shelly beach

in a bid to visit new places before we leave, we are trying to find somewhere new each weekend (and not too far away). with woodhill forest closed to public due to felling, we carried on up same road towards kaipara harbour. stunning beach, pohutakawa trees just coming into blossom and deserted. nice way to spend a sunday after a difficult saturday. mia was out of sorts on friday night then prompty threw up twice during the night. woke up bright as a button - unlike her mum. yes, my delightful daughter passed on her bug to me yet toby escaped (again!). so i was ill all saturday which wasn't good timing as toby had his first shot (literally) as wedding photographer. doug and audrey came round to help out but thankfully they weren't really needed as i perked up as the day went on. still, they were delighted to see mia as they hadn't seen her since before their trip overseas. toby got home around 6 and took charge of mia. i collapsed into bed around 8.30, exhausted. thank goodness i felt 100% when i woke up this morning. toby's photography was a success. if you want to see the results, send us an email and we can send you the link to the online album. his work is fantastic and i am very proud of him. he has put a lot of effort into this (and money!) and it appears to have paid dividends. we have 2 more potential bookings. yesterday's was unpaid - the happy couple got free pix and we got free publicity and more photos for our website. in development terms mia continues to come on leaps and bounds. walking can't be too far away. we now have to strap her into high chair or she tries to clamber out. there is no stopping her..... difficult last week at work ahead, interviewing for 2 roles and i haven't done it before. still, great experience and another thing to put on the CV. tuesday is our division's managers lunch, 10 of us heading to totara restaurant in albany which is supposed to be very very nice. finish 12 noon on friday. still cannot get my head around the fact it is christmas. just doesn't feel right, santa in sunshine! i need snow and mulled wine!! that's enough rambling, enjoy all the photos. i need to get off the computer so toby can do some christmas shopping! xx