Visitors from another world

Forgive me father, it has been 7 months since ... yada yada.

With the exception of all the mini milestones that Olive has been passing, it's been mostly uneventful for the 4 of the past 7 months, with a bit of a flurry of activity in the last 1.

First up was the arrival of Olives Grandad and Grannyma at the end of October. It was lovely to see them both after such a long time, and the first meeting with Olive was pretty awesome. She already knew who they were thanks to frequent webcam chats. We spent 3 weeks with them, generally relaxing and seeing the sights, including a short trip away to Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook.

Shortly after the grandparents arrival was Olives first birthday. It's pretty incredible how the year has flown by, and it was really great to look back at the fun (and sometimes stressful) times we've had so far. We celebrated with a picnic at the beach, the weather held off, the family and a few friends turned up, all in all it was a lovely day. The birthday girl got lots of lovely pressies, which as you can see went down very well!

After the relative drought of visitors over the past 6 months, we were graced with the company of the ever lovely Fred and Hels who stopped with us for a couple of days on arrival, and a couple of days before departing. We saw the New Year in sitting on the deck watching hedgehogs and drinking bubbly.

As most of you only tune in for news of the wee one, we'll give a bit more of an update. She's now very solid on her feet, as she's been walking since 10 months, something she inherited from Mum. She has a full repertoire of animal noises under her belt, and can now say Mama and Dada. A trip to the beach almost every day is turning her into a bit of a water babe, expect her to be surfing by next summer!

Will try and keep the updates coming a bit more often, as requested by Auntie Ivy! Take care all.