Somes Island

From our breakfast room window, you can see Somes Island in the middle of the harbor. Ever since we moved in, we'd been thinking about going. Scott found out that tuatara (lizards that have been around since the dinosaurs) live on Somes Island and he really wanted to go for his birthday, but I think we had bad weather the Saturday before, and the Saturday after that, he had a birthday party for a friend. So, on the 10th of October, we took the ferry from Queen's Wharf to Somes Island and spent a lot of the day there.

The view of Somes Island from our breakfast room.

At Queen's Wharf, waiting for Dad to buy the tickets for the ferry.

 Bobby on the ferry.

 Marie and Matt on the ferry.

 Becky and Marie on the ferry. She loved the wind!

Scott on the ferry.

 We hiked to the top of the island, where they have sheep to graze and keep the grass short. We had a nice lunch up there before hiking some more.

 The paths around the island were pretty stroller-friendly, so Marie rode in style almost the whole day.

We hiked around pretty much the whole island and took in some fabulous views.

 It was a very pleasant day with the family. We weren't in a big rush, so we didn't have to hurry the boys along too much. They did complain a lot that they were tired while we were walking around, but on the way home, Scott said it was the best day ever, so I'm glad we took the time to make the memory.

Scott, the Six-Year-Old

Scott's birthday has historically been difficult because it's usually at the beginning of the school year or soon after a move, or both. We didn't know very many people from school yet, and I didn't feel comfortable throwing him a big party, so I talked to one of the moms I had met who has two sons, the younger of which had just started school and had played with Scott during playtime. The older son was also quite friendly to Scott. We decided to meet at a park and play in the morning. Then, I had Domino's deliver pizza directly to the park, which took a little convincing, but it worked out in the end. We had a fun time.

Matt had been working late most nights, but he made it home for Scott's requested favorite dinner: rice with chicken gravy. He wanted a double layer cake like Matt, but wanted brownies instead. I did a Batman cake for Bobby, so we stuck with alliteration and did Superman for Scotty. He wanted blue, and I delivered. After brownie cake, he opened a bunch of presents. We went a little overboard because we had bought a few things in the U.S., and then we were so excited to have good quality toys much more readily available here in New Zealand, as opposed to Laos. He got some Lego City books for his reading level, a Minecraft book, some Legos, a Pokemon starter box, etc. It was too much. We even gave Bobby a present so he didn't freak out when Scott opened so many presents. We talked to Bobby ahead of time and said he had something to open if he was patient and kind while Scott opened his presents. We're such suckers. I think it was a fun day for Scott, even though he didn't have a party with lots of friends. Maybe when he turns 7 or 8, we'll aim a little higher as far as the "party" is concerned.

On the night before his birthday, Scott came into my room and said he couldn't sleep. He hadn't seen his dad all day and Matt had returned home by this point, and the other kids were sleeping, so we hung out with him for a little while and I held him like a baby. So strange that he's so old now.

 This is the Rok-to-Pus at the park. It's pretty fun.

 The cake...

 Obligatory photo with candles, that I love.

 Scott is a good big brother. He has always been a very logical kid, from the time he was younger than 1, really, I could explain things to him and he would understand. He is dependable and helpful, most of the time. And he LOVES his siblings.

And he's also a monkey...

We love you Scott. We're so glad you came first. We're sorry we alternate so much between expecting you to be older and reminding you you're still young. Being the oldest is much tougher than I ever imagined as a youngest child. We're so proud of who you are and look forward to seeing you grow and become the person you're meant to be.

Matt Enters His Mid-Thirties

As one gets older, there seems to be less and less of a celebration, so there's really not much to report about Matt's birthday, but since I love to make cakes, I have to at least document that endeavor.

