New Zealand 2012 - Arrival and in the trees

As I go through the photos from our trip, it still seems like a big blur. Did it really all happen?

It was so out of the ordinary for me because I didn't have school or a job to worry about at all so maybe that's why its still hard to believe that we really spent 5 weeks abroad.  We were so blessed to be able to see all of Phil's family and came home with some great memories!

We arrived in New Zealand on December 13th. We were tired from travelling for 24 hrs but happy to be reunited with Phil's parents.

After settling in we decided to go visit Rach at work. There are so many cool gadgets in her little shop!

The next day Mum B, Rachael, Phil and I visited Tree Adventures. Its a huge ropes course but in a real forest! We spent the day jumping from wood plank to wood plank, ziplining and "tarzan-ing" it into cargo nets. We were sometimes 10 meters high! 

(photos from their website)

Its especially great because in New Zealand they are more laid back so they just train you a little bit and let you go. It was a lot of fun but was definitely a workout! (Somehow we missed out on getting the photos/videos of our day in the photo sharing)

Little did we know that the rest of the fam who came later that week would want to go too, so again, we headed to Tree Adventures.  This time we had a little bit of a different adventure: watching  4 kids under the age of 3, our cute niece and nephew! This was our first dose of parenthood during this trip and the next day my arms and back were sore from holding kids, picking them up and putting them down, etc. Kudos to all you madres out there. You must be buff women! Luckily I had my buff man to help out with the job!

Phil and cute little Leo pictured above and darling Savannah below.

Pacey got in on the climbing early as Jade told her she could climb for an apple and a banana. Just put them on top of a little platform and voila!-one happy Pacey for the rest of the day!

We also kept Pacey busy by collecting pinecones, holding the extra special rope and a little climbing here and there.

She's such a cute girl!

(the rope was getting "too heaby" for her about the time of this photo)

Grandma and Grandad (Phil's parents) were also there to help babysit on the ground. It was fun to mind the kids and watch all Phil's siblings conquer the course up above.

(Dad B. "Grandad" and Savannah, Kaylee and Landie, Phil and Leo)

Me and Arlandria

Savannah was quite content to hang out in her stroller. Just check out that cute grin!

And baby Leo did so good until he decided he was hungry. Sorry buddy, couldn't help you out there!

And apparently I do have photos of the fam's tree adventure (rather than ours) so you can see some of what we did. Here's Alex and then Alyce maneuvering across the swinging logs.

  

Alyce jumping from platform to platform 

Jade in the "awful" cargo nets. Those things took some muscles! 

And this is the highest point on the courses we did. You can see Andrew at the bottom of the ladder in blue and then Dad B. up top!

My favorite part was the wipe outs while trying to make a smooth landing at the end of the ziplines. I'll have to see if I can get those videos up here soon!

Here's some group shots of the whole gang after a day on the ropes and on the ground. 

Definitely an adventure!

We went to outer space

I feel like its been so long since I've blogged that I'd better have a good excuse like we went to outer space or something. Well, we did eventually go to New Zealand and Australia during my blogging hiatus. 

Outer space...New Zealand...same diff right? :) 

Well anyway, my excuses include that my last semester of school was jam packed, papers had to be written, housework had to be done, and we both got new callings. But most of all, I didn't blog once and then twice, etc. and then didn't want to jump the hurdle of all the blogs I felt like I'd have to write. So when I get on the computer, I'd just read everyone else's blogs. 

Good coping skills right?

Anyway-we're back and in real life again and actually our real life routine just changed with the addition of our little puppy, Koda!

Phil and I have been wanting a dog for a while but didn't want to get one to just be alone at our house. So with graduation and me not (yet) working we decided this would be a good time. Best decision!

Little Koda is a labrador retriever/german shepherd mix. He's a lot of fun and is so good for a little 3 month year old puppy. He doesn't whine all night and is nearly house trained. He loves people and is so great with kids of all ages. We got him from a private shelter where he had been placed in a foster home until we got him.  I now have a little buddy that follows me from room to room in the house and watches the broom go back and forth as I sweep. :)

(just some phone pics of the day we got him)

 

So that's my attempt at getting back into the blogging scene. 

