Dad's New Truck!

Sarah and I decided to get another truck as we're both wanting to tow things in the weekends! Her with the float and me with the boat. SO this is the new beast. 3litre 1996 intercooled Diesel Hilux Surf. Should get me up the rivers!

Fishing with Dad at Akaroa!

I took the day off today and took my Dad out to Akaroa for a day boating and fishing. Nice and calm and no wind at all. We caught a few cod and a pile of dogfish, but have a nice relaxing day!

Camping on the lawn

We setup our tent on the lawn today to air it out. Jackson decided to make himself at home as if he was camping. Can't wait to head out camping with him soon!

Clever Jack!

Saying all the days of the week and months of the year! What a legend he is!

Huge hail storm in Rolleston and we missed it!

Sarah, Jack and I were in town for a bit of shopping and while we were out, a huge hail storm hit Rolleston! 2-3cm hail - it smashed our Clearlight verandahs. Would have be awesome to watch!

Molly the wonderhorse!

Liz popped over with Molly to say hi. Jack made sure he got a ride.

Needed a new skipole for the boat.

So I took off to the Stainless Tube factory, got a 2M length and then paid a visit to a local engineer who helped me TIG weld it up!

Visit to Animates...

Animates in Tower Junction - Great place to take a kid as essentially it's a free zoo!

Early Morning Wakeboarding!

We took off this morning at 7:30am through a cold southerly drizzle for a morning wakeboarding at Lake hood. It was Julian, Sarah, Jackson and Ben that went. Sarah's first time, and she did really well! Here' a vid of me playing around...



And here's Ben having a blat!

The Stones and Vivian's take to the water for the day! To nice to stay home!

The Stones and the Vivians took off today to Lytleton for a wakeboard session and picnic on the beach. We were in a nice bay behind Quail Island. 18 degree water – nice and warm! We all did a bit a wakeboarding and got in some good jumps!

Here's some highlights from the day...

* Julian forgot the clamps were on the boat when launching (so was stuck on the trailer)
* Rose got up on the wakeboard for the first time! Did great!
* Ella and Jackson had a cuddle
* Sarah busted the traler light on a rock
* Ben did some supreme jumps
* Julian tried a 360 jump which I spectacularly failed (got to 270)
* Jackson held his first crab!
* Grace was just cute as normal
* Good bit of chop coming back to the ramp

Jack just hanging in the sand!


The kids enjoying the day! They were all very well behaved and had heaps of fun.



Sarah, Ben and Rose chilling! We all work hard so it's nice to take time to just relax once in a while.


Jackson stealing a kiss from Ella!

Our new pet Magpie!

We were in the paddock the other day and this friendly magpie came up to us. No idea where it came from, but it thinks I'm it's Mum and keeps knocking at the door for food. It's really tame and I've already taught it to be patted.

To hot to work! I'm off fishing!

I started back at work today. Got bored, looked at the lack of wind and decided to head out fishing. I called Graeme Evans (mate of my dads) and took off with him to Lake Coleridge for the day. It was about 30 degrees and the water was like glass. Plenty of fish in the lake but they weren't very obliging! However, he caught this nice Salmon...



Oh! and this little one below. He went back though as he was too small.



This is the general condition of the lake...



Glas, glass, and more glass! We had a great day!

Christmas at the Stones!

We were woken up this morning at 6:30am by a Christmas call from Sarah's sister Jess. It was great to hear from her. Seeing as we were up, we went and woke up Jackson. He was excited when we gave him a Christmas bag filled with pressies!
All of us sat on the bed and opened them! I think he was overwhelmed!


Here's the tree with a big pile of pressies under it. Christmas is fun when you have a kid!


Jack checking out the boat Dad built him in the workshop. The trailer attaches to his trike so he can tow it around.


Mum and son hanging out. Jack's sitting on mum's new sunlounger. Hopefully we'll get some sun so she can relax!


Jackson's backside... :-)


Another bath toy - yup! it's the famous BP inflatable boat!


