Hawkes Bay and Napier

A few weeks ago Ryan had a day off and the weather was a bit dreary, so we decided to pack up the car and take a little trip. We had heard so many wonderful things about Napier, a town on the east coast that boasts gorgeous vineyards, stunning views, and beautiful weather.

On our way in, we stopped at a couple vineyards in Hawkes Bay to let the girls stretch their legs. Of course, we couldn't pass up the wine tasting.

We made our way to the coast, parked the car and took a walk.

Found this hilarious ice cream shop...

...and had to stop. This was the week Heather was visiting us from California. She and Daly shared a cone...

...and Reese had her first taste.

Then we found our way to The National Aquarium of New Zealand. Daly went absolutely nuts. The aquarium was almost completely empty, so she had the run of the place. She looked in every tank for Nemo 'Mamo', Dory 'Doughy', and sharks 'arks'. Both girls found Bruce.

Most of the aquariums were on the ground, which kept a lot of the sea life at eye level for Daly. She was very intrigued by the eel who came out to go nose to nose with her.

There was an incredible tunnel where you could walk through a HUGE aquarium. There were hundreds of fish, sharks, rays, turtles, almost anything you can think of. Daly was beside herself she was so excited. This sting ray kept swimming in circles, coming around again and again to swim right over our heads. It looked like he was smiling at us.

The next picture has officially made it into my top five memories of Daly and Reese together. I can't wait to get it blown up and framed to hang over our fire place. This was the front of the aquarium with the tunnel going through it.

After all the excitement, Daly feel right to sleep in the car. Reese took advantage of some quality daddy time.

Reesie Update

Sometimes, it feels like Daly has so much going on...singing, dancing, running, talking, swimming...that Reese doesn't always gets the 'me-time' she deserves! Here's an update on what's going on with our little girl.

Reese is in complete awe of her big sister. No one can make her smile or laugh like Daly does. She is also already showing signs of wanting to do everything her sister does {which I hope will be endearing to Daly, although I'm sure it will become annoying at some point...}

She still has just two teeth on the bottom {we think she's working on a few more though}, and is much more willing to show them off lately!

Reese really does smile all the time, showing off those gorgeous dimples. We have people asking, 'Does that girl ever cry?' Okay, truth...she doesn't smile ALL the time...

...but the tears are always an easy fix with this one.

She is getting so close to crawling. You can see in her eyes how badly Reese wants to be able to get moving and at least try to keep up with her sister. And at seven months, she already has that risk-taker quality that is so obvious in Daly. Love you, baby girl!

Pohangina Valley

Last weekend, Dave and Rach took us to the

Pohangina {poe-'hahn-gah-na}Valley for a picnic.

The campground is about a 25 minute drive from us. We're finding it so cool 'sweet as' that there are so many things for us to do just a short drive away. There is a beautiful river, and lots of trails to explore.

We hiked tramped through the wilderness bush {and are slowly working on the lingo}. Daly, as usual, was not afraid to blaze her own trail and led us around most of the way.

And to any of you who have heard about Daly's 'little walk' {story for another time}, she is getting much better at calling out to us when she gets too far out of our sight.

Realized as I was going through our pictures from the day, we took more family portraits than anything else! But at least you can see the beautiful surroundings {and now I have more pictures for the wall.}

Retrospection Collection: Jan '09, Our Little Artist

Been too long since I've posted, nothing too exciting lately. Easter was fun! Daly wasn't really into the hunting for eggs, she was more interested in getting to the "Shhh" {read: candy} inside them. We had some of the guys from the Jets organization over for a brunch to watch the Final Four {loving Slingshot and getting to see American commercials...except, of course, for the In-n-Out ones...KILLING us!!}

So thought I would throw up some fun pictures I've found. Last year, we had the brilliant idea of letting Daly create some art for us! She was about 10 months old.

We did the prep work for her...

...and then let her go to town and create masterpieces!

And this...

...turned into this.

After all her hard work, she finished up with a sink bath.