Dave & Jean Arrive!

Brad's parents arrived in Gisborne on the 26th of December for a three week visit. We were excited to show them around around town, take them to the beach, and of course go to dinner and a movie (without the kids!!!!). We took it easy Friday night (since 28 hours of travel can tend to wear a person out). Then Saturday a.m. we took them to the farmer's market here in town to check out all of the wonderful offerings this region has to offer. We loaded up on fresh fruit, veggies and wine and then went home to eat lunch. The afternoon was spent relaxing at the beach and napping.

Sunday morning Brad & I took advantage of the free baby-sitters and headed out surfing. We went with the daughter and son-in-law of the other locum working at Brad's clinic. They were here visiting for two weeks from Oregon, and were enjoying all of the local surf spots.

Here we are before heading out...



We also spent quite a bit of time at the beach with Dave & Jean. The boys especially enjoyed having Grandma & Grandpa to play with in the water.





On Monday, Brad had to work, so Dave, Jean, the boys & I headed up north along the coast to Tolaga Bay to show them the Wharf there (you may remember pictures of this from an earlier post). They were having a fishing derby when we got there, so there were quite a few people fishing off the wharf. One young girl had caught a baby sand shark and Harrison (my little dare-devil) went up and pet it. Jonathan was very interested and spent a long time examining it, but chose not to touch it.




Brad had to work New Year's Eve, so we didn't do much during the day. In the evening we went to Allan & Pat's (the other locum) house for a BBQ. It was a fun evening and the weather was beautiful. Not a crazy celebration, but quite fun.

The next weekend we took a two hour boat ride around the bay. It was on this neat old boat that had been restored, and they take you out into the bay and beyond to get a good view of the coastline. We had a great time...the captain asked the boys if either of them would like to put on the captain's hat and steer the boat, but they both were to shy, so I got to instead! I think I made a few people sick in the process, but it was a lot of fun.







Well, this was just an overview of Dave & Jean's first week here. More to come...