One of Matt's favorite dinners is beef roast and veggies in the crockpot, so I tried to deliver. A few things went wrong. I had never heard of the roast they had at the store. You'd be surprised the number of things that are difficult to understand even though everyone is still speaking English. I made my best guess and brought it home. When I was preparing the seasonings, I realized that the Worcestershire sauce I had was not gluten free and I couldn't use it if I was going to eat the meal. The whole thing took much longer to cook than I expected as well, and without the sauce, it tasted wrong. It was just a sad, sad meal and I felt like crying. Matt, as always, said it was fine and tasted good. His mother raised him right, especially when it comes to not being fussy about food. He'll eat anything I make and be grateful, but it was just awful that it turned out to be a failure of a meal on his birthday.

I did, however, do my best to make a nice "cake." Cake is not Matt's favorite dessert. He much prefers cookies. So for the past couple of years, I have made cakes out of cookie dough. This time, I did a double-layer cookie cake using two springform pans. I put nutella between the layers and on top. I asked the boys what I should put on top, thinking they would pick a superhero or a video game character, but Scott said, "You should draw a picture of Daddy catching a falling star." I thought that was quite specific and decided to go with it. Unfortunately, I lost my small piping tip and it came out quite rough. It was fun, though, to see Matt dipping his slice of double layer cookie cake into a glass of milk and taking a bite.

I had the boys pick out presents at the Warehouse, which is kind of like what Wal-Mart used to be in the 80s. They picked out a Star Wars Rebels ball, bubble wands, a mash-up version of Star-Lord, and a couple of books. Pretty much everything a 34-year-old man could want. We did our best with limited experience shopping in New Zealand (aka no Amazon.com). Let's face it, though, when Matt wants something, he usually buys it, even if it's not his birthday or Christmas, so what can we do?

Happy Birthday Matt! We love you for everything you do and all that you are to our little family.

The Sunday of the Seals

When we first moved to Wellington, our ward met at 11am, so we had a little time before church to drive around if we wanted to. The boys often woke up around 6am, and Marie was about ready for a nap around 10am, so sometimes we would try to take a drive, so she could get a snooze in before church. One Sunday (13 September), we drove to Red Rocks Walkway, somewhere Matt found to park on the water, relatively near the church, and realized there was a seal colony that lived a little ways from where we parked. It was a gorgeous day, so we decided to go home, quickly eat something, pack some food, and get dressed in warm clothes, and go back and take a little walk. There was a website Matt looked at that said it was a 30-45 minute walk. So, we figured that might be a little longer with the kids, but worth it to see the seals. Well, it turned out to be 1.25 hours walk one way instead. After the first 40 minutes, I started asking strangers going back if they had actually seen seals and how much farther it would be. They said another 30 minutes, and I was sad. Matt asked if I wanted to turn back, and I said, "No! We're not going back because we have come this far and we are never doing this again!" So we kept at it. At this point, it was 4 or 5pm and the sun was most definitely setting. We did see some beautiful views and we did see the seals.

 That's the boys in their new red jackets walking with me.

 Bobby, posing with the beautiful scenery

 A friend from church had the same idea and offered to take this picture for us. They didn't make it to the seals that day... they turned back after 30 minutes or so.

 Matt carried Marie the whole way and had Bobby on his shoulders over half the time.

 Very occasionally, Scott got a shoulder ride as well, but we were very impressed with him, he walked almost the entire way.

 Matt, Bobby and Marie are over that little crest there, and Scott had gotten ahead of me, and he could see the seals. He came back to encourage me--he was SO excited!

 Once we turned around to go back, this is how it looked. By the time we got to the car, it was very dark. Probably about 7:30pm.

The boys complained a lot on the way back, but when we got settled in the warm car, Scott said we should do it every Sunday. We were not keen to agree, but it was a fun memory we made together. And, we were glad we did it because we found out later that the seals migrate further south in October.

To give you an idea, here's a map of the walk we did, and it's proximity to the city. It's apparently supposed to take 50 minutes, if you don't have three kids with you and you're not really out of shape...