Swimming through life

Pompano Beach House

2011-12-03T21:18:00.001-05:00

We've been in the 'new house' for 6 weeks, and although Dean doesn't beg to go to 'the new house' anymore he still loves the big yard, his room and the front yard/driveway to ride bikes and play basketball on. Lily is also a big fan of the yard and her room. She has a large sheepskin rug that she gets so excited to see everytime she walks in there. Mike and I were just saying how we like the house more and more as we live in it. The neighborhood is great -- very friendly with families around and a really nice big park at the end of our street. I've riden the bike with trailer to the beach, it only takes 5 minutes and we're the same distance from a nice pool and community center (someday I'll start masters swimming there...). So we're very happy with our neighborhood and house choice and feel that it is large enough to accomodate us as the kids grow.

The previous owners of the house were a retired Canadian couple, they sold some of the furniture, but aslo left quite a bit, which was great for us! They also left a lot of tools, nails, a ladder and a Mango picker (with 3 mature mango trees we'll put that to good use!!).

Below is a visual introduction to the inside of our house (to see the outside, click on this link and go the end http://alanaswimsthroughlife.blogspot.com/2011/09/first-month-in-florida.html). We want to remove the columns and take out the wall between the kitchen/dining room, that and a splash of paint and it'll be perfect!

Floor Plan of the house:

Inside of the house:

The front door opens to the formal living room:

Taken from the front door. The chest was my grandmother's and mother's and the tall china cabinet/secretary was my great great grandmothers on my father's side. The two chairs came with the house

taken from the front door.

Taken from the dining room

From the living room you can either go down the hall to the bedrooms and bathroom or turn left to the dining room

The wall with the mirrors is the wall we want to remove. Also the columns are on the hit list, we just need to find out if they are load-bearing.

Through the dining room and columns to the family room and kitchen.

the family room. I bought the brown recliner, the other chair and couch came with the house.

The wall in the above photo was faux painted to look like distressed wood. In the photo you might be able to see that we started pealing the paint off the paneling. We ended up pulling off the paneling and putting a new layer of drywall up, but that's another post!

View from the back of the Kitchen.

It's nice to look out at the pool and yard while doing dishes! Note the pool has a fence around it - one of the first things we did!

The stairs seen in the back of the photo go to the guest apartment.

The guest apartment is a one bedroom apartment with living room and kitchen.

Guest appartment kitchen

When you come up the stairs you enter the kitchen, to the right is the deck.

The bathroom and bedroom on the left

Guest Bath

Jet Bath

The bathroom has a jet bath. Which Dean LOVES. He can't get enough of it. During thanksgiving he told his teacher at school he was thankful for motor bikes and jetbaths!

When Jill and her family were here we threw the 3 little ones in (Lily - 21 months, Dean - almost 4 and Levi - almost 3) and added lots of bubbles. Do we know how to show toddlers a good time or what?

Guest Bed

Guest living room - all furniture except table on the right came with the house.

Guest living room - view to kitchen

Deck off guest kitchen

View from guest deck. Salt water fishing off the dock - our first try and we got one.

View of the kitchen/family room from the stairs. The wall from the kichen to the back yard/pool/patio is a sliding glass door (right). The glass table and chairs came with the house.

view from stairs of kitchen / family room

view of dining room / living room through the columns

Living room with hall to the bedrooms and a cameo appearance from Lily.

Down the hall the first bedroom is Lily's

Lily's room

Lily's room. We're planning to paint it purple (her favorite color) the dresser with mirror is cream with purple highlights (came with the house). We're accenting with butterflies. She squeals with excitement when she sees the fur rug!

Accross the hall from Lily's room is the main bathroom.

Then it's on to Dean's room, which is right next to ours.

Dean's room

Our room is at the end of the hall.

All the dressers and night stands came with the house. We bought the king-sized matress, still need a bed frame!

We love all the natural light throughout the house, our room is no exception, especially with a glass door to the pool.

The master bathroom is a bit tight, but we love that it has a door directly to the pool area.

Master Bath

So that's the house. Who wants to come visit?? We are booking for February 2012 on...

Independent Napper

2011-10-06T22:10:00.002-04:00

Wednesday nap - note the hand near the ear where my phone was

Thursday nap

Yesterday and today when Lily was tired (late morning or early afternoon) she would get her blanket lay down and take a nap. Yesterday it was while we were both sitting on the couch. She had my phone to her ear, looked like she was talking on it, and was cuddling her blanket and then she was just out. Today, she was wandering around with her blanket around 11:15 and then ended up laying on top of it on our bedroom floor and went to sleep. She had been easy to put down for a nap for a long time, but never initiating it, unlike bedtime when she used to walk me to the bath when she was ready for night night, so to see her do this is great. I'm sure it's because she doesn't have her brother around to distract her/keep her awake.

Little helper

While talking about Lily, her vocabulary is amazing. Although her words aren't that clear, she says so many things: Boat, Dog, Milk, Hello, Bye Bye, MaMa, DaDa, Dean, nigh nigh, ears, hair, nose, belly button, beach, grandpa, grandma, car... She is such a helper too, carrying grocery bags and helping to pick up or sweep.

And a little kisser, kissing me, Dean, blanket, fuzzy books. Love that little girl! Have you seen her camera face?

Camera Face

First Day of Preschool

2011-10-06T21:39:00.000-04:00

Frist Day of Preschool - Lunch box and backpack and of course soft blanket.

On Monday Dean had his first day of Preschool. After much debate, we decided on the Christian school - Trinity Methodist. We just felt like he would be more of a community - which we need down here. It's a long - day preschool, 5 days a week. Initially I wanted only 3 days, but not knowing what days I would work per week, we thought 5 days would be fine, and most preschools were 5 days, including Trinity. Trinity offers care from 8am - 6pm, although we will pick him up around 3, unless I'm traveling and Mike has a meeting -- I would just miss my Deanosaur too much if he was gone all day, but it is nice to know we have the extra time if we need it. We are still sorting out what we'll do with Lily when I work, there is a 'drop-in' care center near us that we'll probably use when Mike and I are both working. So far we've been able to juggle schedules so that one of us can watch her when I've had conference calls.

Conveniently Dean started preschool on the same day that I had my first full day of work. My first project was to deliver a one day training session on a sales force software. Monday was the 'travel/prep' day, we had to be on site for a training meeting at 3pm. I had been in Vegas for the weekend (an Aussie friend of mine had her bachelorette party there) and arrived at noon on Monday, so I went straight to the hotel, which was in Weston (the West part of Ft Lauderdale), had the meeting and then delivered the training the next day. I was a little nervous the day before, but got my groove on straight away on delivery day. It felt good to be back into it. After the session Mikey and the kids picked me up, it was great seeing them again, as it had been 5 days! Lily seemed so much smaller - it's funny (as it's only been 5 days) but it was great holding a baby again! We had dinner then headed home, I've had a cough since Thursday and had 5 hrs or less sleep for 5 nights, so when we got home I curled up with Lily and we both went to sleep at 7.

Caring lesson

2011-09-22T20:59:00.000-04:00

Dean cracked me up tonight. One of the books I was reading to him at bedtime was called Caring. This is the first time I read this book and the first time he had heard it. The book talks about what caring is, each page has a picture of a girl doing something 'caring' and one sentence, for example, "Caring is picking up paper and trash someone else left under the picnic table. Caring is putting it where it belongs." and "When a friend asks for another push in the swing, and it's the tenth push and you do it anyway, that's caring." After 20 pages there is a picture of a girl holding a dog and Dean says, "All that you've been saying, that's not carrying, this is carrying, she's carrying the dog." I cracked up. He listened to 20 pages, not understanding what it was talking about, when finally the book made sense to him, he told me all about it. Perhaps we'll try that one again in a few months!

This morning I took Lily and Dean to a Pediatrician. Dean needed a check up so he could start school and they needed their vaccines up to date. Before we went I compared the US and Australian vaccine schedules online and they looked basically the same to me, Lily would've gotten her chicken pox vaccine at 18 months in Australia, so I knew she needed that one. First they both got measured and weighed:
Dean: 31 pounds 25%ile) /39.5 inches (50%ile)
Lily: 22 pounds (25%ile) / 31.75 inches (50%ile)
I was surprised that Dean is now 50% for height, he has always been 25, and surprised that Lily was 25 for weight, she is so much chubbier than Dean! I guess that's why she's hungry all the time (see video for they way she tells us she is hungry)! he he.

Dr Bynum is great, she has a son and a daughter close in age to Dean and Lily, so I felt that she could relate to us. Lily started screeching and the Dr said, "I feel like I am at home" her daughter is a screech-er too! They were checked out and were fine (as expected). The Aussie and US vaccines are similar except that here they get the chicken pox vaccine at 12 months vs 18 in OZ and the US uses a more advanced vaccine for pneumococcus, so Lily got those and Dean was due for 2 shots at age 4, so he got those done. Poor things, tears all around. With the paperwork for Preschool in hand we were on our way to DQ for shakes for the very braves babes.

Lily has been entertaining us with how she tells us she is hungry and other great tricks. Here's a video of it.

Preschools...

2011-09-20T20:58:00.000-04:00

On Monday I went to see a local Methodist church pre-school. It's about 2 miles north of our new house, so we could get there via bike and trailer, or it would be a long walk. This church has a beautiful campus and there are many classes. 3 preschool rooms, 2 infant rooms, 2 toddler rooms and it also has a school that goes up to 4th grade (it's in a separate area from the daycare and preschool). It had a great playground and a garden where the preschoolers grow fruit and veggies. I was impressed with how well behaved the kids were and how well the administrator knew the kids. I also liked the neighborhood the school was in, it's surrounded by very nice expensive houses, and if we are here for a while Dean could attend school here, already knowing the kids. When we left Dean wanted to go to school there.

