ANZAC day 2010

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Today is ANZAC day - a national holiday to remember those that sacraficed their lives for New Zealand while serving in the armed forces. It's a big day, celebrated all over the country - in the main cities, and also the tiny itty bitty farm towns. The festivities start off with a dawn parade - each city/town has their own, and then there are usually civic ceremonies around 9am. After each ceremony people congregate at the RSA (returned service association) for breakfast and drinks. Yep, that's right they start drinking at about 7am! - well some do. The cool thing is that it's not just military personnel or RSA members that take part in the day....the whole community takes part. Scout groups, Police, surf lifesaving clubs, schools, politicians, etc. James attended the dawn parade at Linton Military camp where he hosted the local MP around Camp. The boys and I didn't go with him - even though I was up feeding Wyatt at about 5:45 am - It just would have been too complicated to try to get there that early. We attended the civic ceremony at Foxton with James and his parents at 9am. Foxton is quite a small town, so the ceremony was smaller than any of the ones I had been to in previous years, but it was still quite nice.
Luca went on to church with Jo and Bruce, while the rest of us went back to their house. I made good use of the two hours by cleaning out the car - there has been a really bad smell coming from it....like moldy socks or something. The thick layer of crumbs, trash, and toys were starting to get on my nerves too - so I did a big clean out. Even wiped out all the little cracks and crevices and radio buttons. Ahhhh! I felt so much better after doing that. When the car is dirty it makes me feel uneasy. Same goes with the garage (hint hint James). With kids in your life, things just get so dirty and cluttered, and you have no idea where your sanity has been hidden.



James looks pretty handsome in his dress uniform. The only difference now that he is an officer is that he has a leather sash and belt, gloves, and stars on his shoulders. He also carries a sword. The gloves are really soft and nice - In fact I wouldn't mind a pair for myself!

Wyatt Turns 3 months old this week!

The holiday was marred by a tragic accident. An airforce helicopter crashed as they were flying down to Wellington to do a fly over for the national ceremony in Wellington at 6am this morning. 3 men were killed and one seriously injured in hospital. I heard the helicopter fly over our house while I was feeding Wyatt this morning. I can even imagine how the familes must feel....such a routine flyover that went horribly wrong. The whole country is in mourning.