I’m back!

Did you miss me?
I know some of you did, because I had a few emails from lovely online friends who were “checking up on me”. Thanks!

We have been away for 10 days. First, we headed to Parachute. Rob and I used to go to Parachute every year, but we hadn’t been since Ethan was a baby. The last one we went to was in 2003, when Ethan was 8 months old. But this year, we headed back. With 2 kids. We camped right alongside my parents, and our friends Mike & Sandra (with their 3 kids aged 9, 7 and 5). Here’s a pic of our campsite:

For those who don’t know much about Parachute, I’ll get you up to speed. It’s a 4-day Christian music festival, held at Mystery Creek in Hamilton. 30,000 people. 170 bands. This year, Switchfoot and Leigh Nash (from the band Sixpence None the Richer) were two of the major international acts.

Here’s a pic of Mainstage (which is just one of the 8 or 9 stages). If you look closely, you might see us in there.

We had a really great time, but there were a few low points. I got sunstroke on the first day, and the resulting headaches and nausea didn’t really go away until the festival was over. Tyler suffered from something similar on the last day of festival. He slept for hours on my lap and then on the ground while we were packing things up, and then vomited all over the car as we were driving to our next destination (Hahei). But he was totally fine after that. I think he was just really tired and hot.

Despite those minor setbacks, we all really enjoyed ourselves. The kids coped way better than we expected with the heat (oh, the HEAT!!) and all the walking (the place is HUGE and there is a LOT of walking involved). Ethan, being 5, was old enough to go to the Parachute Kids programme each morning. This had the added advantage of leaving us with only ONE child to look after from 8.30-12.30 each day!

Both kids were excited about staying up really late for Switchfoot on Saturday night (Rob and I took turns going to the late-night stuff on Friday and Sunday nights). They had glowsticks, and had stints of sitting on our shoulders to see all the lights from the stage. Eventually, about half an hour before the end of the show, they both fell asleep in their sleeping bags on Rob and Nana’s laps. Amazing that they could sleep soundly through a rock concert under the stars!

Some photos of Parachute:

After Parachute, we drove over to Hahei for our week-long holiday. We go to Hahei every year with my parents, sister and various hangers-on. The house we rent sleeps 13 people and it’s close to the beach.

We had a wonderful week of relaxing, reading (I read 4 books), eating, walking, swimming, playing games, and just generally having fun! We had absolutely gorgeous weather. The only rain we got was yesterday morning when we packed up.

I honestly didn’t want to come home yesterday! As much as I love my “normal” life, I could have stayed down there for at least another week. No computer, no emails, no blogs, no scrapbooking, no work, no school, no housework, no hassles! Oh well, at least we have this time to look forward to next year, and the year after, and the one after that …

I made a couple of photo collages of our holiday. Enjoy!