A little catch up

So it's been a couple of weeks since our last post. I think that's my fault. I was supposed to put something up last weekend after our return from Christchurch. My apologies for taking so long.

Last week we spent 5 days in Christchurch. I was playing in the National Senior No Checking Hockey tournament and Samantha was observing the Inquiry Learning Skills Program at two schools there. Christchurch was probably the most "North American" like city we've been in since we arrived. We went to our first mall in New Zealand - it even had a K-MArt.

Samantha was very impressed with one of the schools that she visited - it was unlike any school she had ever seen. It reminded her of Fame. I wasn't so impressed with the way the hockey tournament went. The Southern Team was older, slower and hadn't ever played together before this tournament. The other two teams had been training for months. The refereeing at the tournament was also horrific. Three of our four games had refs that didn't have a clue what to call or when to call it. They also dispensed 10 minute misconducts at will. When the ref blows his whistle and you have no clue what the call is going to be, it is very tough to enjoy the game. We didn't win a game but the game that we got beat the worst was the most enjoyable because we had a decent ref.

You'll see from the pictures that we also went to a Build-a-Bear store while there. Sammy has been wanting to make a bear for years. We made this part of his birthday present and suggested that this may be his last stuffed animal.

This past weekend we had a quiet weekend at home. It has been beautiful spring weather and we enjoyed most of the day working around the house.

We are counting down the days until our next visitors arrive - Mark, Kris and Emma are here in 3 weeks. We can't wait.

Enjoy the pics.