One post at a time.

Stay tuned!

Mrs. Birthday Bennallack

Guess who just turned 24?

Yup. This cute little girl had a birthday!

Kaylee had worked really hard all week completing 2 exams and about a hundred and thirty four assignments so that she would be free from homework for her birthday weekend. This is a quality I really admire in Kaylee that a lot of people (me especially) don't possess - that she can get tasks done early on to get them out the way. She'd never mention this, but as her husband I have the liberty of bragging about my wife - she even got 104% on one assignment due to extra points received for handing it in early. I didn't even know that was possible. Impressive huh?

Well given the long hard week she'd had, we spent her birthday doing a lot of relaxing and just chilling out with loved ones. Kaylee woke up to a fresh blanket of powdery white snow outside, so we just stayed all snug in our bed for a little extra. We had omelettes and sausage (her request) for breakfast then relaxed a little more. It was a tough morning.

What we woke up to on Kaylee's birthday

We spent the afternoon at the mall meandering through toy stores and snacking on warm fresh pretzels - Kaylee converted me to soft pretzels. Then we went to visit her family up in AF.

For Dinner we went to Mimi's Cafe - a french restaurant in our neighborhood Kaylee chose (it was delicious!).

Afterwards we retreated back to the Perucca's for some presents, a birthday cake and some games.

One of Kaylee's favourite presents - she LOVES this blanket

We were all so full from Dinner that most were too full for dessert. But we sang happy birthday, blew out the candles and put it away until the next night (hence why Kaylee's clothes change between blowing out the candles and cutting the cake). Kaylee chose ice-cream cake. Its kinda a tradition now - she makes me a donut cake, I make her an ice-cream cake. It's a sweet deal for us both.

Look at this gorgeous girl with her cake!

We ended the day by skyping some of the family in Australia and New Zealand. We appreciate so many of them thinking about us even though we're so far away. It was a great day and we loved being able to spend time with family.

Hope you had a special birthday Kaylee Jo. We all love you so much!

Mr. Birthday Bennallack

This man is 25!

I'm so glad that no matter how old he gets he's still so thrilled by something as simple as sweets.

His favorite? Donuts. And folks, America doesn't just have donuts. We have DONUTS!

Let's be honest here, donuts that big should probably be against the law...the healthy law that is. 

Oh well. This kid just grinned ear-to-ear the whole time he devoured his birthday treat.

Phil requested all week (more like all year) that we visit Cornbelly's for his birthday. We waited patiently for season passes to go on sale and bought ours right away. 

We avoided a few minor exam/assignment conflict scares on my end and were able to spend Saturday at Cornbellys. 

Yes, as some of you know Phil's birthday was on Sunday not Saturday but the hubs invented a new celebration this year. He called it his "birthday week". I'm more than willing to celebrate for two days as his birthday in Australia was actually happening on our Saturday but a week?

Well, all I'm sayin is that I'm expecting the same!

Anyway, back to Cornbelly's...

...it's the best. Just sayin. We spend many-a-night and a couple days at Cornbelly's. It's a big fall festival and with our coupon-ed season passes we can go and come as we please. We're excited to visit the haunted attractions this coming week. Eeeek! 

We had a lot of fun with the fam. And it was beautiful (hot) weather! We caught some outlaws, tossed some beanbags and played some pumpkin checkers. We love the fall!

We always stop at the duck races. Something about them just makes you feel like you're 5 again. Hopefully we don't act like that...or hopefully we do? It's Cornbellys!

We were able to shoot the corn cannon, play on the bouncing castles (yes even my 25 year old man!) and snap some lovely pics. Who knew Chantel could drive?

We finished off in the "corn maize". 

As we wound our way through we realized that we went in Obama's ear, through his nose and out his other ear. We even stomped on his lips. Sorry Mr. President.