On Tuesday I went to see a 'Green' Montessori school. The school has a green philosophy, in that they use green cleaning products, teach the kids to reduce and reuse and serve only organic food. They teach the kids in the Montessori way, which is what I was looking for. It is also 2 miles away from our new house, only SW instead of North. It is a nice school, with 2 rooms, one for babies/toddlers and one for preschoolers, the preschoolers were working on the Montessori curriculum and it was a nice facility. The school has 'optional' programs that the kids can be enrolled in for additional fees, like swimming (summer only) and dancing. They also have a nice garden, and decent playground which Dean and Lily Both tried out. Poor Deano, Lily got into a little car that has a removable top (she used to play in one very similar at Jill's) and Dean went to push her and one of the pieces holding the top fell off. Dean was so upset that he broke that car, he started to cry. We explained that it was OK it is meant to come apart. The poor sweet little boy was so concerned! The only down side is that it is not in the best neighborhood, it's a street off the major street, but it's in a sparse area, with businesses around it, it's just not as nice as the other one. When we left Dean wanted to attend that one (I think because it was the last one he saw).

So now it's decision time. Which to choose? The Christian curriculum or Motessori currriculum? The bigger church program or the smaller montessori school? Posh North neighborhood or NW business area? Hummm stay tuned....

First month in Florida

2011-09-18T21:35:00.000-04:00

The kids and I flew early Sunday morning, I managed to pack everything into 5 checked items and 3 carry-ons. I weighed all the checked items 2x to ensure they were under the 50lb limit. Considering these were all we had for 10 weeks, I don't think 5 checked bags was all that bad!

I booked a 'taxi van' to take us and our gear to the airport - 6:00am.

Waiting for the train at DIA

I didn't have a pram, so when she wanted to sit I put her in the car seat and dragged it. Hey - don't knock it till you try it.

Waiting to board

Boarding.

Dean goes, "look mama, he's round" way to appeal to all ages Accenture.

The flight was uneventful, although there was a little incident with our seating arrangements. As we started boarding the gate attendant realized we were each sitting in different rows! Someone gave up their seats and we had the row to ourselves. Dean had the window, Lily sat in her car seat in the middle and I had the aisle. The kids were well behaved, Dean and Lily both slept for some of the flight.

View from the balcony

Mikey picked us up at a the airport and we made our way to the condo. The condo is beautiful! It's bright and spacious. Only 2 bedrooms, but with an extra large closet in our room, Lily has a her own private sleeping space (she is a very light sleeper, so sleeping in Dean's room doesn't work). It's on the 8th floor with a balcony. It's on the intracoastal canal, the kids love watching the boats and swimming in the pool.

For the first few days, in between visits to the pool and beach, I learned about our area (grocery stores, wal mart, playgrounds, etc.) and also got provisioned for the hurricane that hit the NE insted of us.

a nice day at hollywood beach

Big surf created by the hurricane

looking at what washed ashore from the big surf

Video: Dean and Lily play in the sand

Video: A Day at Pompano Beach

We also re-started our house search. When Mikey left Ft Lauderdale in July we had a contract on a house and had it inspected. It was in a great location - on the intracoastal and 3 blocks from the beach, but it needed A LOT of work. While Mikey was in Colorado, the contract had expired and we could not get the owners to sign a new one. So we were suspicious. When I got here I requested a viewing of the house along with some others we had found online. I thought that requesting a showing would bring it to a head, and it did. They wouldn't let us see it and apparently the owner is suing the lender. Don't get me started on that. Of course it's the lender's fault you can't pay your mortgage? Who else could be at fault. I also googled the owner and found that he was arrested for drug trafficking in 2005, the punishment would've been life in prison, so I guess he got off, but clearly not a guy living the straight and narrow, so perhaps it is for the best.

After looking at many houses from Hollywood (S) to Pompano Beach (N) on 3 or 4 separate occasions, we found one. The thing is, when you haven't looked at houses in a while or ever, you think that you'll find a perfect house or one that you think is perfect. But that has not been the case - even in this market. They have all be flawed, and in the end we just needed to get one. The last bunch of houses we looked at was the best, 5 were in Pompano Beach and 1 was in Ft Lauderdale, Coral Ridge neighborhood. We could have offered on any of them, although each of them was flawed and none of them was in that 'perfect neighborhood' the first was. Of the 4 in Pompano Beach that were 2-4 blocks from the beach, one was way over priced (75k more than a similar house across the road) but it had a yard and a pool, another only had a pool (no grass) but was better priced, one was tiny, had a great kitchen but you could only get to the backyard through one of the bedrooms (it was more of an office than a bedroom), and another was beautifully updated, but in the updating process the 3 bedroom house became 2. Then there was the last minute addition that I found, it was the only one on a canal, but it was over a mile from the beach and the most expensive (and a tad too big).

So we deliberated. All of them were fine, so in the deliberation, straight away we decided we preferred the closeness to the beach vs the Coral Ridge neighborhood, so it was down to 4, which took us 2 days to decide which one. The canal house won. It had the least flaws and although it was the most expensive, it wasn't that much more expensive considering the size of the house and yard. Second place was the nicely updated 2 bedder, the seller offered to make it back into a 3 bedder if we would like (it has been listed for a long time) and it was a good price, especially considering the 'wow' factor. On Monday we offered on the Canal house and we went to see another Coral Ridge house -- is was a For Sale by Owner house and we had tried to see it over the weekend, but the owners were unavailable. I was interested in this house because it was 1 street behind a grocery store, target, and small mall, close to Chipotle on the Trolley route and right at a mile from the beach, and the photos of the inside looked great. It was beautiful inside. No pool, no canal and like the rest, only 3 bedrooms, but we could have easily converted the 2 car garage into a 4th bedroom. Had we been able to it over the weekend as we tried, we may have offered on it instead. It's not that I have regrets over our Yellow house, it was just so appealing to me to be able to walk to do the shopping and still be close to the beach.

Our house - we close on 20 Oct, The 2nd floor addition above the garage is a separate 1 bedroom apartment.

House from the back yard, view of screened pool and guest house porch

Our dock

Screened pool

We had the inspection on the house yesterday and it is in good shape, there is a section of the roof that needs to be re-done, it is the section under the balcony on the addition, it only had tar paper instead of a proper roofing and has water damage, so we're renegotiating on Monday, hoping to get a better price or have them fix it.

In between visits to the pool and beach and house hunting, Dean and I have toured several preschools. The one I liked the most we now feel is too far (since we are in Pompano Beach instead of Ft Lauderdale), so I have found some more and have appointments to view them early this week. Next on the list is to sign Dean up for Basketball (Oct) and Swimming (Nov). I have also managed to get myself some work. The woman I worked for in New Jersey reached out to me and I will do some contracting work for her in Oct., it's just a few days and we'll see how it goes, if we can juggle the 2 kids and both of us working (me VERY part time) I can probably get more contracting gigs to stay current and fund our travel budget.

Whew, that was a long entry. Now that we are starting to get settled, I expect to be blogging a bit more, I'll let you know about adventures in Vegas, working and how Dean likes his new school.
Until next time...

Dinosaur Ridge

2011-06-18T22:09:00.002-04:00

Dinosaur Ridge is probably in most tourist guides of Colorado, but I didn't know it existed until yesterday. We were catching up with my Uncle and Aunt at a park in Golden and Uncle Bill mentioned that Dean might like to go to Dinosaur Ridge when he tired of the park. One mention of Dinosaurs and Dean was ready to go. Dinosaur Ridge is famous for the hundreds of Dinosaur footprints loated on the side of the ridge and it was the site where the first Stegosaurus was discovered (back in 1877).

Uncle Bill checks out the life-size replica of a stegosaurus

It's located in Morrison near Red Rocks ampitheator. Dinosaur Ridge has a hands on Discovery centre as well as the walking trails where you view the actual footprints and bones still in the Ridge. We started at the Discovery centre, where you learn all about Dinosaurs while playing with toys and it also has an outdoor gravel pit where Dean and Lily dug for dinosaur bones. There are also several stegosaurus statues, some bunnies and some baby robins in a nest where we caught the bus.

Lily chased bunnies near the centre

playing at the discovery centre

Digging for Dinosaur bones

Baby robins - waiting to be fed

Baby girl - waiting to be fed..um I mean watching the robins

After the Discovery Centre we went on the bus to tour the bones and footprints in the ridge. The road was once used to get to Red Rocks, but is now closed to all vehicles except for the tour bus. We stopped at several sites and Dean and Lily touched bones and climbed on the ridge. Fun was had by all!

Dean touches a dinosaur bone

Dean climbs the to see the footprints better

Dinosaur foot prints. The little ones are babies, notice how they are going in the opposite direction to the mommies??

The last four months...

2011-06-14T01:06:00.001-04:00

The Flatirons - near grandma's house.

Where to start? I guess with the kids, they are always top of mind. They are gorgeous, adorable, growing! Lily is walking, running and she is a climber! She is babbling and repeating words (in her own way). She loves fur and silky fabrics, she is a shopper! Loving clothes. She has a favourite dress that she diggs out of the drawer, suitcase, whereever and insists she must wear it (purple pansies - I love it too) she still loves fur and fur vests that she also has to wear. She brings me shoes, any shoes and demands that I put them on her (her brother is not impressed when that includes his new light-up dump truck shoes). She opens the pantry cupboard and takes out uncooked pasta and excitedly gives the bag to you so you can give her some. We play a game during bath time, she stands up and I say, "are you ready to get out" she mimics me and then sits down and I say, "no" and she says no. Repeat. She loves a ride in the pram or pushing her brother in a trike. She is adorable.

Lily pushes Dean on a trike - VIDEO
Lily says grandpa - VIDEO

cute.

Lily in her favorite dress, begging to go outside.

Dean is potty trained. It took the motivation of a Lighning McQueen car (from the movie Cars) to do it, but it's happened. He has changed his frequent question from "what does x do?" to "what happens if I ..." or "what happens if I don't..." more concerned about the consequences. He has become afraid of the dark and asks to keep a light on or the shutters open so light gets in when he is falling asleep. He still loves to help, with almost anything, washing dishes, vaccumming.... He has a pink tiger, kitty cat and baby cheetah that he calls his babies. He tells me often that he is a tiger daddy and even insists that I call him daddy instead of Dean sometimes. Dean is also back into choosing his own clothes (he started that at 17 months), his favorite are his exercise pants (like grandpa wears to his excercise class) and his 'oncos shirt (Broncos).

