Two long weekends and a holiday in between

Well we decided to take advantage of the two long weekends so Dean took the four days off in between. So off we went and headed back to Te Kaha for the week. After the rain during the previous week the creek had risen, luckily Dad was there the day before we arrived to shovel all the silt away so we could get through. It meant that there were some great new swimming spots a bit deeper than at Christmas. The blackberries were out yum yum, and the snapper were biting in abundance yum yum yum!! On Sunday Dean went to Te Teko to play golf and go to the races with his Uni mate Tiaki. We had a few days during the week to ourselves where we had the luxury of taking over mum and dads caravan, which was good timing as it rained all day on Wednesday. Thursday we went for a walk to the Whanarua Falls and then down to the bay for a swim. Dean walked around the rocks and got us a few paua and kina. Friday a few more of the whanau turned up to do a bit more work around the place.

West Coast Beaches

Well since I'm now a Westie I have had the pleasure of discovering some of the west coast beaches. I have to say the black sand thing is hard to get used to, but all in all they're pretty cool. In the last two weekends we have visited Piha and Muriwai. Both known for being pretty rugged. Piha is good for Nathan as there is an Estuary to take him swimming in, but he did enjoy splashing in the beach yesterday at Muriwai.

Two trips to Muriwai... Friday and Sunday...







A day at Piha...

We're all going on a summer holiday...

Some pics of our holiday in Te Kaha. We had a great holiday, I'll let the pics show ya what we got up too.

Our Home away from home for 2weeks

Having a bath camping style

Caleb the Brave with his onlookers

Ethan doing some washing in the creek

Swim/Bath for the older kids

Fishing was a bit poor overall and this was the biggest snapper of the trip



Ok getting late now, will post some more pics tomorrow...

More Pics from our holiday

Christmas Day

Well we had a great Christmas day with Nathan. He got far too many presents for someone who isn't really that fazed, he he! It was a big day but lots of fun with the family. He got to bed at about 10.30pm. We're off on holiday tomorrow so will not be able to update blog for a couple of weeks. We're going to have a great time camping... Check in after the 11th to see how it all went.
Have a safe and happy new year ya'll.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hello Friends and Family,
The Hilliard family would like to wish you all a happy, blessed and stress free Christmas, and that you keep safe as you go on your holidays and have lots of fun!! We are looking forward to this first Christmas with our beautiful son who is going to make it extra special for us. We plan to have both sets of grandparents and his auntie and uncles and cousin Ayla over Christmas morning so we can all open our presents together, then it is a late brunch for us before we head up to visit my dad's family (40min drive). In the late afternoon we will head back to Auckland to have dinner with Dean's family. So it's going to be a busy but fun Christmas day. Well take care ya'll and take time to remember the reason for the season... Jesus :-)
Love Janna, Dean and Nathan

Eating Dirt

In between the showery weather Nathan and I headed outside to enjoy a spot of sunshine. To avoid hurting his knees on the concrete he came up with a new hands and feet way of crawling and headed to the garden to have some afternoon tea consisting of dirt, flowers and grass. I remember enjoying a bit of dirt myself back in the day, but being the modern day overprotective first time mother and considering we have a cat that poos in the garden I won't be letting him chow down on too much dirt in the future. Check out the video evidence...

Dean the Groover

Here's Dean off to his school friends 30th birthday... 70's was the style... Here's a picture to make you smile...

Rainbow's End

On Sunday we ventured out to Rainbow's End for Dean's works Christmas party for the kiddies. We had a nice bbq and Santa came to visit. There were a few things we could take nathan on, not much but hey, I got to go on a few of the big peoples rides, so it was all good. He enjoyed the balls and the merry go round but wasn't too fazed by the dragon ride. I went on the Free Fall, which is only half the size of the Giant Drop at Dream World but still fareeeaky!! Also the Roller Coaster, which is always fun :-) It was a nice day out.

Trip to the Mount

We had a few days in the Mount as Dean had to go and do some work for a client down there. It's always a good time to catch up with the whanau. We had Erin and Logan over for dinner on Sunday night, with a game of 30 seconds afterwards, good fun!!!
Monday it was out shopping for a new fridge with Mum and Dad. Tuesday we hit the beach for a short while. Nathan didn't quite know what to make of the sand, and it wasn't too good when he started rubbing it around his eyes. He didn't mind the water though, it wasn't as cold as what I thought it might be. We had a good drive home with Nathan and I posing for a few photos.

Brushing the teeth

Here is Nathan with his groovy new toothbrush getting a lesson in Oral Hygiene :-) Gotta keep those pearly whites, white I say.

New Poll

Hello People,
We have a new poll up. Not many people voted on the last one, so come on it only takes a second to do. The answers are anonymous and are for interest only.
Dean was the winner in the last poll, where 5 people thought Nathan looks like him, 1 person though he looks like me. I have to agree with the majority though. Although nobody thought he looks like Johnny Depp, I'm sure he will be about that handsome when he gets older :-)

We had mainly music this morning and with the excitement of it all Nathan got so pooped out he fell asleep right at the end. This could also be due to the fact that he woke up about 10pm after hearing the banter happening in the lounge with all the adults playing Scattergories. I did very poorly and the winners were Troy and Rob who drew. Top marks to Ueta who tried his luck at every turn with some very out there answers.