Neither of these pics are from this weekend, but I thought I'd post them anyway. The first one is of Soren and his attempt at a chocolate ice cream cone. The second is of SOren and Mike flying a kite on Christams day. Santa brought a stunt kite by accident, so it was, in Soren's words "kinda tricky" to fly.
This Monday was a day I don't think we'll forget anytime soon. Mike started off the day by cleaning and repairing his bike from the 4 hour mountain bike "ride" he had done the day before. He says it was more like an adveture race, carrying his bike up 2 mountian passes in the muddy terrain. In any case, he was pretty wiped out. I started the morning out fresh and so happy that the sky was blue, the birds were singing and it was warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt. I put on my MP3 player and headed out ino the neighborhood for a brisk, very hilly walk.
We decided once we re-conveined over breakfast that we shoould drive to the train station in our town and take the train into Wellington. Soren was begging us to ride on the train all week, so we thought it would be fun. We left the house around 11 and arrived in Wellington by noon. We decided to have lunch first and walked about 30 minutes before we found a place that looked interesting. Lunch was uneventful but very tasty. Afterwards, walked to the cable car depot, about a 40 min. walk, and took the cable car up to the top of the mountian overlooking the city. It's a beautiful view of downtown and the harbor and the Botanical Gardens begins up at the top. A 10 min. downhill stroll will get you to the coolest playground you'll ever see and we played with Soren and hung out there for about 2 hours. We decided to be cheap and adventurous and walk down the path instead of taking the cable car down, so we did. We stopped to make sure we were headed the right way and started talking to a man, whom later we would find out was named Alistar, or Al for short (likeme!). Anyway, he found out we were American and wanted to rail on George bush and we were certianly happy to join in on that fun. We walked down the path together and talked politics and other interesting subjects while his daughters and Soren palyed together. It was so great to see Soren having some kid interaction, we just kept talking and let him play. Al's wife made it down the hill and she and I began talking and really hit it off too. I decided I ought to check on the kids and looked over the way and there was Soren and the two girls wading in the duck pond, sailing their crocks around like boats! It wouldn't have been so bad had the teperature not just dropped, the wind picked up and had we not had a dinner date with Mike's boss and his wife in less than 2 hours! We exchanged phone numbers (hoping they'll call and we can get together again soon), stripped soren down to his t shirt, covered him in Mike's sweatshirt, threw him in the stoller and headed for the center of town. It took us about an hour to get down to the shopping area and by that time all the shops had closed (Holiday hours). We walked clear accross the central city (CBD) and finally found the Warehouse. NZ's version of Wal Mart. They were open and had some pants to cover up the cold, wet child. By this time my feet were cramping and the child growing inside me was kicking and lodging her own set of complaints. We set off to the restaurant, which of course was not exactally close, and walked back uphill for about 30 minutes. We made it to the restaurant with about 15 min. to spare and Mike had a beer. I sat there with my feet propped up on the lounge table listing to Soren tell me how rude it was for me to put my feet on the table! -Hey, he does listen to us!- We met up with Bruce and Fiona and had a lovely, leisurely 2 and a half hour dinner when suddenly I looked at my watch and said. "If we are going to make it to the train station in time, we have to leave NOW!" We scrambled to pay the bill and get out of there and decided that Fiona would drive me, (in their 2 seater car), to the train station. Mike and Bruce would walk very fast and Soren would ride in the stroller. Fiona and I got there in plenty of time, but as the minutes were ticking away, I realized that they were not going to make it. I decided to leave Fiona there to tell the boys I had gone to get the car. I jumped on the train as the doors were shutting and took the 30 min. train ride back to the station in Lower Hutt. Then, I jumped in the car and drove back to Wellington and picked up Mike and a sleeping Soren. We made it home by 10:30PM and all crash landed in bed. Needless to say, we were all dragging on Tuesday. We did, however have a great time walking around the city, seeing the sites, soaking up the sun, and meeting new friends. This weekend, we may tone it down a notch!
city that is just incredible. It's great with Soren because it begins at one playground, goes over several bridges by sculpture and sea animals and ends at another playground that is on the beach. Mike and I have not been out as adults yet, but the list of restaurants to try is mounting. I've mentioned the Botanical Gardens, that's right in the middle of the city too. Lower Hutt has some amazingly beautiful scenery too. It's at the mouth of the Hutt river, so you have a freshwater river for playing in as well as the beach where the river hits the harbour. There are protected nature preserves everywhere, most open to Mountain biking and hiking and hiking. The grass is a hue you've never seen before, greener than you can imagine and, of course the native trees look like something from Where the Wild Things Are. The weather in the past 3 weeks has been pretty great. Wellington did have it's coldest and wettest December, but it seems that january is doing pretty well. We've been getting mostly 65-75 degree days with bright hot sun and a little rain in the evenings. Everyone is out on their bikes, Kayaks, sailboats, and partaking in any sport you can think of. We are in the height of the summer weather, though kids have to start back to school in a week. That means more beach space for us and lots of sales at the mall!