Dean pushes lily in the swing. He is wearing his favorite outfit.

Dean in Zion with his Tiger

They play together. They chase eachother, he zerberts or tickles her. He wrangles her. He yells at her and occasionally hits her. She pats him and sometimes pulls his hair.
Dean Zerberts Lily - VIDEO

The kids have loved living with their grandparents - playing in the garden with them, hanging out with Aunt Jenny, playing play dough or cars. Fixing all sorts of things. And all the additional attention.

I have loved being in Colorado. Seeing old friends and family. Enjoying the 3 seasons we've experienced, and the Dry weather. Living in the shadow of the flat irons. Walking to the store or the coffee shop. Feeling like I am home. I will miss these things as we head to Ft Lauderdale, but look forward to new adventures and living near the ocean again.

Moving Day!

2011-06-13T22:21:00.001-04:00

It has been a long time since I have regularly blogged, maybe I'm back, maybe not. But I thought I would get an entry in today. The movers arrived this morning and with much excitement Dean ran outside to check out the truck. Straight away he wanted to help pack. There wasn't too much for the packers and movers to do at the grandparents -- although we have acquired more than I ever expected to in 4 months! They packed a dresser and toys that were in front of the dresser and re-taped the 24 boxes from OZ. I wrangled Dean who wanted to be involved in every aspect of the move, he really wanted to go in the truck, but was persuaded not to. He was pretty good about seeing all of his toys go, except for this big tonka truck, which we almost forgot and didn't catch until he was playing with it outside. We convinced him that he would want it in Florida and we gave it to the movers. Lily played with us in the front yard, she was running around the tree and I would chase after her, she was giggling and giggling.

boxes from OZ

Add caption

After an hour and a half the movers followed Dean and I to our 9x9 storage unit in Northglenn. We've had a bulk of our stuff in storage for nearly 7 years! I don't even know what is in those boxes anymore. It will be interesting to unpack Dean and I got the movers some pizza and I pushed Dean on some moving carts until the movers finished up around 2:00. Considering it was supposed to be a 2 day pack and move, they were done in record time!

Storage shack

room to spare.

I feel relief at finally having all my stuff in one place heading to where I am heading. It is also a relief to have it out of the house! We still don't have a place in Ft Lauderdale, but Microsoft will pay for 30 days storage and hopefully by then we will have at least an accepted offer on a house. We offered on one house, but they didn't accept our price and we were not willing to go any higher, so the search continues. We are considering a short sale located 2 blocks from the beach on the Intercoastal waterway, planning to offer on it within the week, so stay tuned!

running after the movers is tiring!

Lilifur

2011-05-02T21:43:00.000-04:00

Double Fur-vesting!

Lily has a lot of nick names: Lilikins, Lil' dogs, Lilydactyle but I've decided I'll start calling her Lilifur. She loves fur. Fur vests, furry stuffed animals, fur jackes, furry blankets, fur trim on her hood.... She cuddles everyting furry and gets so much joy from it. She has 3 fur vests, and if one is around and she isn't wearing it, she'll bring it to the nearest adult and demand that it be put on. Last night as I was putting her to bed the pink cheetah fur vest was on Dean's bed. As I was putting her in her cot she saw it and got very excited, pointing and carrying on, so I got it and put it on her and she slept in it.

Then, this morning, she found the other cheetah vest and demanded it be put on. Double fur-vesting. Cute.

We're moving to...

2011-04-03T22:52:00.000-04:00

~~Reno Ft Lauderdale Reno~~ Ft Lauderdale. The location has changed many times over the course of 5 months and the final answer is Ft Lauderdale.

When Mike started looking for jobs in The States he focused his search on the Denver area and other Western states. He applied for a job in Reno in November. While in Australia he had several interviews over the phone and the location has waffled from Reno to Ft Lauderdale. 3 weeks ago he had a final interview in Reno, which included a city tour with a real estate agent. He came home from that interview psyched about Reno and all the outdoor activities that were so close, including decent skiing just 20 minutes from the city and Tahoe just an hour away, not to mention all the cool places in California we could visit. He got an offer, returned the paper work and we were ready to move to Reno.

Then he got a call from his future bosses boss. Would he consider Ft Lauderdale? The job would be slightly different including managing projects in Puerto Rico. After much debate we decided to give up our future season ski passes in Reno for the sand and sea of Ft Lauderdale.

So, Mikey starts his new job on 11 April, he'll work in Reno for 2 weeks then head to FL. The kids and I will meet him there in Mid May.

Yay Florida!!!

Snow Fun!

2011-03-27T22:42:00.001-04:00

We dusted off the ski's (6 and a half years in storage) and headed up to the rockies for a week of snow fun. We spent the first part of the week with my mother's cousin in her house at Silverthorne. Silverthorne is 1.5 hrs from Denver and a great location to base yourself as it is close to 3 large ski resorts. As always Karen and Colin were excellent hosts and we enjoyed catching up with them.

Dean at the snow castle

First we headed to Keystone where Dean tried skiing for the first time. Mikey took him on a few hills and Dean was standing and turning after less than a hour. He seems to be a natural! After lunch we headed up the gondola to check out the snow castle and try some more skiing.

للي إن ث لودج

Dean was having a good time, but Lily wasn't enjoying herself in the baby backpack (might've been cold as the wind was blowing), so Lily and I hung out in the lodge where Dean and Mike met us after a short time then kids and I headed back down the gondola leaving Mike to ski until 7pm (Keystone is the only resort that has night skiing).

After another day of catching up with Karen and Colin we left Silverthorne and headed to Fraser to join our friends Barton. Fraser is 15 min from Winter Park/Mary Jane ski resort.

Me Skiing powder!

It snowed that night and I was treated to morning skiing with about 6 inches of fresh powder. I reckon that skiing is a bit like riding a bike, even though it had a been a few years it was easy to get back into. Mikey skied that arvo.

Alana, Lily, Mike, Barton Kris, snow man and Dean

Kris, Mikey and Barton snow shoe

Lily on the snow shoeing trip

The next day we went snow shoeing with Barton and Kris. We made a snow man and Dean experienced a snow ball fight. Fun was had by all. Snow shoeing was followed by sledding near the condo.

Lily and Alana snow shoe

The following day we went snow tubing. Right across the street from Barton's condo is a tubing hill with a 'magic carpet' lift that you stand on like a flat escalator with your tube. So it's tubing without walking up the hill and that hill is fast! The kids and adults had a good time!

Barton and Kris went back to Denver after tubing and we stayed another night so we could catch up with some friends that live in Grandby the next day.

Alana used to work with Amy at Accenture in Denver, now Amy co-owns and runs the hardware store in Grandby and her and her husband Dino own and run a restaurant called Brick House 40. We met them for lunch at the restaurant and had a fantastic meal! It was great seeing them and the meal was so good that Mike and I ate way too much and were too full to eat dinner! After lunch we headed back to Boulder.

It was a great week of snow-fun that was made even better by Mike receiving a job offer the second night we were there!

We have arrived

2011-02-27T17:38:00.000-05:00

Chautauqua Park, Boulder, CO

As I was walking the other day I thought of my friends back in OZ and our life there. It was an amazing 6.5 years, the best years of my life. As I thought of my friends there I hoped that they would come visit, so that I could show them the beauty of my state, my home. Colorado, the land of canyons, Rocky Mountains, snow that melts the next day, dry summer heat, great Mexican food and micro brews. Come visit us so we can show you our state and return some of the hospitality you showed us.

In the week that we have been back we’ve seen a few friends, done some shopping, checked out the playgrounds and story times, seen snow fall and felt how cold it is, then marveled when it was gone the next day. Mike has continued his job search and has had an additional conversation with MS, he’ll likely go to Reno to meet face to face with the hiring manager then hopefully a good offer will follow, which will result in us moving to Reno or Ft Lauderdale. Until then he continues to look in Denver.

look at the snow falling!

Although our trip is over I’ll continue to make blog updates, so watch this space. Cheers!

Mike's parents with Mike and Dean

Day 28 Dubai to Denver

2011-02-16T16:00:00.000-05:00

Big Red bus

Today we have plenty of time to tour the city because we don’t have to be at the airport until 10pm. We planed to ride the Big Red Bus all day making stops at the various attractions. There are two routes on the Big Red Bus, one takes you through the old quarter of Dubai and the other goes to the beaches and malls. We started with the old quarter route. The bus supplies headphones and a description of what you are seeing along the way and a little history. This is a nice feature unless you are travelling with a grabby 1 year old and 3 year old. It was nice to listen to it when they would let us :) . The first stop was the Dubai Museum. This museum is located under the Al Fahidi Fort and it was really good - very interactive with mannequins and movies. After touring the museum we joined a walking tour that was included in our bus ticket. The walking tour went through the old town souks (Markets) for textiles and spices. It included a boat ride across the Dubai creek and ended at the Gold Souk.

we road in a boat over Duabi creek like this, it's public transit.

old town souks

The gold Souk is well known because of its size (over 300 merchants) and longevity (dating back to the 1940s). the area was full of merchants in ally ways selling their wares, and was crowded with locals and tourists. The gold souk was amazing - a whole pedestrian mall dedicated to jewellery!! Who could resist? Somehow we did and I didn’t make a purchase.

I think Dubai would be a great place for a shopping trip with the girls (no husbands or kids) you could get some really great clothes and accessories! After the gold souk we got back on the bus and took the beach route. We stopped at a public beach that lies in the shadow of the Burj Al Arab Hotel (7 star hotel with helicopter limo service to the airport)- the beach wasn’t anything special and then headed up to Palm Island. This is a series of man-made islands, that when viewed from above, make out the shape of a Palm Tree. At the Western Crescent there is an aquarium housed in, you guessed it, a mall.

Burj Al Arab Hotel

After that we went back to the Dubai Mall had dinner and watched the fountains again. What amazes me is that there are so many large malls and they are all packed with shoppers. When do people work?? It was time to head back to the hotel to get our bags and head to the airport.

