Cooks Beach

(All of the pictures are massive.  But it took me so long to load them in the first place, I can't be bothered doing it all again.  So be prepared for some unexpected closeups.)

My family used to go to our batch in Kennedy Bay, up in coromandel for the summer.  Then it got sold.  Then Matt married Renee who's family go to cooks beach and slowly but surely we've all made our way up there too.  So that's where we had our summer fun this year.

All our family was able to come.  Like ALL of us.  That hasn't happened in about 5 years.  So it was awesome.  We rented two houses across the road from each other.  We played and swam and had so much fun.  Unfortunately, I had issues with my camera and it somehow deleted all the pictures that weren't taken on an auto setting aka, all the good ones.  I'm so sad coz there are a bunch of pictures of the boys together on the beach that were awesome that have been taken by the camera gods.  So you'll have to make do with the leftovers. :(

It was Vili's first real time at the baech (he'd been before to the beach in Wellington, but that's more of a coastline then a beach.).  Surprise surprise, he loooooved it!  He got to splash in the water and eat all the sand, fun fun fun.

Malachi got to play with all his cousins aka his peeps.  He went fishing on the dock and caught some little fish, went out in the boat with Grandad and caught some monster crayfish in the net.  He was so much more confident in the water, despite it being 20 degrees colder then the water in Hawaii.  I had to be careful how far out i let him go.

We went on a little hike up to Whitianga rock. The view was amazing, and the exercise was greatly needed.

There was a ferry that ran between Cooks Beach and Whitianga (the closest town with a supermarket etc).  Driving it would have taken about 40minutes, or you can take this 2 minute boat ride.  It was awesome.

My brothers tried skim boarding.  They were pretty awesome.  Then Tui tried.  He was pretty hilarious.

While we were there we visited the cemetary and found the headstone for my dad's dad's grandparents. Talk about luck! Me and mum used sticks to clean it up a bit, scrape off the moss.

Because my whole family was there, we got to take a new family picture, the first with all of us in 6 years.

The last day we were there, Mum and Dad put an offer in for a section there and bought it.  So it looks like this is the first of many cooks beach adventures to come.

Be kind.

So my friend Leisa posted this link on her blog.

I read it.

It's amazing.

(Long, but totally worth it).

Made me think of President Monson's talk at the Relief Society Broadcast last year.

We just need to be kind to one another.

You NEVER really know what's going on with someone else, so who are we to judge?

Someone might be treating us badly and making us hurt, but usually that's coz they're hurting 10 times more.

We just all need to be a little more loving.

To everyone.

Despite how they may act or treat us.

Thanks Leisa Marie.

I needed to hear this.

oxo

The Brunton Bus

We had an FHE on Monday with all the gang - trying to get ideas for our 72hr kits.  

It was super helpful.  

The kids....

...they pretty much ran wild, ferral almost.

They ripped to shreds some cardboard boxes.

They had a full on punch up over a toy motorbike (girls included).

And they made a Brunton Bus and sang the wheels on the bus.

They're awesome.

I love them all to death.

(I
had
to
put
the
picture
way
at
the
bottom
so
that
you
could
actually
see
all
the
kids
coz
i
couldn't
be
bothered
going
back
to
photobucket
and
making
the
whole
picture
smaller,
it
was
alot
easier
to
just
do
this.)