Granna & Poppa Come Visit

Cody's parents (Granna & Poppa) are serving a mission for our church in Wellington, New Zealand. It's about 9 hours south of us on the very end of the South Island. They've been in New Zealand for a couple of months and we were finally able to see them! They made the trek up to visit for the weekend and we loved showing them where we live. The kids were so excited to see them! The weather didn't cooperate much of the time, but we still got out and explored. As they got here on Friday afternoon, we headed to our backyard beach to show them our favorite place. We walked along the beach, chatted, let the kids run free, and explored the tide pools. We saw crabs, a jellyfish, and starfish. We shared our tradition of pizza and movie night with them. We all watched "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" (a New Zealand movie) and we were all rolling!

On Saturday, we were hoping that the rain would lessen a bit as we drove to Piha to show them the cool surfing beach, but it just kept raining and raining. We got out for a few minutes and watched the crazy surfers…even though it was raining, the carpark and water were packed with die hard surfers! For dinner, we grabbed our favorite local takeaways and introduced them to our favorite fish & chips. I was in charge of our church Talent Show that night and they were so so helpful in making that night a success. Our kids put on a silly little skit that they were happy to see. 

They were able to go to church with us on Sunday and meet the people that have been so kind to us and who have become our family here. I love how welcoming our church is, all throughout the world. After church we took a drive to some local beaches to show them the beautiful area we live. The sun peaked out just a bit and we walked along Army Bay Beach and drove around Shakespear Park. We came home for a yummy dinner and rootbeer floats! Granna brought us Oreos and A&W rootbeer…good American staples =)

On Monday, the sun came out in the afternoon so we hopped in the car and bolted to Big Manly beach while it was still shining. Mike and Lois walked the beach while the kids played and played on some cool humungous tree stumps. They could have been there for hours, but Granna lured them away with a promise to buy Pokemon cards =) We headed to our local plaza and leisurely shopped. 

We had such a great time with them! It was fun to share where we live and spend some good quality time with them. Hopefully we'll meet somewhere in the middle next time and see them again soon.