Note To Future Self

Apologies all around for the lack of play-by-play on our trip. It’s not like we haven’t been having fun. Rather, there hasn’t been a lot of down time, and most of the really good pictures are on other people’s cameras. Once we reap-eth us them JPEGs, shall we sow-eth us some blog posts.

We did, manage, however, to photo-document one of our grand days out — hitting the slopes with (new) Uncle Dane and (not new) Auntie Elsbeth.

Neither Anna nor I have any ski-type skills, so this was a new experience for all involved.

By all accounts, “snee-ing” was a huge hit. So popular the rest of us retired to the lodge for hot cocoa while the beansprout showed Auntie and Uncle the finer points of shredding on the bunny slopes.

(there was actual snee-ing, not just standing around and looking cool, but most of the action shots were a bit rubbish. Oh well)

Thanks Uncle Dane! If she decides to take up snee-ing, we’ll send you the equipment bill!

For those keeping track at home, we’ve successfully completed the first 24 or so of our hours in transit. We’re all sacked out at the hotel by SFO, enjoying our (ahem) hourly rate.

Just 6 more hours of travel to go!

[scene: a suburban living room

time: 10 minutes to bath time]

grizzly bear: “purple nappy? change nappy? purple one! purple one!”

mama grizzly: “no, it’s almost bathtime”

grizzly bear: “purple nappy? change nappy? purple one! purple one!”

mama grizzly (with sudden enthusiasm):”Is it the penguin’s turn to  wear the nappy? lets put the nappy on the penguin”

grizzly bear: “no. no nappy pee-mo”

mama grizzly: “oh right. pee-mo doesn’t wear nappies. Pee-mo uses the potty”

grizzly bear:”pee-mo sit on a potty? pee-mo sit on a potty!”

[sound of running feet and dragging furniture]

“open mama. open door”

fin.

Uh, dearest, surely that comes from your side of the family….

With Anna out of town again, we had the rare opportunity to take a car-based outing during the week. By popular demand, we went to the zoo.

At the top of the list was the Tiwis!, but sadly the Tiwi, er, Kiwi night house was being mucked out. Instead, we had a teachable moment about how the Kiwi sleep during the day. No, she can’t say “nocturnal” yet.

We the Tiwis taken care of, we took the complete tiki tour:

Kea

Kune kune

Takahe

And even some Aussie slackers.

Oh, I’m sorry. We only let our kids read sophisticated picture books.