Kia Ora!

WE MADE IT!  We made it through the check in, baggage check, security, long waits to board, 13 hr plane ride, passport check, customs and a 2 hr drive to our home but we made it in one piece.  Piece of mind that is.  It wasn't too bad after all.  Traveling with 4 kids we planned for the worse and hoped for the best.  When your airplane has individualized t.v.'s and gameing consoles for each person well I don't have to paint that picture for you if you have young kids.

Our home is a nice little 4 bedroom, one bath place that is a dream.  It has just enough space for all of us and a visitor (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).  Two rooms have trundle beds so they have decided to share rooms leaving one room is left vacant as a guest room (for yep, you know who you are).  It has a decent sized t.v. room, kitchen/dining room and laundry room/closet. 

I think having served a mission it has prepared me for being able to live in any conditions possible.  The kids on the other hand.  They are funny.  Talmage walked right in and said "wow, this is beautiful."  The kids ran from room to room and claimed their bit of home right away.  How could we have all thought any different that Abby wouldn't want the purple felt covered walls and butterfly papering for her room.  It wasn't until they walked throught the t.v. room to the back deck that took all of our breaths away.  This place is A-H-H-H-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  My previous post with the google map, ya' that didn't even do this place justice.  Let's just say that we got here yesterday and we haven't seen the kids in two days except for when they are hungry.  Abby came in to grab something and on the way out she said, "see you at dinner time or sometime around there."  Man did that bring back memories of when we were kids and could actually say that to our parents. 

I'm not kidding about this majical place.  I'm not sure how it will to be going back to our dust stink hole of a backyard after living with the Secret Garden/jungle.  It is going to be really, REALLY difficult.  We have these views from our bedrooms and I wish you could smell it too.  See for yourself!

Our humble abode from the front

The view from the deck off the t.v. room and bedrooms

The view looking back up at the house from the yard

Another thing we have to get used to is our lovely vehicle.  According to New Zealand's standards we have quite a lot of people in our family.  Enough to necessitate a large vehicle in which to get us all around town in.  We asked for something like a large car, SUV or a van.  Nope, not here.  We qualify for what they call a "people mover".  So we're the nice American's sporting the 1994 teal PMV (that's just my cool way of admitting it's a 'people mover vehicle').  Do you think we'll blend in alright?

Our PMV yo!

Now if I can just learn how to drive on the wrong side of the car and road we'll be doing alright.

NZ Bound

And we're off!  New Zealand here we come!  We packed up our lives for 3 months, left a lot behind and are ready for this new adventure and journey to begin in so many ways.  The kids had a hard time saying goodbye to their friends and I have to admit, so did I.  Like I told Abby, "it's better to have great friends to miss while you are away than no friends at all."  We feel so blessed and lucky to have this opportunity to experience a new culture, new way of living, new people and new ways to serve.  I'm grateful for a husband who loves adventures and New Zealand so much that he felt a desire to bring his family here to experience something new.  We are truly blessed!  Yep, I said it again.  I hope you'll join us on our journey through NZ the next 3 months.  If not, we'll catch up later but I can't promise you any of the same stories or pictures to prove them to you.  Your choice.  ;)

Heading out of LAX!

Kicking it DS style while we wait to board the plane.

And we're off!  No looking back now!

Abby the Science Kid

The 4th Grade has come with a whole new set of challenges.  We've been battling them as well as they have come.  New friends, new curriculum, new way the teacher requires cursive to be written (found that out the hard way when her spelling test came back with a low score and NOT because the words were misspelled!).  We've welcomed silly boys and their teasing, California Missions, G.A.T.E work, GPA's and not just plus and minus scores.  We thought we had 4th Grade in the bag.  After all it's more than half way through the year.  BUT NOOOOO.  It's Science Fair time!  As Abby is our oldest this is our first experience with doing a science experiment and all that it entails.  Oh man has it been a while since I've done this.

We are sure glad for the help of some great family and friends for help with this one.  A lot of food was consumed to make this possible.  I hope Aunt Tam's kitchen doesn't still smell like a food court! I sure hope I get an A!