I'm on a train

Hello, everyone! I'm finally getting around to posting some photos from a train trip we took last week with Chris's parents on the Taieri Gorge Railway. This is a little four hour roundtrip train ride that takes you from Dunedin to Pukerangi in Central Otago, a very comfy way to see some nice scenery that is not accessible by car.

I rarely travel by train except during our visits to Europe -- train service is not very extensive in New Zealand and like most Americans I hardly ever used Amtrak -- but this reminded how much I like it. I like that you can stretch your legs, take in the scenery, buy some snacks and drinks, eavesdrop on the other people in your car. Not a bad way to go.

Caboose view

Chris and Maria enjoying the ride. We had the car to ourselves except for some very nice folks from Invercargill who could fairly be described as "rednecks." If there is anything I have learned in my travels: The accents may change, but rednecks are rednecks wherever you go.

Zach's first train ride. He was not so impressed by the scenery but definitely enjoyed the rocking motion, which lulled him to sleep almost instantly and kept him that way for most of the trip.

Butch documenting me documenting Butch

View from the window

Taieri River

Baby on the platform. He looks oddly at home here.

In other news, we had LOTS of snow yesterday, to the point that Zach and I were pretty much homebound and Chris went to work only because he walked as usual. Snow in June still boggles the mind, don't you think? Anyway, I took some pictures of the snow but still have trouble with uploading from our new camera without Chris's technical help. (I know, I'm hopeless.) So I'll work on that, but in the meantime picture us in a wintery wonderland.

Zach, 7 weeks

If this doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.

I'm meaning to upload photos of our train trip with Chris's parents to Taieri Gorge ... stay tuned!

Why, hello again!

Man. Where has the last month gone? (Answer: Feed, change diaper, sleep. Repeat.)

Zach is nearly six weeks old and absolutely perfect and gorgeous, as usual. He's getting HUGE and is in the 85th percentile for his age group in length and weight. A year ago, if someone told me their kid was in a particular percentile of anything I'd be like, "So what?" However, now that it's my kid and I'm the one who's feeding him, I find it terribly interesting.

We had a fantastic four week visit with my mom, and are now enjoying Chris's folks. I will say that having a baby in a foreign country makes you really appreciate your family. It's kind of weird -- on one hand, I've never been more disgustingly homesick and ready to stowaway on the first plane back to North America. On the other hand, so many nice people here in Dunedin have popped up to welcome Zach and make things easier for us that I have never felt more at home since we arrived here. It's a pretty complex situation. Lots of tears, both joyful and sad, and sometimes it's hard to tell which is which.

But enough of all of that. Let's look at some pictures. More are available on Chris's Flickr site; if you don't know how to find that and you want to see, let me know.

With Chris's folks in Moeraki. We went to Christchurch last weekend so Chris could run the marathon and Maria could run the 10k, and stopped in Moeraki on the way back to see the boulders. It's fun to remember that we did this race last year and unbelievable how much things have changed in the meantime.

Chris & Maria at the finish line. Zach is under the plastic tarp, bundled up in aboug 40 layers like the little brother from "A Christmas Story." Winter in Christchurch = Cold!

And now for some random Zach photos that I find amusing:

Touchdown!

He loves, loves, loves the bath. He can be screaming his head off and then Chris puts him in the water and his whole body just relaxes and his eyes get all big. We need to take him to the swimming pool soon.

It's just cute. That's my kid.