The world's tallest building at night

Our flight boarded at midnight, Dean was asleep before going through the 2nd security check point and Lily fell asleep at about 10pm. When planning this trip we considered making another stop in Europe in order to lessen the flight time over the Atlantic. We decided not to mostly because of the cold weather. Now that we are boarding a 14.5 hour flight from Dubai to Washington DC, we started to think maybe we should have. As it turned out, the kids did great on the flight. They slept until 7, which was such a relief, especially since it was a full flight and we didn’t get a bassinet seat. Timing is everything when choosing flights for infants and toddlers. We arrived in Dulles at 5am, where we experienced the worst immigration line we have encountered the entire trip. Had it not been for the kindness of strangers we would’ve never made our connecting flight to Denver (which was 2 hours after we landed). The final push was a bit taxing on everyone as we were all tired and Lily and Dean needed some room to run. The plane finally landed in Denver and we were happy to see Mike’s parents waiting for us in the airport.

Day 27 Dubai is a Mall

2011-02-15T22:50:00.004-05:00

The world's tallest building

Having felt like we got a good idea of life in Al Ain, we opted to leave for Dubai early this morning. This time we rode a public bus, which just fine, but you could hire a taxi for double the cost (about $40 USD) and get there quicker.

camels and dunes from the bus

We checked into a nice hotel and headed to the lobby Café for lunch. This Café is fabulous because the food is good and staff very attentive and they kept the kids happy. Mikey ordered an iced tea and received a glass full of tea ice cubes (tea previously brewed and frozen into cubes) and a pot of tea. When the waiter saw him reach for the sugar, she promptly brought over sugar water and explained its dissolves faster. This was delightful service. We looked at a city map of Dubai and options for tours, I wanted to do a sand dune tour, we couldn’t find any in Al Ain and were hoping to find one here. We did see dunes all the way to Dubai. All of the sand dune tours included sand boarding, henna, belly dancing, BBQ…etc and were 6 hours long. I just wanted to see some dunes and maybe ride a camel, Mikey offered to watch the kids while I went, but it didn’t want to go alone and I had woken with a swollen knee, so I didn’t want to do any dune surfing or ride in a car for a long time, so no dunes on this trip. Instead we took the free hotel bus to the Dubai mall to check out the tallest building in the world. Most of the malls in Dubai are not just for shopping, they have other entertainment factors, the Dubai mall had an aquarium and access to the tallest building. We looked into going up to the observation check, but it was all booked out until Friday, so we wouldn’t be able to see that attraction this time either. Mikey wanted to see the indoor ski slope, so we headed to the Emirates mall where it is located. As we walked into the Emirates mall we saw one older man walking in traditional dress (a long white dress and scarf with head band on his head) with 4 women walking behind him, in traditional dress (long black dress with black headdress and scarf covering their hair and face with two small holes for their eyes). We both reckoned the women were the 4 wives of the older man.

traditional dress

There were many women in both malls in the traditional dress shopping at stores like Dolce and Gabbana, Dior, Oscar de la Renta, Jimmy Choo, etc. stores where you would pay $4000 for a dress, I just thought it was such a waste - to spend so much on clothes that no one would ever see! We saw the ski slope or part of it while we had some coffee and a muffin.

indoor ski slope

We were ready to head back to the hotel, so we bought a ticket on The Big Red bus, it’s a double decker buss that has set stops at attractions around Dubai, you can hop one and off the bus for 24 hours. The bus took us back to the Dubai mall where we made it just in time to watch the nightly fountain show. The fountain show is very similar to the fountain show at the Bellagio in Vegas, fountains and lights are set to move with music. After the show it was back to the hotel.

Day 26 Al Ain and Lily's Birthday

2011-02-14T22:16:00.043-05:00

Camel Souk (market)

Today is Lily’s first birthday and we had a lot to do including a birthday celebration. The first stop was the Camel Souk (Camel Markets). These markets sell a lot of camels throughout the day and also other animals including goats, sheep, cows, and horses. While there are a few tourists running around (us and about 20 Germans) this place doesn’t cater for tourists. This is the real deal - most people were busy buying or selling livestock.

We witnessed cash changing hands and trailers loading and unloading livestock. We tried not to get into the way and during some downtime the traders would engage the foreigners. These people were really friendly and we struck up many conversations. One camel trader let us go in the pin and pet some baby camels and took our photos.

Another man selling sheep told me about his business and quoted the price of an Autralian Marino sheep at $700 AED ($200 AUD). I wasn’t prepared when he asked how much a sheep sales for in Australia. Good question and one you might expect an Australian hanging around a sheep market to know. After checking out the wares, we decided this wasn’t the place for Lily’s birthday present. Because there are no taxis here, we walked to a nearby mall, which has a cab stand. It turns out that we entered the mall in the jewelry section. One store had particularly shiny things and I walked away with a new ring by the time we made our way through.

Al Ain Palace Muesum

The next stop was the Al Ain Palace museum and lunch. Upon arriving, we walked around looking for a restaurant, but didn’t have luck finding a place we wanted to eat in, so we got some snacks and fruit to hold us over. The Al Ain Palace is a mud brick fort sitting on the edge of an Oasis. What struck me is that the palace consisted of 4 rooms that sat on the perimeter of a courtyard, which is where it appeared most of the living was done. I like that concept, live and cook outside, reserving rooms for sleeping.

Inside the Palace

The next stop was the Oasis. This was not what we expected. It’s basically a communal palm tree farm that has been partitioned by brick walls for each ‘owner’ to manage their plot. We walked on a paved maze through the palm trees to the Al Ain Museum It was a nice cool walk and we did notice that some of the plots were tilled in between the palm trees, so some other planting might be planted in the spring, although all we saw now was dirt and palm trees and in one plot a pool.

Oasis path

Oasis plot

Museum is housed in another fort, it has artifacts from the area that date back to 3000BC, it also had a genealogy chart of the current sultan, only the males are listed for all the generations, what I found interesting was that the current sultan has 19 sons! I wonder how many wives and daughters he has.

outside the museum

click on the family tree to enlarge.

We asked a guard where we could find a restaurant and he suggested one. We sat down and the waiter asked if we wanted fish, chicken or lamb. We both said chicken and food just started arriving. Soup then rice then ochre in a spicy sauce, then lettuce salad and half a chicken (each). It was a lot of food and we didn’t come close to finishing it. It was cheap too - $10. We then went in search of a birthday cake. We found one patisserie, but it was closed, so we bought some packaged cupcakes and headed back to the hotel. At the hotel restaurant they had some cakes available, so we got a slice of a Florida cake . I had brought a candle from home, so we put Lily in her birthday outfit (traditional Vietnamese dress) and sang happy birthday. She was fascinated with the candle, but seemed to prefer the fruit on the cake to the cake itself.

After cake the kids played on the playground until sunset approached, at which time we got into a taxi and headed up to Jabal Yibir, the highest point in UAE at 5,666 ft. It was a windy road up to the top, and chilly, but the sunset was pretty cool and the views OK, would’ve been better on a clear day.

Day 25 Maldives to Dubai

2011-02-13T22:14:00.002-05:00

We were sad to leave the island today and thought there was more to do if we stayed longer. I can’t believe we didn’t do any diving, but it just didn’t work out, we had to first do a quick little beach dive (to prove to know what we’re doing) and those were only at 2:30 (nap time, dolphin cruise, island hopping all got in the way of that) and you can’t dive 24 hours before you fly -- which ruled out a dive yesterday….oh well the snorkeling was great and it allowed us to spend great beach and pool time with the kids. We left the resort soon after finishing breakfast and spent the usual time waiting for the plane to board. Since today is valentines day, there was a message on the TV that said Muslim Leaders were warning people not to celebrate the holiday as it could lead to immoral behavior. We then boarded a flight to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. We are actually staying in a city called Al Ain for the next two nights as we heard this was a place to see the ‘real Middle East’. We had a run of good luck after landing. We found a complimentary shuttle service run by Emirates airline (which by the way is the best airline we’ve flown so far - out of 7) to take us the 1.5 hour trip from Dubai to Al Ain, thereby saving us the hassle and cost of arranging transport. Then at the hotel we got a free upgrade from a standard room to a villa. The villa has a patio with views of the playground and pool area and so we had to try out the playground. Mikey took the kids out and in an attempt to push Dean on the swings, set Lily down on the grass. She didn’t want to sit there and actually stood up unassisted and stood there for quite some time. This is a new development for Lily and so Mikey continued to encourage her to walk a short distance and she almost did. Lily will be walking any day now! We stayed at the resort for dinner and planned for tomorrow.

Day 24 Maldives

2011-02-12T15:11:00.003-05:00

Dean and his friend Katie, the dark area in the water is actually a school of fish

This morning we snorkeled near the sun downer and while Mike was snorkeling Katie (the little British girl from last night) arrived at the beach. Katie has a sister who is 13 months, so everyone played together all morning while Mike and I took turns snorkeling. While playing in the shallows we saw a few black tip reef sharks - just little guys. No need to worry as there are heaps of fish around and so they are well fed. When I went for a snorkel I saw a huge black tip, it was a little scary, as I wasn’t expecting to see such a big one, he just swam by as I watched.

Heron

It is quite common to see these large white herons on the beach and Dean loves to chase and scare birds. This time Dean was quietly walking behind the bird getting closer, but slowly and quietly walking - Dean is a good stalker. Suddenly the bird turned around on him, puffed up, let out a loud squak, and snapped at him. It scared the daylights out of Dean, so much that he was crying for some time after. I think he just couldn’t believe that a bird wasn’t scared of him. I didn’t get the action on film, but I got part of the retreat! Perhaps Dean learned a good lesson about dealing with wildlife today.

Dean stalks the heron

Dean makes a hasty retreat

We had one last sunset, it wasn’t as good as the first, but still a beautiful end to a gorgeous day.

Day 23 Maldives Island Tour

2011-02-11T15:07:00.003-05:00

Swimming at Paradise Island Resort

This morning we went on the half day Island hopping tour. We learned a lot about the Maldives and island life. They are a new democracy, with the old dictator in jail in London. They held their first election for a president four years ago.

