Sunday Picnics and Riccarton Bush

Our friends Aneta and Mishko along with our friend Brenda and colleague John Bray met up for a Sunday BBQ of chicken, beef, lamb and lots of great veggies and fresh lemonade from Aneta's tree.  It was a great way to end our Sabbath after attending our LDS ward that afternoon.  It's so great to be able to go almost anywhere in the world and find a ward and go to church and have it be the same as home, same lessons, same spirit, different people.  

John was surprised at the amount of Lamb chops Alyssa could eat and decided to never invite her to a BBQ again because that meant his number would greatly decrease.  These girls are Lamb lovers now... and not just the furry kind.  HA!!

Brady had me drive back home to practice my driving.  It takes so much concentration to drive on the other side.  After decades of driving one way, it's so hard to switch your mind to the other way of thinking.  It's terrifying!!

After a weekend of no school.... it was back to work!  We took a break on Monday and went back to our favorite across the street spot, Ilam Gardens.  It was super fun to find this tree with all these Cicada carcasses on it.  We pulled a few off and examined them.  A true science lesson stumbled upon.  When we got back home, we had to look up lots of info and videos on YouTube about a cicadas life cycle.  Very interesting after seeing it's shell.

Monday night we went to see the gated off portion of Riccarton Bush.  This was the park with the Farmer's Market, but part of the park is gated off to keep pests and predators out as a way to protect this very old forest.

Riccarton House & Bush is a unique New Zealand heritage site consisting of two historic buildings, flanked by beautiful open parkland and ornate gardens, bordered by the River Avon and set against extensive native bush forest featuring Kahikatea trees up to 600 years old. 

The trees in this place were amazing.  Their roots were all over the place and exposed.  The roots grew up like vines in the trees.  

Some amazing roots!!

It was a fine Monday evening walk!!

Our first Saturday in Christchurch

Our very first Saturday in Christchurch was full of lots of excitement.  Brady was busy working but had a few hours to spend with us in the morning.  We had been told that the Farmer's Market at the Riccarton Bush Park was great so we decided to check it out.  We were told we could walk there.  After the LONG walk, we decided that we were definitely not going to be walking there again.  It was a beautiful day for a walk, but walking there with all of us was less than a good time.  Luckily, our friends offered me and the girls a ride back home while Brady offered to just walk back to his office to work.  Thanks Aneta and Mishko

The Market was AMAZING.  So many stands selling delicious foods and baked goods.  Fresh fruits and veggies and lots of things to try out.

We found some great baked goods that we had to try.

The Juiceman was letting us taste his juices.  They were fresh squeezed.  Pink Lady Apple, Apple and Lime, and Pear were the ones we bought.  They were AMAZING.  

We had to buy a Christchurch FM bag to carry our goods in.  We stopped at this great table to eat some of our plums and the girls Macaroons. Brady had to go buy himself and lambburger.  It was another new food we had to try.  It was great and was served on a great bun with a slice of pear.  So unique and very tasty.

As always, they find a tree to climb in wherever we go.  I know for sure that when we go home they will miss all the good trees to climb in.  They are enormous and perfect for climbing in.  This one was growing out over the stream and fun to climb in over the water.

While at the Farmer's Market, our friend Aneta told us she would take us to the beach while Brady was working.  She had a dog, Ella, that loved to go to the beach and the girls were eager to have a furry friend along for the ride.  She took us to New Brighton beach just outside of Christchurch.  Aneta drove our van and brought Ella along for the fun.  She sat just behind me and whimpered the whole way as she was anxious and excited.  She knew we were headed to the beach and couldn't wait to get there.  She was calm and peaceful the whole ride home.  She had had her fun and was relaxed.

The girls were so excited to be by the ocean and feel the sand on their toes.  We walked under the pier and over to a spot where dogs could be off their leashes.  Ava kept stopping to dig her toes and heels in the sand.

It was a windy day and there were lots of kites flying.

I was content trying to keep my toes warm on the sand, but the girls couldn't wait to get their toes into the cold water.  It's amazing how they have no care as to the temperature of the water.  They will swim in just about anything.  Kayla continued to walk down the beach and want to look for treasures on the sand.  She found a bracelet in the sand that had a longhorn bull on it.  She has worn it everyday since.  Must be her good luck charm.  Funny girl, she even snuck a Texas flag in her backpack and hung it on her wall.  I guess she's a proud Texan.  ha ha

The sand was very fine and soft.  Felt very good in my hands and on my feet.  It was dark; like ash coloring.  Different from Lake Powell red sand or Texas gulf coast sand.

Alyssa had no problems getting in up to her neck....

Even Savannah went in pretty deep.

She needed a warm up in the hot sand after not too long.

Me however, stayed zipped up in my hoodie to stay warm.  If it weren't for the wind that day, it would have felt much warmer.

