The weekend with Toby

Hi,

Oh - I had a fantastic weekend.  Mike was scheduled to be busy most of the weekend with tramping related things.  So Toby and I had organised a weekend away for the two of us.

We left early Friday and got stuck in diabolical traffic and then horrendous weather as we drove to Otaki.  Toby ate Maccas at Plimmerton and then we crawled our way to Waikanae.  How anyone bothers with that car commute is beyond me.  The rain then lashed down not far out of Otaki.

We stayed at the Cottage Park Motel, on the north side of Otaki on SH1.  It was a cute wee unit, but only had Freeview on the TV.  And no free wifi.  But we enjoyed the accommodation.  Such a cute wee unit.  Like a log cabin.  With a mezzanine for overflow.

Our wee unit -  very cute

We were in bed super early and so we played the animal alphabet game.  Made it all the way to the letter T before we switched to naming States of America.  Toby (with a small amount of prompting) got to 25.  I was quite impressed.  How on earth does he even know Delaware exists?  This game sent us into a coma.

Up fairly late and showered.  We left to have breakfast in Otaki around 10am.  I bought my Icebreaker pants and Toby got a beanie.  Then at Kathmandu we got Toby a replacement jacket which made him happy.  It's funny, I knew his current jacket was small, but until he tried the small Mens size on, I didn't realise how small it was on him.

We went to the $2 shop and Toby loved the bootleg merchandise.  We bought a Sherk mask!  Toby loves it!

A Sherk mask

We left Otaki around 11am and drove past Shannon (remembering Owlcatraz for a later visit) and we were soon in Palmerston North, catching up with Iona and Col for lunch.  Great iced coffee at the Cafe Express (somewhere on the square).

Great iced coffee

We ducked into an art exhibition and they had art installations that worked off the electricity in your body.  By closing the circuit, something cool happened.  The umbrella was my favourite.  You held the handle and LEDs dribbled "rain" off it.  There was a dark room with paintings made with bioluminescence.  Awesome.

Off to the mall and more bootleg stuff and a quick trip to JB Hi Fi.  Then we said goodbye to Iona and Col before heading to the new Captain America movie.  Ooosshhh. Civil War.  It was good.

Dodgy bootleg

More dodgy bootleg

It was dark when we left Palmerston North and headed through the Manawatu Gorge to Masterton.  A few slow vehicles but we got to the Copthorne by 6.30pm. Checked in and I had a bath.  Then we went to dinner and Toby got the steak.  Mmmmm.  Back to our room and Toby then had a bath.

He came back to bed and wanted to play the animal alphabet game again.  But I was asleep and I am unsure if I actually answered any - or maybe I said "turtle" 5 times.  Not sure!  Hahahah.  But we were soon both asleep.

Next morning we had brekkie and then checked out and Toby tested his skills on the confidence course.

Balancing

Climbing

More balancing

Turns out my son has awesome skills.  Yay for Toby.

Hopped in the car and headed home.  Mike was out doing Meetup things but got home soon.  Toby went swimming with Josh and the boys.  Mike tidied the laundry up and it is now amazing!  You don't have to climb over anything!  Wow.  Hallway is clear too.

Did my ironing.  Groan.  Mike did grocery shopping.  And we had a lovely tea together.  Woot!

Up early for my run and I felt good after a bit of a slack time recently.  Made a good time and did my 5km.  Yay for Mike kicking me out of bed.

The week stretches ahead.  Not sure if next weekend will have as much fun in store as this one did.  I loved Toby's company.  I am a lucky mother.

Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Angela