Holiday Time

Well, we had another successful Thanksgiving, Christmas, Boxing day, and New Years.
On Thanksgiving we had about 11 people in total. All of the food was excellent!
For Christmas this year we skyped home to open gifts on video and went to the beach. (We are going for the "all I want for Christmas is a real good tan" wish list)
Boxing day we went to a cricket game. It was my first one...I have attached a photo of the field before the game. We had some delicious food before the game made by one of the friends we went to the game with. The Black Caps won (NZ) against Pakistan.
Finally on New Years we went over to our neighbor's house and had drinks and snacks (sparkling juice for me!). It was great to meet their friends and nice to get to know them better too.
I am at home now with a little over five weeks to go till our little one is due. We went through childbirth classes here. They are geared towards doing everything as naturally as possible. Everyone in the class is planning on going drug free and 1/3 are doing water births and 1/2 going to a birthing center that is free from any medical intervention. Just very different from the way labour is portrayed in the states. We are going to try and do the gas route (not even an option in the states, same stuff you get at the dentist... you use it through contractions, and Brandon can even take a few puffs off it if he wants, haha!) and will get an epidural if I feel I want one.
I made the national dessert of New Zealand yesterday... it is sooo good that it is almost completely gone already. It is a pavlova, it has a marshmallow like texture with whipped cream and fruit on top. Yummy!
We are just now getting several of our holiday cards in the mail. Seems like the whole country shuts down for the holidays here including the postal service, so Christmas is coming for a month this year. Enjoy the photos, and we miss you all!

Auckland Marathon

Brandon ran in the Auckland Marathon today!!!! He ran it in 4 hours 39 minutes 41 seconds.
I have some pictures attached. So proud of him for doing so well... now just to work through the sore muscles :) The last picture is of him in his yellow marathon shirt and his medal... he definitely earned it!

Rangitoto

We decided to get out of the house after Brandon was gone for work this past week. So we took a ferry over to Rangitoto from Auckland. It was such a pretty day out, why not climb a volcano?!
It took awhile to climb since I was breaking every time there was a place to sit, but we made it to the top, and the views were great. We could see 360 views with all of the islands, the skyline, and the peninsula where we live! The pictures show the island, Brandon pointing at the crater on top (filled with trees since it has been 600 years since it came about), us in front of the views on top, and me with the volcanic rock along the path (The whole path was not a boardwalk... I was enjoying the break from walking across rocks).

Long time no post

Wow, a little embarrassing how long it has been since my last post. Tons has happened! The pictures show a day at Shakespeare Park with the puppies and the picnic spread we had. It was the first nice day of the year. We are in spring now, and I am sooo happy! It rains most days in winter here.
The biggest of happenings is we are expecting a baby in February. This has led to all sorts of new discoveries! First is the dramatic difference in prices of baby gear. Strollers, carseats, cribs, bottles, monitors... and the list goes on! We stopped comparing the money we would have saved if we could buy things from the states after the stroller. We are having family members bring over somethings and we are already getting the care packages.
The last picture is of the sushi Brandon made for me at home... it is preggo safe sushi :) It was sooo good! Now that I know he is so good at making sushi I want it all the time. He found a local Japanese food shop owner that got us all set up with the supplies so it should not be a problem.
That is all for now. Miss you all back home!

New Place, Milford Sound, and New Job

Hey all! Been a bit busy with the new job and all, but I have some time, so I guess I should catch y'all up :) I have a job with a consulting agency here in New Zealand, it is really perfect for me. I use my degree and work for all sorts of different companies, so I am always going!
We are moving into a new house down the street that has heat and ac... finally got too cold for me :) It is really pretty, and it has a garage, so Brandon is happy! There is no yard, so we will have to walk the puppies again like in Suwanee, but they shouldn't mind that. Pictures will have to wait a week or two for the new place.
I am also adding in pictures of Queenstown and Milford Sound below.... they are so beautiful. We went there during the same trip as the Christchurch pictures in June, but I have been terrible about updating this thing, so here they are.

Christchurch

Hey everyone! Made it down to christchurch today. We arrived in the early afternoon, and made our way to the hotel first. Brandon had to turn in our immigration papers so I endedup napping for the first few hours of our trip :) (we had gotten up early to pack and let Brandon do some work) Luckily Brandon was also able to get some work done while I was sleeping, so when I woke up at that afternoon... he was ready to go to the willowbank nature reserve.

We had a tour of the New Zealand animals. We touched some eels (very slimy) and were told about their sharp teeth after we had our hands right next to them. Supposedly they can stay on land for 10 hours before they need to go into the water again. They had blue eyes and long fins. (See the Picture) Then we saw some ducks and Weka which is like a kiwi but not as dumb and not as shy and not nocturnal... so it just looks similar. Then we met some mountain parrots, called Keas, that are only found in the South Island. They were very friendly as you can see in the pictures :)We were feeding them honey, and they would scoop it off of the spoon! Next we saw the Kunekune pigs. They are so ugly and cute at the same time. Similar to dogs in the fact that you can teach them tricks and the make a bark-sounding grunt, but they graze in fields and have pretty funky teeth. We saw our first Kiwi birds and learned all about the programs to keep them around since 95% of eggs laid don't make it to be adult kiwi birds. They have a ton of predators, and the parents just leave the eggs as soon as it hatches (way to go.. right). But there are some pictures to show how big the eggs are (third largest in the world, and pretty good for the size of the little guys). Unfortunately there was no flashes allowed for pictures and it was night so our kiwi picture is the really dark one with some lit feathers from a flash light :(

When we were done there, we headed back to our hotel to get dinner, then went for a walk around the city.. enjoy the pictures below from our day!!!!