So, Craig’s camera broke on Christmas morning and I never took any photos with mine, but I can tell you how the rest of the day went. Craig’s Mum fed 18 people. We blew bubbles, we blew some more bubbles and Craig, his brothers and his cousin got trashed – they also set a land-speed record for demolishing a bottle of Maker’s Mark. Much to their mothers disgust and their wives chagrin!
So, December 26th, Boxing Day. It was drizzling, so we didn’t play golf :-( Am I the only one who missed the golf? Instead, Craig’s Dad decided to take his new boat for a spin on Lake Mahinerangi. Afterall, he’d had it for a whole week and hadn’t taken it out yet! Well, Paige was tired and needed a sleep and I’m scared of Lake Mahinerangi, so we stayed at the farm – I read my book, I read Paige her books, Paige slept, Gizzy and I slept. Meanwhile, the rest of the family had FINALLY got the boat started and her are some photos of their miserale rainy trip on the lake where they caught nadda, zip, zilch, nothing!
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Did I mention that I was at home with my cuddly niece and nice and dry? Well, I was :-)
The very next day, the sun came out again, so we went down to Waitahuna to ride bikes around the school and play on the playground. We were trying to get Alice to build up some confidence on her “big girl bike”. ![]()
Paige came to ride her bike too – but she was a little more interested in the snacks her Mum had packed. Don’t you think this farmer should have had some daughters?
This next photo cracks me up! Alice was having a little trouble adjusting to her new bike – specifically the brakes! She rode into the fence around the tennis courts a couple of times and boy did we laugh. She threw a bit of a tanty – one of the tantrums I even got on video camera – for her 21st! ![]()
So her Mum and Uncle Craig decided that if Alice wouldn’t ride her bike, they would!![]()
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The best part of Waitahuna Primary School is that political correctness – or maybe OSH (Occupational Health and Safety) haven’t caught up with them yet. They still have all the original playground equipment that was at the school some 30 years ago when Craig started there. So Ab and I helped Craig re-live his youth by playing on the playground with him…….
And then we went home and blew some more bubbles and played on the slip ‘n slide. Ellen (that’s my other sister-in-law who is in none of the photos because she was trimming her hedge while the rest of us were enjoying our Christmas Holiday) had her family visiting for Christmas and her Dad turned up with a BIG bubble blower. So we blew some big bubbles……..![]()
And then by some fluke we figured out that we could take photos through the bubbles and then it was all on…… ![]()
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You would have thought Alice and CRaig were acrobats the way they jumped all over the place to get their faces behind those bubbles!
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And when Paige woke up….. slip ‘n slide time! Uncle Craig had to show the girls how it was done though! Sorry I couldn’t figure out how to rotate the video…..
And then the very next day, we were off – up to Central Otago. I took this photo of the girls at the playground in Alexandra while everyone else was shopping.![]()
And if you thought the pictures of the farm were picturesque. This is Lake Hawea. This is where the Homer’s go camping every New Years…….
These pictures were taken at about 7.30am from Craig’s Dad’s boat. And no, we still didn’t catch any fish – in fact, the boat is still fish-less……..![]()
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That’s Craig’s other brother, Marc…….![]()
These photos are of Lake Wanaka, which is just around the corner – Craig and I got married right over there on the other side of the lake….
And then, it was our very last day with the Homer’s…… :-(
But we had just enough time for an ice cream and to take some more pictures……. This is us hiding out with Paige in the caravan….
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And hiding behind the ute from Alice eating ice cream……
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I find it rather amusing that Marc is wearing the t-shirt advertising everyone’s favourite beer, Brent is wearing a John Deere t-shirt advertising everyone’s favourite tractor and their big brother is wearing an obscure t-shirt from a sci fi programme featuring the evil Cyber men…… LOL ![]()
Come back tomorrow! I should have pictures from our trip to the Far North, when we flew back up to my family…… There’s more video…….
