This weekend was heaps (as the Kiwi’s would say) of fun!! Honestly would have to write a whole book if I were to tell you all the things we did and how much of a blast we had...but I’m sure none of you want to read that much. My parents arrived in Auckland Friday night so the girls and I took the train Downtown right after school to meet up with them. Of course, being as directionally challenged as I am, I man
aged to get us lost on the way to the hotel. You never realize how thankful you are for a data plan until you are across the country and can only use your phone on Wi-Fi. So, I ended up turning on my international plan so I could call my parents to give us verbal directions so we could get to the hotel. WHOOPS! I have never been so excited to see my parents and give them hugs! How awesome are they for traveling half way across the world to celebrate my birthday with me?? We ended up going to an Italian place called DaVinci’s for my birthday dinner. It was delicious!! After dinner we continued to celebrate and dance the night away. My parents were troopers Friday night. Running on 4 hours of sleep they managed to make the absolute most of my birthday and celebrate all night with me. We ended up taking a pedicab ride back….he was a dangerous driver and made me fall off! I have never had a bigger bruise on my body in my life!!! But don’t worry, Frankie somehow managed to get the fall on SnapChat, so the video has been making an appearance nonstop. Definitely laugh every time we watch it.
Saturday, Frankie and I hung out with my parents all day in the city. I have never eaten and drank so much in my life!!! We literally spent all day checking out tons of different restaurants off of the main drag. I couldn’t even tell you how many places we bounced between. We found some really fun spots to go to and if it wasn’t for my mom (we called her Dora the Explorer that weekend) there is no way we would’ve found some of those places. Even though we gave her tons of crap for thinking she knew her way around the city—she actually knew what she was doing. Originally we were going to take the ferry someplace for the afternoon, but we had more fun bouncing around that we carried my birthday celebration out an extra day. How lucky am I that I go to celebrate my birthday two days in a row--NZ birthday and America birthday! We were so exhausted we ended up taking a late afternoon nap break before heading out to dinner. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and Kelly, Frankie and I had movie night with my parents. It was fun to relax and have family time for the night. It was an early night for us after a long night Friday and a long afternoon!
Sunday, we woke up and ate breakfast at a yummy café and souvenir shopped for family and friends most of the day. WOW—definitely felt the calf burn after walking up and down the hilly sidewalks of downtown all day long. But, it was worth it after finding a bunch of fun things to bring back for people! Our weekend would not have been complete if we didn’t take my parents to our favorite Mexican restaurant- Frida’s. We are basically locals there by now. Cami, our new waiter friend from Minnesota, was so excited that we brought my parents. He is probably our favorite server we have met so far and he always makes sure we have the best time! This restaurant is amazing and I wish you all could try it out!
Monday and Tuesday night I was able to see my parents after school for a couple hours and hang out with them. We checked out the SkyTower on Tuesday night and the view of the city was absolutely amazing!! Definitely well worth it. I tried talking them into bungee jumping with me off the top of the building, but neither of them would….come on!!!! Let’s be real—I probably would’ve chickened out once I got up there. I almost peed my pants watching people bungee through the windows, so probably best that I didn't.
I am so beyond blessed that my parents came all the way to New Zealand to celebrate my birthday with me. Words cannot express how much it meant to me that they were here. They are truly incredible people and I am so grateful for them. Even though the time was short, it was worth every second I was able to spend with them. They welcomed and adopted my friends with open arms for the weekend as we were all missing home. Aren't they amazing people?? But can you believe that was already week 3 in the books? I sure can't!!
