Looking Back at Year End
So that was 2022 huh? The year's gone by fast. So fast I've hardly updated my blog lately. That may also be because Dad has been writing his book though. But that means it's the perfect time to look back on what we've been up to through the year.
We started the year enjoying the last summer holidays, with beach trips and boat rides. We took the ferry to Motuihe Island and had a great day exploring the ruins and beaches. In fact, it was ferry ferry nice.
And of course we visited a whole bunch of beaches, including mine and William's first visit to Piha Beach. This is us moments before a wave came in and drenched us both. We weren't smiling so much after that. Mum and Dad were though, grrr.
The biggest news of the year was us buying and moving into our new house. That was after two annoying lockdowns (one near the end of 2021 and one at the beginning of 2022) made it hard for us to look at places. But luckily everything turned out great. You can see the before and after photos below: before we moved in, and after we moved in, with empty boxes galore!
The house is much bigger than our old one - more rooms, more space, more playing areas... but less grass and less fruit trees. Hopefully one day we can plant some trees of our own. Mum's already started a cool vege patch with lettuce, beans and tomatoes. Which should keep her busy gardening and not busy falling down stairs (which she did a couple of months after moving in and had to be on crutches).
Of course we got another year older, and had our first birthdays in the new house. Two delicious cakes with chocolate and lollies. I could eat that for dinner every night.
In the middle of the year we went away for a short holiday, down to Waitomo Caves and Taupo. The first couple of nights we stayed in this cool farmhouse surrounded by fields and animals. It was super misty in the mornings. We also visited the Waitomo Caves, seeing all the cool cave formations and glowworms, plus going on the underground boat ride.
After that we met up with Grandma and Grandad to spend a couple of nights in Taupo. We visited Puzzling World to see all the great optical illusions and try to beat the maze (which we didn't), plus we had another boat trip across Lake Taupo. I don't know what it is about Taupo but it seems like every time we come here, someone gets sick. Last time it was Dad, this time it was Mum, but luckily it was just on the last day.
There were lots of first times for new things in the new house, like trick or treating at Halloween. We didn't really know what to expect from the neighbourhood, but we got all dressed up anyway and Mum took us out - and it was so worth it! We scored huge piles of chocolate and lollies, enough to keep us going for days afterwards (well, it was when we were forced to not eat them all that night anyway).
Boo! Here's us set to scare the street as a fairy and a cat... sorry, I mean as a vampire and a zombie.
And who could forget our first Christmas in the new house. Christmas Day was at our place again this year, which meant plenty of time playing with all the new goodies.
But while the house is new and the tree is different (we finally got a real one this year), the list of things William and me want is still as long as ever. You can see our lists in the vid below, but something went crazy wrong when Dad filmed it. It looks like we were in the middle of an earthquake, calmly reading our lists!
Just in case you get shaky-eye syndrome from trying to watch the video, these are the lists we're reading, complete with our awesome festive drawings. William's is on the left with the Christmas trees and what looks like a Christmas bomb; mine's on the right with the traditional Christmas tree, presents, Rudolph and, er, light sabre. For when Santa visits the Death Star maybe...
That's about it. There's probably loads of other stuff too, but I can't remember everything. I'm too busy looking forward to all the fun I'm going to have on these long, lazy weeks of school holidays!
