New Year's Card

On the back it says,

"Happy New Year! 2014 was a crazy but great year for our family. We have called three places home starting in California, then moving to Calgary in March, and now to Australia right before Christmas. We are so grateful and humbled by the friendships made and support given in each step of the way. Our kids hate saying goodbyes but have done really well adjusting and have become even better friends with each other. We are excited for what 2015 brings, especially Baby #5 in April. We hope you've had a good year too and wish you all the best in 2015. 

Love, Matt, Karin, Sienna, Sadie, Tanner, & Abby"

Tanner Turned 4

I have a lot more pictures from Tanner's birthday on the ship, but our connection here is so slow and takes about 45 minutes to upload each post. I will update this better once we move next week. He had a great birthday though full of a few gifts, arcades, ice-cream, rice-krispie treats, and a surprise cake at dinner that he slept through. That's a funny story but I'll write about it once I post the pictures.

Picton, New Zealand

Our last port was in Picton. We did a hike and enjoyed finding seashells before we grabbed lunch and got back on the ship. I added the last picture because we kept docking at industrial ports since our ship was so big. Nearby most of our stops were these huge lumber yards where they had rows and rows of logs stacked and ready to be exported. It smelled so good.

Wellington, New Zealand

 Our day in Wellington was probably the favorite for all of us. It was beautiful, sunny, and such a fun city. We went to a dinosaur museum, then ate at yummy cafe, and spent the rest of our time at the beach. In the middle of the city was a tower that people were jumping off of into the water. It was hilarious because it was seriously in the middle of where everyone was walking to and from shops, restaurants, work, etc. Matt and Sienna almost jumped but they didn't want to get wet before the museum and at the end we were in a hurry to get back to our bus. The day before Wellington we went to Napier and learned about the Maori people/culture. We rode on a war canoe. We (Matt and I) loved learning about the culture, but I left our camera on the ship by mistake. The kids had fun but there was more talking and information than they would have preferred.

Tauranga & Hobbiton

Our second port was Tauranga. We chose to go to Hobbiton for our excursion and it was worth the money, drive, and rain. The kids loved it and now we want to show them some blurbs from the movie. The picture of the hobbit home with the green door by itself is Bilbo and Frodo's house.