John & Rachy got married!!!!!

Last weekend our good friends, John and Rachel, got married! They had a BEAUTIFUL wedding out in the middle of the woods 20 minutes out of Dunedin.

We had a great time sharing their wedding day with them.



Pictures of the girls, Kelly, me, Sam, Ange and PJ


Where John and Rach got married!


John and Rach


The boys played Cricket while waiting for John and Rach to get back from taking pictures. It was a nice HOT Dunedin day.


Another picture, but this time not so sober! :)

New Job....

Last month I accepted a job with The Radio Network in Dunedin doing Advertising Sales... oh my. For my first 3 weeks, I basically just shadowed other Account Managers around on their sales calls. Last week, after Sarah and Gavin's wedding, I flew out of Queenstown to Auckland for computer systems training. What a week. humph. I am exhaused. 5 days full of 8 hour training sessions then followed by dinner with the group every night. I was never in bed by 10 pm.

Now this week, I am in Oamaru and Timaru for more training. I tell you what, I will be happy to sleep in my bed and get settled back in Dunedin.


Check out my Sales team in Dunedin. This was a promotion that we did where we invited potential clients on a helicopter ride around Dunedin (don't worry, I didn't get in the helicopter) and then we took them to our corporate box at the rugby stadium for a chat with creatives. We had a really fun day whooing the clients. :)

Sarah & Gav Got Married

The Weekend after Rippon, we were back in Central Otago for a wedding. Sarah and Gavin, who live in Arrowtown, got married in the Botanical Gardens in Queenstown. What a perfect setting for a wedding! The sun was shining, the rain stayed away, there were ducks in the pond and the bride looked stunning as she made her way to the "alter". After the wedding, they had their reception at Prime Restaurant which over looks the lake in Queenstown. Chanel, Damon, me and Aaron had a great time with the Queenstown crew and truely enjoyed sharing the amazing day with two wonderful people so much in love with each other.


Sarah and her Dad!


Aaron, me, Chanel and Damon



Me and Chanel at Prime with lake behind us (but kind of hard to see.)

Rippon was a Rippa!

First week of Feb, a group of us headed over to Wanaka for the Rippon Music Festival held at the Rippon Vineyard. Sam & Becs' family own a holiday home in Wanaka (rough life!) and outside the house are 5 little huts with electricity and a double bed. Perfect!

Friday night, we enjoyed sitting outside in dresses (well the girls were in dresses) drinking wine. Yes, I said dresses. This was the first time since living in NZ that I was able to sit outside at night in a dress without a coat on. Sad, I know. But I did not take that for granted.

Saturday morning, we woke up early and busted out the champaign and Sam made us a big, fabulous breakfast on the grill.


Me and Aaron


The girls: Becs, Trudi, me and Lucy.


The boys: Aaron, Will, Tim and Sam

We headed down to the winery about 11 a.m. and hitched a ride with our cop friend who will remain nameless! :)



The concerts were amazing, topped off with beautiful scenery and even better weather! It was at least 33 degrees that day (91 degrees F) which is really really really intense with the New Zealand sun... All day in the sun, in a dress. I was in heaven.
What a fun freakn day! Favorite band of the day: The Black Seeds. Biggest let down of the Day: Fat Freddy's Drop.







Sunday was another amazing day... we headed down to Lake Wanaka and layed out on the beach and took a quick dip. It made me homesick for the lake, but it makes me look forward to Texas summer!

Rach moves to Welly!!!

Since Christmas, Rachael (Aaron's little sister) had been living with us after finishing up at University. I LOVED having Rach live with us and loved having the two of us gang up on Aaron. We ALWAYS won!!! Hehehe. Beginning of February, (sad for me but great for her), she moved out of our house and up to Wellington (NZ's capitol) to go to Graduate school in Publishing. We are so proud of her and excited that she is doing this great thing for her life and her career. I can't wait to hear all her stories from the big city! In celebration of her move, we had a bbq at the house with the family! I didn't take many photos, but I took a few!


Ainslie & Gwen


Chanel, me, Rach, Ainslie and Lucy (Rach's best friend).



Damon & Aaron

2 Serious Commitment Issues....

Well, after a year of dating, Aaron and I made 2 very serious and important decisions in our relationship.... Decision One: Rico. Decision Two: Russell. WE GOT KITTENS!!!!!!! And they are precious (when they are not pissing on our things.)

We had been talking for a long time about getting a cat. I had very strict rules on what/who my cat was going to be. They are as follows: Adult cat. Orange. Long haired & named Richard Parker III.

Aaron had one rule on what his cat would be:Burmese.

So, when we went to the pet shop a month ago, I was the only one looking (he had a friend that could breed Burmese) and I was looking for that orange, long haired cat.

The second pet stop we went to, we saw two very very very very sweet kittens in the cage by the door. I opened their cage and picked them up - you know, just for fun. But that was a huge mistake. I mean, how could I leave those kittens there? They were purring and loving and so sweet. So, I decided that I could love a cat that wasn't orange. But which one would I pick? BOTH!!!!
heheheh. If I could love a cat that wasn't Richard Parker III, then Aaron could love a cat that wasn't Burmese.


RICO - My Cat. He is an angel and wonderful. Very laid back and likes to sleep on my lap.




Russell - Aaron's cat. He is desperate to be right by you. Very very desperate. He likes to sleep right on your chest 2 inches away from your face! He is also the one that keeps pissing on things. Go figure.

The Silver Fox turns 34...

On Melanie's last night in Dunedin, we celebrated Aaron's 34th birthday with a party at the house. We started around 3 p.m. and didn't end until 3 a.m.! We had a great turn out and a wonderful day. And the best part of the day was the SUN!!!!


Aaron's birthday in the sun


BBQ in the Sun!!!


Aaron brought out the Cajun Boil-UP and Spices that Chris & Haley gave us! It was a HIT!


Boil-Up



Mel, Becs, Charlotte and me


John, Mel, me and Rach