Home Alone

Those of you who follow Chris on Instagram will have seen that Mike and Chris have been to Maine. They took some time out for themselves last weekend and went away for 4 days and left us home alone with lars and Roxcy. They loaded up their VW with their Tandem on the rooftop and off they went. In usual Mike style ... let's just go and we will worry about where we stay when we get there ... and they were gone! What I loved most about watching them go off on their retreat was seeing how excited Chris was to have time away with Mike ... just the 2 of them on an adventure. Their photos say it all ... they had a fabulous time ... stayed in some lovely places ... had wonderful weather ... came home relaxed and refreshed. I remember those times when Pete and I would go away for a few days with no children ... usually Marg, Syd, or Rob & Viv would have them and we came home feeling relaxed, refreshed and slept! 

I must confess I was a little nervous about being home alone with lars and Roxcy. We have only been here about 3/4 weeks ... lars and Roxcy don't really know us that well and I was a little concerned for them as to how they might feel being with us ... alone! They were great ... we had a lovely time with them. Of course not like Mum and Dad, but a good consolation prize. They slept well ... ate well ... and played well. I think the weather helped ... it was a hot weekend. 

Boys on the Hood

Saturday morning started out well with the boys and Roxcy ... hanging out and eating Popsicles. lars and Roxcy's neighbours, a family of 3 boys about the same age, they play together ... a lot! We then went to a farm in Woodstock ... Billings Farm ... and look who we saw there ...

Harriet

We wandered around the farm for a couple of hours ... I could not resist this photo ... we miss you Harriet Matthews. I particularly miss reading to you and I miss making hot chocolates for you! We miss all of you Matthews family. Everytime I watch the shorts to The Giver I get excited about reading it to MacGregor ... I am hoping that they will still want to hang out with us when we get back! 

Rockefeller married into the Billings Family and lived here after he married. The location is beautiful and the homestead is wonderful ... like something out of The Great Gatsby. We had a pleasant afternoon here with the children ... although it was not what they thought it was going to be ... lars was hoping for the petting farm. 

Ice Cream Time

We tried some of their ice cream, as it was a dairy farm ... not as good as NZ ice cream, but Roxcy and lars don't know the difference. We met an Irish woman at the ice cream stand, she had triplets ... boys. She started talking to us about NZ ... she recognised the accent immediately. She and her husband met at Fox Glacier on her last day in NZ and now they are married. We had a nice chat with her and then later met her husband. They had a friend who lived just out of ChCh ... the world is small particularly when you consider the size of NZ and what the chances are of meeting people that know someone that lives there. I enjoyed our interlude of talking to people about home for a while. I am not homesick, but I do miss home occasionally. I miss our yoghurt ... bread ... but not the weather. 

lars ... 'I hate you!' ... is a mixture of sensitive and Ninja ... he reminds me a lot of Mike as a boy who was very sensitive and Mack was our Ninja. I remember one Sunday morning just before going to church ... we were living at 131 Somerfield Street ... we had 3 children then and I think Mike was about 5 ... lars' age and he came in crying and really upset because a cat had a bird in its mouth and we had to rescue that bird immediately or it would die! He was very, very distressed and had Pete and I running round trying to rescue a bird that was already dead. Mike seemed Ninja but was really sensitive and very sensitive as a teenager ... into poetry and romance. I am not sure that we were very understanding of Mike's sensitivity, I wonder if we were a bit hard for him? Mack used to run up to people and hit them ... his way of saying 'hi I'm here and pleased to see you' ... he ran up to my brother one Sunday in the hallway of our chapel and hit him in the testicles ... he was so pleased to see him ... needless to say my brother did not feel the same way after that greeting. The one thing that I have always liked about Mike & Mack is they cry ... the tears flow when they are really upset. They are both sensitive men. 

Roxcy ... 'I don't like it' ... seems like a blend of lucy and Alice to me ... she is very big in herself ... a real fashionista ... but also lives in a world of her own. lucy as a little girl lived in a different world to us most of the time, the agony of trying to get lucy ready in the morning for school while she danced around the kitchen with a tea towel in her hand ... she had all the time in the world! Alice was very sure of herself and 'tiny but mighty' like Roxcy... Alice like Roxcy was not about to be missed out at all. When Roxcy gets upset she just falls apart ... it's like the world has fallen apart ... she gets so distressed ... real tears and pain! I am sure if Cheryl or Steve Larson were writing this blog they would find lots of things about lars and Roxcy that remind them of their children as well. 

These memories of our children seem so near yet so far away at the same time. Life goes by so fast! I would not trade any of my time with our children ... I loved every minute with them. Don't get me wrong ... I had bad days, weeks, months, years ... there were times when I felt like the word 'Mum' was a dirty word! When I felt overwhelmed ... discouraged ... and the world's worst Mother ... but I never regretted my decision to be a Mother ... I really loved being a  Mother and I am grateful still to have had the great blessing of being a Mother to Mike, lucy, Mack and Alice. There are many things I regret but I don't regret one day of my life with them. 

For Pete & I our children and grandchildren are so important and having relationships with them. I really want lars and Roxcy to feel about us in the way that we feel/felt about our Grandparents. I have such clear memories of my Grandmothers ... Mary and Alice ... they were such important women in my life!  My Granddad Worsfold was the only good man in my life growing up. I loved him a lot! I know that for Pete Grandma Gibson and Grandma Cammock were both quite strong figures in his life ... perhaps more so Grandma Gibson.

Here are some more photos ... random shots that I thought might interest anyone who is reading our blog...

Pete's Ponytail ...

Pete helping lars catch fish ... with his net!

The back of Mike & Chris' House

Life on Lake Runnemede

 FYI ... while walking around the lake on Sunday evening ... about 8.30pm ... I came across a  coyote standing in the middle of the track. He/she looked at me for a few seconds then ran off into the scrub ... I don't mind saying ... I was scared ...