A busy weekend

Nick had a race over 800m in Windsor, Canada on Saturday night and he went really well running 1.47.35 to finish second. Windsor is just over the border from Detroit so you can drive there in about an hour from Ann Arbor. The race was a fast hit out before his mile race at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon this coming Saturday night. Steve said that any body who is any body fast is in the race and Nick describes it as potentially better than the Olympic 1500m final!
This is a NZ Herald article previewing the meet.

It was Memorial Day here on Monday so we had a long weekend. Memorial Day is to remember and honour US soliders who have served for their country so it is similar to our NZ Anzac Day. We had a great time with our friend Pua Coffman who came up from Tennessee and stayed with us 2 nights. Pua spent last year in  NZ as an intern with Ignite sport and she stayed with Caro and the girls while Steve was away at the World Champs. We were all super excited to see her and we took her to a restaurant called Frita Batidos which serves Cuban inspired street food and is amazing! 'Fritas' is burgers, 'Batidos' is shakes in Cuban and the food is served on banana leaves and Sari even had a lemonade that came in a bag with a straw out the top! It was a lot of fun to drink and then blow the bag up when it was empty!

Pua, Bella, Sari, Steve, Caro (Phoebe asleep in the green stroller on right) at Frita Betides

 Pua came to church with us on Sunday and she did the girls hair with her straightener. What fun they had! 

Bella "I don't think mine is still straight - can we do it again?"
Sari " My curls have come out!"

 On Sunday evening we went drove 15 minutes from Ann Arbor to Independence Lake and had a fantastic grill right beside the lake shore with Nick and Sierra and Tim Prendergast who is over from the UK for training. Steve coaches Tim and he is a really fast runner over 1500m and the even more amazing thing about Tim is he runs fast with only 10% of his vision! Watch out for Tim at the Paralympics in August! 

The Party Mix all the way from NZ!

Independence Lake

There was a 'Spray Zone' just beside the lake with all sorts of fountains and jets spraying water up in the air and in all directions. (Photos to come!) This was so much fun for Sari and Bella with lots of running and squealing! 

The Tooth Fairy will come to Bella's house tonight

Look what happened this morning to Bella! Notice anything different in this picture?

Bella's beautiful smile

Bella's front tooth fell out this morning with some help from a little twisting! How grown up! This is her third baby tooth she has lost but the first one to change her smile so dramaticly! Doesn't she look cute!

TIme for the togs

Sari and Bella at the pool

The waiting is over and today the girls finally got to swim in the pool here at Woodbury Gardens! The complex we live in has groups of townhouses and apartment blocks and they surround the 'Clubhouse' which has the office, gym, business centre and the pool. This is only about 100 metres from our house and Bella and Sari have been looking at the pool through the fence ever since we arrived. The girls were super excited and it didn't disappoint even if the water was a little chilly. It is a beautiful pool and there is a nice shallow part so we expect to spend a lot of time here over the next 6 weeks. Bella said grace tonight before dinner and thanked God for giving us such a great pool to use! 

Aryana, Sari, Bella and Silas

The Dump truck complete with chocolate cake to dump!

Last Wednesday Bella and Sari's special friend Silas Mylnarek turned 3. Last night we were invited to his house for his birthday party and felt very privileged to join his family to celebrate. The cousins were there from Kalamazoo, Aryana, Caspar and Scarlett and it was such a nice night that the sprinkler and the paddling pool came out! Silas's Dad Tony cooked us brats (bratwurst sausages) and burgers on the grill (BBQ) and Silas's Mum Mariah and Aunty Sierra made a fantastic dump truck cake that had donut wheels and chocolate cake in the back. 

Binder Park Zoo

On Thursday Aunty Sierra drove us to the Binder Park Zoo about an hour west of Ann Arbor on the way to Kalamazoo. Her mum Andrea met us at the zoo with Caspar (2) and Scarlett (10 months). They are Sierra's nephew and niece and belong to her brother Tyler and sister in law Sarah. We all enjoyed catching a special tram painted with zebra stripes to the Wild Africa experience where we fed the giraffes and Bella took a challenge to become a ranger!

Feeding the giraffes

Look at that tongue!

The Zebra Tram

Brushing the goats 

Sari and Bella convinced Sierra to take them on the carousel - Bella rode a Bongo, Sierra rode a monkey and Sari rode on a Koala! 

So that is zoo number 2! We have a plan to try and visit every zoo and animal park within 100kms of Ann Arbor! 


After the zoo we carried on to Kalamazoo (this created a bit of confusion "Is it Kalama Zoo?") and stayed the night with Sierra's parents Mike and Andrea and their 4 dogs. Nick and Steve joined us with Tempo so that made 5 dogs! Bella loved spending time with the dogs that she remembered from last time we visited 4 years ago. Sari overcame her initial fear and by the time we left she was outside with all 5 dogs. "I am looking after the dogs." The girls enjoyed Mike and Andreas hot tub, the dog agility course in the backyard and Smokey the breakfast chefs (Mikes) fantastic breakfast. Bella and Sari were very sad to go and kept telling Caro that they had only stayed for one night! 