Election posters

The old dictator, apparently is good mates with Mubarak, so many people were interested in the political events in Egypt. The town we visited just had their first elections for council members one week prior. There are 300,000 people who live in the Maldives and the island we went to has 1,000 inhabitants, but the guide told us we wouldn’t see many of them because the men work in the resorts or they are fishermen. If the men find work at a close resort they can go home every 6 days, but many work too far from home and only get to go home once a year for a month. Our waiter who played with Lily said he missed his daughter who is 4 months old, he said they live far away, I suppose he will only see her once in her first year. One of the big issues facing the islands is the rising seas. If the ocean continues to rise at the same rate, the islands will be underwater in 50 years time. The new president established the Undersea committee to address the issue. The other aspiration for the country is to become the first carbon neutral country in the world.

typical street

After the tour we had an hour to explore the island. All the local tourist shop proprietors promptly came over and encouraged us to look in their store. The shops provided shade and we were happy to stroll through. Each shop had a little different layout, but pretty much sold the same things. They sold all kinds of touristy nick-nacks and I wondered who would want to buy this stuff. As it turns out, many others on the tours bought quite a bit of stuff, so I was glad they supported the local economy.

Shops

After the island tour we visited another resort called Paradise. It was ok, but we would have preferred to spend the time in our resort as it had better beaches and reefs. Once back at the resort we resumed the usual routine of snorkeling and swimming in the pool.

Bungalows at the Paradise resort and a local moving sand in his boat

Dean and Mikey at Paradise

Lily at Paradise Resort

That night at the Sundowner Dean met a little girl from the UK. They were instant friends, they ran around the bar together and Dean kept running back to our table saying, “She is my best ever friend”. When they left there were hugs and kisses. So cute.

Day 22 - Maldives

2011-02-10T22:40:00.032-05:00

Today started much the same as yesterday. Breakfast, pool, and snorkeling. We also tested out the kids club, which is basically free baby sitting. Lily fell asleep and Dean joined other kids in many fun activities, such as playing with turtles. Because of Mikey’s experience snorkeling yesterday, we thought this would be a good place to take photos underwater and went to the shop to get one of those disposable cameras. Instead, we bought this plastic waterproof bag designed for digital cameras. Mikey put our beloved camera into the bag and went out for a test run. It worked well and we got some good pictures.

Now it was my chance to don the snorkel gear and explore the reef. After a about one minute in the water, I noticed bubbles coming up and noticed that the bag had ripped at the seem and flooded with salt water. Mikey tried to resuscitate the camera on the shore, but it was pronounced dead later that evening. He watched from the shore as I splashed around. When finished, he asked if I saw the dolphins. There were dolphins jumping out of the water right along the reef ledge where I was snorkeling! I didn’t see them in the water, but they were not the only dolphins around today.

We chose to participant in one of the optional excursions with the resort, which was a dolphin sunset cruise. The boat traveled out to deeper water and we watched spinner dolphins as they jumped and spun in the air. Dean got some special attention from the crew and we all enjoyed the sunset afloat.

Even a baby spins through the air

Days 21 Paradise

2011-02-09T14:39:00.016-05:00

We woke up in paradise, surrounded by white sand beaches and aqua seas. A little breeze blowing through the palm trees. We started out day at the pool. There are 2 pools, separated by a bar. One is a little shallow pool with a fountain in the middle - perfect for Dean and Lily. The other is larger and deeper and has jets at the seats by the pool-bar. Very nice. After the pool we went to the beach just in front of our little hut and played in the sand. The conditions here are perfect. The air and water temperature are perfect and the sea is clear and emerald color and contrasts beautifully with the white sand on the beach. I just kept thinking this is paradise.

you can see the coral and then the deeper water where there is a coral ledge or wall

A coral ledge surrounds the island that is about 3 to 5 ft deep and extends out to sea for about 50 ft. There is a drop off to much deeper, blue, crystal clear water. The reef is very healthy compared to other popular dive sites around the world. There are plenty of fish and if you peer off into the blue abyss, you could see large tuna, dolphins, and plenty of black tip sharks. Since I took a nap with the kids this afternoon, Mikey took full advantage of the incredible snorkeling just outside our front door.

nice shot of the coral reef just outside our villa

That afternoon, I walked the circumference of the island with Lily and it took 40 minutes. On the East side you have the reception, restaurants, and shops. On the West side is the dive shop, water sports hire, and the Sundowner bar. Our room was on the Northeast point, which is also the windward side of the island. Going to the Sundowner is the thing to do for sunset so we arrived and took our place on the pier and had a few cocktails. Looking down into the water from our table we were delighted to see a handful of juvenile black tip sharks, plenty of reef fish, and even an octopus.

Octopus - we'll add the video of it swimming tomorrow.

black tip reef shark

Dean entertained himself by playing in the sand. At least until the other kids his age arrived, then it was off to the races. Running around in circles and laughing hysterically is an global language to three year olds.

Day 20 Bangkok to Maldives

2011-02-08T14:03:00.001-05:00

A morning walk and then it was time to catch our flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a 2 hour layover and then the longer flight to the Maldives. We had just enough time in KL to grab some dinner with the Ringgits I had left over from my business trip there a few years ago. Our flight arrived in the Maldives around 10pm, both kids having slept most of the flight. We rode a high speed boat in the dark to the Resort Island. It was pitch black and we were going very fast, we hit a few waves and were jostled around a bit - got the adrenaline going. We were welcomed with a fruit cocktail and had a ride in the golf cart to our villa.

Day 19 Bangkok - 8 Feb

2011-02-07T13:50:00.001-05:00

Today we toured the Jim Thompson house. Jim Thompson was an American CIA agent and business man who helped to build the Thai silk industry. He built his house from 6 traditional Thai houses and furnished it with fine antiques. Jim went missing in a Malaysian jungle when he was on holiday at the age of 65, he has never been found. His house is now a museum managed under a foundation and his business still thrives today. The house was beautiful and we also liked the Jim Thompson products - the fabrics were exquisite. Mikey bought a nice raw silk shirt and I got a handbag.

After the Jim Thompson house Mikey went to the Modern Art museum and I hung out at an internet café with a sleeping Lily then we walked around the city looking at all of the street markets and food stalls.

It looked and smelt soooo good, but we didn't risk it.

We got some waffles.

In the evening I had a nice foot massage - 1 hour for less than $10. If I lived here I’d have fresh flowers and foot massages at least weekly!

Day 18 Tiger Temple!

2011-02-06T12:01:00.002-05:00

I have had some wonderful experiences in the past interacting with wild animals as part of a zoo or other ecological program. For example when we were in South Africa, I got to pet baby cheetahs in a zoo and the proceeds went to protecting cheetahs in the wild. A good experience supporting a worthy cause. I was therefore looking forward to visiting the Tiger Temple. This is a facility run by monks who dedicate their lives to helping tigers. They let people visit for a fee in order to keep the temple running. The tiger temple was THE thing I wanted to see in Thailand and it is part of the day tour.

We were the first people picked up in the minivan at 6:20, we proceeded to make 6 other stops with a total of 14 people in the van and at 7:30 we were finally on our way to the floating markets. We arrived at the canals and got onto a long tail boat, this boat was not as big as the one we were on yesterday and the seats were basically on the floor instead of a proper seat, but this was also just a canal and not in the river. We took a 15 min ride to the floating market. Along the way I noticed that all the houses had gates. These people had things that were worth stealing - unlike the canals yesterday. I’m sure most of these houses had goods for the markets. We arrived at the floating markets and they were as I had expected - touristy. Either side of the canal had shops selling souvenirs with the boats in the canal selling the same items as well as some fruit and Thai food. We had the option of renting a Saipan to go down the canal, but decided to walk instead, as we weren‘t interested in buying anything and so went to a coffee shop along the canal and watched the boats go by, then we walked the length of the canal.

On the way back a little boy befriended Dean and showed him a small playground. The 2 boys played for a while, Dean didn’t want to leave.

We waited for the rest of the tour group and were back on the bus for a quick drive to the Elephants. I paid $30 for Dean and I to take an elephant ride which he was very excited about. This turned out to be a huge tourist trap, as was the rest of tour…Dean and I boarded the elephant and went for a short ride around a track (twice) once going through a small disgusting, smelly, stagnant pond. The elephant driver even stopped to try and sell me some items made from elephant teeth . During the entire ride we could hear the Monkey show going on in the centre of the track, it was just such a tourist trap. But Dean did enjoy riding on an “El hant”.

After the Elephant ride we headed to another touristy place - a cobra show, I had read that this was an awful show where cobras fight ferrets or weasels and we weren’t interested of course this was also an extra charge No one on the bus bought a ticket, so they took us to a wood working shop. This was a very nice shop with amazing carvings, the artisans were there chipping away at the wood as we watched their designs come to life. After the wood working place we got on a different minivan with other people who were also going to see the tigers. We stopped at a restaurant along the river for lunch then it was off to see the tigers. When we arrived at the tiger temple the driver asked us to come with him as we needed to buy a ticket for Lily. He said that his tour company doesn’t charge for infants, but the tiger temple does, so we’ll have to buy a ticket for her The Agro Alana surfaced at this. You see the whole tour was annoying me. The extra charge for this and that, all the wasted time at the cobra show, the wood working shop and the fact that I asked the woman at the travel shop when we booked if the kids were all right to go to the tiger temple - THREE TIMES. Yes, yes she said. I told the guide as much and that our tickets had the infant on them and therefore she needed a ticket. He still wanted us to buy it, the problem was two fold with that - 1 - on principle I didn’t want to buy one, we purchased the tour, she was included and therefore they should purchase the ticket and 2- we didn’t have any Thai Baht on us, all we had was our ATM and Credit card, so we couldn’t buy a ticket for her. So I told the tour guide we didn’t have any money for her and I wanted a refund for my husband’s tiger temple ticket since he would have to sit in the parking lot with her. I think the word refund got him going and he rang our ticketing agent and after a few phone calls he bought Lily the ticket. So off we went to see the tigers, it’s about a 10 minute walk along a dirt road and down into a little ravine to reach the tigers. Once you get to the ravine there are 2 lines, one for photos with your own camera and one for special photos that are posed with the tiger face on your lap. Before we arrived at the tigers the tour guide told us that we didn’t have time for the special photos so just go in the line with your own camera. So we got into the line with your own camera and here we were told that Lily couldn’t go with us to pat the tigers, so Mikey took her for a walk. Then a little closer to the front of the line and I’m told that Dean can’t go in to pat the tigers because it is a one on one thing, so he would have to go alone with a handler, not with me. So he couldn’t go in with me or at all. Before booking the tickets I thought Dean wouldn’t be allowed, but when the woman at the travel agency said the kids were fine I thought that he would be allowed to pat the tigers with me - nope. I should have researched it better myself, then I wouldn’t have gotten Dean’s hopes up. So here’s how it goes. You give your camera to someone and then another guide takes you to a tiger, you pat it, have 3 photos taken and move on to another tiger, repeat for 5 tigers. It was such a joke! You barely pat the thing and you are moving on, it’s like you’ve rented a tiger for a photo shoot. I thought it would be more like meet a cheetah at the Canberra zoo, or patting baby cheetahs in South Africa - actually interacting with them a little. Instead it was 5 seconds at each tiger in an assembly line. After my photo shoot with the tigers we walked up the ravine to see the baby tigers. As we were walking up the ravine I was venting to Mike about the whole experience - wasting so much time at the tourist traps and didn’t have much time with the tigers, the tigers were a joke, I couldn’t believe you had to pay 600 baht ($20) for Dean and Lily when they couldn’t do anything, and even stopped Mikey from patting the tigers, this was nothing like what I saw on the travel show - with monks walking tigers, instead it was a bunch of ‘tiger handlers‘ and one monk sitting there for show….after my vent my bitterness had dissipated a bit and when we got up the ravine we saw a few monks walking tigers (so this is where the monks are).

