Winter has arrived

Jeff and Mark kayaking at Paihia Haruru Falls


Sailing at Paihia
sledding on sand dunes, Cape Reianga
Caleb and Mark at top of Sand Dune







Wow its been a while since I have added to this so sorry about that.
We had a great time having Jeff's parents Gene and Linnea us with for a month and Mark and Kristy for 2 weeks. We did lots of traveling, and had a blast.
Since then we have had loads of rain and winter has set in, and once again we are asking ourselves what are we doing still living in this ice box of a house. for the past 2 winters we have said never again are we going to be in this house for another winter and yet here we are. It is a great big house and perfect the rest of the year but it is just not suitable for the winter, and since it has got cold the kids have been sick, so making it even more miserable. In the morning the kids put on there super warm robes, and slippers and jump onto the couch and cover themselves with more blankets and refuse to get changed till midday, so they don't get cold.

Two - three weeks ago Hayley was using her rocking moose to climb onto the chair I was on, well she didn't quite make it and instead hit her head on the window sill, giving her a nasty gash to the head. So we made a trip to work to have it fixed. It needed stitching, but Hayley put on such a performance that all we could do was glue , strip it and hope for the best. Well Hayley being Hayley it didn't take long for her to knock it again and again. Thus making it split more and continue to bleed. So now 2.5 weeks on when it should be healing nicely, and barely visable, it still looks huge and nasty, but at least it is healing now.

As for Jeff and I we leave for Canada on May 28th so not long at all now. We are traveling over with friends for a wedding, then we are going to travel thru Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Edmonton and back to Calgary. From there Jeff and I are going to make a speedy trip to the states, for some shopping and good buys. We are hoping to get to Seattle but depends on how much time we have. So we are very excited about this venture if only it would stop snowing in Banff that would be a huge help as we are camping.

So yeah life has been busy with work, checking out schools for Caleb, trying to stop Hayley hitting her head and preparing for Canada.
I will try and update again before out adventure

Cheers
Hassmans in NZ