7 Months and visiting the Coromandel

I have had a few setbacks with my baby blogging.  First of all, we came back from the US and I was so overwhelmed by all the pictures that I took.  I'm embarrassed to say but it was somewhere close to 800!  You would think that I was visiting a country that I had never been to before.  It was such a special trip because Grace met her family for the first time, and I took probably 50 pictures every time she met someone new!  Secondly, I'm so sad because we lost our camera!  We are sure we left it at a park and it has yet to be returned to us.  We lost several pictures that we had not backed up yet and couldn't take new pictures until a generous study abroad photography student loaned us one of her cameras (thanks Michelle!). Thankfully, I'm a facebooker and instagramer, so I have a few pictures from the ones I had lost. Grace is almost nine months and I'm just posting her 7 month update.  I hope to get an 8 month update out soon and sometime in the near future I will post a highlight blog post from our trip to the US (Grace's 6 month).  For those of you following, I'm sorry I'm so behind!

We started solids this month!  We decided to wait until our trip back from the US just to make things easier.  We are doing a bit of a combination of puree and Baby Led Weaning.  This month Grace loved to eat kumara (basically sweet potato), carrots and banana.  She also loves making a mess with her food!  We usually strip her down to eat, then give her a bath before bedtime.

Grace started sitting up on her own this month!  She loves sitting and the change of perspective she has.  Plus it is much easier to reach her toys!  She can sit for long periods of time without getting tired.

Since we gave up a month of our summer to enjoy a white Christmas with our families in the US, we were sure to take a few beach days when we got back to NZ.  Grace isn't a fan of the cold Pacific water, but she loves trying to eat the sand!

One of the students in Navs invited us along with her family to spend a few nights at their family bach (beach house) in Moehau.  It was gorgeous- real raw beauty of NZ.  It was a refreshing and relaxing time, and we loved getting the time to bond with her family!

Beautiful Moehau

After we left Moehau, we drove 3 hours to the other side of the Coromandel to Whitianga, Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove.  Petrol is so expensive in NZ so we wanted to make the most of our first family trip to the Coromandel! It is gorgeous!  North Islanders love to holiday there and they don't know how good they've got it (actually they do, but I'm just saying).

All ready to hike to Cathedral Cove.  You can see Grace's arm- she slept most of the hike!

Grace at Cathedral Cove.  This spot was made famous by one of the opening scenes of The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  (the whole beach was actually really crowded but Andy cropped out the other people :))

Grace and Andy at Hot Water Beach.  This is where a geothermal river meets the surface and by digging down a few inches into the sand you can get the hot water to spring up creating natural hot tubs! So cool!  Grace felt the water a little bit but once again preferred the muddy sand.

And just a few more cute pics of Grace from her 7th month of life!

Love her rolls!

I love this sweet smile! Thanks for the bumbo Becca!