Grandma and Grampa Bearss have arrived, and true to form, the entertainment value of our days has increased exponentially. Their arrival in Christchurch has been the biggest news since the September 9th earthquake rattled the city.
Despite being away for the last three months, Ciel hasn’t missed a beat with Grandma.
And, although Grampa did garner some initial scrutiny,
It wasn’t long before he was accepted back into the fold, too.
She’s even become an active participant in his morning exercise routine.
We settled nicely into our little cottage,
Before starting out slowly, with a walking tour of the town. Which largely consisted of Grandma wandering around repeating “I have no clue where I am, weren’t we just on this street?”, while we waited for a lagging Grampa to finish scrutinizing the architecture of every building before pointing to an inconsequential crack/chip/lean and triumphantly declaring, “Hey, I bet that was from the earthquake!”
Then there was the pit stop to call Nana and G-Dad, so Ciel could tell them how much fun she’s having with Grandma and Grampa.
We did manage to herd them onto the hop on/hop off tram to speed things along.
One of the trams was too narrow to fit Ciel’s stroller. Not a big deal, we just made sure Grandma wasn’t watching and then we had her ride up front.
After a relaxing 30-minute punt down the Avon River,
(Just enough time for Grampa to learn the entire life story of our punter, from birth in Vancouver, right through private school in Christchurch, to current rock band aspirations…)
We were off for a stroll through the botanic gardens,
So Ciel could make some friends,
And verify the sprinkler system was working properly.
Then we all decided it was time to stop pretending we were actually interested in azaleas and move on to our true objective.
The action picked up on day two with our venture out to the Banks Peninsula along the scenic Summit Road. Grandma and her iron stomach were so fond of the winding roads, and stunning views that she insisted we stop for numerous “photo ops’,
Which put us a little behind schedule, and stretched Ciel’s patience (along with Grandma’s gastric fortitude).
So it was, 80 km and three hours later, with Ciel wailing in the back seat,
And Grandma redecorating the side of our rental van,
That we finally rolled into peaceful Akaroa.
Grandma scored some motion sickness pills and Ciel squeezed in a little shoe shopping,
Then we were off to Lyttelton for a spot of afternoon tea beer (who’s kidding who?)
New Year’s Eve was a huge bash. After getting hopped up on TimTam Slams
Ciel got trashed and yaked in Grampa’s face.
Two bottles of wine (and 18 hrs of jet lag) later it was lights out for the team…
Tomorrow we start our trek back to Queenstown to start working on our resolutions… to have more fun (and more beer) than last year...
Happy New Year!
7 comments:
Happy New Year guys! Great pics-love them! The boys love looking at this blog. Mike thinks Ciel has the coolest name-just 2 letters CL-he thinks that is awesome.
Gwen & Gary say...
HAPPY NEW YEAR! We managed to stay up past midnight unlike Billy & Rita. Too many TIM TAM SLAMS???
We're sending our New Years hugs and kisses to everyone! Love the blog!
So many great photos in this post! Ciel on the front of the street car, tree huggers, the sprinkler and a poor sick Grandma! I am sure your mom is loving you for posting this shining moment! The barf on the car completes the story for sure! Poor Rita!
I hope you all have a fantastic time together!
Say hi to everyone for me!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!! Glad to see Luke's parents arrived. Now its their turn to spoil Ciel.
FYI, Canada is up 2-1 vs the Swiss and playing quite well.
Take care and try to control the puking.
I puked on the side of my car once, well may a few times. Nice work Rita and welcome to the club. Can't say I've ever puked on someone's face before - look's like Ciel's going to have a leg up on me on that one for some time - well maybe until Sauble this year. Keep em coming - these postings are hilarious. Cameron
I have puked many a times in cars/side of roads/airplanes....In fact, I barfed on the side of the 401 in early Dec on our way to montreal, b/c I had to look at a map for about 1 minute! Half a gravol is my trick. Anything more than that I'm KO'd for the rest of the trip. I have also not barfed on someone's face....but I have barfed on a friend's arm on the school bus ride back to school from Wonderland (Luke...it was Jen Cahalane in grade 4!). , so Rita....I feel your pain! But the time spent with Ciel is totally worth all that motion sickness. She's freakin adorable!!!!!
Happy New Years!!!! Love the pictures!!!
Kev and I are totally bummed we missed out on the Tim Tam Slams when we were downunder!! (Well, at least I am). Good thing we still have a stash in my parents' freezer.
I'm loving the blog and reading about all of your adventures!! So glad you are all having an amazing time. Cannot believe how big Ciel is getting!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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