Summer's arrived

We have just spent a fabulous week down in Turangi. Normally a winter destination, or one for D to go with his fishing rods this time we ventured out in early summer with all the troops.

David and I thought we would make the most of an early start to lift kids from beds into car and get on the road and underway before they truly woke up. We got up around 5am and were putting the last items in the car when two very excited little girls ran out of their rooms, both carrying their Pooh bears asking "are we going to Turangi?" This was shortly followed by squeaks coming from Camryn's room. By the time we had loaded everyone into the car everyone was wide awake and very excited about the trip. Even Alexa, who the day before was trying to convince us to "cancel" (her words) the trip so she could attend a birthday party the following weekend!

We had a great time, biking around the town every day, visiting the hot pools, taking the girls for bush walks and also getting out ourselves to do some runs. We even saw a Morepork on the bush track up to lake Rotopounamu. The girls loved the bush walk, despite the steady climb up, up and up. They kept up a game of looking for the gruffalo and running away. We even saw a tree shaped like an alligator that we had to escape. We met up with David who had run ahead and right around the lake. It took us an hour to walk up to the lake edge, so we only had a short 5 mins 'fishing' with the kids pretend fishing rods & a reward of a carob covered marshmallow mushroom (yummy!), before it was time to head back down the hill, having running races with Dad while Mum jogged gently behind carrying Camryn in the backpack. Camryn had a perpetual lean to one side to look around Mum's head and keep her eyes on her 2 big sisters.

The sun was out for most of the week and we had fun in the back yard of our rental getting out the carwash slide. Everyone had to have a go (everyone except Camryn), including a reluctant Mum. Isobel struggled with understanding how to propel yourself along. Her efforts generally ended up landing flat, but she got some help from dad. Alexa quickly worked out how to run up and jump on keeping herself sliding to the very end. She loved it!