Pukeko Babies

Youth class (12-18 year olds) in our New Plymouth LDS branch, taught by Br. Coward

We have pukekos living in our yard.   Maybe a ruru, too.  They have similar night calls.

This isn't my photo, but this is really what they look like!

I felt lucky to see a mother pukeko with three little chicks coming out of the bush one afternoon this week.

Another friendly moment with a wild thing...

Joyce finds a friendly butterfly

Sage

Noah and Oak make doughnuts.
Danny makes no-bake cookies...2 batches this week so far....

I found a note from my secret pal on my pillow one night...

Not an unusual occurrence.  I feel very thankful to have been receiving love notes from kids fairly constantly over the last 15 years, or since the time that Noah first learned to write.  It's a happy way to live!

Book of the week:

I read this because Danny is reading it for his English class.  It's a dystopian novel with a  New Zealand connection, which seems important for school teachers here in all different disciplines. 

Goodbye, Opa

  

We will miss you, Opa.

Gail B. Duncan

First day of school for the boys...

Oak, year 10

Noah, year 13, received his tiger jacket on Wednesday...

and Friday/Saturday, went on the first adventure team training of the new school year.  

I love this picture!

Noah is the tall guy..."what a boss!"  

Meanwhile, Danny, year 11, hosted a big party, got braces, and he also got a lot of piano practicing done.  He's working on the Ravel Toccata and Waldstein Sonata.  

Seminary started this week.  6:30AM at the church.  Yours truly as the teacher.  6 registered students this year.  It feels like the beginning of a long trek - I'm excited for the great views along the way.

Books of the Week

Read-aloud for the girls - their favorite so far.
They cheered at the ending.

Interesting to read about a world before sunscreen and before politically correct roles for girls and boys...!

Thanks, Nana and Gramps! 

Before reading this book, I had never once considered the intersection of Mormons and Mao Tse-tung- era China.  

Mercy

Mercy's Piano Recital

 audience:  Hannah, Tiffany, Gaastras, Hockeys, Jocelyn and Judy, Meera, Sukena and sisters, Webers, Sagens, Mom and Dad on Skype, Cardalls, and our family, including Noah who fell asleep standing up (caught on video in the background during Mercy's recital) because he was dealing with 12-hour jet lag.

We had a birthday party for Mercy later in the week.
Mercy told me that the girls she invited to her birthday party would dress up unless we told them not to, and she was right.  All the Kiwi girls were dressed in darling party dresses.  The only two girls that came in casual dress both have American moms!

Oak organizes a game for girls in party dresses

Happy Birthday, Merce!

Freedom Camping

It seems like the world would be a better place if everyone could have such a glorious last week of summer...

Looking north from Kiritehere toward Marikopa

We took a road trip up our own coastline - freedom camping.

Kids in front of our tent, waiting for dinner to cook

Highlights...

Boogie boarding,

Sage learning

Eating raw kina from a Maori guy on the beach

Driftwood fires at night.

A beautiful waterfall - Marikopa Falls - with a rainbow that encircles you as you approach.

Oak and Mercy

Playing on the beach.

Mercy

Noah missed it all, as he was in Germany with friends having his own adventures.

Thank you, Familie Schmitt!

He came home to our new manu platform and a daytime job at the YMCA.  School starts next week for him.

We ended the week by going with Mike to a speaking assignment in the Manaia branch, and meeting a small group of happy, solid saints.

I know it looks like our life is a lark, and it mostly is, but writing this update definitely makes our life look more easy and glamorous than it really is.  I could let that stop me from writing, but I decide to continue.  Good times are interspersed and underlined with responsibilities for the upcoming school year, decisions to make, concerns about kids' schooling and physical and spiritual well-being, as well as the many sand fly bites on our ankles.  

Book of the Week:

Interesting, but didn't live up to Ann Patchett's recommendation on NPR, in my opinion.

How to Pop a Manu and The Great Divorce

Epic 5-day canoe trip down the Whanganui River 

Traveling companions: Sue and Jamie, their two boys (Cory and Calum), and a friend named Jack.

Whew! Sue and Jamie are fast paddlers

Traveling companions from our family were Mike, our 3 boys, and Mercy.

(Sage and Joy stayed home with Hannah.)  

just missing Oak

Mike sterned my canoe and proved especially good at getting us dumped in the rapids, on the first day in particular.

He learned quickly

Stopping to explore a cave - not the mud cave yet

We paddled 145 kilometers total, which is a lot of paddling, but somehow the boys and Mercy still seemed to spend half their time poppin' manu's...

or jumping off high places in one way or another.

There are 16 different definitions of "manu" in Wikipedia, but none of them is the definition used by teenage boys (and Mercy) in New Zealand.  

planning the manu

on the way to...

a mean splash

A good manu has a certain ker-BOOM sound and a very high splash.  Supposedly, one must break the water with one's heel, then quickly lay back quickly on the water to create a kind of vacuum.  

The manu is the gourmet version of the water bomb and takes practice.

After all that paddling, I came home feeling like this-

wish I looked like this, too

Oak said, "I feel like my shoulders grew two sizes this week!"

Book of the Week:  "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis

Our neighbours told us that they almost got a divorce going over the first rapids on the Whanganui, but that doesn't have anything to do with this book.  It's about the divorce between heaven and hell, joy and misery.

My copy was published in 1946

Here's a picture of the newest edition, with its unfortunate cover art-

I re-read this book every year over Christmas holidays.  It's my all-time favorite book, hands down, despite the unfortunate cover.  

Christmas in NZ

Christmas in New Zealand feels a lot like the 4th of July.

"Christmas at the Bowl" - Christmas songs and fireworks

The other day I drove Danny home from a friend's house at 10PM.  It was a 15 minute drive through town - and I saw only TWO houses with Christmas lights.

Pohutukawa trees, the iconic Kiwi Christmas tree,.
The hydrangeas are also in full bloom.  

Besides the lack of Christmas lights, I also notice (and appreciate) the lack of Christmas advertising and billboards.

Elder Hammar came back for a visit!

To me, Christmas in NZ feels very simple, family-oriented, relaxing, and non-materialistic.

Even though it is summer, we still cut snowflakes and sang all the "snowy" Christmas carols at our annual sing-along.

Sugar cookies, thanks to Oak

 At the temple with some great gals - Sophia, Hannah, Jess and Tiffany.  Nigel drove with us from Taranaki.

Hannah (in gray) has her mission call to Auckland.
Tiffany (in blue) received her mission call to Ogden, UT.

Before my first NZ student recital

Book of the Week:

From page 269:

"Rather than concede idealization [of your partner] to the foolishly hormonal-or the psychologically immature, like Freud did - we might better regard it as 'a process of bringing alive features of the other that are hidden and masked in ordinary, everyday interaction.'"