Luke, Allyson, Maddie and Izzie had some photos taken at the beach a few months before they moved to South Africa. These are some of my favorites-
Category: News (Page 5 of 29)
Our routing to Perth was unusual for us. We have definitely been Pacific Ocean fliers for the last 6+ years and most of that flying has been on Singapore Airlines. This flight was on Singapore Air, but it was over the Atlantic…Houston to Moscow ( I can now say I have been in Russia…technically, but not really), Moscow to Singapore, and Singapore to Perth. The return routing was more familiar…Perth to Singapore, Singapore to Narita, Narita to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Houston. Spending Christmas in the southern hemisphere is different.
We arrived in time to participate in creating the traditional Christmas sugar cookies-
Christmas day we opened gifts and then got ready for the grand Aussie tradition of going to the beach-
A true beach towel has fringe!
Furbies and boogy boards
Christmas Day sunset from the beach
The next day we headed north to The Pinnacles-
 
Our picnic lunch was tricky, it was very windy.
After lunch we walked down to see the beach, it was beautiful-
A very fun day!
Most of our days were spent on Cottesloe Beach…I am sure going to miss my trips to Australia. I love this beach!
I also helped Ally and Maddie with a cupcake decorating class for the Primary Activity Day Girls-
.Maddie and Izzy both took swim lessons at Cottesloe. We loved watching them learn to swim in the ocean-
Maddie got her first jellyfish sting during swim lessons. It was the first of five for the summer!
 We also saw several movies, visited the aquarium, and met Luke downtown for a yummy lunch at Nando’s-
 With Luke, Ally, Maddie and Izzy moving to South Africa we will miss visiting Perth. We are excited to go on Safari with them!
In October, we went to Dallas to watch Andrew and Kristina run in a half marathon. They did great and finished faster than they had anticipated. Their matching, bright orange shirts made then easy to spot when we stopped to watch along the route.
A few weeks later, those of us living in Houston participated in the Firefly Run. Brian and I walked it. Rick, Stacey and Kristina ran. Henry rode in his stylish jogging stroller and Alex, Ellie and Daniel cheered us on. It was a fun family event although the route around the Reliant Stadium parking was not very scenic.
Henry celebrated his first birthday in October and Kristina planned a great, rock star themed party for him. Great decorations, food and fun!
What a fun day!
We celebrated Holli’s birthday with a family swim party. Everything in the house was packed up. Then we said our goodbyes and they loaded up into Wendell, their 15 passenger rental van. Sob!
Cute cousins
The Birthday Girl
Presents!
David
The Cake
YUM!
Mark
Havana
Lainey
Cooling off the pool with a little ice
or a giant popsicle
Totem Poles
Loading up after the goodbyes
After our trip to Australia and New Zealand we moved into the company provided apartment in Kingwood. We found a house to rent that is quite perfect for family gatherings. Renting was chosen because of our desire to serve a mission in 2013 and not being sure of where we really want to retire. We quickly got busy enjoying the time with our children and grandchildren who live nearby.
We spent Saturdays at swim meets…
Rick and James were timers
Brian and Henry
Lainey
The Carruth Family Swimmers
David
Caitlyn and Aimee
Henry and Rick
We went to Lake Conroe for a fun day with cousins…
Baby Boys
Rorey and Andrew
Out in the boat
Rorey and I
I spent a great morning with this cute boy at the Spinny Park (so named by my grandchildren because of the merry-go-round)…
Spinning
More spinning
A boy and his stick
A squirrel started dropping sweet gum balls on us
David pondering why the squirrel was doing this…
Caitlyn’s birthday celebration…
Birthday Breakfast
Diagon Alley
The cake
Jared cutting the very frozen cake
Havana
Caitlyn and Stacey
What?
Aimee
Holli
Mark
Lots of other summer birthdays and fun…
Henry learning to climb the stairs
Ruth’s Birthday
Goofy girls
Henry and Kris
Fun at the Children’s Museum for Daniel’s birthday-
A fun day with my Rosie girl…
The Olympic Viewers
Aimee’s party at Culver’s
Caitlyn
Mark and Lainey
Lainey, party photographer
Wow, posting has definitely suffered the last year. No photos, no gratitude posts and no time or desire to make up for everyday I missed. That doesn’t mean I am not taking photos or that I am ungrateful. Maybe I’ll do a photo post to show what I have been doing the past year…maybe…one day.
Auckland is a great, very walkable city. After dropping our bags at the hotel our first stop was Wendy’s. Maddie was so anxious to go there. Although we were a bit disappointed that they only had vanilla frosties.
We stayed at a great boutique hotel, the DeBrett.
Maddie and Izzie chillin’ in our room.
The view from Auckland Sky Tower.
An interesting view of Izzie’s gorgeous blue eye.
We took a boat cruise around the Auckland area and stopped off at Davenport Island for hiking, shopping and a yummy lunch.
An interesting view of the Hilton with skytower in the background.
Hiking Mount Victoria on Davenport. Luke, Maddie and Izzie took the short cut right up the side of the mountain. The rest of us hiked up the road.
The view of Auckland from the top.
Reunited at the top.
On our last day in Auckland Maddie decided she wanted another boat ride. So while Luke and Allyson shopped around the wharf for one. Maddie, Izzie and I stopped and watched and interesting street performer.
Although Maddie and Luke were most interested in a sailboat ride, they had finished for the day. They decided on a ride like the one we had taken in Queenstown. Izzie was too short for this one so we sent Luke and Maddie. Maddie is already for this ride in her cool shades.
Front row seats in the splash zone.
They’re soaked!
Gelato!
Saying goodbye is always so hard.
After we loaded them into their cab to the airport, Rick and I headed to an airport hotel and checked into a day room to watch a couple General Conference sessions. That evening we caught our Air New Zealand flight to Los Angeles and then on to life in Houston.
After week in Perth we headed to New Zealand with Luke, Ally, Maddie and Izzie. We started by flying to Queenstown via Sydney. The area around Queenstown is beautiful and not unlike where I grew up in Utah…mountains and lakes. Our hotel was The Rees-True South. We had a townhouse over looking the lake. We ate a great hamburger at Ferg Burger on our first day and walked around. It was incredible to be in a place where we could see all the stars at night. After living in a cities with so much artificial light I love seeing the night sky again.
Queeenstown
Our first day was packed with fun things to do. We rode the gondola up and then rode the luge.
Maddie and her Papa
The Luge
Love this face!
We walked around, watched some bungie jumpers and enjoyed the spectacular view.
Maddie
We also took a ride on the Shotover Jet…so much fun!
McDonald's Forever! Fries and ...
Ice Cream
Hanging around
More hanging around
Steamboat ride
Izzie
Hot Chocolate at Starbucks
The Kiwi Statue
After a few days in Queenstown we were back on a plane to Auckland.
