A long overdue post

 Hi Friends,

We're alive and well- although I think we contact most of you through other means so you hopefully know that already. Anyways, here is a long overdue post with pictures from our very busy last 8 months. 

In March we had a university student from Japan stay with us for 5 weeks. We had a great time with him: we went to Raglan to the beach, to the Waikato balloon festival, and enjoyed other little trips. We're so thankful to God for bringing him into our lives! We still keep in touch with him regularly now that he is back in Japan.

I enjoyed celebrating my 30th birthday in Rotorua with my family. We went luging and to an animal farm  :) 

In April we went to Melbourne for a lovely, but short, two-week visit. It was so happy to bring my boys to my "home" (home is a confusing word when you've lived so many places, but Melbourne definitely does feel the place most like home to me) and to see old friends. We especially enjoyed time with my sister, my brother-in-law and our niece. Sadly we didn't get to see my little brother and his family because they were away the whole month of April. We went to Dixons Creek (probably my favorite place in the whole world) and camped for three nights. Although it rained most of the time and the boys didn't sleep that well, we still had a lovely time. 

Ralph and Alfie with their cousin Mabel

When we got back home we enjoyed a family hike:

Stephen and I enjoyed a hot air balloon ride in May (birthday gifts from our families to celebrate both of us turning 30)

                                            Our babysitters 

Stephen with his colleagues at his geothermal field site in NZ, a few hours drive from where we live in Hamilton.

We love seeing all the rainbows in NZ!

                    Another hike - we got very wet on this one :P 

A fun visit to Fieldays in June

We had a lovely 4 weeks visit to the US in July. It was a full-on trip with lots of traveling and staying in many different places, but family is worth it so we did it. We loved celebrating the boys' birthdays, spending time with both of our families, and catching up with a few dear friends. Stephen left the US a week before the rest of us to go to a work conference in Christchurch so I had to make the trip home alone. Traveling across the world with a 3-year-old and a rambunctious 1-year-old, by myself, is not one of my favorite activities! But thank the Lord we all three survived (with a few hairy moments)!

                                            

The Blackwood clan

Alfie's 1st birthday celebration (blue icing!!)

                                            

                                                                The Noell clan      

With our friends Zach and Ally

Ralph's 3rd birthday party; he loves the movie Cars at the moment :-)

From our get-together with Tamara's extended Cole family

From when Stephen went to his conference; he got a day off and spent it exploring the mountains around Christchurch

Just 1.5 weeks after we got home, we were asked if we could house another student for 2 months. We said yes and so that made life busier for us. Otherwise, we have been enjoying our normal busy life with our two little guys. They are full of life and fun and make us laugh (and probably cry) every day! 

A fun evening with our sweet friends; our Japanese student (Chihiro) is on the right side, middle row

We're so excited it's spring and we're getting more warm afternoons and evenings. This if from a visit to the Hamilton gardens recently. 

Stephen is leaving for Antarctica on the 1st of November! So soon! He has been very busy with preparing for that as he is the lead person on the project. But finally, 3 years after he was first scheduled to go, he is finally going! It will be a challenging 5.5 weeks for me, single parenting, so I would appreciate your prayers. I am thankful Stephen's mum is coming for the first two weeks to help me. I am also so excited for Stephen to have this big adventure! Please pray for him, especially that the weather would be good enough so they can do all the drilling and sample collecting that they need.

Stephen plans to post semi regular updates leading up to and during his time in Antarctica on the Facebook page for his project, and he says he'll write a blog post here after he gets back to NZ.

 https://www.facebook.com/MAGMA.Antarctica

Take care friends :)
- Tamara