Oh boy is time roaring on by...

I can't believe here we are already at the 15th of January!

AmandaC you asked how the visit with my mum and dad was going here's your answer.

We have had my Mum and Dad down visiting with us since the first and now it's getting to the end of their stay! We have all had such a great time, the girls have loved having Nana and Grandad's almost constant attention, and then when you add Nana Pea into the mix well they are simply in little piggie heaven.

Last week they had swimming lessons in Ashburton each morning, Nana and Grandad came down several times with us, and Nana Pea joined us one day so we all had a picnic in the domain, tossed a few ducks at some bread, walked around the park enjoying the sunshine, took some photos, even though two of the subjects were less than willing to be caught in front of the camera. And NO I do not mean my two little camera hogs! Okay so they may have been reluctant models but I got some good shots of them anyway!

Dad helped Chris out with re-gibbing our lounge wall and the necessary plastering and sanding also, and then painted it and the ceiling for us! I know we wouldn't have got quite as far as we have with out his and Mum's help! And yes we made very sure that they know how much we appreciate all their help with this mammoth task.
The difference in space is incredible! It's going to make life so much better having the extra space in the lounge that before was taken up by a big old open fire that we no longer used anyway. Well not since we had a heat pump installed!

So there is a bit of a story behind how they have both been down so often and are still yet to go punting on the Avon river. A must do touristy thing if you are ever visiting Christchurch. Well I got all organised yesterday and booked a time for them this afternoon to finally go punting.

Alas the gods were against us yet again. We left in plenty of time but hadn't planned on the possibility of the van deciding that today was as good a time as any to give up the ghost! We got to Springston before coming to a sudden and very unexpected halt! Had been tootling along quite nicely thank you very much when all of a sudden I lost power completely! Going from doing 100kms an hour to sitting on the roadside in a van that refused point blank to start was not a fun experience, and drat it all it did have to happen on a open road speed limit straightaway now didn't it?!?!?! Quick call to Chris to beg for help and him and Dad working on the dratted thing for about 5 hours fixing one of the problems only to find out that it still won't start because of one of two possible other faults, that the diagnostic manual says to simply replace to fix the fault, both alas are NOT cheap! And you have a fifty/fifty chance of picking the one that doesn't have a problem to replace only to find that its the other you need to replace anyway.

So we are going to try again in the next day or so to get them back into town to go punting, though this time they may just have to drive themselves in with a few directions and a map to guide them! Sadly that will mean I don't get the chance to take some photos of them, but sometimes these things just can't be helped!

OMG I can't believe how wordy this post has gotten! Okay so I have to go through some photos yet and resize them for here, like you all really want to have uber large photo images from my blog slowing your net hopping time down!