Now it was time to go home for a hot shower.  Aneta made me get in the drivers seat when we got back to the car.  I was TERRIFIED!!  Not only is it scary to drive in a different town you're not familiar with, it's another country.... but even worse than that is it's on the wrong side of the rode.  I survived and we all made it home safely, but not without some serious concentrations and coaching from Aneta.  One of the hardest things is having the blinker on the right side of the steering wheel.  You can spot foreign drivers when you see them with their windshield wipers on on a sunny day.  HA!!

The funny thing about Christchurch is that you can feel hot and warm for a few hours, then feel like you need several layers and a winter coat and hat the next.

We met up with some friends that we had met on the previous night for Sparks in the Park. They have 4 girls too.  It was a concert and then fireworks.  Brady dropped us off at their car and then we walked quite a distance to the park.  They were so kind to bring us chairs to sit on at the park.  We met them so we could help carry all the extra chairs. It was another long walk that day... and then we had to make that long walk again back to their car and find Brady.  3 long walks for that day... good practice for what lay ahead.

Kayla and her new friend Matilda.  They clicked like magic.  We laughed that teenage trends are universal... they both had on light colored skinny jeans and white converse shoes.  I don't think they stopped talking for 4 hours straight.  That's all in a day for Kayla though.  Her tongue is a non stop machine.

Trying to stay warm while the Symphony played

Pano view of the crowd.

A fun firework show at the end of the concert.  Now, back to the car a few miles away.

A super fun jam packed summer Saturday in Christchurch.

Ilam Gardens and Baby Ducks and Chinese Food...

We were on our own for Thursday because Brady was going into his office.  We started our "homeschool", which is a difficult thing to do when you've been in a new place for only 1 full day.  No better day to start then today.  We worked for a few hours and when the girls needed a break, Brady suggested we walk over to the Ilam Fields and Garden. All we needed to do was cross the street and walk the alley way for a short ways.  Ilam Fields is a giant University field for Cricket and a running track.  Along one side it has a beautiful garden with some trails, trees to climb and our favorite find, ducks.  We were lucky enough to spot a momma duck and 10 babies.  They were so adorable.  We couldn't get enough of their furry small bodies.  They wanted so much to try and hold one but I told them they couldn't touch them.

We also found these plants with GIANT leaves.  The girls said if we picked one, we could use it as an umbrella. 

We looked closer at them and their stems had giant pokey thorns on them.  Ouch!  We would definitely not be picking one for an umbrella.  Not to mention, Dad has told us not to pick anything here.  He said that NZers are very protective of their country and green space.  Leave it as it is....

On Friday we did homeschool again as Brady was preparing for his class.  Still having not driven, we were forced to stay home and venture only as far as Ilam fields.  They were happy to do that as we had found some great trees to climb, fun trails, and definitely had to check on the cute baby ducks.  Kayla stayed home this day to keep working on her school work.  

After some tree climbing we found our ducks.  We were surprised and sad to find that only 9 babies were with mamma duck.  There was another duck and "teenage" duck around but we couldn't find #10.  The mamma duck chased off these two other ducks while we were standing on the bank but she didn't seem to mind us being there.  We eventurally saw the lost baby emerge from the bank but it ran up the wrong way.  After searching, we saw it again only to loose it again.  After a while we decided to leave and hope that the mamma would eventually find it.  We were supposed to meet up with Dad anyways and go to the Faculty house soon anyways.

Every Friday the faculty is invited to go to the faculty house for mingling.  We were reluctant to go (the girls were) but went anyways.  We eventually met a family there that has 4 daughters too.  Its a rare thing to find a family with only 4 daughters so we instantly had a connection with them.  It was fun to find out that their ages were so close to our girls ages.  They had a 14, 12, 10 and 7 year old.  They took them into the Ilam Gardens to show them some hideouts they had.  They were gone for nearly an hour or more.  I visited with the mother and enjoyed getting to know her.  She was from England and her husband was from France.  It is so interesting; the people we have met; they are so global.  They have lived all over the world with their families.  They speak many languages.  It is so different than America.  We hardly go beyond our state borders, let alone span the globe and speak many languages.

After our long visit it was very late and we hadn't eaten dinner.  We went to a Chinese restaurant with Engineering friends.  This was a new experience for the girls.  They eaten Chinese take out, but not at a Chinese restaurant before.  They were so intrigued by the tank of live lobsters.

Our large table with a round spinner in the middle to share the food.  Kayla's face in this picture is evident of her feelings toward Brady by the end of the night.  The first thing to be brought to the table was Calamari.  Brady told them it was chicken and they were like skinny chicken nuggets.  They all ate one.  I was forced to as well as to not look suspicious even though I know quite well what calamari is.  After a while Brady admitted to them that it was squid and that the were eating tentacles.  At least that's better than another "T" body part they could have been eating. he he

Kayla was super mad and told him that she was never going to trust him again.  After lying about the lamb meat and then squid she was done with him.  Although, she really liked the lamb and has eaten it again since.