Back in the States Part 2 of 4 :On the goat farm

Originally uploaded by Kingnerd

We have been on our stateside vacation for a number of days now. When we left NZ it was cold and rainy and the fireplace was in operation whenever we were at home. Now we are in Marion Oregon where it is about 100 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

Roberta is out at a camp with her sister and kids but will be coming to the goat farm party tomorrow. It should be a big one, probably upwards of 50 people. Good times. We have all the food prepared already so we aren't rushing around today.

In a couple days we are off to Klamath Falls to visit some friends and then it is 4 days at a music festival. I can't wait to be overstimulated with music.

Back in the State Part 1 of 4: Portland

As most of you know we spent the last three weeks in the States. Here's were we went and did.

Darren and Kristen graciously hosted us, again, in their large beautiful home in northwest. I really connect with Kristen, and Darren is always so sweet (even though he looks like a bad-ass). That night their band The Chapman Swift played, where Kristen turned into a rock-n-roll diva, Darren a killer drummer, Dan on bass, and Josh and Art on guitar. Art's girl Tianna (sp?) and I got the crowd shaking their booties and we had a really good time. I need to spend more time with Tianna, she's cool.

The next day we hung out with Monty and had a game night which also included Jim Bean - an American who spent some time in NZ learning how to hunt wild pig . We had lots to talk about, haha. I hope some day we'll live in the same town as Monty so we can have regular game nights.

I also had a chance to hang out with Monica and family which was fun. More on family later.

Trip to Melbourne

Adam had a conference in Australia so we decided to spend some time in Melbourne. We've been hearing a lot of good things about Melbourne. Everything we had heard was true. Melbourne is a spectacularly cool city. I don' really know how it ranked lower than Auckland. Melbourne was much nicer than Auckland, except maybe because it was a lot colder than expected.
Here's some pictures of the trip.