Sunny Nelson.....

Nelson, New Zealand, is known for being the sunniest place in all of Kiwiland. Our first morning we woke to an absolutely beautiful day and since our intensive planning stopped when we left Wellington we happily passed the day "at home". In the morning I spent some time sitting on the deck soaking in the views and painting my nails. Landy was the only person motivated to work out so he set to it using some dumb bells he found in one of the hall closets. When he jumped down onto the grass to do some crunches Josephine decided that she would participate as well. I couldn't stop laughing at her antics and Landy's focus as he managed to do most of the crunches before playing with and tickling her. :)

The rest of the day we passed our time playing rugby in the backyard which was dangerous since the area was not fenced and presented us with a precipitously sloping incline going down the hill. We kept joking that if we lost the ball down the hill we'd have to abandon it. Then after being careful and rescuing the ball from several 'close calls' it found it's way over the edge and tumbled down, down, down to a flimsy fence adjacent to a neighbor's yard. And what do you know? Timmy decides to go after it. In flip flops. He didn't have too much trouble skirting his way down. But coming back up was another issue. Part way he started to slip and was reaching out for anything close and closed his hand around a prickly bush. With minor injuries he was able to climb all the way to the top where we pulled him back onto the lawn.Whew! After that we made a concerted effort to keep a closer eye on the ball. And we did. Until it flew over the edge again. This time Paul jumped down after it and was able to rescue to ball and bring it back up so we could keep playing.

In addition to rugby we also spent time jumping the trampoline. Now it wasn't a big one but two people could jump at a time so we took turns. When Tim and I had a turn we were both laughing like idiots! :)

All in all we passed an incredibly contented day in sunny Nelson and then went into town to grab some dinner. On the way to the restaurant we saw several sandy beaches. It didn't take long to decide that the next day we would beach it!