I was showing Dean one and a monk noticed and he grabbed Dean and put him on the tiger! DEAN RODE A TIGER! My bitterness was erased. That was cool, they took the little boy and put him on a tiger, that is what I expected from a tiger temple, some non-commercial goodness.

We saw some baby tigers and some other animals and it was time to get in the minivan again, we didn’t have time to watch the tigers get walked up the ravine we had to get to the next stop - the bridge over the river <>. This bridge is part of a railroad that was built by Japanese POWs in WWII, thousands died building it. After the stop at the bridge we made our way back to Bangkok. On the way back we talked to an Aussie and 2 Canadians on our minivan, one of the Canadian’s had lived in Sydney, so we had that in common, it was nice meeting some other travelers. We were the first to be picked up and last to be dropped off - around 7:30.

Day 17 The Venice of Asia

2011-02-05T11:01:00.044-05:00

Our Long Tail

Lily had a really rough night. She was up every 30 min from midnight until 4, then she slept until 6 and then back to sleep until 8. When she would wake, it wasn’t her normal, ‘I need a cuddle or feed or some attention to get back to sleep’ it was a full on screaming cry. Loud and painful. She wanted to feed every time and if I moved her wrong she would scream some more. I was pretty worried about her, but at 6 she seemed a little better and at 8 she woke and was almost back to her normal self, she didn’t want to hold her own weight up, but was smiling and seemed to be feeling better. By the time Mikey and Dean returned from breaky she was back to her normal self. Whew! Poor thing, I think she was dehydrated from yesterdays epic urban hike! I think I was also dehydrated, which probably didn’t help the situation. We vowed to take it easier on the kids today and make sure everyone gets enough water.

Bangkok is known as the Venice of Asia, instead of canals lined with European architure, there are Asian style houses, instead of churches; there is the grand palace and temples and you tour the canals, not on gondolas but on long tails. We hired a long tail boat to take us through some Bangkok canals and visit an orchid garden and floating market. A long tail boat is, as the locals say, a boat that is ‘long and narrow like a tail’. They are also outfitted with what looks and sounds like a V8 engine lifted straight out of a car. Needless to say, there is no shortage of horse power.

Entering the canals

Look at that engine!

There are locks from the river into the canal, we waited with other boats for it to open

The canals are lined with people’s homes and you see people going about their daily routine, pretty much used to tourists roaring by and taking photos. There are also many temples along the canals and we also saw a crocodile (just a little one).

A modest home

A shack

A very nice canal home

look at all the laundry!

Little Crocodile

The orchid garden was the first stop and has acres of shade houses full of orchids. Mikey bought a jar full of baby orchids, which probably will not make it home due to customs in the US or one of the other countries we are traveling though - stay tuned…

Plants in the canal

the orchid garden with our long tail

The floating market turned out to be quite small and frequented by mostly Thai people. There were only a few boats selling things (mostly food) and the rest of the stalls were on land, so it didn’t quite turn out to the picture I had in my mind which was more of boat to boat transactions, this was either pier to boat transactions or pier to pier transactions.

The canals have heaps of fish

Floating market

local groceries

We bought a little snack and returned to the long tailed boat. That afternoon we returned to the hotel and Mikey took Dean down to the pool for a little playtime. It was a cooler day and we did take it a little easier today. Next up is an all day bus tour, which could be challenging for the kids.

Day 16 Bangkok is a Market and the Chao Phraya River

2011-02-04T10:44:00.005-05:00

Bird on the Chao Phraya River

After yesterdays traffic jam experience we decided to forgo cars today and travel via sky train and ferry. For our first Day in Bangkok, Mikey planned an outing that would take us from one side of the city to the other. We were lucky to be in Bangkok for the weekend because there are several markets that are only on the weekend. One of the biggest ones (possibly biggest in the world) is the Chatuckak Market. We became aware of this market as it is featured in our 1001 Places to see before you Die travel book. This market is huge and pretty much sales anything you might want. We were not shopping for anything particular. We just wanted to see the spectacle and people. On the way to the markets we passed a playground, which Dean wanted to visit. We coaxed Dean to keep on walking by telling him we were going to see animals, there is a section for pets (or are they?). It was also becoming a hot day so I got a soda and Mikey tried a lime juice drink from a street vendor, which had ice, 2 no no's in one glass. We did see the animals, tiny little puppies being washed and blow dried, some ducks and chicks. Dean was satisfied with that.

On the way back to the Sky Train we let Dean play in the playground. As usual, he met some of ‘his friends’ and had a good time. We then took the Sky Train back across town to the Chao Phraya River and took a tourist boat to the Grand Palace. To get from the ferry to the Palace you walk through many street markets selling many interesting (but not desirable) objects. The Grand Palace is absolutely amazing and embodies exactly what my expectations for Thailand. It has huge statues of gods and amazing buildings coated in gold and sparkly tiles.

grand palace

more grand palace

and more grand palace

Lily at the grand palace

After the palace, we headed back through the markets to catch the ferry to our next stop. On the way we spotted a travel agency and decided to book a tour with them as we waited for the ferry. The office was air conditioned and they gave us water. What they didn’t give us was a warning that the last ferry was about to leave (so we would compete the transaction). We got out of the office with a day tour organized and some confusion as to how to get back on the ferry. We eventually learned that we had to walk back through the street markets to the next pier. From there we headed to the Flower Markets, which are streets lined with vendors selling millions of cut flowers.

50 roses for 50 baht (less than $2), I'd have fresh flowers all the time if I lived here!

This was our last stop on a long day and we finished up by taking the ferry back to the train and the train back to the hotel. By this time it was getting late and Dean and Lily were hot, tired, and hungry. In reflecting on the day, we realized that Bangkok is an enormous and busy city and also one for the street vendors and markets.

Day 15 Cambodian silk and Hello Bangkok

2011-02-03T12:28:00.016-05:00

In the morning Dean and I had another swim. He can walk in the pool’s shallow end and he loves to tow me around by my leg or my swim suit straps. He tells me I’m a baby or a kitty cat and takes me to the coffee shop or feeds me by the side of the pool. It’s fun being towed around, and playing with him in the pool. After our swim we loaded up a taxi with our bags and headed to a Silk factory, we’d go straight from their to the airport.

At the silk factory they showed us how silk is made from beginning all the way to weaving the final product. First they showed us the mulberry bushes which are the silk worm’s food and home (in the wild). Then they showed us the silk worm eggs and moths breading. The silk worm only lives for 47 days. During that time they hatch, eat, make a cocoon, mate, lay eggs and die. What a short life! Although the silk worm moths have wings they don’t fly. The silk is made from their cocoon. The cocoons are left in the sun to kill the worm or they are boiled. Then they spin the silk yarn from the cocoon. The outer layer of the cocoon is used for raw/rough silk and the inner sections are used for the finer fabrics. Once the silk thread is made, it is then died and woven. The skill required to make a design and weave it properly is just amazing. In this factory all of this is done by individuals, whereas in other countries, such as China, its done by machine. It was cool to see how silk is made. I never knew it was made from the cocoon. The factory had a beautiful garden with a Khmer restaurant and we had a lovely lunch there before heading to the airport.

Small silk worms eating mulberry leaves

the silk worm stops eating and builds its cocoon

making a cocoon

making the thread from the cocoons

weaving the silk from the threads

The airport is tiny, with only one flight leaving at a time I thought we wouldn’t need to be there 2 hours before our international flight, but the hotel advised us that we should be. When we got there we understood why, The check in process took a long time, and there were only 2 lines, then after checking in you had to get in the longer departure tax line. The departure tax is the most expensive part of Cambodia - it cost us $63 USD to get out, that is more than twice as much as our Mexican dinner (which included 4 margaritas and a beer). Clearly this is a huge money maker for the government. We paid for everything in USD, which was nice not to have to exchange money.

As we were going through immigration again they let me and the kids go through as Mike stayed behind, they also gave us special treatment in boarding the flight - walking us right up to the front of the line. Cambodia is a very family friendly place to travel to, they just love kids and it transfers into their policies.

As we descended into Bangkok I could see that it was a huge city with much industry, unlike Vietnam or Cambodia. The airport was huge and once again they also let us go to a special line in immigration so we wouldn’t have to wait as long in line. The kids and I got to go through while Mikey stayed back. As I was collecting our bags an airport employee helped me and ended up escorting us all the way to our taxi - very nice service! Our flight landed around 3:30, we got into the taxi at about 4:30, we got to our hotel around 6. The traffic was horrific! Stop and go and for about 30 min we made no progress! You can tell this is a bigger more developed city/country. Everyone has a car instead of a motorbike, there is a rush hour like we’re used to - just too many cars trying to get to the same places, where in Vietnam it was that the infrastructure was missing, not so much the volume of cars. After we FINALLY arrived at the hotel….

