Flight of the Elams: January 2011

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Running up Baldwin Street

Baldwin Street is the Steepest street in the world. We have taken many pictures on Baldwin Street while we had people visiting. On our very last night in Dunedin, we had some friends come over and bring us food and help out with some last minute cleaning we needed to get done (we had the best friends). After we had dinner, some one asked it there was anything else we wished we would have done in Dunedin. Kit said yes, run up Baldwin Street. Kit has a 30 before 30 list, which is 30 things he wants to accomplish before he turns 30 and running up Baldwin Street was one of them. So we got everyone in the van for one last trip and the boys ran up Baldwin street. It was a perfect ending to our time in New Zealand and we saw one of the most amazing sunsets.

The group minus Charlie (he was taking the picture) Kate, Kit, me, Burt and Matt.

Stretching and preparing for the run. (Charlie only had flip flops, so he ran up it barefoot.)

And there off...

Burt was way ahead.

At the finish line!

They made it!

And the best way to go down Baldwin Street, log rolling.

Ok, so they didn't really log roll down the whole street, but we did think about it. They all said it was hard running up it, but totally worth it once they got to the top!

Lasting Memories

I have no excuse for these pictures not being posted sooner. We were really busy towards the end of our time in NZ and when we got back into the states but after that we have had a lot of down time. So finally I am going to post some pictures of our Thanksgiving feast we had with our friends, and some of our last days in Duedin.

It was the first time that Kit and I have hosted a Thanksgiving and I never realized how much work goes into the cooking and planning of it. We made soooo much food, but it was all eaten by the 13 people that ended up coming over to our house. Turkey is hard to find in NZ and when I did it was very expensive. So I ended up making a chicken for everyone and then fish for Kit and I. We tried to have typical Thanksgiving food so I made stuffing, apple pie and Kit made sweet potato casserole. Only the sweet potates are different in NZ, they are called Kumera and are much sweeter in general than sweet potatoes so it ended up being more of a dessert dish and than a main dish, but it was fantastic! We enjoyed telling our friends about our Thanksgiving traditions. We had everyone go around the table and say what they were thankful for this year. Since this was one of our last times together, we had alot of laughing, a little bit of tears were shed, and a lot of happy memories. We were so thankful for our friends in NZ and it was one of the best 14 months of our lives.

The group

Eating.

The next set of pictures are of our close group of friends on our last night out in Dunedin.

Kate and I.

I miss you my dear friend...

The girls minus Kate S.

The boys

We miss you guys!!!!

Sunday, January 02, 2011

Snow Pictures for our Southern Hemisphere Friends

We have had a wonderful Christmas. It was filled with a lot of traveling, family, friends and snow! We didn't mind all of the traveling because we were going to see family we haven't seen in 14 months. It was so nice to catch up with everyone and finally get to see there smiling faces. It snowed a lot when we were in the northern part of Illinois and we enjoyed every minute of it. Kit and I went on some walks with our dog Bosky, played in the snow and we even got our car stuck in the snow. (I guess we have been driving too much in New Zealand, hee hee) For all of our Southern Hemisphere friends here are some pictures of our adventures in the snow.

Walking Bosky