The "Special" Ones

Could these girls be any funnier?? Their ability to pull faces is outstanding. See for yourself!

Frostbite Anyone?

So in between all the madness of May we headed to New Zealand for my Uncle's surprise 60th. One day I am going to get there in the summer time.

Winter in New Zealand is just so bitterly cold. Now, I have endured standing in the snow for hours and days on end and that just doesn't even compare to the biting cold that I experience each time I go to New Zealand. Apparently when I was there it was quite "warm".

Did I say it was cold?

Here are a couple of shots from my stay there.

The city.

New Zealand Harbour Bridge - sort of like Sydney's but not really. I tried to be arty and get the NZ flag in there.


This place is called Rangitoto. It is an island in the middle of the harbour. It doesn't matter where you are looking from, the island always looks like this:

And my last attempt at being arty - in the mirror of the car you can see a small mountain - I was just on top of that taking pictures.

See you next time in summer New Zealand!!!

Im Tired

What a month was May!! After the fun trip to Cairns my sisters all came down for a visit with their kids.

I got to be the favourite aunty since there were going to be 6 nieces and no other aunties in sight, but come on, like I really had any competition.

I took a week off during their visit and we planned and did some great stuff.

We visited the aquarium and the girls LOVED it. We went on a ferry boat to get there on a cold winters day but no one seemed to mind much.

We also hit up New Zealand for a few days. It was my Uncle's 60th and we had already booked our tickets to surprise him and when my sister from USA decided to come over she thought it would be nice to also be there for him so along she came with her family.

Can I tell you how bitterly cold it was there! I got really sick and was sick the whole time but wanted to get out and see stuff which we did. I will post photos later of the NZ trip.

But for now here are some family shots I was able to get when they were here.

My sister Hannike with her husband Steve and their kids Chloe, Ella and Courtney.

Here is one of my other sister Karen with her husband Mikey and their girls Leilani, Isabella and Gabriella.

And being the favourite aunt I have to show you how cute all these girls are.

Yes, Isabella has food/stuff all over her face - cause that's how she rolls.

And Gabriella and her eyes - that was her look the whole time. So cute.

And now May is over. It was so nice to have 'sisters' around and to be with family. Now we just have plan for the next one!

Part 3 ..... Goodbye Cairns

We had to be up early the next day. We were going snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef!!! It was a beautiful day and we headed up north to get our boat. We chose a smaller tour of about 50 rather than the 800 that usually sign up for these deals. They took us to the outer reef. We took our sea sick tablets and thank goodness because it was kind of rough.

About 1 hour later we reached the middle of nowhere. It was time to snorkel. I wasn't sure how I was going to go since the last time I tried to snorkel was in a Hawaii a few years back and I wasn't very successful. Something about not getting the breathing down without thinking I was suffocating. But I was determined to give it a go. I was ready. I was pumped. And then they gave us the briefing. Here are the hand signals you need if you find yourself in trouble. Stay close to the boat if you are unsure. We will have someone on watch the whole time on the roof of the boat so we can see if you get in trouble. If there is a shark or a stingray, don't swim away from it. just be calm and swim towards it. WHATTTTTT. I am not going in. NO WAY. But then I would have been the only one on the boat. Pride won over fear.

We were then told we might need to rent a wet suit to avoid being stung by jelly fish. Those wet suits are really confronting ....... this time pride lost over fear.

This was the first of 3 stops we were making. I didn't do so well on this leg but it was a start. Everytime I went underwater I saw how close I was to swimming with the school of fish. Amazing and terrifying at the same time. Not a good time to have a conflict of emotions in the middle of the ocean!

The last stop was right at the edge of the continental shelf and the reef and I thought the boat was going to turn over. I didn't want to go in but it was safer in the water than in the boat so off we went.




The ride back was the worst ever. There was a storm and we were all headed back and there were quite a few sick people on this trip. Lucky it was none of us.

What an awesome trip. We did some things we will probably never have the chance to do again and the fact I swam with Nemo and his friends really made the trip worthwhile!

Thanks girls. I look forward to our next adventure.