Dropped off the face of the blog

Where have we been? I blame the old laptop. Those last posts were taking me about an hour each. Who has time for that? Add a few hundred New Zealand photos into the mix, and then the blog is a daunting task. Add training for my first 5K, and that blogging hour was spent running. But this weekend, I got an iPad, so look out blog, here I come! For now, New Zealand will have to wait. Maybe I'll sprinkle in some trip details here and there, but for now, I've got to get back to my babies!

Auckland

Grady's International Congress of Biometeorology conference was held in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. We arrived in Auckland around 2am. Grady had conference stuff to do all that day, so I just bummed around the city by myself all day - boo hoo!

Breakfast by myself? Order whatever I want? Wah! In NZ, a coffee with milk is called a "flat white," and it is so yummy. A few times I accidentally ordered a "fat white." Oops.

Our hotel, the Quadrant, was near some very pretty city parks with some huge trees.It was also near this crazy ivy-covered building, as well as the Queen Street shopping district, where I spent a good part of the day.

We went to a brewery called "The Brewery" where we tried our first fish and chips. Good! The garlic aioli made it really special, hence the mesmerized look in Grady's eyes.

New Zealand! December 1-14, 2011

Grady was invited to present his research at an international conference in Auckland, New Zealand in December! Since MSU was paying his way, we thought it would be a great tag a long opportunity for me, and we could call it our 10th Anniversary trip - something we'd been trying to decide on for a while. We recruited the grandparents to each take the kids for a week, and off we went!

Dec 1: We flew. For a long long time. Each person had their own TV screen, so we watched lots of movies, which helped pass the time when you weren't sleeping.

Dec. 2: Because of the 16 hour time difference, this day pretty much disappeared.

Dec. 3: We landed in Sydney, Australia and had a 12-hour layover before we left for NZ. Grady planned ahead and got us visas so we could leave the airport and see Sydney. For the time we had, I think we did pretty well. We saw the Opera House, walked across the Harbour Bridge, and took a train to Bondi Beach.

Final November Post - Ania's Baby Shower

We had a fun baby shower at The Grill for our sweet friend Ania, who is from Poland. Here are the hostesses with the mostess!

Ania and Carmen with the precious cake.

Carmen coordinated the theme. She is so creative! Ania said "No pink!"

Ania knew exactly how to use many of her gifts.

Others... not so much. She often said she was looking forward to learning what all these things were for. Next post: our big December trip!

A Few Gems from Delia

Today Delia's class was supposed to dress "wacky" for their Dr. Seuss birthday party!

Delia: "Why does Santa have a wife?"
Me: "I don't know baby."
Delia: "Maybe so she can feed him."
Me: "You're probably right."

(Stepping on the bathroom scale)
Delia: "Mama, how much do I weigh?"
Me: "34 pounds."
Delia: "How much do YOU weigh?"
(Stepping on the scale)
Me: "One HUNDRED and 34 pounds."
Delia: "Wow! You're strong!"
Me: "That's right."

November Part 6: Yazoo City Thanksgiving

We missed last year's Nolan Family Thanksgiving because Brooks was 1 week old. This year we had a great time at Tim and Nanette's home that they designed and built themselves.

Brooks needs his "Lovey" like Delia needed a paci when she was a baby. Can't sleep without it. If you look closely here, Delia is snarling because she and Wesley were pretending to be monsters.

I didn't know we'd have so much HAM at Thanksgiving...

Lindsey and Delia being silly after supper.

Cousins Cameron and Brooks, about 3 months apart.

Great porch!

We had great weather and spent some time outside, which is rare for November in MS! This picture doesn't include everyone - I think I counted 35 people this year.

You should have seen the food table. This is just dessert!

Jennifer snapped a picture of us that we used for our Christmas card! Yay! That is always so hard to pull off... everyone has to be awake and dressed at the same time and that's just hard to coordinate at our house. I love this picture because Brooks was laughing at Grandma 'Manda playing peek-a-boo behind the camera.

Wesley, looking so big!

Brooks is one year old here!

The cousins! Front row: Brooks, Wesley, Delia, and Colton; Back row: Cameron, Michael, Rachel, and Neely. Missing: Hannah!

Big boys Uncle Chuck and Uncle Tim, little boys Brooks and Colton.

It was a fun day of good eatin' with family!

November Part 5: Horsies

One of Grady's students has horses and she is always telling us to bring Delia out to see them.
Andrew introduced Delia to them all. She was pretty intimidated by their size, and it took a little coaxing to get her to sit on one of the horses for a minute.Not Brooks! He grabbed on!

"Giddy up! Let's go!"

"Yee Ha!!"

Right after I snapped this picture, this horse took off. Luckily Grady grabbed Delia by her coat and slid her right off the back of the horse. We had fun! Like our own private pony ride!

November Part 4: So much stuff!

Oh man - just found tons of pics on my phone from November! Here's more of our crazy November! And one serene sunset.

Delia had her school Thanksgiving program, complete with songs and outfits they made. This is her friend's Reese's class. Too cute!

Daddy couldn't make it, so we invited our friends Carmen, Amelia, and Charlotte to attend.

Even Brooks got to "skip school" and see sister do her thing.

Our little Native American princess!
Best friends!

Grady and I got to go out one Friday night to Bulldog Bash, the largest free concert in the state. This year it was the Avett Brothers and they drew a CROWD. We have no urge to fight crowds anywhere for anything, so normally we'd skip something like this, especially when we have to pay a babysitter. However, Blufish Design is an in-kind sponsor of Bulldog Bash. We trade out the design work for the poster, shirts, stage banners, etc. for a sweet sponsor package, and the Bash uses us for all the printing. So we watched the show from the VIP tent. Free food, free drinks, good view, and no one else shoved up in your personal space.

VIP is where it's AT!

Speaking of VIP, our friends the Banzhafs invited us to their skybox for the MSU v Bama game. It's the Davis Wade box at Davis Wade stadium. Not too shabby. So Jennifer and I took the kids, sent Grady and his friends out in the rain and never looked back. Hello chicken tenders and ice cream at half time.

And who did we bump into on the elevator ride after the game? None other than Jackie Sherrill!

I helped coordinate a Christmas parade float for Main Street, complete with gingerbread house. Got to work with some really fun ladies!

On parade night, we had freezing rain, so we watched from Mugshots' balcony with the Murdock family.

Must sign off now, as 8 yr old laptop is very hot and making noises like a jet plane.