Eltham Trip {Day 3 ~ Friday || Part 1}

On Friday morning the others all explored the camp. Enjoy the pictures they captured!

Danielle's Delight || Story By A Sister

My Treacherous Experience at Work Washing Dishes with the Two Teasing Toms (Uncle Paul and Dad)!

By Danielle Jago

This Wednesday, I went to work. I was soooo excited. Little did I know how many scars I would bring home - emotionally, physically, and teasically (teasing). I went to work, did school, and was fine (for 4 hours!). 

As soon as I was told to hop off the computer, I knew what was coming. "Oh man," I groaned to myself, "I bet the dishes!" 

Sure enough, Teasing Tom number one asked me to do the dishes. "Yes, Dad," I said, ducking. "But do not tease me, okay?" 

"I cannot answer that," replied Dad. I groaned. 2 scars already! 

When I ran the hot water into the sink from the jug, 2 drops landed on my elbow, and scarred me physically. 

The Two Tea-ing Toms laughed. "Hahhahahahahahaha! Can't you even pour the jug?!" Another scar. 4 scars. 3 emotionally and 1 physically. 

I groaned again. "Can't I even get through this?" 

I thought about the future. My life would be spent in bed, not daring to get up for fear I would be laughed at, and when I did get out of bed, I would be smouldering from dishwash liquid, boiling from boiled hot water, and hurting from emotional scars. What a horrible future! 

