two planes, one bus, one train, two rentals, 24 hours later...

So that's all we're taking, just the 12 boxes :-)

Bethany's birthday party day - 4!!

Snow

Just so we know its winter ... I asked Poppa to bring back some snow when he went skiing that day ... what a cold surprise :-) ...

Saying farewell

Oh, so hard to say goodbye, here we are with Josh's wonderful Home-care Support Worker, we sure will miss A coming in every week to play with Josh and help extend his opportunities to access the world!

Lego Olympics

In the midst of packing up the house, (ok, so we cheated and got the packers to do it), Ben competed in the local Rotary Group Lego Olympics ... here he is with his team mates - building a rocket that could go into space and then could land and retrieve a moon lander - they only had fifteen minutes for this challenge!

Heaps of fun had by all, we were so glad we were still in Timaru to be able to go along ...

Here is the entry Ben built for the individual "creative design" ...

And, yes, transporting this sort of creation is difficult ... luckily he is an expert builder and could re-build the bits that didn't survive the potholes in the driveway :-)

Just going along and competing was enough fun, but, then the prize meant more lego to build :-)

one trailer, one trampoline

All packed to go stay at Nana and Poppa's

Here we are, photo on doorstep of our house, next time we'll come back all of the house contents will be packed up and off in storage ... we've picked out our favourite things, things we think we might like to take to the USA and stored them in Nana and Poppa's garage until the international packing people come and pack it up...

So now we know we are going!

Chris is home from spending a month in the USA, and now we have about a month to get ready to go too. We weren't sure for a while, as we didn't know if we'd be able to get health insurance for all of us ... turns out not to be a big deal afterall ... now, as for all the other paperwork we've been doing :-) ... So, what better time to hang out and play a game ... what a nice Dad ...

And what a nice family we have ... Gran and Granddad helped out - Gran risking the prickles and transplanting (and babysitting) Ben's cactus garden while we were away, Granddad gibstopping ... Havn't got a photo of Poppa up the scaffold - but very handy on the end of the paint brush from any height, while Nana kept the home fires burning and three excited kiddos busy... plus my sister Debbie did an absolutely amazing job with the garden - how could I forget to take a photo?!

Cuzzies hanging out