Day 14 More Angkor temples

2011-02-02T11:57:00.002-05:00

Angkor Wat at Sunrise

Darkness. The sound of a single mosquito. A baby crying in the distance. Shuffling feet. A few flickers of torches. This is sunrise at Angkor Wat. As the rest of the family slept, I took a 5 am tuk tuk ride to watch Angkor Wat illuminate as the run raised behind it. When I arrived I noticed a lot of people congregating near the waters edge for the reflection of the temple on it’s moat - a beautiful shot.

I got back to the hotel and joined the family for breakfast. We liked our tuk-tuk driver and the ride as it was shaded and cool so we traveled by tuk-tuk once again. The first temple was Preah Khan, which Mikey picked after reading about it in the book. The Khmer rule was influenced by both Indian and Chinese cultures over the years. The older temples honor Hindu deities while later ones Buddha. The Preah Khan is another large and complex facility, which was used as a Buddhist university. It was built by a ruler who embraced both religions and so you can see sculptures for both inside. We walked a kilometer from the West entrance to the Eat. The temple seemed to go on and on. And not only lengthwise but width as well.

We then went to the Neak Pean temple, which is an island and then visited Ta Som. When we reached the end of Ta Som I was standing watching the leaves blow as one landed on my chest, I went to brush it off and it stuck to my thumb. I was shocked and when I shook my hand to get it off my lens cap also went flying and I let out a little scream. It was enough to wakeup Lily who had been sleeping peacefully and get a laugh out of the onlookers. The bug landed on the ground and as Mikey took pictures of it a small crowd formed with others wanting to take a picture. The bug looked like a praying mantis with a leaf attached to his back.

this was on me!

We walked around some of the other temples and Dean found a small one. He said, “This one is Dean sized. Is this our new home?” We’ve been telling him that we are moving to a new home, I’ve even heard him tell some people he’s going to a new home in the states. So he’s been listening.

Dean Sized

The Tuk Tuk driver took us to one more temple, which was quite different from the others, it had brick sized stones instead of large block stones at the tops of many of the spires. The central building of the temple was a very steep structure, we all climbed up it, Mikey and Dean went first so I could take their photo. At the top I tried a timed photo of Lily and I after one failed attempt a nice Kiwi offered to take our photo.

note the bricks on top

Kiwi photo

When we were done looking around I was thinking, ‘how am I going to get down?’ but it was no problem, even with Lily strapped on. After this temple we told the Tuk Tuk driver we wanted to go into the city for lunch. We ate at the first place we found. It was a French-Khmer restaurant. The waitresses loved Lily and took her all around the restaurant and into the kitchen. I can not tell you how many people have held and carried Lily, they just love her, add all the people who have touched her and I’m she we’d be close to 500. Cambodians love kids, as did the Vietnamese, even the men oooh and awww over them. After lunch we walked around and wished we had walked around before lunch, as there was a Mexican restaurant that had won many awards, and we were wishing we’d gone there. There are heaps of restaurants and shops around. We did a little shopping then headed back to the hotel for a swim.

foot massage

At 4 we went back into the city for dinner - we just had to try the Mexican food and I wanted to get a foot massage. Along the sidewalks are fish tanks with seats so that you can sit there with your feet in the water. There are small fish that give you a massage by eating the dead skin off your feet. I love foot massages and was up for trying something different and Dean is always keen, so we gave it a go. I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. The fish were a bit aggressive for my liking and it tickled. Dean didn’t last long at all! One of the women at the foot spa wanted to hold Lily and Mike obliged. He wasn’t interested in the foot massage, as his feet are very ticklish. She held Lily for along time, showing her the fish, she even took off Lily’s shoes and socks and dipped her feet in the pool. Lily, being the water girl she is (just like her mama), loved it and started kicking and the woman was quite impressed with her kick. She enjoyed it more than Dean did, although once he saw Lily put her feet in he did too.

Lily Admirers

After the fish foot massage it was off to dinner. Until this meal we have eaten local (Vietamese in Vietnam and Khmer in Cambodia, etc…) but we just couldn’t pass up a Mexican restaurant. We found only one good Mexican restaurant in Australia (although there are many excellent other restaurants). It was one train stop from the city centre of Melbourne on the Yarra line (if memory serves me right..). So we’re always starved for Mexican food and thought we would give this restaurant a try. We were NOT disappointed. The food was excellent - and I’m not talking ‘good for a Mexican restaurant in Asia good’, but authentic we could have been in Mexico and it’s even hard to find this good of Mexican food in Colorado - good. WOW. Well worth the $3 (round trip) tuk tuk ride. During dinner the hostess took Lily to the kitchen to show her to the cooks, she was gone for a while, but returned with a smiling Lily who had acquired a banana. At 7:00 it was back to the hotel.

Day 13 Angkor Wat and the other temples

2011-02-02T06:43:00.001-05:00

our tuk tuk and driver

We had a very nice breakfast and boarded the tuk tuk which is a covered carriage attached to a motorbike. We realized the temples were further from the hotel than we wanted to bike and that they are a considerable distance from one another, so a tuk tuk was the best transport for us not to mention a pretty cool experience.

The driver knew the best order to see the temples in - some are better in the morning, some at evening. He also chose the temples closest to our hotel telling us that we might want to hire a car for those that are farther away, although he could also drive us. We had to purchase tickets, which is the reason Lily and I got the extra passport photos - we needed one for the visa and according to the travel books and guides you would save time by having one for the tickets to the Angkor temples park. This advise is as outdated as film in a camera. The park simply takes a digital photo and it is printed on the ticket (I suppose so you cant give your ticket to someone else). So we didn’t need the photos and getting tickets wasn’t a big deal. With tickets in hand we joined the crowd traveling through the South gate entrance of the park

South Gate

We were on tuk-tuk and others were in buses, cars, minivans, bicycles, on foot and riding elephants. This is an impressive gate with thin and tall and walls, surrounded by a moat and an avenue lined by, probably 40 warrior statues.

Bayon Faces

The first temple we stopped at was the Bayon temple in the Angkor Thom complex. The temples and other structures are all built from sandstone that was cut into large blocks. The blocks are simply stacked on each other in such a way that large structures can stand without collapsing. It was interesting to see how the temples are built and the sculptures carved into the stone. It was also a surprisingly complex layout with many levels and rooms. We did not have a guide, but many other people did. Between overhearing tidbits from other guides and our book, we felt we had enough insight. This experience reminds me of the temples on the Nile in Egypt, huge stone structures with gods carved into the rock. We are so glad we went to Egypt in 2007 who knows how long until they will become accessible again with the political changes and protesting.

Now you would think that this is the type of activity that a three year old would find supremely boring, but luckily, this is not the case for Dean. He even said “I like temples” and “can we go to another temple?“ For Dean, the temples are the ultimate playground. Open spaces to run through, rocks to climb on and jump off, dirt, and people giving him attention. He loves going into the smaller rooms of the temples that have short little doors that are ‘Dean sized’. He goes into them and treats them like a cubby house, pretending to make and serve us coffee and muffins. I’ll bet that pretend lattes are not what the builders pictured while lugging and carving the stone.

Our tuk-tuk driver took us to a restaurant serving Khmer food, which was delicious. They also gave us bottled water which was much needed as there is little shade and hot temperatures. Khmer food suits our tastes and we never had a bad experience the whole time. It is spicy and often incorporates coconut and fish or chicken.

After lunch, our final temple of the day was Angkor Wat - the grandest of all temples and iconic city, which will impress regardless of your expectations. Angkor Wat was built roughly midway through the Khmer rule (starting in year 790) and has been used until the sixteenth century. It was continuously updated and cared for, so the structure and the carved scripts are in good shape. Each temple we saw today seemed to be more amazing than the last with Angkor Wat the pinnacle. After a long hot day we took the kids for a swim and nap.

Day 12 HCMC to Siem Reap

2011-02-01T01:50:00.000-05:00

HCMC New Year street garden

This morning we walked through the street gardens (for lack of a better word) since they were opened in last nights ceremony. We strolled up an down the street, which has various displays. There was an orchid section, water display section, and of course a cat sculpture section. In China this is they year of the Rat, but Vietnam, is celebrating the year of the Cat. It was a hot day and we had all had enough by 11:30, so we headed back to the hotel for lunch, then it was time to head to the airport to Cambodia.

Welcome to Cambodia!

It was a short 45 minute flight to Siem Reap. Vietnam Airways served us a box dinner and both kids were champion fliers. When we landed we were standing in line to get our visas when Dean had a complete melt down (no nap today). He was in the baby backpack, but wanted out, we wanted him to stay in so he wouldn’t reek havoc, but he won, we couldn’t take the screaming. We let him out to discover the reason he wanted out was to chat with ‘my friends’. Lily, Dean and I were allowed to go into the baggage claim area as Mikey worked through getting all the paper work done. When we got to the baggage claim area Dean went straight up to 2 girls who were a little older than him and chatted them up. It went something like this, ‘My mommy daddy on aeroplane. We on aeroplane, go to new home….’ They were unresponsive to his charm, but he was persistent and followed them around. He even tried to leave with them which gave their mom a worried look. I of course intervened before he got to the door. He said bye bye and we got our luggage.