To help dishwashers like me, go to DaniellesDelight.com/dishwashers. Thank you.

~~~~~

Danielle's Delight is a "newspaper" my little sister writes in her spare time; it features both fiction and nonfiction original work and isn't published.

Eltham Trip {Day 1 ~ Wednesday}

Recently, Nana spent a couple weeks in the Taranaki region staying with my uncle and aunty, and since that's closer than Wellington we took the opportunity to spend a few days with her -- without the 9-hour drive each way!

Ultimately we started organising for our trip (leaving Wednesday) on Monday, but I'll not bore you with all that, and we'll go straight to Wednesday! :) Dad intended to spend a few hours at work, so headed off first thing as usual. At home, we packed clothing, made pizza (for dinner on the road) and biscuits. Mum took someone to the dental nurse and did a few jobs around the place. Finally we hooked the trailer up, and loaded both van and trailer. Around 4:30 (lol . . . and we were going to leave early afternoon!) we left to get Dad from work and be on our way. After a loose tyre, traffic, and who knows what else :P, we left again around 5:30 . . . this time for real! 

We had dinner en route and otherwise entertained ourselves in various ways. And people, Mansfield Park (Jane Austen) is good. haha ;) We arrived in Eltham 10:30ish and Uncle Mike showed us to the camp. We set up in a 12-bed, 4-bedroom (more than home lol) lodge and finally made it to bed around 12. (Notice I said "bed". Or maybe don't notice. Anyway.)

Following are a few images of the camp taken throughout our stay.

: : Some bikes arrived in one piece, others were dismantled to fit in the trailer lol : :

: : Kitchenette : :

: : Monique and Danielle's room : :

: : Lounge : :

: : Jarrod and Bryce's room : :

Dad's Birthday

Since Dad's harder to buy for than some, most of us ended up leaving our gift shopping until his actual birthday (oops). Easter fell on his birthday this year though, so hooray Easter sales! {haha}

: : Smiles from Maria : :

: : And Bryce . . . : :

While shopping earlier in the day, I found the shirt Bryce is wearing for $8! And it had a bow tie with it. :) It's actually his new church shirt but he couldn't wait until Sunday to wear it!

: : Boxing gloves from Bryce! : :
We discovered later that these gloves are the same brand as the boxing pads Dad already has! #score

: : Smiles from Diana : :

: : New polo from Monique : :

: : Jarrod and I went shopping together so we ended up doing a joint present: this shirt and a belt : :

: : And a certain puppy we were looking after didn't want to miss out on the fun! : :
Isn't he cute?

: : Plants for his office to combat the fumes from all the office equipment : :

: : And I won't share his age! :P : :

Wellington || Other Things We Got Up To || Final Post

One day Nana spent a few hours with us at the lodge while Aunty Melissa took Monique, Danielle, and Diana out shopping. Maria and Laura weren't sure about Nana at first but here Laura requests Nana's help to puther sandals on.

After the girls' shopping trip, we all went down to Uncle Bill and Aunty Melissa's for a birthday afternoon tea. Maria ended up getting all the attention though, since Laura slept through the whole thing!

Birthday girl! (Well, one of them.)

Maria isn't so fond of the camera so it took a few attempts to get a decent photo of her with Aunty Melissa. Photo bomb from Diana!

Don't you just love Henry? I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone so excited about vaccuming!

On Wednesday we travelled over the Rimutaka Hills and visited Dad's cousin and her husband at their Salvation Army shop. Then she took us to see dad's uncle Tom (her father), who loves gardening and gave us piles of grapes. (As in we each got a bunch like this one!) After that we dropped in to see a family from church and stayed for dinner. Sadly we didn't take any photos but Auke and Ally's two-week-old little girl, Lana Katy, was very cute. :)

Relaxing one night after we had some of the rallies over for supper.

We have piles of photos {somewhere} of our little people with chippy bags!

Wellington Trip || Camping Fun!

As I mentioned previously, cyclone Lusi was forecast for the lower North Island during the time we were camping down there in March. Saturday night after the wedding was quite blustery but the tent held up all right.

On Sunday, the weather seemed normal and we went to church and continued life as usual. Dad went to the office to see what the options were if the weather got bad during the night and we couldn't stay in the tent. We were given the key for a lodge. 

 In the evening while Jarrod was cooking dinner (butter chicken!), the rain got heavier and the wind got stronger; the ends of the tent were blowing in with the wind gusts. We all went to the kitchen for dinner, planning to start the bedtime routine once we were done. At one point Jarrod went back to the tent to get something, and when he came back he told me there were about 10-12 leaks, maybe more. She thought, "Yeah, right. He's exaggerating." 

When she went back a bit later there were leaks nearly EVERYWHERE and all the bedding was starting to get wet. Then started the made scramble to pack everything up as fast as possible! A few of us older ones helped while Dad stayed with the little ones to keep them settled. (A French tourist couple made them popcorn, so they were happy!) Dad ended up loading most of the others in the van and taking them up to the lodge, then transporting everything out of the tent and taking it up as well. We were still disassembling the camping bunks and stretcher beds (while holding the torches . . . ) after we heard a pole snap and one end of the tent completely caved in. Finally though, only the fridge (borrowed from Nana) was still in the tent. It's amazing how light it (apparently) seemed that night when Mum and Dad carried it through pouring rain across a couple or so tent sites and into the kitchen. We all headed up to the lodge then to get beds made up and little people into bed. Dad and Jarrod went back to pull the tent down a bit later since we didn't want it completely destroyed during the night! 

Initially we were given one night free in the lodge, but our hosts were amazing and ended up allowing us to stay in it until the Thursday -- the full duration of our planned stay. 

The two windows on the lift look into the kitchen; the doors to their right and the large windows facing the dining room lead to the large dining/lounge type room. And on the other side of the block wall? A pretty fancy barbecue! ;)

Windows on the right are the kitchen, then the main entranceway is to the left. The three sets of windows all lead to bedrooms (there are seven bedrooms in total, three shown, three opposite, and one down the far end on the left.

Kitchen! Now that is more my size! haha :)
The stack of muesli boxes? Apparently the price was a deal you'd never see in Auckland so we stocked up. ;) And I guess someone was bored, hence the pyramid. lol

Okay, so I don't normally post photos of bathrooms! We had two like this though, three loos and two showers in each. And lovely BIG mirrors that the bathrooms we used while camping didn't have! 

Big hallway! Kitchen on the left, entranceway farther down on the left, bathroom on the right, and bedrooms through the doorway in the centre.

Lots of tables and seating!

Entranceway and coat hooks. (When we got back from the tent on Sunday night there were bags all over the floor here -- but all the children's jackets were hanging up! {smile}

Hallway and bedrooms

Not very many good photos of the rooms I'm afraid. This is (obviously) the boys one. Four rooms had two sets of bunks each, two had one bunk set and a single bed, and the end room was much larger and had four sets of bunks.

To Wellington || The Drive

In March of this year my uncle got married in Wellington, so we made the trip down for the first time in a few years! We were a little unsure about how the drive down would go, since we hadn't done it for some time and we had several children for whom this would be the first time. It went surprisingly well though, with only four or so stops(?) and fairly content children. 

Over the years we've often stopped for lunch in Taupo, but this time we opted to continue travelling while I made lunch and handed it around to everyone. Too bad we didn't get any photos; they would have come out interesting! The day before I had made rolls in the breadmaker and (organised the others to) put all the fillings - cut, washed, etc. - into ziplock bags, so I just had to assemble everything.

: : Coffee stop! : :

: : Laura needed to get out of her carseat for a bit, and when she got out she was really excited. : :
She sat here for ages laughing, clapping, playing with Dad and then jumping.

: : Scenery out my window : :

: : Mangaweka : :
Anyone remember this off eDrive? lol 

: : Love this signpost in Bulls!! : :

So glad to arrive at Paekakariki Holiday Park fairly early so we didn't have to set the tent up in the dark! And hooray for pre-made bacon and egg pies that just have to be heated. ;)

Dad

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Keeping the Flies Off

Haha Dad!