School finally started for the kids. It's been two weeks and they are settling in well. Kelsey has been playing volleyball for her school and her club. Club ball has been really intense. They are training for an international tournament right now. Kelsey won't be participating in that because of her school team commitments, but she is happy to be playing non the less. I think I have said it before, but most of the club players are older (some older than me) and they are just fricken amazing and fun to watch. Below are some practice pictures I took. They aren't great because the lighting was horrible. But...here they are. (Kelsey is in the pink shorts and Kelsey's college , high school, coach is in the maroon shirt)









Marty made the Soap Box Derby team at his school. The past few weeks they have built their derby are now in the midst of testing it. The boys were able to take two test runs yesterday and I have several pictures. They will be doing time trials starting next week. Then when they have it all done and the driver is decided, they will paint the car. I think the race is at the end of March.
















Last weekend we went to Maraetai Beach to visit friends from Mike's work. Heather and Tony invited us out to have a lovely dinner. Tony made a beautiful meal of lamb, kumara, nz potato, pumpkin and he finished it off with a chocolate mousse. YUMMY! That was the first time I was able to eat lamb and it was delicious. The area is beautiful. It's nice a quiet town surrounded by beach. Heather takes a ferry into the city for work every day.






Tony has all kinds of radio equipment in the kitchen. They also have this old radio and phone. Beneath the phone, you can see a good picture of Tony and Heather.


These were taken from their back patio. The third picture you can see Waiheke Island. That island is on our "to see list".






We have been fortunate to visit friends from work that live all over the Auckland area. Last night we had dinner with another work mate of Mikes. Marty and his wife Bronwyn came over for Enchiladas, rice and smashed salad. Mike did a great job on the Enchiladas. I messed up the rice, I am struggling with rice here. I am just going to have to stick with my Uncle Bens, no matter the cost. It was a fun evening and we learned about a new stout that I actually liked. An Australian beer called Cascade Stout. It has a good chocolate flavour and was most likely the reason why had to go up a notch on my belt this morning. This afternoon we are going to a cookout. I will have pictures for the next PA post.

Lastly, I would like to introduce you to my niece Rianna Pellino and her band Vedette. They are a band in Virginia Beach, VA. They do covers from Journey, Chaka Khan, Sam Cooke and Pink...just to name a few. I will have to pass you over to my Diabetic Duo page, because I can't load music on here. So, click this link and you can hear them do "Lights" by Journey.