March Madness

 Getting back into the normal swing of life after New Zealand has been a mad dash of crazy. We leapt right into Levi's birthday and about a billion loads of laundry when we returned and life hasn't slowed down since. We found a nanny for the summer (yay!!), worked on the garage more, Isla got tubes in both her ears, I had stake women's conference and helped with the service project for that, we celebrated St Patrick's Day and had family dinner and Levi's birthday party and it's just been our lovely, full, busy, crazy life. I continue my journey to let go of the "shoulds" (I should be doing x, y and z) and focus on what is really most important and what will bring us peace and joy. 

Love this picture of the kids having fun at the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa while Eric and I were gone!

My succulents are happy and growing and even flowering for me!

Isla was totally knocked out after getting tubes!

Emery painted her nails all on her own for the first time!

Cute Isla and Zander at playgroup!

So glad we can get together with friends to play!

Finally  Isla's hair is long enough for pigtails!!!

Levi had a blast at the 80s Glow Night family dance for his school! Emery and Isla were not so into the noise and darkness

N E W Z E A L A N D

 Eric and I went to New Zealand for our 10 year anniversary. 5/5 starts, would definitely recommend! The weather cooperated with us beautifully (except for the night we went to see the hanging lanterns in the redwoods and it completely dumped on us and we were soaking haha) and we had some amazing culinary experiences we were definitely not expecting. Driving on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road was a challenge (for me more than Eric!) and I accidently turned on the windshield wipers every time I tried to turn but we did manage not to crash either rental car haha. I loved being able to spend so much one-on-one time with Eric, sleep in, take things easy and not have any responsibilities for 10 days! And the beauty of the landscapes did not disappoint. I fully and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

First day in NZ: exploring Auckland including the delicious Chuffed for brunch and afterwards the free art museum!

Dinner at this wonderful, bustling Japanese/western fusion place! Think: brisket ramen. So delicious!

Sunday we drove down to Rotorua with a brief stop in Hamilton to see the temple and the church history sites there.

Sunday night we saw the lanterns in the Redwoods forest in Rotorua. It was beautiful but absolutely pouring rain!

Better luck the next day while we hiked the beautiful Rainbow Mountain. You can see steam rising from the ground all over the place there from all the geothermal activity in the region.

The hike was just the right amount of challenging, so pretty, and so peaceful as we only saw a couple of other hikers the whole time we were there!

Some super steep uphill at the end rewarded with some epic views!

After the hike we went to Kerosene creek to soak  in the natural hotsprings.

The next day we flew down to Queenstown and stayed in this absolutely adorable vintage cottage right near the water. It was so cute and had a hot tub with lake views. Definitely our favorite place we stayed!

Jetboating on lake Wakatipu! So fun and saw some great LOTR sights!

From Queenstown we drove down to Te Anu and from there took a tour and small boat cruise of Milford Sound. Seriously so beautiful! This was a stop along the way: Mirror Lakes!

Milford Sound is seriously other-worldly. Green cliffs and waterfalls dropping straight into the ocean!

We got close to these rocks to say hello to this mama seal and  her baby!

The next day we went up to Arrowtown and hiked. The trail was sunnier than expected and 2 miles straight up hill without a pause. Definitely a little more intense than we expected! Haha. But we got to forage some wild blackberries on the super steep path we took back down so that was cool.

We ate dinner that night on the moutainside on the way to Cardrona. So amazing!

Staying in Cardrona was great! We had a super cute, private place with a fantastic view of the stars!

The next day we kayaked on lake Wanaka and saw #thatwanakatree. 

Our last night in Queenstown we took the gondola up the mountain to enjoy the views of Queenstown and lake Wakatipu. It was cold but beautiful!

I was glad I had my puffy coat to keep me warm up on the windy moutainside!