and in the afternoon they played outside with their cousin J. Here's Maddison and J holding hands ohhhhhh :-)
Visiting Grandad's dogs!
Playing with stones in the drive.
Later on Lyndon, his dad and Aaron went off to check the stock and feed out hay etc. Here's some pics Lyndon took.

And Aaron missed most of it by the looks! Fast asleep in the truck!
Waiting for story time before bed - Maddison and J (J is 2 months older than M).
Monday, 1st June Lyndon took the kids to J's house in the afternoon. They walked to a park and feed the ducks.
Sampled the ducks bread!
Tried to see out of slightly too big floppy hat!
Chased roosters.
And generally had a wonderful time :-)
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Tuesday - Lyndon left us. (He went to Invercargill for work, then Wednesday onto Auckland and Friday back to KL. Sunday he went to Japan for a week and this week he's in Korea!) On the day he left Nana and I took the kids into their closest town to buy the kids some gumboots. This is how they travelled in the car ... very cold here you know compared to KL!


Thursday, 4th June we went to Christchurch to get a few things. Had lunch at McDonalds! Kids had fun in the playground there.

Visited the dino at a bookstore!
Even had a ride!
Here's the view from my bedroom window at Lyndon's parents. Beautiful aye.
There's a crab apple tree in the garden, and it was just stunning. Such a brilliant red.
Autumn still trying to hang in there!
And Spring being especially bold!
Signs of new growth were everywhere.
Kids playing outside one day - Aaron had spied a plane high in the sky. (yes Maddison has pink gumboots!!) ;-)
Tuesday 9th June, we went back into Christchurch and spent some more time with cousin J. We went to a kids gym. Such fun! BIG grown up balls to play with!
And bats!!!
Running races.
Where you had to stop in the middle and then drop to the floor!
Big parachutes to flap about and try and get the balls off!
Too much excitment really :-)
And after a while he was just happy to sit on his big grown up ball and watch some people playing badminton.
Another day the kids helped Nana do some baking. Aaron of course just couldn't resist a taste test!!
Checking out Grandad's bicnoculors.

And that my friends is nearly the finish of our time with Grandad and Nana! It went very very quickly, we had a lovely time and the kids got used to the cold about half way through! LOL (but that's another story!)

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More updates to come ... it's a slow process as you can imagine how many photos I have to choose from heheheee.

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Apologies too to those who's blogs I normally leave comments on! Hope to start back commenting this week.

9 comments:

Janine said...

Looks like you have all had a blast. I guess it is a big culture shock coming from the heat of KL back to a NZ winter. I was freaking out when I read L had left his man bag on the plane with all the docs etc in it. I would be freaking out. So pleased it was found and nothing was missing. Sounds like you all did so well to catch that flight and whats more like you said you got to chch early lol. Go figure.

Penny said...

oh man.. losing the man bag would've been sick making alright. So glad it turned up!

Enjoying seeing the kids antics ;)

Hannah said...

Wow, I would have been worried sick about the lost bag! So glad that it found its way back to you guys. Sounds like you are having a wonderful time in ChCh - where to now?

topkatnz said...

Hi there you ... sounds like you had a very hectic and worrying start to your trip ... but it seems like you've had a good time since ... email me ok??

Yeong Shong said...

So glad that the kids enjoy their trip and good to hear that they'd get use to the cold. Ya, where to now?

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a wonderful trip so far. More to come and enjoy, aye? Take care and have a great time.

fulltime mom

Serene Ho said...

missed your journals and your kids!and of course you too!lol Enjoyed your lovely and fun pictures!

Cindy Lee said...

Wow..the view is so beautiful! It's so peaceful...unlike the hectic city we are living in.

Anonymous said...

Aaron looks SO dangerous with that bat!!! Kate