New Zealand Part Three

This is the 3rd and FINAL part of our trip. At 930pm on Friday night the kids and I headed off to the airport to catch our flight to Auckland to meet Aarahi who was flying in from Melbourne that night. Oh how I missed my husband! The flight was of course delayed, the check in lady offered to put me on the first flight in the morning instead but there was no way I was going to prolong seeing my husband longer than I had to. Little did she know that my kids are pro flyers by now. We finally left, it was bitter sweet. Auron occupied himself the entire flight playing with a wet wipe and a plastic cup.

I had booked a taxi, so when we arrived the taxi driver was waiting at the gate ready to help with bags etc, which was a blessing! 

We arrived at the hotel around 12.30am and the kids went straight to bed whilst I waited for Aarahi. I checked his flight and it was delayed...why was I not surprised? I knew he would be a while as he had to pick up the rental car and find his way into the city, he hasn't spent much time in Auckland so I was hoping he wouldn't get lost. He arrived at 2am. YEY

The next day we planned to have a family day in Auckland and just spend a bit of time together. Instead we just went to my other family home and just had a rest before we drove to Tauranga which is where Aarahi's family are from and his parents live. 

Sunday we went to church, a nice quiet day. On Monday we walked up Mount Maunganui you can read about that HERE. It was on my bucket list. I may do it again....ok I probably well. My legs hurt for 5 days following. Auron and his cousin Cumorah walked up pretty much the whole way by themselves only being carried every now and then. I wish someone could have carried me up though!

While we were in Tauranga we were able to go on a date BY OURSELVES. Ok this was a big deal for us. I can count on one hand the times we have been out without our children. Proabably because we don't live near our immediate family and I feel awkward asking other people to baby sit for us although I am sure they wouldn't mind haha. We went and played minigolf and then drove around a bit. We returned the favour to my brother and sister in law and they went out on a date later on. 

The reason why we were in Tauranga was becauase Aarahi's little brother was getting married. More family started arriving and we moved into a hotel. The hotel we stayed in was AMAZING. It was an actual apartment with a kitchen and laundry. We really needed some family time with our own little family and this was the perfect place. The next day we helped set up the hall for the wedding reception then headed over to Hamilton to see one of Aarahi's friend's. They played cards (special geek cards) for a few hours while his wife and I watched trashy tv. It was perfect because I was tired and she was tired because we both had sick babies. We tried to do dinner at Lone Star, it was a dismal failure. Lili was not impressed with the food. 

Friday we had the wedding. You can read more about a Mormon wedding HERE. The weather was pathetic. The groom had neglected to tell his groomsmen (his brothers) they needed black ties so we made a mad rush into town to get some of those 30min before the wedding. The happy couple seemed to have a wonderful day, as you would expect. 

Saturday we packed up and headed back to Auckland. Lili was grumpy and sick and cried and complained pretty much the entire way there. We left the kids with Nanny and Koro while we went to the night markets again. 

Sunday we were grumpy, tired, sick, exhausted and we had to fly back to Melbourne. The kids were good, but Aarahi was really sick and during the last 10mins of the flight Lili threw up on me. The toilets were closed in the airport so we just got through customs swearing we were never going on holiday ever ever again! 

But we will do it all again in January.....haha we have recovered now, and everyone is back to good health. 

My camera went flat and I couldn't find the cord so I am relying on iphone picture and facebook for these photos...

This is from our last day in Palmy. Liliana, Auron, Izayah, Ensign and Grayson

This is a photo of Aarahi's whole family. He is number 8

Lili, looking cute as ever!

New Zealand Part Two

On the Sunday we headed down to Palmy. We went to pick up my sister and her two kids who were coming down for a holiday too. The car was sooo over loaded. Let me tell you a Honda Odessey is not the most idea car for 4 carseats, prams and a LOT of luggage. The trip was about 8ish hours all up including stops. We just drove while the kids slept, which was the majority of the trip YEY FOR US!

Palmy is our home town so it was good to get back "home". It's not really a place you go to for a holiday unless you are from there. Not that it's bad or anything, just not anything spectacular. It has a major university and one of the best vet schools in the world but that's about it. But it's home and that's what we love.

We spent two weeks here. Let me tell you know it was utter CHAOS. We have a big family home but we also have a big family. (seven in total). The youngest three kids are still at home, aged 12, 12 and 10 then there was my sister and I and our 4 kids (two 2 year olds and 2 almost 1 year olds) and our parents. Those were only the people who were sleeping at the house! Our house has always been somewhat of a halfway house for the neighbourhood kids so we can add about another 4-5 kids at any one time.

On the first night there Auron got croup so he had his first visit EVER to a doctor at the hospital A & E. It was 3am so I left Lili with my sister who luckily was still breastfeeding her baby so fed Lili when she woke up. I have an awesome sister. Auron returned and carried on with his day like nothing was wrong. Unfortunately that was only the start of our illnesses. We all ended up sick and I endured with the worst cold I have had in years.

