Arriving back in Auckland was odd. I kept having memories play across my mind and I felt like a rolling mixture of happiness, exhaustion, and bittersweet melancholy as certain things would trigger reminders. A billboard advertisement. The familiar accent. The style of the houses and size of the yards. We flew for 15 1/2 hours… Read More Auckland
It was about 2 years ago – when I was fully stuck into grad school and wondering if there would be an end in sight – that I found myself sitting across from Chris, looking up from my notes, and saying, “I want to go back to New Zealand. I want to plan on it.… Read More Return to New Zealand
I was in Washington, D.C. last week for my school’s required on-campus clinicals. From Monday – Thursday night, I was attending lectures, demonstrating my skills as a practitioner, performing assessments, learning in-office procedures and suturing, and generally stuffing my head with knowledge. It was a great, albeit stressful, couple of days where I was able… Read More D.C.
August has been a full month. It was rewarding for me to have some time between semesters to relax, see family, spend time with friends, and do nothing. Joe has enjoyed going to summer camp and we’ve taken a family trip to Washington, DC as well as a trip with me and the boys to… Read More August 2018
We did our annual Tucker family vacation/reunion last week. This year’s destination was Florida. We spent a few days at the Marriott Grande Vista in Orlando, then drove down to stay at Marriott Crystal Shores in Marco Island. As an added bonus, both Chris and Joe celebrated their birthdays while we were with extended family. … Read More Vacation Recap: Orlando and Marco Island, FL
I took Joe and Jack on a mini-vacation to Winston-Salem, North Carolina this past weekend. In good traffic it’s about a 4 hour drive. With 2 little boys, it takes a bit longer :-/ On the drive down, I ended up having to stop 3 times – 3 times for a 4 hour drive! I… Read More Winston-Salem, NC
We’re planning a mini-vacation from Auckland to Wellington and then from Wellington to Christchurch! Thankfully we’re not driving it. I’m not sure I could handle that at 35 weeks along (we’re planning to leave on the 4th of April). We have accumulated enough frequent flier miles through Air New Zealand to have our plane tickets… Read More From AKL to WLG to CHC back to AKL
We decided to take a day trip this past weekend to Cathedral Cove in the Coromandel Peninsula. image via Google Maps It was about a 2 – 2.5 hour drive from where we live. Joe did so well in his car seat and Chris and I were able to enjoy the beautiful Saturday morning scenery.… Read More Coromandel Peninsula: Cathedral Cove
We’ve been spending the last week or so in Wanaka. Where’s Wanaka? Good question. Wanaka is represented by the “A” on that map. If we were to drive from Auckland to Wanaka, it would take between 20 – 22 hours, involve a ferry ride, and cover just under 1,500km (~930 miles). We decided to fly… Read More Wanaka in Photos
We spent Wednesday – Friday in Queenstown last week. Let me share a little bit about our trip with you… Our “side” of fries at Pub on Wharf… more like a giant bucket ‘o chips! Somebody was very happy about all those carbs… Actually, I think he was just happy to see some food. We… Read More Queenstown
We’re in Auckland again, but not for long! After 5 days of being home, we’re about to set off for the South Island to explore Queenstown and Wanaka for 9 days. I can’t wait! image via You might think that we’re slightly mental to head out on a trip to the South Island a mere… Read More We’re Back, and Now We’re Leaving Again!
My sister Valerie is here for a visit! Hooray! I know that I’d talked about her and I taking a trip to Paris but, as it turns out, there’s plenty to see and do right here in England. The only time that would have worked for her and I to go was also basically immediately… Read More Oxford to Bournemouth
One of the (many) great things about living in New Zealand is that it puts your location in relation to the rest of the planet in a whole new perspective. You think you’ve got a long 6 hour drive with your toddler? Try a 24 hour flight! Because we live so far away from our… Read More Family Visits and Stonehenge
I realize that it’s been nearly a month since returning from Scotland and I’m just now getting around to writing about the second half of our trip. What can I say? We’ve been busy. Edinburgh was lovely, and only about an hour to the northeast of Glasgow. I much preferred it to Glasgow. It wasn’t… Read More Scotland: Our Trip to Edinburgh and Learning New Things about Your Spouse
Scotland was beautiful. We left Oxford on Monday morning. Things started off right by learning that we’d gotten a free upgrade on our rental car, and instead of a 4 door sedan we had a small SUV. You could argue that we’d end up paying more in petrol, but I was glad for more space,… Read More Scotland: Glasgow
Our trip over the next week… See you next week!
I’m beginning to like this once-a-week blog posting. There’s so much stuff going on these days that I just don’t have the time or energy to write more often than that! It’s less than 4 weeks till we leave for the UK. I’m ready to be done with all of the prep work – the… Read More Weekly Update
I was recently catching up via email with a friend of mine. It was great to share what’s been going on in our busy lives! Here’s a small update on what’s been going on with my family and me… Swim Lessons Joe loves his swim lessons. They’re 30 minutes long and we’ve got a fairly… Read More Updates and Volcanoes
And for the record, I pushed Joe in the pram!
