Poor Trent!

Poor Trent seems to have seriously injured his back! He is in a lot of pain, and can't even lie down to sleep. The Dr. wasn't much help ("yes, your mobility seems to be limited, bt your shoulder seems fine"), but the physio helped a little. He thiks Trent has a bulging disc in one of his cervical vertebrae, bt can't make the muscles relax enough to be of much help. Trent has an appointment on Thursday (tomorrow) to see the specialist physio, who is apparently good at realgnments. Wish him good neck wishes...

Aya is conviinced that we need a giraffe to live in the yard, and has decided that she likes school again (just in time to switch to her new school, poor girl!).

Rowan says that I am a "stinky-winky donkey"

s.

Current time in Christchurch

This is the current time in Christchurch.

Easter / Birthdays

We had a very exciting and sugar filled long weekend!

First was Rowan's birthday. He liked opening his gifts (thanks to all who sent them!), and loved his chocolate icecream cake (especially the fire!!). In the afternoon we went to the beach at Sumner, and had "fush and chups" and fed the seagulls.

Next of course was Easter. We hunted for chocolate eggs in the house - the don't seem to dye eggs here??, and Aya and Rowan of course loved the chocolate. Friends from Canada were in town, so they came over for easter dinner, which made the whole day even more eventful! We were very glad to see them, and had a great time! Aya got sick in the evening, poor girl, and felt quite bad for 2 days. Chocolate and spagetti are an interesting combination when they come back out....

Luckily she felt better by her birthday, and we had fun making her shark cake! She liked all her gifts too, especially her scooter. Thanks especially to T3 for the great card!

Summer fun

We have been trying to take advantage of the remaining summer weather - the predicted low tonight is 2 degrees...
We go downtown to Hagley park to walk through the lovely gardens ad the beautiful downtown. Aya and Rowan like the river best of all. It is very shallow, don't worry...
We feed the ducks, and make fishing poles to poke the eels with.

We went on a "moa hunting" expidition (aka a hike) in the port hills. It was a fairly short hike, but we had a great time. We didn't get to catch and skin any moas (owing to their being extinct), but we did encounter a friendly fan-tail that follwed us for a while, even landing on Trent's outstretched walking stick!

And of course, water is always involved in playing outside...


So above are photos of summer fun:


"fishing" amd feedig the many ducks that live on the Avon river downtown
The view from our hike in the port hills (georgous!)
Rowan on our hike
And Aya in the sprinkler

PEACH PIE

This one is for the Hoovers in the crowd - we have a peach tree in our yard that had the most delicious crop of RED peaches! Our first attemps at using them was a pie, which turned out great despite the lack of pie plate...

It looks like Rhubarb it is so red, but tastes like peaches. Trent says it has a hint of strawberry, but he is alone in that assessment.

A friend came to visit - Flat Stanley in ChCh

Our dear niece Sabrina sent Flat Stanley to visit us. He had a great time seeing the sights in Christchurch, surfing, and spending time with us. He hopes to be mailed home soon...

Interesting things from the grocery store

Here are a couple things I saw that were unlikely to be found in a Canadian grocery store (along with meat flavoured potato chips, and 'tasty' cheese):