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We've had a lot of fun over the past week. First, we took the kids to the last live Wiggles Show of the year at Darling Harbour on December 23rd. Brady, who is quite taken by the Wiggles as of late, only watched a few minutes before busying himself looking under the seats. Anna loved the show until she passed out near the end. We all enjoyed singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in the dark with only cell phones and other small lights to light up the large auditorium.
Santa made his way early (I think he has a brother in the South Pole, but Blake thinks he starts on our side of the International Date Line and works his way around) and we had a lovely Christmas morning here, despite not having a Christmas tree for the first time. The kids loved their toys and didn't want to leave the apartment when we left to go to Sydney Harbour on Christmas Day. (See pictures to the side of blog). It was a fairly cool and cloudy day for summer and we didn't stay too long before returning home to cook Christmas dinner. Everyone was tired and an early sleep was had by all! 
The day after Christmas here is known as Boxing Day and we all enjoyed a beautiful, beachy holiday. We drove out to Manly Beach and met our friends Nicky and Jud and their two daughters Lucia, 4, and Millijana, 21 months. They are from New Zealand but have lived in Sydney for 5 years. We had a wonderful time on the beach with perfect weather with plenty of sunshine and wind, no humidity! The problem arose when we busied ourselves slathering sunscreen on the kids and barely any on ourselves. The rumour about the ozone being thinner here is true, we discovered... Blake and I got baked! I'm still recovering from my sunburn and am looking for a good melanoma clinic nearby! Blake was smart enough to keep his shirt on, so the worst he got was on the back of his neck. Alabamians will be proud to know that he is a real "redneck" now!
We've spent some time house hunting over the past week as well and are pleased to discover that we will be able to find a house or duplex with a bit of a yard or courtyard for the kids that is still nearby to shopping and parks. Of course it is very important that we also are close to transport for Blake to get to work. Several options include taking the train, the bus, or the ferry to work. We plan to purchase a car after our house in Birmingham is sold, but we don't want to have to rely on that for day-to-day needs. We'll see what pops up after the market "opens back up" on 3 January. It's amazing how everything literally shuts down over the holidays around here. Even the realtors are closed from 22 Dec to 3 Jan!!!
Well, that's about it for us over the past week. Cheers to all!!
Wow, all kinds of things have changed since June... we are now living in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia due to Blake's hard work and a big promotion with FedEx Kinkos, who he's been with for 5 and a half years. We've been here for a little over 2 weeks and so far we love it here! It's a bit unusual for it to be 2 days prior to Christmas and it's 80+ degrees (29 C). Due to us having just moved and still occupying a temporary rental home we are without a tree... so it just doesn't feel like Christmas here!
We've had quite an adventure getting here... we flew from Birmingham to Dallas, and then changed planes in Dallas to Los Angeles... that flight was "fun" with both children making themselves known to the rest of the plane... fortunately our surrounding flyers in coach were understanding of our plight. After landing at LAX we spent about an hour and a half renting a car and finally made our way to our hotel, which was very nice. We drove through Beverly Hills briefly and had lunch (after we finally got on our way... we lost 2 hours in the transition) and then made our way back to LAX for our flight to Honolulu. Luckily this one was first class! The kids slept most of the way there, and again we lost another couple hours of time arriving in Hawaii at around 9 pm.
After renting a car (again... not easy when you're traveling with 9 checked bags, a double stroller, and an infant and a toddler)... we found our hotel and gratefully fell asleep! The next day, December 4th, was our first day without travel and we looked forward to exploring Waikiki Beach and Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, the island of Oahu had different plans... it rained 3 inches in an hour! We were still able to see lots of great surf and enjoy a nice dinner on the beach. Brady was more interested in the "big trucks" of the landscape crew than the amazing island of Oahu!! He enjoyed a great time running on the beach, however.
Finally it was time to make our final journey to Sydney. We boarded our plane in Honolulu at about 10:30 am Wednesday, December 5th and landed in Sydney at 6 pm on Thursday, December 6th! The flight was 10 1/2 hours but we lost a day crossing the International Date Line... very strange, I must say! Anna enjoyed having a fold down bassinet in front of her brother in the first row... and I must say that Blake and I enjoyed not having to hold her for that long on our lap too!! We took turns taking our meals in the "adult" section which was separated by an aisle, while the other one tended to the kids. Brady was fortunate enough to get 2 bags of Wiggles goodies from the nice flight attendants on Qantas... which is a great airline, by the way!
Well, that pretty much wraps up our journey here... although there are several other funny things... one being that Brady learned what the word "DANGER" means by trapping his hand in an elevator in LA... funny because he didn't get hurt and still calls all the lifts around here "DANGER"... Anna has officially made friends on every leg of the trip with her crooked little smile and charming ways... but won't sleep through the night to save her life, even after 3 weeks of not being in our house in Alabama... ahh, I could go on but I won't!
We've had many friends ask how the trip over was, so there it is. I'll add more as we get more into our life here in Sydney. So far we've already traveled by pram, rail, bus, and ferry... also known as "BIG TRAIN! BIG BUS! and BIG BOAT!" He doesn't have a word for pram yet except that "Eaya" (Anna) goes in the back and he would never let us forget her... he's always asking where she is if she's not in the room!
Happy Holidays to all and I hope to update more frequently from now on.Note: All the pictures from our journey are to the side of the blog
