Missing my blog

Hey folks,

I really miss writing here, friends. I have been contemplating jotting a few words down for a while now, but just haven't been inspired enough. We are still finishing our little girl's room and it's coming together really well. It is looking beautiful and we can't wait to see our little monkey in her room. The flowers are in, curtains are in and the crib is ready. All we are missing are the mobile, one more piece of artwork and bed skirt. Guys, you will love it. Here is a picture of this baby's adorable mommy. She is looking so beautiful and she will certainly be a wonderful mom.

Vancouver

We had such a great time in Vancouver. What a pretty city. Here are a few pictures of us there and a couple of tips when visiting.

- Stanley Park - beautiful park with stunning views. Parking is not free. It cost us $2.50 for one hour. They accepted credit cards. Prospect point has a great view of the bridge. Make sure you also visit the totem poles. Right across the street from the poles you get a perfect view of downtown too.
- Gastown - didn't actually get to stop and walk around. Parking is paid and hard to find. Traffic is a little intense at times. Lots of shops to visit. Looked fun, but we just didn't have time to stop.
- Vancouver LDS Temple - not too far from the border if you're driving. Fun for temple buffs like me. This temple was #33 for me and #34 for the lady. Really small, but nice.
- Granville Island - great market with lots of delicious pastries, flowers and hand made artifacts. Free parking available. Bring cash for gifts. Most places didn't accept credit cards.
- Other places we didn't have time to visit: Queen Elizabeth Park and Christ Church Cathedral. We drove by the church and it was really pretty, but it started raining too hard and we just didn't feel like visiting a flowery park in the rain.

Vancouver BC Temple

I believe this is Christ Church Cathedral

Dork!

Just us

Downtown Vancouver

She makes me smile

Delicious salmon burger

View of downtown from Granville

Yumminess at Granville

Week off

We are just so excited to be able to take the week off and come to Washington and spend some time with family. This is the first time we drive up from Utah together and the drive really wasn't too bad. I hope to post pictures (including some of the pregnant one, Katy) and some fun things we did by the end of the week. This trip will be a temple/ friends/ family visiting one, with a day trip to Vancouver, BC mixed in to add a little bit of extra fun. We will keep you posted.

Baby room

So now that we know we are having a girl, I've started planning what to do for her room. Candace and I came up with the great idea of doing a Monkey Garden themed room. I'm obsessed with monkeys and Candace really wanted to do a flower room, so we just joined the ideas. A few things are going into this room. First, there's a beautiful painting my grandma painted for us a few months ago that we absolutely love and really want to use in the room. Here's what it looks like.

Also, we have a quilt that was given us as a wedding present that Candace thought might go along really well with the painting. Here it is.

So now that we had a super bright color palate to start with, we just needed to decide how to put it all together. We started looking around online for ideas and found a super nice wall sticker of a tree and a monkey hanging off of it. So I decided I would base my illustration on the one I saw online and redraw it myself, adding my own ideas and colors to it. So this is my design of it so far. The colors might still change a little bit, as we try to match it closer to my grandma's painting. I added a crib and a painting similar to my grandma's to this mock up to get a better idea of the whole picture. I think this will look nice. I love the little girl monkey I illustrated here. It's very similar to the original one I saw online, but I added a few things to make her a little more girly.

More coming soon as we get more done. We just bought the crib tonight (which is a little different from this one in the picture). It's time to really get to work and start working on this room. How exciting!

Mobile upload

So I downloaded the new Blogger app for my phone, which lets me post to my blog on the go. I don't really think I will be using it that much because typing on my phone can be a real pain. But this allows me to post pictures I take with my phone for all off you to see. So here is a picture I took of Neville reading a book. (Man, I'm glad we have a baby on the way)

Rest of New Zealand Trip

Alright, alright. I know it's been a couple of months. Just got busy and forgot that I have 3 amazingly loyal blog readers. Thanks guys.

I just need to finish the report of our trip to New Zealand. I miss that place so much. What a beautiful country. Here's the unedited report Candace wrote on the iPod, together with some pictures. Hope you enjoy. Here's also a map of where we went those days:

View Auckland Days 6-8 in a larger map

Driving easier. One tree hill. Hills. Animals. Breakfast. Beaches. Wh is pronounced F. Whangamata beach. Beautiful and scary drive. Hot water beach. People dig holes and hot water comes up from the ground. Natural spas. Seashells. Hahei. Unbelievable view. Fernando didn't want to leave. Cathedral cove. Hike. Cute old couple on moderate hike. Had to explain Babe movie because I said "bah ram ewe" to a sheep and fer looked at me crazy. Pretty pictures.

Rolling hills littered with animals. Green grass, bright green, green all the way down to the water for every stream, you can't even see dirt. Pretty pasture and then there's a palm tree right in the middle hen you realize you're in the middle of a tropical island. Maybe like Maui? Holes naturally have these striations kinda like the Peruvian hills the they dug out to farm on but smaller dig outs and it's natural. It definitely helps the animals. So pretty.

One Tree Hill

Auckland from One Tree Hill

Sheep everywhere

On the way to Coromandel

Whangamata - So beautiful. Oh, the beach is beautiful too.

Whangamata

Hot Water Beach.

