Days 2 & 3 in New Zealand

After our day of activity, we finished our drive to Queenstown, arriving Saturday evening. The place we stayed was perfect - had a fireplace and heated floor tiles in the bathroom. It actually even had a full kitchen, but since we were there for only 2 days, we didn't get much use of it. There was too much delicious New Zealand cuisine to try :)I look like a house in this picture! :)

On Sunday, we spent the day as tourists in Queenstown, and one of the things to do was take a gondola to the top of the mountain for great views of the city and other mountains. Unfortunately, by the time we got up there, it was raining and so foggy that you couldn't even see the mountains. But, of course that didn't stop us from taking pictures :)

And I just had to take this last picture. For any of you that know Colin, you know he hates coffee (or any hot drink for that matter). We were so chilly that I actually got him to sit down in a cafe and order a hot chocolate! And, they had free wireless internet, so he just couldn't resist bringing his laptop :)

I have a few more pictures to post from our trip, so I will get them up later this week. And, of course, I'll take another picture of the baby :)

Glaciers

Our first full day in New Zealand we spent driving from Christchurch, towards Queenstown. Although we spent most of the day in the car, it was really nice because we got to make lists of baby names we like (and no - we're not telling anyone what they are :) and talk about other baby stuff. With less than 15 weeks to go, we're getting pretty excited. Plus, the scenery was beautiful!

Colin and I did a short little hike out to this lake, and it was really beautiful. It actually reminded us of the Maroon Bells in Colorado. Then we did another little hike out to the end of the Fox Glacier. I've never seen a glacier, so I thought it was pretty cool. You can see it behind us in the pictures below.

You can actually go climbing on the glacier, but you have to have a guide, and I didn't think the baby was quite up for it, so we were happy with just seeing it. There is another glacier about 30 minutes away, and it is in a little town called Franz Josef. The hike to this was was a little more difficult and technical, so we decided not to do it, but we did stay overnight in the town at the cutest bed and breakfast. It was just what we were looking for - they had a warm fire going when we arrived that night and they made us hot chocolates to drink in front of the fire. There was only one other couple staying there that night, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was a perfect start to our trip.

Brrrr...

New Zealand was COLD!!! I know this sounds crazy, but I loved it! It made me feel like I was back at home in winter :)

We arrived in New Zealand late last Thursday night (just after midnight) and got to our rental car and had to scrape the windows. We haven't had to do that for almost 2 years now! So, of course I was excited and had to take a picture :)

We stayed in Christchurch that night (on the south island of NZ), but didn't actually see any of the city. We got to our hotel at 1am and went straight to bed. Then, we headed off first thing in the morning on our way to Queenstown.

We really had the best time. Even though we had only 4 days there, it was the perfect vacation for us right now. Both of us really needed a break from work and some time to just relax together. So, that's exactly what we did. We spent a lot of time driving, but got to see a lot of the country. I will have lots more to tell you about and more pictures to post, but I will do it in separate blogs later this week. We got back early Tuesday morning and I'm stil trying to catch up on my sleep!

Off to New Zealand!

Colin and I decided that we wanted to take one last trip by ourselves, so we are off to New Zealand this weekend for 4 days! I know, it's a really short amount of time to see an entire country, but it's the only time we had, so we decided it was better than nothing. It's winter in NZ, so I am really excited to see some snow again! I hope to have lots of exciting new pictures to post next week. Especially since this pose is getting a little boring...

So, that's my 24 week picture :) I'm wearing the same shirt as the first picture, so you can see how big I've gotten in 6 weeks!

MVP - Gold Coast Touch Association Grand Final

Colin had his Grand Final game (like the Superbowl) for his touch rugby league last Saturday, and they won! And not only that, but he was also voted the "Player of the Grand Final."

I was a very proud wife, especially since the team they played was made up of a bunch of young guys in their late teens. I even took my camera along, just in case they won, and realized when I got there that I left the battery at home. But, luckily I had my phone which has a camera, so this is the only picture I took.

With the baby on the way, this was probably Colin's last game on the Gold Coast for awhile, so it was especially nice to go out on a high note :) Congratulations baby!

Long weekend

We always take these pictures really early in the morning before we drive to Brisbane for work, so that's why I'm always looking a little tired :)

We had a great weekend last weekend, but forgot to take any pictures! We had a public holiday on Monday, so it was a nice long weekend. We drove down to Mullumbimby to see Colin's family on Saturday which was really nice. I can't believe how big the twins are getting. They're running around and talking now, so that's a lot of fun.

On Sunday, we drove up to Noosa because our friend Andy is crazy and did a 100 mile charity bike ride from Brisbane to Noosa that day. We met Jean up in Noosa and we all cheered Andy on as he crossed the finish line 6 hours later. Then, the 4 of us stayed overnight in Noosa with a friend of Jean's who has a house on the beach. We had a great time! Although we did drive back to the Gold Coast on Monday afternoon and the drive brought back all of the memories of driving back to Denver from the mountains during ski season - it took forever! At least we didn't have any snow to worry about.

Anyway, I'll try to start taking some more interesting pictures :)

Getting bigger...

Here I am at 22 weeks. It's definitely fun to be showing, but I'm guessing I will be very uncomfortable in about 10 weeks!

The baby is definitely moving lots now. Colin and I have both felt it, which is amazing.

Relay for Life

We had the Gold Coast's biggest Relay for Life (a walk to raise money for cancer, where teams walk continuously around a track for 18 hours) last weekend and I had to share this picture. One of the support groups I work with had a team called the "Boobie Buddies" (all of them have had breast cancer) and they all get dressed up in pink and wear their bras on the outside of their shirts. So, they made me an honorary bra...

I only made it until 8:30pm (the entire relay didn't end until 9am the next morning) until I went home to bed!