Week 1

I'll break our holiday into small(ish) installments ... so here's week one :-)

We left KL on Friday 31st - Halloween, but no time for tick or treating! Aaron's school teacher wasn't at school on the Thursday, so she asked to come and say goodbye on Friday morning and arrived with a cake if you please!!! So Lyndon had a largish piece and I had a smallish piece and then what to do with it?

Lyndon had spent probably 45 minutes trying to organise a taxi to pick us up and take us to the train station, but Friday mornings and early afternoons it's really hard to get a taxi unless you are travelling a fair distance which would involve a bit of $$!! So in the end I phoned Aaron's little friend's Mum and she was very kind and picked us up (and all our luggage!) and took us to the station. (She got the left over cake as well heheeehee!!) The kids were climbing over the pile of cases while we waited for her to arrive.

Train to the airport was really good, the kids both enjoyed it and there were porters at each end to help with the luggage which was great.
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Here's a pic of Maddison showing off to some man in the boarding lounge! She was so funny, pulling faces, pulling her skirt up, pulling her shoes off (thankfully that's all she was pulling off!). Cheeky wee monkey she is.

Flight from KL to Singapore was awful ... it's an hour and Maddison screamed the whole way. Lyndon and Aaron were sitting 2 rows back on the other side of the plane :-( But Aaron was really good, he had a new ABC activity book which kept him amused.

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Flight from Singapore to Christchurch was okay in parts! Maddison thought the bassinet was a trampoline, so everytime I put her in that she stood up and jumped about (well her version of jumping which is keeping her feet on the ground and bopping up and down heheee). She screamed for nearly an hour I suppose before she finally gave in to exhaustion around 1am our time! Didn't sleep for that long though. Oh well ... I'm still alive to tell the tale and that's the main thing I suppose.

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Got into Christchurch 40 minutes early, so Lyndon's parents met us at the rental car depot. Kids had a good run around on the grass there. Then we headed to the supermarket and Maddison was asleep within five minutes of the car starting!

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After lunch they had great fun at Nana and Grandad's exploring outside, digging in Nana's vege garden (probably not very helpfully!)

and driving the tractor :-) heheee

Both kids were in bed and asleep that night by 7.15pm. Ahhh bliss ... until 11.30pm! Maddison woke and decided to party big time, so Lyndon and I got up, checked out Nana's baking :-) yum yum and 2 hours later headed back to bed with Maddison! Aaron slept for 14 hours :-)

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Maddison woke about 9.45am so was a bit of a rush to leave for the meeting. And I didn't realise she was a bit off colour ... she threw up big time about 20 minutes after arriving. So was just choice really ... had to take of all her clothes and she just shivered in her nappy and a blanket! She had 2 sleeps in the afternoon, wasn't really interested in food, but seemed okay, so we headed out again to the night meeting, pulled in the driveway, parked and she threw up again! Was a bit easier to clean up, so did that and took her in and borrowed a towel and had her on my knee. But she threw up again, so we ended up just waiting outside! Poor wee thing. She went to sleep straight away in the car on the way home and on Monday she had a bit of diarrhoea, but wasn't sick any more.

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Monday I got my drivers licence renewed ... it expired mid October!

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Lyndon's brother and his wife and little boy came out to stay and Lyndon's sister and her husband and 2 little boys flew down for the week too. So was lovely to all be together for the week.

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Then Tuesday morning at 1am I started with the vomiting and diarrhoea. Was awful ... lost count of how many times, but the vomiting lasted about 24 hours, diarrhoea lasted about 3 days. So the week flew by with me spending a couple of days in bed, completely off my food and feeling pretty useless (lost some weight, but put it back on and then some the following week!! :-( bother it).

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Anyway enough about the bugs ... One of the reasons we went home was it was Lyndon's Mum's birthday :-) And we'd arranged for us girls and the kids to take Marion away for the day while the boys (supervised by Lyndon's Dad) put doors on the wardrobes and shelving in the cupboards! I wasn't any help at all as I spent the day in bed and the kids pestered Lyndon and anyone else that left their tools for more than 5 seconds! Here they are being so helpful (not!).

Friday, I felt like eating again which was good timing because we all went out for lunch together. Here's Aaron enjoying the choc fish that came with his fluffy.

And Maddison chasing after cousin J outside in the cafe garden.

That night we went to a friends place for a potluck take-away tea and fireworks display. They have a little bit of land and in the paddock near the house there were some cows. Aaron spent quite a bit of time checking them out! Maddison just followed along behind!

Aaron didn't think much of the fireworks, had his hands over his ears and told me it was "no good"! So we left before it finished ... was getting late anyway.

Saturday we went to a funeral in the morning (elderly friend) and then had lunch with some friends who have a couple of little darlings and their little girl is 5 days younger than Aaron.

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My parents called in later in the afternoon for a quick visit ... so was busy day.

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Sunday Lyndon stayed home as his asthma was really bad, so Maddison kept him company heheee.

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Monday morning Grandad took Aaron and the dogs and moved some sheep around the paddock so Aaron could see the dogs working. Think he spent most of the time telling the sheep where to go and what to do heheee. He informed me very matter of fact that they weren't lambs, they were baby sheep! So there you go ... Mr Know It All at the age of 3! How wonderful!

We left Lyndon's parents late morning and headed to the airport to meet my sister, her hubby and their 2 boys off the plane. My parents were there as well, then we all headed to Lyndon's parents batch (holiday house) at Duvauchelle's on the Banks Peninsula. But that's the next installment.

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Kids are in bed and asleep, so is Lyndon and another load of washing is nearly finished, so I'll deal with that and head to bed myself.