We keep hearing these rumors that summer is coming to an end, so we’ve been trying to cram in all sorts of things before the rain sweeps us away. On a positive note, the rumors are still nothing more than rumors, as the weather is still great!

The past couple of weeks have taken us to the Symphony, the Zoo, a couple new beaches, and most recently to the Northern part of New Zealand to visit Tane’s namesake - “Tane Mahuta”. Tane Mahuta is the largest tree in New Zealand, measuring 170 ft. tall with a circumference of 48 ft. In Maori culture, “Tane” is the son of the “Sky Father” and the “Earth Mother”. According to legend, “Tane tore his parents apart, breaking their primal embrace, to bring light, space and air, and allowing life to flourish. Tane is the life giver. All living creatures are his children”. All I can say is - you have a lot to live up to my son!

More pictures of Tane Mahuta and our trip up North are here

In other news, Tane has begun to coo and smile at us. We’ve caught him a couple of times on film, but he’s still fairly particular about sharing this new talent. Just finished his first round of vaccinations, and all is well. Tane is now up to 10 lbs, and his chubby cheeks are finally beginning to show! Check out some new pics of the kids here.

Couple other points of amusement - On our recent trip up North, I think we passed more “____ crossing” signs than I’ve ever seen in my life over a 60 minute period. No kidding - the following signs were all present: Cow crossing, tractor crossing, truck crossing, kiwi crossing, duck crossing, train crossing, and horse crossing. If we had only passed a sheep crossing sign our trip would have been complete.

There was another interesting sign we did pass that boasted “Home Kills” - still not exactly sure what this was as we drove away as fast as we could.

So generally, all is well. We had a little incident this morning when Ella greeted us covered in “chocolate” (I’ll let you complete the picture yourself), but overall things are just grand. Think we’re both a bit homesick at times, so hopefully we’ll get some more of you over here soon! The whole family is off to Sydney in 2 weeks - so we’ll post more once we return. One last picture to leave you with - this is at a beach we came to in the middle of nowhere. We felt as if we were the only people to have been here in weeks - it was a bit surreal with the sun setting and the rough surf - but made for some great pics! Hope to speak with everyone soon!