New Zealand Wrap Up

So, I haven't finished blogging about our trip to New Zealand, and so I felt like I wasn't ready to move on the regular ole blogging. So here is a recap of the rest of our two and a half week trip to New Zealand. :)

You already saw pictures from our trip to Willowbank Wildlife Refuge and also some from Hanmer Springs and the wineries.

Here are a couple more pics that I love from the winery. Hunter and Jesse were just hamming it up for the camera.




Our big activity while we were out there was a road trip to Queenstown! It's about a six hour drive from Christchurch to Queenstown, but we were excited for a little time on the road!

On the way there we stopped at Lake Tekapo. It was stunning!








We scored on finding a place to stay in Queenstown. The Pepper's resort where we were staying in Christchurch, called their resort in Queenstown, and got up a 1 bedroom lake view apartment, for only... $140/night. We looked it up online and they were going for around $400! We got there and were amazed by the room but mostly the fabulous view from the balcony!







We soooo enjoyed our time in Queenstown. We walked around the town, went on a steamboat to an island where there was a farm tour, went up the gondola, and then went on the luge ride down!

















I probably have a few more cool pics I'll want to share, but these just got a whole lot of them of my shoulders. Maybe now I can move on the some regular blogging :)

Day at the Willowbank Wildlife Park

We set out for the wildlife park on Monday and had so much fun! We came here two years ago, but Hunter was way too little to get anything out of it. This is actually one of the places I was looking forward to taking Hunter to most.

The park feels like you are just walking through some sort of enchanted forest where it is just you and the animals. There was hardly anyone else at the park, so it was great! We took our time wondering through the paths, petting and feeding the animals, and loving every moment of watching Hunter experience these animals up close.

Hunter was a bit weary of the bigger animals but LOVED the ducks!! He kept saying "Here ducky, ducky, ducky." So cute!

We Made it to NZ!

After 20 hours in travel, 20 time zones, three blowout diapers, four packages of fruit snacks, two layovers, and Hunter sleeping ten hours straight on our long flight... we have made it to Christchurch, NZ!

We left Seattle at 4pm on Thursday, only bringing a backpack, my purse, the carseat, and a car seat roller thing. We were fortunate that Jesse was able to take our luggage with him on his military flight. This made it soooo much easier when going through customs in Auckland.

The flight to San Francisco went pretty smoothly. The biggest pain was not knowing that the carseat was to wide to wheel through the aisle of the plane. So once on the plane, I had to take the car seat off the roller thing and try to juggle the car seat, my carry ons, and Hunter down the aisle. Once on the plane, Hunter and I chatted about airplanes a while lot, played with his toy cars and airplanes, and then watch part of The Lion King on my iPad.




We had a couple of hours to kill in San Francisco, so we sat down at a sushi restaurant. This is where the first blowout diaper occurred. I had to take him over to the restroom there and clean him all up while waiting for our food. We got a sushi roll and as I was trying to take a picture of him, Hunter reached over and grabbed the entire mound of wasabi and shoved it in his mouth. He had sheer terror in his eye once he tasted it. Luckily, I was able to scoop it out of his mouth right away and wipe off his tongue with the napkin. Poor buddy.



The flight from San Francisco to Auckland was 13 hours. I really lucked out because we got a three seat section to ourselves AND the flight left at 8:45pm and Hunter fell sound asleep within a half hour into the flight. He slept for ten hours straight! Praise God! We only had a couple hours left when he woke up. I got to change him and clean him up after the second glorious blow out diaper and then got him changed out of his pajamas.

A couple of the other passegers commented on how well he did and said he seemed like a seasoned traveler. :)





We only had an hour and half layover in Auckland and that went really quick because we had to go through customs. Hunter got another NZ stamp in his passport. The flight to Christchurch was only a little over an hour, so that felt like a breeze.

The tough part began when we landed in Christchurch. We got in at 8:30am and Jesse didn't land until 2:45pm! So we went over the the Antrarctic Museum for several hours. Hunter had a great time experiencing an Antarctic storm, seeing the little penguins at their feeding time, riding on the Hagglund vehicle, and even seeing Happy Feet in 4D.

He feel sound asleep in the carseat for the last couple hours before Jesse landed. He was a tired little guy!!

Lots of Changes Around Here!

If you are one of my Facebook friends, you probably have heard that there are a lot of changes going on in the Doyle family! Where to begin....

Let's start with the biggest change... we will be moving to NEW JERSEY in the next 6-8 months. We decided that it would be best for our family for Jesse to stay in the Air Force as his career. His eight years in will be complete at the beginning of the year. We weighed the pros and cons and him staying in just kept outweighing the other options.

Therefore, it would just be a matter of time before we would have to move to another base. Jesse said that he would rather have a say in where we go, rather than just waiting for orders to wherever. So, he volunteered for two positions: a four year commitment in NJ and a 2 year commitment in Papa, Hungary. Both would ensure Jesse to be home with us more than he is now. Well, last Monday, Jesse received orders for McGuire Air Force Base.

We have some split emotions. We are thrilled to know what are future will involve, the unknown was becoming a little difficult. The biggest reason that we are happy for the change is the amount of time Jesse will be at home with us. For the last 5+ years, Jesse has been gone for 200-250 days a year. With this new job, he will only be gone up to three weeks every six months and he will be home for all holidays. That is HUGE for our family! We also have good friends stationed there already, Ryan and Stephanie, and they have a daughter who is only two months younger than Hunter. That will be amazing when moving across the country from my family and all our friends!

We are sad to be leaving where we both consider "home" now. My entire family is here and the majority of our friends, as well. I do feel some guilt taking Hunter away from my parents, who have been such a huge part of his life. But I just need to remind myself that we will be back to visit plenty and anyone is more than welcome to come visit us!

The base is only about 45 minutes from Philadelphia, a little over an hour from NYC, and three hours from Washington D.C. Jesse's mom and sister are both living in DC right now, so it'll be such a blessing to be close to his family for the first time! We are excited to explore the New England states for the first time.

These are the places I want to see:














So that's our biggest change/news around here. But some other exciting things have happened this week:

I booked Hunter and my tickets to New Zealand for 17 of the 30 days that Jesse will be down there for work. Christchurch is amazing and I am beyond excited to take Hunter back there now that he's a little older. Check out the pictures from our last trip, here. I am a little nervous to be traveling there and back on commericial flights with Hunter all by myself. But... worse case, I'll cry all the way there, but I'll still land in NZ, right?! We leave in less than a month! :)

Also, last night we traded in my Honda Accord for an Acura MDX. I am in love with it! I've always liked my cars, but I have next had a "luxury" type car, and man, does it make a difference! :)

Here's a picture of it from the dealer's website: