Two weddings and Tauranga Part 2

On the red carpet with Oscar

Give us a kiss! Frank and Lily.
Alexander taking Frankie for a ride.

Digging trenches at The Mount.

We're back from our excellent week long holiday which involved two spectacular weddings - thank you so much to Jeff and Alison and Toeknee and Reece for inviting us to be part of your super special days. Both weddings were gorgeous and extremely memorable.

Thanks too to Aunty Milz for babysitting while we were in Palmerston and Granny Ro when we were in Tauranga.

Whist in Tauranga we managed to catch up with lots of people, spend some time at the beach (Dougal would say never enough time!), have a few picnics - including one at Red Wood Forest in Rotorua while Dougal got in a mountain bike ride, a walk around The Mount with Grandad Macbrayne and a play on his piano, a day trip to Waihi Beach where we walked over the hill to the next bay and found the most perfect beach ever invented and where Frankie squealed with excitement in the waves, and of course some play time with Oscar and his cousins, Lily, and Alex. So back to Wellington to recover from our holiday!!!

Two weddings and Tauranga

Look Mum, I'm as tall as a tree!

Frank and Granny Ro with their very plummy plums in Redwood Forest

Sharing fishing tales with Grandad Macbrayne

The Perfect Beach

Great, Nana!

Lucky Frank has seen two Great Grandmothers in as many weeks! He caught up with Great Grandma List while in Auckland and then headed out to Waikanae on Tuesday to meet Great Nana Macbrayne who was visiting from Ashburton. He had a lot to tell both of them and managed to sit still enough for a couple of cute photos...

It's been a fun week - brunch and a jousting tournament with The Eagle-Annans, a visit to Amanda's to see how three week old Finn is getting along (extremely well - he's gorgeous, of course), a play and stroll on the beach, helping in the garden, rearranging the pots in the kitchen, Chris' birthday party... and he climbed eight stairs in a row (the day after conquering one for the first time. Leaps and bounds, leaps and bounds!), and has sprouted another tooth. Busy times, indeed.

2007

Frank does Lake Taupo

Happy New Year! We hope it has started well for you and that you had an excellent break over Xmas as we did. Thank you to those who sent cards, emails and prezzies our way...

So where to begin? We were up and at 'em at 4am on the 23rd in order to miss the traffic jams out of Wellington. It proved to be a wise decision, especially as Frank slept for most of the journey. Then three of the grand parents did their best to catch up on all the hugs they'd been missing - Frankie was a very happy wee boy getting so much attention. Of course he wanted to show them all how good he's got at walking along the furniture and demonstrate all his new words: yes, yay, dad, duck (and EGGY)...

Aunty Emily (Milz) arrived the next day and suddenly it was Christmas. Frank did his best to open his mountain of presents over three days and we can't believe how spoilt he was! He also joined in eating turkey and ham and tackled his first icecream-in-a-cone.

All these willing babysitters meant Dougal and Libby got in heaps of walks, swims, picnics, a mountain bike ride and a fishing trip, not to mention a night out on the town with buddies (Jane, Tony, Jo, Suzanne, Jeremy and Milz). Excellent!

After Taupo, we headed up to Auckland where Frank spent NY Eve with Pappy and G'Marg while Libby, Dougal and Milz headed over to Waiheke Island for the night. Talk about Paradise. A huge thanks to Jane, Tony, Bruce, Shelly and Whanau. It was a very cool night.

A few picnics and lots of playing later, we whisked Frankie off to Napier for a couple of nights to stay with Aunty Milz. We went out to see Scott and Sarah in Waimarama and, bonus, caught up with more of our old Uni mates (Mark, Helen, Jamie and Lani and the three daughters). It was crazy to see everyone all grown up...

Now we're back in Wellington! I'll leave it there for now. Remember to check out the two Xmas photo postings after this.

Xmas Photos 1

Asleep halfway through dinner in G'Marg's arms

Uni mates reunion at Waimarama (avec pushchairs...)

The fountain in Napier (where summer is hiding)

I'm so clever.

Picnic at Acacia Bay - check out the t-shirt.

Xmas photos 2

Born to eat icecream

Cheese!

Frank on his Xmas prezzie swing with Great Grandma Nance providing the audience

Last time you babysit, Pappy!!!

Water Baby (Paddling pool from Aunty Milz)