A VERY Happy Birthday to Jeremy!

Today we celebrated Jeremy's 30th Birthday. We started early with egg and ham sandwiches before work at 6:30. Then Jeremy opened his birthday presents which included, iTunes gift cards, 2 Celtics shirts, a work shirt and tie and a camera tripod. After that he opened his other surprise - a card from family and friends. Jeremy was so excited to see so many different birthday messages! After work we met up with friends for drinks at Pasha, a local bar by our apartment. We spent the night there celebrating. What a great birthday! Happy Birthday Jeremy and thanks to everyone who contributed to the celebration!!

Honeymoon Album

Although it's been almost 2 years since we went on our honeymoon, we have finally finished the Honeymoon Album. We started it over a year ago on Panraven.com and were just a little slow in getting it completed. It's now finished and we will be ordering a printed copy for ourselves to enjoy.
Check it out below if you would like:
Our Honeymoon Album

Pre-Birthday Brownies

Jeremy's birthday isn't for a few more days, but because we will be out celebrating with friends that night, I thought I would get things started early with some birthday brownies and singing happy birthday last night.

Make a wish! Yesterday was also the shortest day of the year. It seems like today might be the rainiest day of the year. The heavy rain and wind woke me up around 4:30 am today. I tossed and turned for an hour before getting up. It's now 9 am and the rain is still coming down hard! While it's not much fun being couped up inside all day, it will give Jeremy and I a chance to start reading some of those books we bought last weekend.

The rain is also much needed as about 64% of New Zealand's power comes from hydro generation. After a prolonged drought (most of the South Island lakes used for hydro energy at at half capacity), the country has been asked to cut its electricty consumption. Hopefully today's rain will help solve the problem!

CHAMPIONS

THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! THE CELTICS ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!

Book Fair

On Saturday night, we dressed up in All Blacks gear and headed to Eden Park to watch the All Blacks beat England! The game was great and our seats were mid-field about 10 rows back, so we had a great view.

Today we got up nice and early and went to the annual Random House Book Sale. We have really been looking forward to the event and a lot of other people must have as well. We got there about 5 minutes early and there was a line 60 people long. We got some great books in the end - 22 for $113! We think that the books this year are even better than last year's, so we don't mind the price hike (last year we got 22 for $80.) Here are our newest editions:

NZ Troops Greet First Lady with Haka

We were watching the news the other night and saw that Laura Bush was greeted in Afghanistan by New Zealand Troops performing the Haka: Haka Video

Hakas were originally performed by warriors before a battle, proclaiming their strength and prowess in order to intimidate the opposition. Today, haka constitute an integral part of formal or official welcome ceremonies for distinguished visitors or foreign dignitaries, serving to impart a sense of the importance of the occasion.

We will see the Haka tonight perfomed by the All Blacks when they take on England: All Blacks Haka. Go The All Blacks!

Circle Lounge

This weekend we treated ourselves to another VIP movie trip. We went to see Sex and the City with my friend Petrina, her husband Simon plus two of their friends, Carl and Linda. This movie was in the Circle Lounge which is just like Gold Class, but perhaps even better. In Gold Class we didn't get anything "free" but in Circle Lounge, with the cost of our movie ticket we also got free soda and popcorn. Jeremy enjoyed an ice cream sundae while I sipped on bubbles (champagne).

The rest of the weekend was filled with our usual chores, errands, and relaxing. We will be rooting for the Celtics this week!!

Welcome Sophie Hoexum

Today was the celebration of the Queen's Birthday, so we didn't have to work, which was great. We went to the gym in the morning and then headed out to visit Mascha and Jeroen who had their first baby on Saturday. Sophie Willemijn Hillary Hoexum was born on Saturday at 12:17pm was 53 cm (20.8 inches) long and weighted 3840 grams (8lbs 7 oz).



Erin also made Chili and corn muffins today...yum yum!

Bethells Beach

We have Monday off from work, thanks to the Queen's Birthday, so we had extra time to do fun things. Saturday was filled with a trip to the gym in the morning, then watching the Celtics win the Eastern Conference and getting a trip to the finals, along with us watching Jurassic Park III and the Finals of the Super 14 Rugby where a NZ team won (the Crusaders).

We got a relatively early start on Sunday and headed about 40 minutes west of Auckland towards the Tasman Sea. We were looking to do a 3 hour hike (tramp) along in the woods out west. After 30 minutes of walking among the trees, the views of the sea as well as the beach were too much for us and we headed down to the sand to check out the scene. As you can tell from the pictures, the weather was great and the beach area was unbelievable. We found a few caves down there and decided to be adventuresome and trekked through them.







When we got back to the city, we headed up to the move theatre and saw 21 in Gold Class (we had a coupon). There were 30 people in the cinema and we had our own big and comfortable chairs along with a waiter. The movie was great as well as the theatre.

The best part is that we have tomorrow off from work as well...not sure what we will do yet, but not matter what it'll be great.