At one point we were just laughing at how we pay to go get lost in a corn field. Who thought up that idea?

When we got to one of the bridges it was funny to see little heads making their way back and forth through the tall corn stalks.

Then came Sunday, or "the end of birthday week". We had family dinner at my parents followed by "cake" and presents. I opted for donuts again (health law offense #2). Phil was happy about it and that's all that counts right? After dinner he just kept asking, can we do dessert yet?

and that sums up this kid's birthday...week.

2yrs and 8 months together and he hasn't aged a day.

Love you Phil!

(this was Phil's face all weekend. sums up birthday week well.)

Guest

I've become a grown-up in the blogosphere today with my very first guest blog post!

I've been reading Pear Shaped Thoughts for about a year and a half now and was excited when Kasey asked me if I would be interested in guest posting.

Of course!
Just click here to see my post.

Be sure to head over to Pear Shaped Thoughts today to check my post out and read through their other posts as well!

Enjoy!

Summa Dreamin

Sometimes I walk out my front door and see my huge wasatch range mountains and just have to smile to myself. I live here. Those mountains mean home. They are so beautiful and are all colorful as Fall is just starting. I feel so blessed to walk right out my door and get a view like this:

Being surrounded by mountains makes for gorgeous scenery at the local lake. My family goes boating non-stop every summer and this year, we added big bubba to the mix. Big bubba is our new tube and well, we used him twice before we popped the beaut. Too much fun I tell you, too much fun! Luckily tube refunds make life even more fun but that is beside the point. Point is, Utah is beautiful. Utah Lake is a gem. Sure its green sometimes with algae. Just means its helpin out the ole eco-system. We don't mind. It's 10 minutes away and meets our boating needs. 

I brought our camera out on our last lake adventure this summer. I didn't edit the photos at all. Nope-no editing needed folks.

I'm missing summer as I type this very blog..

Here's a small vid of big bubba in action...even after he had a split seam. So when it wasn't going flat, imagine the best tubing experience and multiply it by 10. That was our big bubba!

And then we left the lake behind for yet another year with this in the background.

 Amazing...already counting down til next summer.

Elba, Idaho

Part of our journey to Burley included seeing Cole's old stomping grounds just around the bend in Elba.

When we pulled up to the Nelson homestead Phil said, "Oh, when did we pass Elba?"

That's the beauty of it folks. Elba is so small and quaint. We loved spending time there.

We got a private tour from Paula Nelson herself and she told us all about the history of the place.

I love homes with a story!

It was big, open and beautifully serene. We truly felt like we had stepped back in time.

We also got to tour the old mine that Cole's uncle has so beautifully restored. 

To learn more about the labor of love visit here.

I could have stayed there for hours and listened to all the stories about the place. So much fun and so much history. I would love to jump back in time to see places like this in their hay day.

I conveniently forgot my camera that day but it probably was better so we could just enjoy our time exploring. Luckily, cell phones can take a few pics for memory's sake.

A little bit about the builder of the house: Peer Mc-Intire built it for his wife after he fell in love with the area. When Peer brought his wife, Tess, to their new home, she didn't hold the same fascination for the place as her husband did and left shortly thereafter.

The home was advanced for its time. It had electricity and running water through an easement from Albion in 1920. The city of Elba didn't have electricity until 1940! After spending $1 million on the mine, Mc-Intire closed it in 1920. The mansion was left with the china in the closet and bedding on the beds as if someone was still living there.

Here's just half of the huge front porch.

The mansion has a living area of 5,400 square feet, three levels each with 1,800 square feet. The original owner, Peer McIntire, hired an artist who handpainted the living room walls with a floral design. Jones traced the pattern and colors from the original walls. Each room's handpainted designs were meticulously restored.

I'm glad we got a picture of this beautiful stove...I love it though!

 

And a view of the place from the side. It is massive!

Told you - pictures are less than satisfying but it was amazing. It was certainly a fun part of our getaway.

Thanks again Jamie and Cole!