Most of our time we spent just hanging out together, and catching up with family and friends. Our cousin Sarah has just moved home from Perth so it was good to see her. We grew up together and are all really close.

My Nana bought me some driving lessons, so that I could hopefully get over my unrealistic fear of driving. It was a wonderful gift and I actually did better than I thought I would. the instructor said that I wasn't even bad. I just need to stop speeding. I put that down to the speed limit being different in NZ than it is in Australia.

We had three birthdays, one pirate themed, one Despicable Me themed, and well the other birthday was my mums, she didn't want a theme. My aunty fed Lili her first junk food, and soon became Lili's favourite person.

It was an awesome 2 weeks i could write so much more but I wont bore you with that instead you can look at the photos.

The monumental photo of a bath with your cousins

New Zealand Part One

To be honest I was not all that enthusiastic about this holiday. I had planned on a quick weekend away in Auckland with my Mum and Sisters but it ended up being a month long holiday. That would have been ok, if I didn't have to leave my husband behind for the majority of it.
So with that said, the day we left I just carried on with our usual Thursday routine of Gymbaroo then out to lunch. When we finally got to the airport we found out our flight was delayed by 30 mins. Annoying but manageable. The final delay time was 3 hours! so we arrived into Auckland at 2.30am. I was incredible lucky Auron was in a good mood, he had to carry his own bags. He's such a trooper that boy. We got into the arrivals hall and he just fell into Aunty Teuila's arms. We lost his dummy along the way, and I didn't want to have to deal with that at 3am so we stopped at the supermarket on the way home. The only dummies were pink. He didn't want it. In the end I had to bite of the end and chew it up a bit so it looked like his old one.
The next day was the kids last day of school holidays and my brother had taken the day off work so we could all do something fun. We sat around for hours trying to decide what to do, until we decided on our original idea of mini golf. That's always the way right, spend ages thinking of what to do but then just doing the original idea.
Mini golf was AWESOME. It was the best way we could have spent time together. I have the best family. Honestly I do. It's probably the most complicated family in the world but I wouldn't have it any other way.
After mini golf we headed home and my mum had arrived from Palmerston North and my sister in law from Tauranga. YEY!
It was off to the night markets for dinner with everyone! We found it's not the best place to go with 4 grumpy kids.... The food was good. My sister in law Kristen found her love for dumplings and mango lassi...so much so that after we left we had to turn around and go get her another one.

The next day my mum, sister Eleanor and sister in law Kristen headed off to Time Out for Women, yo can read about that HERE

Auron LOVED mini golf

Lili and her cousin Asher

Aunty Teuila and her "drink" I don't know what flavour you would call it haha

Perhaps one of my favourite photos. My two Princesses. Liliana-mei was named after Ahlia-mei

Uncle Khyber putting Lili to sleep

Travelling with Kids

Next week we are off back to New Zealand for the second time this year. I will taking the kids, with Aarahi joining us a few weeks later. He has to work and make the money, you know so we can actually afford to go on holiday!

We tend to travel a lot. Well we have in the last few years anyway, and always with kids! (I am slightly jealous Aarahi gets to fly with no kids this time) Last April we went on a family holiday to the USA and we fly to a from NZ several times a year also. Our domestic trips are few and far between, we went to Sydney once though! This next trip will be Auron's 20th plane trip and he's only just gone 2!

Auron's First Plane Trip. Sydney 2011

Flying with kids, especially internationally takes a bit of preparation and organisation so here's what I have learnt.

1.IT'S NOT GOING TO BE AS BAD AS YOU THINK! You know your child, you know what works to help them relax and behave. Whether that be bribing them with chocolate or the such then so be it. You know what works. There is no need to drug them up, as what was recommended to me countless times.

2. PREPARE your child if there is a big time zone difference. This may mean for a few week before your trip you might want to adjust their naps and bedtime a little so not to shock their systems too much. We found Auron was fine going to the USA but we struggled on the reverse flight. Jet lag is harder on adults than kids I think. Stay out in the sun as much as you can so your body adjusts because a grumpy mum is no good for baby.

The first leg of our Melbourne - Francisco Trip .

3. FOOD. Pack snacks, snacks and more snacks! you can never have enough snacks. They are good for bribing kids to sit down on the plane and good for keeping them occupied. Choose things that are easy to open and appropriate sizes. Avoid messy yoghurt's and things that require spoons, because you know you're going to drop that spoon under the seat and we all know how "easy" it is to get things our from under plane seats.

As an extra note on the food, pack it all into one bag, and be sure to make it accessible as you will have to show the TSA officers when going through security.

4. Bring ENTERTAINMENT. Load up that ipad with NEW episodes of their favourite shows, and new apps. It's a good idea to pack some new toys too. The cheap dollar store toys are good for this. I like to wrap them up and give them out through the trip, not all at once. Stickers, note books and pens are always fun too and provide a good balance between the screen time.

Liliana's first trip March 2013. In her PJ's ready to go!

