Happy Birthday AJ3

Christmas 2010 I was sick.  In fact, the entire family was so, very, sick.

Everyone else recovered, Mamma just found herself exhausted...

Then we realized that AJ3 was on his way

 The third baby to be born in 34 months to the Savage family.

Everyone said "think pink" but Mamma knew...

He didn't get a name until his Mamma's water broke and she and Daddy were headed over to UVA...

The day after he was born our little world shook in a rare VA earthquake (5.8, not a little quake!).

AJ1 was immediately in love with 3

He's quick to smile and giggle (especially when his brothers are around)

He's always ready to try anything!

He loves adventure (thankfully)!

And looks for mischief.

He charms everyone he meets.

The best surprise for the Savage family!

Happy, happy birthday AJ3!!

Rangitoto Island

Over the weekend we took the whole family out to Rangitoto Island.  It was tons of fun to see the volcano (although when push came to shove, I didn't make it all the way up to the top -- oh the sacrifices of mammas!).  Here are some of the photos that I was able to get that day...

Sorry this post was so image heave but it was gorgeous!!

Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road on the Wrong Side of the Car...

Sooo, we bought a car (about two weeks ago actually).  It's the first time we had to move to a mini van or what's here called a "people mover".   It is a Honda Odyssey and Junie wanted to know why I didn't buy domestic (LOL)! Since we are no longer using a car that someone loaned to us, I have car insurance and can drive.  I am quickly learning that there is a lot to learn.

I am not going to pretend that I know anything about driving yet, except this...1.  I have to drive on the left side of the road -- this doesn't really cause a lot of problems for me 2.  I have to sit on the right side of the car -- here is where I seem to find my problems -- depth perception!!  3. The person to the right has the right-of-way 4.  Pedestrians NEVER have the right-of-way unless you see the zebra stripes and orange globes.  

The roads are windy and narrow many times.  The woman that we purchased the car from didn't realize that anyone in the world sits on the other side of the car or drives on the other side of the road and thought I was nervous based on the speed at which Aucklander's travel.  I have to be honest, I don't notice that anyone drives any faster than I am used to and my mind is not quite quick enough to convert kilometers to miles without looking it up and I don't really mind!  I know I am obeying the law and roughly how fast I am going according to my point of reference.  

One thing that I have never really been good at is when you have lots and lots of traffic lights in lots of different places.  It is the one thing that I don't like about driving in DC.  I never really know where to look.

Driving on the motorway is also a bit of a different experience.  Since I am used to sitting on the other side of the car, I have to constantly check myself for drifting into another lane.  Parking seems to be the real problem though, since I want to allow extra room on the right and not the left of the car.  I try to park where there aren't tons of cars or parallel park since I don't really mind hitting the curb.  

I try to get out of driving as often as possible (but I do that in the states too).  It is so nice to have all the AJs strapped into car seats and have a moment to just breathe!!  

Cheers (and watch out on the streets of Auckland)!

One Tree Hill (not the U2 song or the TV show)

Recently we took a little time and visited One Tree Hill Domain.  It's a 118 acre park here in Auckland.  There is a lot of history that comes with this park and although I found it interesting, if you would like to know as well, I provided a link to the Wikipedia page above.  As usual, we didn't have a lot of time to explore but were able to do a lot in the hour or two we had.  

We had no idea what to expect as we found ourselves with some stolen moments.  We started out parking at the playground and began to work our way up on foot with the two biggest AJs.  This is a real treat of a park as it is a working farm in the middle of the city.  All of my readers who are familiar with Indianapolis, just imagine that there was a big livestock farm on Garfield Park on the near south side.  The longer we are in Auckland, the more I feel the similarities to Indianapolis (the two are about the same size with the same kind of sprawl).  

Immediately I could tell that we were in for a visual treat (and one, 100% different than Indianapolis) and I wanted to kick myself for leaving my camera in the car.  I took these photos with my phone and they are def all Instragrammed up so please forgive me!!  

When I was a little girl my Papaw Jay bought me a pair of sheep to keep at the farmhouse.  We didn't have them long and I didn't have the kind of interest in them that I did in the horses and smaller animals but I'm more interested now.  My boys were more concerned with the prospect of stepping in excrement, city boys (even if they have been living in a small town)! Just a little side note, the girl that is doing my hair here was so proud because her nana gave her a sheep last week to keep at her HOUSE!  So cute!!

It's possible to see both harbors from the summit.

So, the actual "ONE TREE" is gone now so the hill is actually NO TREE HILL and since it is really a volcano and not a hill I guess you could call it NO TREE VOLCANO but whatevs, right?!  I took this photo of JJ and the two biggest AJs in front of a tree that we found on the way up.

It might be the case that we didn't realize that we were not supposed to walk on some of the archeological sites and were pretty relieved when we found out we had done so and not been caught (my super rule following subconcious felt HORRIBLE).  It was really beautiful though and I hope we didn't disturb anything important.

We took the road down and at one point we looked over to find AJ1 urinating openly in public!  We were mortified.  I laughed so hard that I was crying.  There are still moments that I cannot believe God really thinks I am the right woman to handle all these males!

Oddly, I didn't take any photos of the actual monument or the kids playing on the awesome playground!  I have a feeling we will head back over there sometime soon (the playground was tons of fun!) so if we do I'll share some on Facebook or here later!!