Saturday night we Celebrated Shona and Simons engagement in style at a city bar.  Pictures from Shona’s camera can be seen starting here.  We had a great night and it was good to see some of the people we met last year at the Lakes and some of their other mates.

Sunday was a lazy day spent browsing the shops, watching Hot Fuzz and rounded off with a Chinese Buffett dinner.

I’m looking forward to the start of the Premiership season tomorrow.  I have 3 fantasy football teams on the go so the pressure is on.

Andrea is running daily (well, almost…) and is gearing up for another week of Olympics couch supporting.  She has ordered a Wetsuit which should be with us imminently so the surfing can really take off.

The last set of pictures from Mike and Gail’s visit start here with our foggy visit to the Priory, then go on to show the BBQ at Dave and Mary’s, finishing off with Alnwick gardens on Sunday.

The BBQ was great, everyone seemed to have a good time.  Dave put on an excellent spread and the lions head was as popular as ever.

Tuesday morning we drove to the airport and saw them off.  It has been great to show Mike and Gail around the region and Edinburgh.

Andrea is now in serious holiday mode and is thinking deeply about training for the Great North Run.

Photographs from our trip North start here.

They document our travels from Holy Island, camp in Embleton, a trip out around the Farne Islands, Edinburgh and the Falkirk Wheel!

The website move is now complete, you should hopefuly find the site alot faster!  If you come accross any problems or broken pictures in the gallery please let me know!

We are back from our trip North, we’ve had a great time!  More on that when we have sorted through out 800 odd photo’s…

These pictures are from Monday, Andrea was in school in the morning and I took Mike and Gail to the ‘historic abbey town’ of Hexham then some of Hadrian’s Wall at Housesteads.

I am also busy uploading the website to a new host which should make the site alot faster… that should be done in a few days

After Andrea had taken Mike and Gail to her church this morning, we headed off to Durham.

Pictures start here of us exploring the Angel of the North, Durham town and the Cathedral.

We are going to Mary and Daves for dinner tonight.

Mike and Gail arrived here yesterday.

Andrea has come down with her traditional end of term illness early this time around but is slowly recovering after two days of rest.

We were at Mary and Daves tonight for tea with Lynne and Grandma making guest appearances.  Pudding was good.

We have lots of places and things to show the whanau over the next 11 days…

Update: Photographs from Saturdays trip to Newcastle start here.

Pics from this years Mouth of the Tyne festival start here.  There aren’t very many but it gave me a chance to try out our new telephoto lens for the camera

We went down both days and met up with Jen and Ryan today.  It was a good showcase of street theater and music, we didn’t see anything to top last years caravan of desires though…

We have been cleaning for the rest of the weekend… Mike and Gail arrive on Wednesday and we’re excited to see then and show them the area.  Hopefully they will have shaken off the bugs they have had since their arrival.

It was Jen’s 30th birthday yesterday, with a surfing lesson and a BBQ to mark the occasion.  Predictably, with outside events organised, the weather was terrible but it didn’t dampen anyone’s spirit.

Pictures start here with with one of Jen’s new kittens and go on to show some of the surfing action.  I didn’t take part but instead got the chance to try out a telezoom lens borrowed from Jen to record the extreme wave riding (!) going on.

After the action (and a quick shower…) we headed round to their place for a birthday barby.  It was great to meet Jen and Ryan’s friends that had traveled from far and wide.  The food was good too.  We brought along a pass the parcel present that contained enough party products to sink a small ship … and that was great fun.

We met up again today on the beach with the people who had traveled up here for the birthday and Ryan broke out his extreme kites.  The large kite proved to be a little too extreme in the strong winds and dragged Ryan a good few feet.  Haha!

Andrea is busy writing her end of year reports, thanks to those who have sponsored her so far for the run!

Andrea is running in this years Great North Run!  The chosen sponsors pack arrived last week, Marie Curie as can be seen above.

I have set up a just giving website where you can sponsor her…

http://www.justgiving.com/greatnorthkiwi

Even very small amounts help so please put those pledges in

The race isn’t until October but Andrea may need that long to prepare…

Shona and Simon are coming up and running in the race too so it should be a good weekend.  I have already planned the menu for the pasta party the night before.

We have been away to Powburn this weekend, pictures start here.

It was an impromtu camp as no-one remembered booking Powburn, but it would have been a shame to miss the opportunity!

Friday night the younger members of the group went on a night hike while we had a camp fire and prepared a hot dog supper for their return.

We went on a hike yesterday in the blazing sunshine.  We headed off for Chesters, a Winter camp venue, loaded with water, chocolate and other snacks.  It was a pretty long way away.

The weather was glorious and the scenery fantastic, the sun… hot.