The REAL Mission Call

Today was the day! Finally, after 8 weeks of waiting. We got THE envelope, the REAL envelope.

In case you didn't catch it all - the Moscow, Russia thing was a joke! Jared has been called to serve in the Melbourne West Mission in Australia. He reports to the MTC in Hamilton, N.Z on Thursday November 20!

Burgers fit for a King

Burger King in downtown Wellington City!

Seal of Approval

Today we went to one of the bays in Wellington to see the Red Rock Seal Colony. It was about a 5 mile walk, round trip. We took a bunch of photos and as you will see, the boys love to pose in them!

I still can't get over how beautiful it is here. 

Caleb had to time this shot right so he didn't get washed away!

See rock - Must climb!

Ditto!

This particular seal colony is a bachelor colony. 

These fellows were rejected by the lady seals as potential mates, 

so they spend the winter here, 

trying to fatten up and get a better looking coat for next season.

There are some safety instructions on this sign, 

such as don't get too close to the seals - they can get aggressive!

They are very well camouflaged against the rocks.

And they just lie around, sleeping and chilling out.

A few like to pose!

Or scratch!

By the way, they smell REALLY bad!

I thought the boys got too close for comfort. The seals kept growling at Caleb!

Caleb started his own blog and has his own intrepid seal mini video documentary on it, you can check it out here.

 

False Alarm!

This morning Caleb woke me up to say Jared's mission call had been delivered by Fedex. Yipppeee! So we all rushed around like mad things, getting dressed, got a video camera ready. Jared even called Donna on Skype, so she could be part of it all.

Ok, so we are IDIOTS!!! 

I almost didn't post this as it's SO stupid, it's embarrassing!

In my defense, I have to say - Jared is our first missionary! We have been to like ONE missionary letter opening thing! 

The delivery by Fedex should have been the first clue. 

The return address on closer inspection was The Church Distribution Center, should have been the second clue. Duh!

 I had sent away for a brochure "The Family"  for Jared from the Distribution Center a week ago, so it was addressed to him.

Bummer. All that excitement for nothing. So we are still waiting and now we all feel like chumps.

Happy Birthday Jared

Jared turned 19 today! He actually got to celebrate his New Zealand birthday this year (being a day ahead and all that!) I don't have any cute photos of him as a baby  as they are all in storage. But he's cute now, so that's all that matters. No word on a mission call yet. His papers have been in about 7 weeks. Seems as though the process takes a whole lot longer when you put mission papers in from down here. Poor Jared is itching to go.

The Birthday boy

Update: Rachael has some cute pictures of our boy on her blog. She is organised and had scanned in a bunch of photos before they all went into storage.

I added a couple of pics to show that his fascination with pirates started early!

"Aargh matey" - age 3 

" 'ello poppet" - age 17 

Take A Walk With Me

I don't have anything very newsworthy to blog about, so I thought I would invite you to come for a walk with me.

Our cute little house on the hill.

Welcome to Raumati Village.  Complete with.....

The Butcher......

The Baker and .....

The Candlestick Maker! Ok, so this one is a bit of a stretch!

Our yummy local fish and chip shop. I recommend the chicken, camembert and cranberry gourmet burger

This interesting house, complete with fake seagulls on the roof,  looks like it will set sail anytime now.

Through the little park...

Past the swimming pool ...(a swimming pool on the beach? Hmmm)

Across the footbridge, over the river of questionable color...

To the beach!

People have houses all along the beach front. A lot of them are weekend/holiday homes. 

Most of them have their own private steps down to the beach from their back yard.

This next series of photos is what I'll call:

"The Best Seat in the House" (or outside the House!)

Another house with a nautical theme going on.

Maybe this is Grandma's "time out" chair.

For those that like to sit and swing at the same time. Although it also resembles a primitive catapult too.

A rustic looking seat made from driftwood.

Is it just me, or does that look like a gravestone next to that bench? Eeww!

These have to be the best front row seats, (do they come with popcorn?) as they watch...

the Main Event...

and the spectacular finale.

Thanks for keeping me company me on my walk.

Remotely Alarming!

Cars you love them and hate them! 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. We have been very blessed with my nephews car as he is on his mission. It's a sporty little Subaru with lots of grunt. We all had to adjust to right hand steering and driving on the left side of the road, also it is a manual stick shift which of course you change with your left hand.

It has the usual remote that locks/unlocks the doors and arms/disarms the alarm. It also has this feature where if you don't put the key in the ignition within 30 seconds the alarm resets itself and the car won't start until you click the disarm button on the remote again. If you keep trying to start the car, the alarm will go off. Kinda useful I guess to further stop someone from stealing/hotwiring your car.

So now onto my story for the day. Peter and I drove to the local shopping center where we went to a book store to look at books. Then he left to cross the road to the train station to catch a train into Wellington city and then on to catch a plane. 

I go out to the parking lot, click the remote to unlock the car and get inside and sit down. I put my bags and packages down. I take longer than 30 seconds so the car beeps and the alarm resets. No big deal, I just reach for the remote to click it again. Problem is the remote is no longer on my key chain. What??! It has somehow fallen off. Searching....., searching....., under seats, down beside seats, outside the car, in my pockets, in my bags. Nowhere. Panic!! Can't start the car,... stranded in parking lot, ....panic! I probably wouldn't be a good contestant in the Amazing Race. I would be one of those women that lose it and melt down in the middle of India.  I need to share my panic with someone else. I walk over to the railway station to find hubby. Luckily he is still there. He very patiently comes back with me to help me look for stupid, disappearing remote. 30 minutes later, still no remote. Ask store owners if a remote had been handed in - no. Pretty much tear apart inside of car.  Nothing. (Well actually, did find various candy bar wrappers, some scratched CD's, a bouncy ball, but nothing that will help us start the car). Finally decide to make use of our AA membership ( like AAA but of course with one less "A") AA guy comes 10 minutes later, he too searches throughout car, under car, beside car, (probably thinking what sort of moron loses their remote between clicking unlock and getting into the car). Finally he decides to try and remove the alarm and rewire it, by-passing the system. The alarm keeps going off as he works on it. Draw many looks from passers-by, ...smile, ....try not to look shifty or suspicious, ....hope they notice guy in official type AA uniform and don't call police. 

The remote still has not re-materialised, and will end up being one of those unsolved mysteries of the universe.

So now we are driving a semi hotwired car until we get a replacement remote. Happy day!