It's ok - I am still here!!!

Hi there - we have had a crazy few days since my last post... This is coming to you live from Brighton (about 15 mins south of Dunedin).

We are staying with our friends Kim and Sarah until Sunday, hoping to spend some time on the beach and just chill out for a bit.

What have we done over the last few days? Well, New Years Eve was a bit of a disaster for us - we got invited to a barbecue, and after only an hour or so there, Jake was sick and we had to go home, dammit! I think we were tucked up in bed by about 11pm, so I wasn't even awake to see the New Year in - how sad is that?!

New Year's Day we went up to Lake Opuha to hang out with D's family and get in some waterski-ing.... D had 3 skis I think, before landing in about a foot of water and hurting the bottom of his foot. As we speak, it is a nice purple colour on the bottom where his arch used to be (not an arch at the moment due to the swelling, ouch)

When we came home from the lake we brought our niece home with us for the night. D towed the boat back with his ute, so I had the two kiddlies in the back of the rolls (my Corolla) for the trip home. It's only a 45 min trip, but I had to stop twice.... Once because J was threatening to be sick, oh joy, and the second time was to scare the crap outta the kids for being naughty - I had warned them that if they kicked each other one more time I would stop the car and someone could walk home, but would they listen? NO! Well, when I stopped the car, they looked a bit scared, uh-oh, they said, she's serious! No-one wanted to walk home from Albury, so they behaved after that, thank goodness! Ha ha ha! Method in my madness, that's for sure.

January 2nd was spent in partial chaos while J played with cousin Brianna, and we tried to kinda tidy the place up a bit behind them as they went. I had to shoot out at 3pm to take some photos for a Temuka family, and by the time I got home at half five, Bron had arrived to collect Brianna and take her home. Of course, by then neither child wanted her to leave - isn't that always the way?!

January 3rd (yesterday) we were due to head here to Brighton about mid-morning-ish, but J woke up with a splinter in his foot and couldn't walk on it, and we also hadn't packed anything yet, so leaving in the morning was never really on the cards anyway, lol! Dr Rob was fully booked, so we took J to A&E like he suggested, and an hour or so later we came out with a splinter-less son (after several tears, screaming bouts and rugby-tackle-type holds to hold thim still!). We managed to hit the road about lunchtime, and after a stop off at the Rainbow Confectionery factory in Oamaru as well as the Penguin Colony and the Moeraki Boulders, we arrived in Brighton about 5pm. Must admit, it is a lot nicer travelling with an almost 4 year old that you can reason with for a change.

Today is the 4th, and we haven't a lot planned. Cruise into Dunners and get some groceries and of course Coke to go with the Wild Turkey and Kahlua (not in the same glass tho, lol!), then maybe head on down to the beach if it warms up a bit.

Hope everyone else is having a nice New Year so far..... will post more later maybe. Till then, toodles! :)