I know….

I know…. you guys, I know. It's been a month. It's been since last year. I know. Let's just forget the excuses and catch up (in bullet form, because I'm lazy.)

- My parents arrived on December 20th, and left this Tuesday. They were not graced with New Zealand's best summer weather. But there were a few nice days (and it's been hot ever since they left, of course). Christmas was beautiful in the morning, and then rained as hard as ever all afternoon.

- We had an amazing time with them and I feel incapable of putting it into written word. So often it felt like not even a week had gone by since we saw them (and definitely not a year). It was just wonderful.

- Making Christmas cookies in the summer feels weird. But they still taste good.

- The Christmas tree never made it out of the bucket.

- We spent New Years camping in the woods with friends instead of at a bar/club/party. Best NYE decision in a decade. Also, an inspiring way to start 2014. (Then on New Years Day, it rained like hell, and we left.)

- We spent a week in Queenstown with the folks after the new year. What an amazing place to ride. We've been there before, but with all 4 bikes we got all kinds of sweet rides in this time. We saved time for a bit of sightseeing and wine tasting too, of course.

- Before the folks left we spent a day in Oamaru, checking out the Steampunk Headquarters. Such a cool little city. It rained like hell there, too.

- Scott got a total of 3 weeks off of work, and I got 10 days. It all flew by so fast, and now we're back to the grind. (Which honestly, isn't bad at all. We're lucky people.)

Looking towards a bright future!

Scott being all talented and things. 

My favorite bit of trail!

Queenstown sunset

Scott found his new favorite store, like, ever.

Steampunk HQ!

And looking forward…

- We have 3 sets of visitors coming over the next two months. Starting Tuesday, the guest room is booked until early March! (Lets be honest, this does not bode well for blogging…)

- We booked tickets to visit California and Oregon next summer. The anticipation of seeing family and friends is already killing me. And we've already managed to get two enduro races on the books while we're back.

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and New Year!