Summer Fun

I love summer.

Warm days, cool nights, just the way I like it.
Pity it's all but over.

We've been back to Cook's Beach a few more times in the last month, as well as Raglan.  So we've been having some serious summer fun.

Malachi busting to go toilet, like always, and us on our way to cooks beach.


My oldest child.


Dinner with the cousins at the campsite.

Malachi is a hawaiian baby through and through, so at the beach he's in his zone.  Vili is really warming up to it the more we go (I may or may not have been doing some exposure therapy on him....unethical, I know.).   But their Tongan blood (and lack of body fat) just isn't OK with our south pacific water temperatures.  So their wetsuits have been a heaven send.  Without them, they're done after 20mins, but with them, hours on end.

Gotta love that black sand beach.

We got the kayacks out a few times up at the beach.  Malachi loves them. We go out on little adventures, in caves, up and down the coastline.  Vili will only go with my Dad for some reason (I'd consider myself waaaaaaay safer then him but whatever).

One day we went over to Whitianga and rode in the pedal cars. So much fun!! The boys thought they were just fantastic.  Lucky I had Tui to pick up the pedaling slack, coz man it was hard!!  Fun though.  We've been meaning to do it for ages and I'm glad we finallly did. Before we have too many kids to fit.

We've done a few hikes.  One was to Whitianga Rock, only about 30min up.  The boys are such troopers, they walked the whole way.  We also walked/hiked to Cathedral Cove.  Now that was a mission for a 6month pregnant person, especially carrying an 18month old at the same time.  But again, Malachi walked/ran the whole way on his own.  That kid is gunna be a long distance runner. 

At the top of Whitianga Rock.


At Cathedral cove.




After the hike back up. Can you tell they're ready for a nap?

Malachi went fishing with his Grandad to catch us some dinner.  He was so proud of the little fish that he caught, carried the dead things around for an hour after he got back.  And then he kindly shared his dead fish with Vili, who took great pleasure in playing with it's eyes.  When I told him we needed to bury them (so they wouldn't stink out the rubbish) he told me "I know mum. Coz their spirits already went to Heavenly Father, that's why their bodies go in the ground." Lol.

We've also been doing lots of water play at home.  I'll fill up some buckets with soapy water, give them some spoons and cups, and they're good for a couple of hours.

And of course we go to the pools.  Malachi is an absolute fish.  He can hold his breath underwater for about 10 seconds now, picks things up from the bottom, kicks and does his arms.  I put it all down to pure exposure.  I made a point of taking them to the pools once a week or every other week.  And it's paid off.  Vili is getting braver every day.  He's using his arm floaties now and won't let me hold him.  And he just wants to jump in, go under, and float back to the top.  He dips his face in the water, trying to swim like Malachi.  2 hours is never long enough for these boys.

 

But their absolutely favourite summer fun activity is riding their bikes.  They will do it from sun up to sun down and then some.  We made sure when we moved that we had somewhere that they could safely ride their bikes.  And because it's all fenced in, I can just let them go for it and wait for the screams.  They race, do trains, do bumper cars.  They just love their bikes.

Oh summer, how we will miss you when you're gone.