The girls, Nick and the dogs on the agility course

Mike and Andreas house

Andrea, Bella and Sari reading a book about dog breeds and choosing which dog Bella should get when she goes back to NZ!

Tornado

Nick had a rest day on Tuesday last week so we headed about a half hour drive out of town to Hudson Mills Metropark. All around Ann Arbor there are State parks and Metroparks which are big parks and reserves that have trails for walking, running and biking and some have beautiful lakes and even playgrounds. For a small charge you can enter and spend the day. Hudson Mills Metropark is just outside of a small town called Dexter which was hit recently by a tornado. We went into Dexter and saw some of the damage which was pretty amazing.

The carwash

Have a look at this news report about the tornado and the above is 'the carwash' mentioned.


Remember how Bella discovered that all the houses here have basements? Well this is partly to do with the risk of tornados. The basement is where you can go to be safe if a tornado hits. We have heard that Ann Arbor is not prone to tornados because of the geography of the area. It is hilly and that does not make for good tornados apparently. Good to know. 

The Three Bears and the wagons at Detroit Zoo

Bella, Sari and Phoebe invited their friend Silas to the Detroit Zoo on Friday. Silas's Dad Tony drove them as he is a Detroit local and knew the way on the big freeway.  It was a bit drizzly and overcast but the animals seemed to like this so we could see them all out having lots of fun.

Mariah, Tony, Silas and Sari spotting seals

The polar bears were Bella's favorite, Sari really liked the Zebras and Phoebe missed most of it asleep in the front pack!

Sari's Zebra

Sari being a Lion

We were very excited when we came across the Three Bears! Having read about them often in stories it was wonderful to finally meet them! These three bears came from Alaska and are about 7 months old, so still babies really. They lost their mummy when they were very little so they came to live at the Detroit Zoo.  

The Three Bears

Grizzly Bear close up!

We saw lots and lots of kids riding in wagons which we found a bit peculiar but this seemed to be the way to get around at the Detroit Zoo. Some had drink holders and places for snacks and we even saw one with a roof. We thought maybe this could take off back home at the Wellington Zoo but Caro didn't think most parents would make it up that hill towing a wagon!

The favourite mode of transport

Family milestones

Steve and Nick had their shared birthday last week on the 25th April. We had a fantastic meal at Palio's Italian restaurant to celebrate. 

Bella's pizza!

Phoebe was five months old this week! She now has two teeth on the bottom and is trying very hard to eat everyones food. She has many admirers when she is out and about and was even called a 'lover' the other day..."Oh she is a lover!"

Phoebe and Steve

Sari now wears no nappies at all as Caro found out at at 3 o'clock in the morning when she heard Sari in the toilet. She is also becoming an expert at the game memory.

Sari at Lillie Park

Bella is studying native American animals, birds and reptiles. She has a book called Mammals of Michigan. This is good knowledge for her planned future career as a vet. 


Caro used the BBC series of Jane Austen's Sense and Senseability to get through the last weekend on her own.


Nick ran in Stanford over the 5000m but was fighting off a bug he picked up earlier in the week, so was happy with 13.29 which was his 2nd best time over 5km. 


Steve has been busy working with Nick, and also the other guys on Nicks squad and other NZ Athletes on the NZ team. It was exciting to see Zane Robertson (one of the twins from NZ training in Kenya) run a B Qualifying standard for the Olympics of 3.36.55 over the 1500m. Zane will be running again in Philadelphia on May 14, where Nick is pacing the 1500m as a hit out before the Mile at the Prefontaine meet in Oregon on June 2.  

The list

 Bella is compiling a list. Actually she is writing two lists. One list is the words that are used in the U.S that are different from New Zealand and the other list is things in the U.S that are different from back in New Zealand. And the lists are growing!


Bella has noticed that all the houses here have basements, the fire hydrants are red and stick out of the ground and the cars drive on the other side of the road! When we visited the supermarket, or grocery store, Bella was looking for toilet paper and thought it was very funny when she found out it is called bathroom tissue! So two more words were added to her list.


There are words that we use in everyday conversation that people here have never even heard of. Caro called Sari cheeky the other day and a friend asked what the word meant. Well... it means kind of mischievous and rascally she said and the friend replied she might use the word for effect. Steve overheard a waitress in a diner calling her colleague onery and having never heard the word before he asked her what it meant. She said it meant being cranky. Researching it a bit further the word ornery [awr-nuh-ree] comes from American English and became a shortened form of the word ordinary in the early 1800s and meant commonplace, of poor quality then by 1860 the word had evolved to mean rude and cantankerous - so there you go and try not to be ornery today!!

"All I say is, kings is kings, and you got to make allowances. Take them all around, they're a mighty ornery lot. It's the way they're raised."

-Mark Twain