Happy Birthday and Anniversary!

Perhaps someone here is still celebrating Christmas or maybe Easter or perhaps my birthday? We did find this tree all lit up.

For our Family Home Evening with the Senior Missionaries we decided to go to the Kauri Museum. The Kauri is the largest tree in New Zealand and is only found in New Zealand. The only tree larger is the giant redwoods in California.

This large butter churn is made from Kauri trees. That would make a lot of butter.

This Kauri is only about 800 years old but there are Kauri which have been aged to over 40,000 years which have been found buried in ancient swamplands and dug up to be used in carvings since it is now illegal to cut down living Kauri trees.

After our trip to the museum we had a gourmet dinner prepared by the landlord for one of the Senior Missionary couples. He believes in ionized alkaline water and very fresh ingredients in his food. 

Since it was St. Patricks day we had some green decorations including some flowers made by some friends out of flax. They were still green but will eventually turn brown when they are fully dried.

We took the opportunity to take this picture out our back window. The golf course is finally taking shape behind us.

We also have some fall flowers blooming around the yard.

This was my birthday cake, mango cheesecake with passion fruit topping. Yum!

We were able to visit Pacifika this year which is a celebration of all the Pacific island culture through dance, food and crafts. Probably some you have never heard of these from the Cook Islands.

You probably never heard of these islands and neither did we until we came to New Zealand. What you may not know is that Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand.

We enjoyed what entertainment that was provided by the different islands.

We also liked the watermelon sundae.

After Pacifika we went to the Relief Society birthday program for our Stake. This is our Otahuhu Ward performing a Maori song. We enjoyed the performances and the food.

So this is how we celebrated my 67th birthday and our 45th year of marriage. We feel so blessed that we have had this many years together. The Lord is with us and watching over us.

We love you all. Elder and Sister Bartlett