Home again

Home for 3 weeks - the days have been long but the time is going quickly
warm days and nights, cool mornings, runs, walks, pool hopping, long conversations, push-ups, ab workouts, coffee, cheap beer, margaritas, sitting on the front porch with my nephew eating ice cream, Shakespeare in the park, laughing til my sides hurt, walking through streams with my nieces and nephews, listening to my nephew play guitar, sitting on a porch watching the sun go down, playing guitar hero, getting foot and back massages, going to the beach with the fam and Sung and Laura, eating cheesy greasy pizza, eating sweet corn, sitting through half a rodeo, having my niece teach me U2 and Journey songs on the piano, quoting lines from What about Bob and Bottle Rocket with my cousins, telling stories about the place i now call home and the amazing people I have gotten to know and love the past couple of years

I'm back. . .

Most of you gave up on the blog, but Diana inspired me to post some pics.

These are just random photos of things I've been up to for the past few months.

The first pictures are of me and my friend Kym picking being day laborers - picking kiwi fruit. Our friends Wok and Andy let up pick fruit on the family's orchard.







A crisp sunny Sunday - the perfect day for a long hike. The beauty in this country still amazes me - and just an hours drive from where I live.









The last set in this post are my first days snowboarding in New Zealand. I went down to the mountain for 2 days just before I came back to the states. Everyone was worried that I would injure myself (apparently I have a reputation for being clumsy). But, I didn't - my friend Joel did, he said he took one for the team.







Now, I'm waiting in the Vancouver airport ready to go to Portland to see Amy and Laura for a few hours and then off to Baltimore. HOpefully the next photos will be of home.