Sarah has been saying that she wants to try some Dressage to music, so I built her a 4WD paddock stereo. This is super rugged, but will be able to blast so loud that both her and the horse will hear it down the paddock. I think Sarah wants to get the horse dancing to trendy modern music ;-)

Mum turned on some cool music whilst at the house and Jackson decided to have a groove!




Want a pressie anyone?


Even a horse (Luke) got in on the act!


After feeding horses their 'Reindeer Nuts' this is Jack wandering back to the house with Pooh under his arm for a Gingerbread boat (Yes, I built a boat shaped biscuit cutter!)

Groovy Jack!

Just Mum and Jackson having a groove to the music on the stereo I built them last week, I think he's starting to get the hang of dancing!

Ferg and Nathan's maiden adventure on their boat.

Ferg and Nathan took their boat down to Lake Hood for their maiden ride after restoring it to lovely condition. It went well!

Jacksons Birthday Party!

The crew came over today to celebrate Jackson's second birthday! Plenty of sugar for all the kids meant that they all had a good time! Jack had a few meltdowns but he got through it! The people that visited were: Liz & Ferg, Jess & Pete (with Tim and Sam), Ben & Rose (with Ella and Grace) and Lesley...

My Silly son ;-)

I took these photos the other day of Jack being silly at the Daycare's Christmas play. I love him - even when he's a twit ;-)

Jacksons Birthday cake!

This is the awesome cake Sarah (Mum) made for jack's 2n'd birthday. She did a great job! Can't wait to see what the kids are like on the sugar!

Jackson's End of year play

We had the daycare's end of year Christmas play last weekend. Unfortunately Jackson didn't go in the play and got stage fright. All his mates did a great job though!

Now this is dedication!

Jack is so keen he wanted to pull the boat out of the shed himself. Must love the boating heaps eh!!

Jackson - My famous son!

Jack and some other Selwyn Toddlers went to the Royal NZ Show. They had a great time, and managed to get snapped for the Selwyn Times. Check it out!

Mums Memorial Day

We had mum's memorial today for all the Christchurch friends and family. Was a great event and good to catch up...

Family Fishing Trip to Coleridge

We woke up today and the weather looked just perfect for a wee backcountry jaunt. So I told the family "We're going!", we packed the boat and took off to Lake Coleridge.

It was the first time that only Sarah, Jackson and I had put the boat in with just us. The wind was fairly non-existant, and it was a great morning. We got the boat in ok and took off around the lake. After a bit of sightseeing, I showed Sarah how to troll for trout.

We saw fish and they weren't biting, so scooted back to the South side of Ryton Bay and Sarah took over as Skipper. She drove the boat and kept us over the fish. We hooked up! I landed a small (but very eatable) salmon.

It was great to be with Sarah and Jackson when I caught the fish - and even better because Jackson now knows what fishing is! A great day was had by all!

Jack's Bed Boat is finished! Awesome!

Finally, the bed is done, however we're nervous about putting him in it - he'll never sleep!! But whatdaya reckon? 10/10 for effort? What a great dad!

Grandad came to visit!

Grandad popped down for a few days recently. He decided to take the kids for a ride on the Rideon Mower...

Progress on the boat bed!

Did a bit more on the boat bed for Jackson this weekend. Nearly ready for a sand and a paint!

Jackson's Birthday Boat Bed!

Jackson's birthday is on the 16th Dec... He'll be 2yo and because I'm such a great dad, I'm going to make him a super cool boat bed. I started today in my workshop and after about 4hrs, this is the progress. I'll upload more photos as I get further along.

The Front section of the boat will come to a point and will be an area to store toys. On the headboard I'll make a Yamaha Motor (and bookcase/light)



It's all braced and square/level. Just need the glue to dry now. The next fiddly bit is to create the front part as a removable section.


This is the bed tray that the foam mattress sits on. This drops in the top of it...

Jacks new wetsuit. Now he's ready for the summer fun at the lakes.

Jackson is really proud of his new Spongebob wetsuit. He wore it all day today around the farm and even had his midday sleep in it. Looking forward to getting him to the lake for a swim!