See the holes people dig to get super hot water?

Hot Girl in Hot Water Beach

Hahei - Hike down to Cathedral Cove

Sheep on the hike down

Hahei

Cathedral Cove

North Island countryside

Matamata- Hobbiton was here

Day 2 driving in nz. Left side of the road is a breeze now. Going to Te Puia cultural centr recommended by cousin mark... Reviews are mixed online. But we are sucker tourists for this kind of stuff even if it can be cheesy so bring it on.

Te puia was interesting. They make you feel a part of the place. For the performance they bring you in as if you were a neighboring tribe. They needed an English speaking "chief" and since we were with a bunch of Asians and one family from Malaysia so obviously they singled Fernando out and asked him to be chief when no one volunteered (or as Fernando says they begged after swing your brilliance, when really it was just 5 min of silence that had them begging). So I got to handle the camera and video camera at the same time while he played chief. Then because I was the chiefs wife I had to participate in dances. Let's leave it at that.

Our tour guide was a darling. Everything was "you see love" and "little darling". Very cute.

Rotorua

Our Guide and Fernando, the chief

Dancers

Geisers

Hamilton Temple

Piha beach is unreal. Black sands but not rocky. Very soft. Multiple colored shells with golds and greens and blues and purples. Steep cliffs in the water. Deadly waves and suicidal surfers. Eddie Bauer apparently almost died here. 

Piha Beach

Piha Beach

Our little car

Piha Beach

Random Observations: Kia ora means a lot of things. Our hotel claims it's "green" when it doesn't do one thing green. Kiwi birds are kinda like the dodo bird, no wonder they're going extinct. Gaisers are so smelly it turns your stomach until it makes you want to puke. Houses are smaller here. I'm allergic to sulfur apparently. Road signs are all about a bird telling you how to drive, yet a bird just kamakazied into our car and got ran over so how smart was that? Roads are smoother here. All roads are backroads here but you take them at 60 mi/hr. Orange cones are skinnier here. Technology doesn't exist here: i.e. Hotels don't give you hardly any megabytes(10) but they think it will take you 30 minutes to use it. The mauris performing were immediately attracted to Fernando's phone. I was taking video with it. Multiple of them came up to me mid performance and asked me what it was. Very little iPhones have been seen here. One way bridges where you can't see on coming traffic you have to yield to is scary! Houses are better kept here than australia. The Hamilton NZ temple is a mini LA temple. Fernando learned the word colt. There are no bakeries! I want French bakeries with fresh bread baked daily! Everything closes early. I thought that was France but apparently not.

Words they can't spell: tyres. Veges. Centre.
Perfectly good words they have given up for more confusing ones: stroller for pram, elevator for lift, parkinglot for carpark, pharmacy for chemist. Shopping cart for trundler.

Fernando says worst thing about driving on the left side of the road is the person sitting on the left side of him. Funny boy.

Days 4 and 5

View Days 4 and 5 in a larger map

9/8/2010. Martin place. Fun place that feels like NYC. Lots of beautiful buildings and beautiful stores. People are very well dressed. Everyone has an iPhone. Old barracks where they kept prisoners brought from England in the 1800's. Church. Old and beautiful inside. Hyde park. Just a pretty park with statues. Cockatoo island. Ok, Cockatoo island. (Sigh). This one island in the middle of the harbor. Creepy creepy creepy. Island completely empty. And people actually pay to camp there! Felt like Shutter Island. Spent an hour there because the ferry only came every hour. Thanks, travel guide. The Rocks. Amazing pastries. Paddy's market. Lots of cheap souvenirs and fruits and vegetables. Capitol theatre. Went there to see how much tickets were. Told to come back in a couple of hours and wait in line to try to get cheap tickets. Then subway and Coles. Then rest then dress up to go out again.

Theater. Didnt make it. Then wondered around downtown forever. What a beautiful city. Australian Hotel restaurant at the Rocks: Fernando's
Kangaroo Pizza - marinated kangaroo in native pepper with roasted capsicum and native berries. Fancy
shoes. Wonderful pizza. Super expensive, but worth it. Then walked back down to Circular Quay for the last time to see the Opera house at night.

Martin Place

Martin Place (taken night before)

Barracks

St. Mary's Cathedral

Hyde Park

Cockatoo Island

Cockatoo Island

Waiting for ferry at Cockatoo Island

Lemon pastry. Yum!

Kangaroo Pizza!!

Good Bye Sydney.

View Auckland (Day 5) in a larger map

9/9/2010. Airplane from Sydney to Auckland. Busy airports and duty-free shops around the whole terminal. Not really a duty-free store, more like the whole terminal was a duty free area. Watched A-team on plane. Wonderful airline and great food. Debacle at rental car company. Europcar now has 2 strikes. Right side steering wheel, left side driving, scary! GPS works perfectly. Hurray! Check in at hotel. Not as nice as Sydney's, but not bad. Walk around small downown. Indian food (Delicious!!!). Crazy architure in city. Empty. Queen street fun. Early closing time.

Downtown Auckland

Downtown Auckland

Downtown Auckland

Auckland waterfront

Auckland waterfront

View from waterfront of downtown

Queen Street

Downtown Auckland

Beautiful sunset