Yoseikan Tournament. By Jessica

On Saturday 8th of June Jack and I competed in our 1st Yoseikan Tournament.
We were not sure what we were going to have to do so I was a little nervous.
Jack started in the morning and I wasn't on until the afternoon so I had lots of time to watch and learn.
I got 4th over all in my division. I was the best girl and beat lots of boys too!
Next year I want to win!
In my grade we had to wrestle on our knees for 45 sec. We knew when the time was up because the timekeeper threw a bean bag on to the mat. Every time some one won we had to re-set and start again.
Luckily I understood the Japanese commands from leaning Seido Karate back in New Zealand.
Then we had to put on some protective gear and use a baton, first in our left hand for 30 seconds then in our right for the same amount of time.
The judge would raise his flag in favour of the points winner when ever we would score a hit.
In total I fought 7 rounds and was very tired after a long day of watching Jack playing with my friends then fighting.
It was AWESOME!

 These area all the kids that did the Yoseikan
 tournament in Jack division.                                



Jack got his medal before me. Not fear!

 




These are all the Leysin kids that competed and our coach Louis.

This is Ella, my best friend. These are the trophies for the top 3 places. I almost got 1! 

  Me with my medal.

 

In this video I was on the blue side (right). The girl I was fighting has a higher belt than me, and also a red belt over the top so the judge can tell us apart.

 

 

The (4 day) Italian Job, May 2013.

                      

                    


With a four day weekend in sight we planned a mission down to the Cinque Terre.
Little did we know that the 12km walk was partially closed due to land slides and reconstruction work in preparation for the high season ( Even the official website neglected to mention these facts).
We made the most of what was left of Plan A and adapted our adventure to include some amazing sights, sounds and smells of the Liguria Region... and a snippet of Tuscany.

Course de ski. By Jack.

                     

Easter in the South of France, March 2013.

I am not really sure what we were thinking leaving the country that makes the best chocolate in the world and heading to the South of France for our Easter break, but these are the sacrifices  we make for a little adventure!

It is extremely hard to condense all our holiday photos in to a 30 shot maximum clip, and after visiting an impressive number of cities, towns and villages (20) over the two week Easter break the following slide show is a small snippet of our time exploring the Cote d'Azur and Provence.

February 2013. Skiing with the Grandies.

Here is a recap of our adventures with Baldy and Elvis.

The anticipation waiting at the airport was almost to much for the kids who couldn't keep their hands off Grandma in the back seat of the car on the drive back from Geneva.
The private ski lessons with Granddad, and  bedtime stories each night with Grandma made up for the nine months between cuddles.

Enjoy!

See you next winter guys!

No Excuses!

Quote by Stephen King

I could say that our neighbors dog ate our computers (and that's not fair on Penny, the pup next door, she is far to well behaved to do that), or I have been having a sabbatical from electronic devices (I did for a few weeks after loosing my cell phone to the snow gods while trying to ski powder...its amazing how good skiers make it look so effortless!) or even that I lost all my fingers to frost bite (though some days up the mountain I had minute glimpses in to what being 'really cold' was all about).
Alas I just haven't got around to posting anything since the start of the year.
As we all know time just sometimes slips by and before you know it months have passed as we are busy living our lives.

So my mission over the next few weeks is to recap the first four months of 2013.

Enjoy!

Anzac Day

Lest we forget

We are never too far from home to remember where we come from.