Dad's Noah's Ark Visit

Dad's visit continues to be pleasant and fun. We have done quite a bit of exploring this beautiful country, as well as spending time with friends and enjoying all the nice things in Whanganui.

At this point, if you were to ask Dad what his favourite part of his trip has been, he would tell you that the best "event" was visiting Noah's Ark with me. We have gone twice, once just for about half an hour with Holly (which was great), and then again the next week to read some books with the children and stay for several hours to play. We read two "Elephant and Piggie" books by Mo Willems. They are funny and charming, and perfect because Dad could read Elephant and I could read Piggie. Both children and teachers loved the books, and we had a lot of fun doing it. (Note: Please go to the library and check out an Elephant and Piggie book. They are wonderful.)

Notice our appropriately coloured clothing!

Dad is naturally good with children, and they were thrilled to play with him. He was particularly impressed with their carpentry skills. We have hammers, nails, and saws available to the children every day, and we have several 3- and 4-year-olds who can independently nail two pieces of wood together, and hit the nail almost every time when they are hammering. Quite a feat, we think!

On a related note, I thought I would share this article that was in this week's paper. If you click on the picture, I believe it will be big enough to read the print. It is hilarious to me that there is such a long section about my feelings about moving to NZ, which is not related to Noah's Ark's celebration. When the reporter asked me about it, I thought that he was just being friendly. Oops. At least I didn't say anything derogatory about NZ or the USA!

 On a less related note, Dad and I supported the NZ Dairy industry several times this week. This particular time, he got boysenberry and I got raspberry lemon (a deviation from my very consistent trend of passionfruit). Delicious!

Note: Dairy here has two meanings; 1) our ice cream, being created from milk, and 2) the convenience store, or "Dairy" in Kiwi.

Tomorrow, we are going to do a day of tramping (hiking) and canoeing to experience Whanganui's own "Bridge to Nowhere" (more on that later). Then, we are headed to Wellington for two days, until Dad flies out of the Wellington airport on Tuesday. 

I will keep posting pictures from our trip every couple days for a while after he leaves, as we have lots and lots of them and rather little time left.