Birthday Bouquet

Awwww... Dave and the boys went on a walk and gathered a beautiful bouquet of flowers for my birthday yesterday. Gorgeous! Thank you guys!

Christmas Visitors

We were lucky and had great visitors this month. Ian is a friend of a friend who needed a place to stay, but after a couple of days he quickly became family. Dave's brother Bob also came to visit, and here's a picture of him and Nikolas enjoying some Christmas oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Yumm!!!!

The kids were delighted to find out that even though you don't hear too much of Santa Clause down here, he still showed up! He dropped off some scooters and even wrote them each a note. Nikolas said that, not to hurt my feelings or anything, but he usually likes the gifts that Santa gives them better than the ones I give him. Well, I have to admit, the scooters were a great hit (video attached).

And another visitor: Here is a picture of the pohutukawa (the New Zealand Christmas tree), so named because the tree comes into bloom right around Christmas time. What a treat!

The Britts and the Bees

Ah, the price of going barefoot. Nikolas stepped on a bee on the 23rd and Isaac stepped on a bee on the 27th. Here they are, trying to cool down their swollen (and dirty) feet. Can you tell which foot is which?

Merry Christmas week

Happy holidays everybody!

It's strange to make Christmas cookies with warm sea breezes and bright summer beach days, but we'll get used to it. :-) When I was commenting that it just doesn't feel like Christmas, Amy pointed out "Think of it as a great way to kick start the summer!" Great! So, this year, I picture Santa with a little singlet, shorts, and surfboard. :-) Happy holidays to everybody back in the US too.

Attack of the mozzies!

Oh, I felt so bad a couple of days ago. The kids wanted to sleep outside in the tent, and the mozzies were out and ferocious! I slathered some Bullfrog on Isaac and me, while we were setting up the tent, but it didn't seem to do any good against them. The next morning, I realized that the Bullfrog was actually sunscreen and not mosquito repellent!! WHOOPS! They just devoured us, especially Isaac.

In honor of that, the kids made up a song, sung to Michael Jackson's Thriller tune.

Sun-screeeeeeeeeen!
In the night!
Not for the mooooon-light

Sun-screeeeeeeeeen!
In the night!
Doesn't do much good 'gainst the mozzie bites!

Now have fun humming ("They're out to ge-e-e-t you!") and the rest of the Thriller song, but maybe you can imagine being chased by blood-thirsty mozzies!

Family Catamaran Outing

After some fun surfing on the antique windsurf board at Oneroa yesterday evening we went out for our first family sail on the Hobie 16. We are borrowing the boat from a neighbor (and making some upgrades in exchange for use). The kids were a bit grumpy to leave the house, but were quickly engaged once we raised the sails. Nikolas tried out the harness and spent most of his time hanging out on the trapeze. Isaac also hung on without use of a harness. We need to find some kid sized harnesses for the next outing. Wind was variable and we maxed out at 9 knots (according to our GPS). The highlight was "jumping" over the wake of the Fullers car transport ferry! Next goal: pack the camping gear and sail to a remote shore of our island or one of the neighboring islands.

Bucket-loads of rain

While I was back in Utah for Thanksgiving week, Jenn and the boys endured some torrential rain. In a 24 hr period Jenn put a bucket out on the deck to find it full in the morning. We also topped off the cistern again, so we are doing better than Utah, which is already 30% "behind" on precipitation entering into Winter.