5. Put your kids in their PYJAMAS. It may seem a little strange taking them to the airport in the middle of the day in their pyjamas but it sets the mood for quiet time. Plus they are comfortable.

6. So WHERE TO SIT? we find that behind the galley is the best place when you have kids. The reasons for this are that firstly if you have a little baby you can put them in a bassinet which is attached to the wall. Secondly there are no seats in front of you so your kids can kick, and move around as much as they want with out disturbing anyone. Finally, there is more room there and everyone loves more leg room, especially my husband because he's rather tall.

Disneyland just knocked him out!

Holiday Part Two

Wow it's taking me ages to get all this done. We've been home almost a month now! I have other things I want to blog about, we started preschool this past week, and Auron turned TWO!

Ok now on with this holiday...

We left Friday afternoon to head to Taupo, which is about a 2 hour drive. We planned to stop there the night just to break up the trip a bit for the babies and give us a chance to have some time together as just our little family. We went to Taupo for our Honeymoon, this trip was nothing like that haha.
Lili screamed the last 20mins of the trip nothing we did could calm her down (this was becoming quite a regular thing the last 3 days...more on that later) we finally got to our hotel and they had upgraded us to a family suite which was LOVELY. The babies and I jumped in the mineral hot tub outside. The water is pumped up from a thermal spring under the hotel so you just fill it up when you need it. While we did that Aarahi went to get us Burger Fuel! (one of the foods on our "must eat when we are back home" list)
The next morning we left for Palmy to make it in time for Nana's 80th Birthday party. Lili screamed the last 30mins of that trip. We made numerous stops to get her out, calm her down, feed her but in the end we figured we would just try get there as fast as we could...without breaking any road rules.
We arrived in time for the party Mum and my sister we busy with all the food preparations. It was so good to be HOME finally. Home with my mum and siblings. My sister and I both have kids the same age so we got to swap our little ones over to meet for the first time.
Our neighbours were away so we house sat their house. The often go away and we house sit so their house feels just like home too.
The party was fantastic we got to see lots of people and family we haven't seen in ages. Aarahi and my sister Eleanor sung for Nana and our little brother played her a song on the piano. (I have no musical talent whatsoever)
The rest of our time in Palmy was spent catching up with family and friends, swimming and eating....oh my gosh the eating we totally put on so much weight while we were away.
Lili continued to scream every time she was in her carseat, enough was enough it was driving us crazy and she was miserable sowent and bought a new one SUCCESS! best $400 I have ever spent. I got the most comfortable looking one their was.
After a week in Palmy we left at 5am for Hamilton to make it in time to see our friend Nadia come out of the temple. She was going through to receive her endowments so we wanted to see her on her special day. Lili didn't cry once on the 6 hour drive.
We saw quite a few others up at the temple as it was their temple week so that was a bonus. We settled into our hotel for awhile and the babies and I slept while Aarahi went to see one of his old mission companions who we went out for dinner with later that night.
Sunday morning we left early again for Auckland. We stopped in Pokeno for ice cream. It's this tiny little town...don't even know if it is a town it is so tiny but it's famous for its icecreams. We guessed about 40 different flavours.
We arrived at my families house, they left for church and we went to see Aarahi's brother. His wife is expecting a baby in September which is exciting, it's their first one so a whole new adventure for them.
We were in Auckland three days, we didn't do much, which was perfect, just spending time with family, I miss them. The kids were both sick by this time.
We left for the airport at 5am. Auron and Lili both slept on the plane. Auron is so used to planes and airports now he knows the drill and what to do. I counted this had been his 16th plane trip. How crazy is that, and not once have we really had any issues at all, not even on the 16 hour trips to USA.

Well thats it for the trips, sorry it was so long.

Dressing up as Uncle Teina

Bouncy Castle all set up

A trip to Woodville for Yummy Mummy Cheesecakes. Reminiscent of our dating days

Icecream! Banana and something...

I suitcase full of New Zealand treats to bring home

New car seat = one VERY happy baby.

First taste of icecream

Cuddles with Uncle Khyber

Mum's four grand babies. Auron and Ensign are only a few months apart and Lili and Grayson are only 3 months apart too...crazy stuff. Whats even stranger was that both older ones weighed exactly the same and same with the two little ones!

Family picnic in the park

Seeing great great Aunty Nancy off at the bus

Big boys in the pool. 

Great nana and Auron

Teina flipping off the diving boards...i remember when I used to be cool like that

A quick play before everyone arrives

Sariah Teina and Mosiah 

Claire Lili and I. Claire is the youngest out of all my siblings she's just turned 10

Esther Auron and Sariah

Evie

Cookie Cupcakes for the Birthday boy

Lili with her 3rd set of grandparents. Lucky girl. 

5 generations

Boys doing their thing

Lili and Aunty Teuila

A bit of late night mischief

Auron and Aunty Emily

Finally heading home. Relaxing with breakfast in the Air NZ lounge

Lili and Aunty Mei. This is who Lili was named after. Lili's first name is Liliana-Mei

Watching a bit of ELLEN while waiting for our flight