We read numerous warnings about various scrupulous behavior that can be found in South East Asia, such as pick pocketing and other scams. For instance, taxi drivers are often paid a commission if they bring tourists to certain shops or hotels, etc… So far we hadn’t seen any of these shenanigans, however, we were also aware that corruption runs rampant in Cambodia so kept alert. We got a metered taxi at the airport to take us to the hotel. On the ride, the taxi driver was going on and on about how far out of town the hotel was and asked why did we pick such a place. I started second guessing my choice in hotels after he had to ask for directions and we turned down a dark dirt road. I had booked it after reading about it on trip advisor, so it couldn’t be that bad. He kept going on saying that was the first time in his ten years of driving that he ever took someone to this place. After a while, the antics became clearer and when he asked if we had paid for the room in advance, we were on to him. We did arrive at the proper place and it was lovely. After the ride he asked if we would like to book him as a driver to the ruins tomorrow, really going for the hard sell, but he was $30 and right next to him was a sign on a car saying $25. We thought we would rent bikes anyway, so we didn’t book him. The hotel was as I had seen on Trip advisor, the lobby is also the dining area - all open without any walls, but tastefully decorated. Our little bungalow was nice and the landscaping around the pool beautiful. The receptionist was not surprised about the taxi driver, apparently that is a common scam. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t been here before though, as it is tucked away on a street with locals - no other tourist or commercial activities just houses and it has about a dozen bungalows - so it’s not very big. When we got to our room Dean was checking everything out, he found the airconditioner remote and tried to phone his friend Ned. He pretended to talk to him and even Ned's mum Karen, then he said see you later Nedder, see you later Karen. It was cute, I guess he is starting to miss kids his age.

Once we got the kids settled into bed and Mikey went to make arrangements for getting to the temples. He booked a tuk tuk for 8 the next morning.

Day 11 Mekong Delta

2011-01-30T22:12:00.000-05:00

boat selling flower trees for Tet

The Mekong river is the world's 10th longest river it starts in Tibet and winds its way through Asia to Vietnam where it flows into the ocean in 9 tributaries. Vietnamese call this the 9 headed dragon. Mikey arranged for the tour with the hotel. I wanted to try to do it ourselves - take a bus then hire a boat, it would’ve been a quarter of the cost, but Mike wanted convenience and with the bus station being 10km out of town I relented. That is one of the differences of traveling with kids - it costs more because you don’t compromise comfort or convenience for price! I also have been a little disappointed with our ‘tour guides’ in Vietnam. I don’t expect everyone in the country to speak English, but when your tour includes ‘a private English speaking tour guide’ I expect them to be able to answer questions and say more in English than just the script for the site. Therefore I did not have high expectations for this guide and frankly, wondered what we were paying for, as transportation is so cheap ($5 taxi from the airport), however I was very impressed with our guide and glad that we got the packaged tour. Because it was a private tour we got to pick when we would leave - we chose 8 - the kids would be up anyway. We met Thanh at the tour desk and got in our minibus and started the drive. Straight away Thanh was an engaging speaker and had many stories. As we drove through the city we followed the Mekong and he pointed out the slums on the side of the river, he told us that those are migrants who come here and illegally make the houses.

Squater houses in HCMC

I asked if they were migrants from Cambodia or where and he said from the countryside in Vietnam. The villagers who move to the city don’t have money for rent so they squat. He said that before they built the street we were driving on there were slums there too. He said rent is very expensive because there are no high rise buildings, so there is no place for people to live and therefore landlords can charge a lot. Coming from Sydney I can relate to rent being high and a housing shortage. As we drove through the country side we saw rice paddies with above ground graves on them. Thanh explained that this was for 2 reasons, 1 - to keep the relatives close to them and 2 - to keep the family from selling the land. Thanh had a sense of humor he asked us if we know the 3 animals that Vietanemese don’t eat, I said monkey, cat… his answer was, “dragon, unicorn and phoenix”. Apparently rat is a delicacy - tastes better than chicken.

We stopped at the biggest smiling Buddha in Asia. The temple was set in a beautiful garden and the jovial Buddha could be seen from miles away.

court yard of the buddist temple

On the way into Can Tho we saw a motorbike with a refrigerator on the back! Wow, that has to take the cake as far as what we’ve seen on motorbikes. Think of how hard that would be ride with! We boarded a small boat with 6 deck chairs and headed to some islands.

Boat and captain

making coconut candy - coconut is the only ingredient

At the first stop we saw some honey bees and drank a tasty tea. The tea had a little bit if bee pollen, honey, and lime juice. I liked the lime and think I’ll add that to my tea at home. The tea was served with coconut candy , which is made locally. All of which was for sale, but we didn’t buy any. We went to another island where we made several stops. First stop we saw how they make coconut candy - skin the coconut, shred it, then press it to get the milk out and finally cook it. This is all done outside, with the cooking done in a large pot over a wood flame, while the candy was being cooked it was being stirred with an electric mixing arm. Then the candy is laid out to dry and women cut it and wrap it. We sampled and bought some.

snake wine

Mikey was offered as shot of snake wine that came from a jug full of dead snakes. With much trepidation, it was bottoms up - it wasn’t too bad, but we wondered if it would make him ill. Mikey did the classic, drink first and then ask how the snake wine is made. Just seeing the dead snakes in the jar and having the tour guide dip the cup in the liquid was enough for me to say no, although I wasn’t offered because I am a woman (fine by me). About 30 minutes after drinking the snake wine Mikey asked the tour guide how it was made: 1 - you take 8 or 9 snakes and clean them while they are alive 2 - put them in a jar and add some rice wine (basically sake) then burry it underground for 3 to 4 years. Te time underground transforms the snake poison into a wine that gives you strength, Just as bad as it looked. I guess it wasn’t too bad as he hasn’t gotten sick or killed over and it’s been a few days.

We continued walking to the next place over a bridge. It’s amazing how dense the landscape is, you can’t see more than a few metres through all kinds fruit trees. Thanh pointed out some coconuts on the ground with holes in them and said they were from rats, and that they farmer would try to catch the rat and get a good price for it. We arrived at an outdoor café, for lack of a better word, and had some tea and fruit. There is a fruit here that we had on the boat called dragon fruit, it is a spectacular looking fruit, great with red and orange arm-like growths coming out of it, but it smells bad and tastes a little better than it smells but not much. There was also watermelon, which both kids loved and lily got all over herself and bananas, grapefruit, pawpaw and others. There was a cage with 2 cobras in it and Dean got to hold one, he loved it! After it was put back in its cage he continued to look at it and so another lady got it out for him again. He didn’t want to go! Finally he told the snake bye bye and we were off again, this time in a donkey drawn cart.

As I was getting in I wondered if it would hold all of us, but no one seemed concerned so we boarded. The donkey kicked its back legs in protest a few times, kicking the cart. We went through the village and saw several open barber shops, I should have gotten a photo, it was a chair and a mirror on a stand with no walls, only $1. When we would pass a new big house Thanh would say that they have that house because one of their children is in America and sends money home. Isn’t that an interesting assumption - that the reason they have a nice house is not from hard work or bettering themselves, but from sending their children abroad so that they can have a better life and send money home. That it is not possible to make that kind of wealth in your own country.

small row boat in canal to larger boat

Our donkey drawn carriage ended at a canal and we boarded a small row boat to take us down the canal to our boat. Our guide told us to keep our arms in as there are alligators around. I have seen a lot of taxidermy here - particularly little to mid-sized alligators and wondered if they were caught locally, I suppose they could have been There are also a lot of hand bags and wallets made of snake or alligator.

the house we ate in

Elephant ear fish

Back on the boat then back in the minivan and a few kms to a restaurant. The restaurant was like a tourist restaurant complex. There was a huge dining hall then little houses around a park-like setting. We ate in an old beautiful wood house that we shared with another family and had fabulous food.

Posing by the Tet Watermelon at the restaurant

On the ride home I was wishing there were child restraints in Vietnam, not only for the safety of the kids, but also the SANITY of the parents! I am sure if Dean and Lily were in a car seat we ALL would’ve had a nap, instead none of us! Ah well. Thanh was telling us that 2 of the 8 million people in HCMC had already left the city to go home for New Years and that another million were expected to leave tomorrow, and that’s why the traffic was so light. He said he and his family would go to his family in the hills tomorrow since he had to work until then. As is the New Years tradition he gave both Dean and Lily a little red envelop to open on New Years. Dean opened his as soon as we were out of the car and discovered it had money in it. It was very kind of Thanh to do that. After a quick stop at the hotel room we headed out to get an additional passport photo for myself and Lily. We all had one passport photo, the boys had 5, and we thought we needed 3 for Cambodia so we headed out to the main street to get them and some dinner. We stepped out the hotel and noticed something was different - there were no buzzing motorbike sounds. Our hotel is right in the middle of Tet celebrations and they had closed the 2 streets around our hotel for a block for the opening ceremony tonight. It was nice to freely walk about without watching for random motorbikes. There was a photo shop within a block from the hotel and we got our passport photos taken there. Some things in Vietnam have been very cheap - taxi’s, food, nappies, and the passport photos were no exception - $2.50 for 5. Also, most prices are quoted in USD and the Vietnam Dollar (VND) and USD are used interchangeably to purchase items, the exchange rate of 20,000 VND to 1USD is applied. Having learned (again) from last night not to have a sit down dinner with no-nap kids we went to a fast-food chicken restaurant. After dinner we walked around looking at the Tet decorations and working our way through the crowd. Dean and Lily fell asleep as we watched the opening ceremony. There was a large screen TV for those who couldn’t see the entertainment. Some fireworks were set off and then we headed up to the hotel rooftop bar, thinking we would have as good of view from there. In my post 2 days ago I spoke of nostalgia of having a beer on the roof with Mike without kids, we did have those beers, with Dean asleep in the pram and Lily asleep in the baby carrier, she woke later, but enjoyed the celebrations - she’s such a night-owl! It’s been really great being here during the Tet celebrations and what a perfect location - right in the heart of it. Thanks Andrew for the recommendation!

Tet celebrations seen from our hotel

people instead of motorbikes line the street

Baby in a bar,

Day 10 Ho Chi Minh City

2011-01-29T22:11:00.000-05:00

My and Mikey's favourite painting at the museum

We got a late start today, the kids actually slept until almost 8! So we stayed local, going to the Vietnamese fine art museum. The museum had paintings and sculptures, most of which depicted life. I don’t know what impact, if any, taking a three year old into an art museum has, but Dean did point out paintings that had elements he recognized, such as a bicycle or a baby.

Dean immitates art

Art museum court yard

After that it was lunch and then photos with the Tet watermelon. It is like in the US or Australia when you go to the mall for photos with Santa. Instead for Vietamese New Year, you get your photo with a watermelon (which is the symbol for Tet). They took our family photo and placed it in a cardboard frame which was branded by Omo - a laundry detergent brand we recognize from Australia.

Dean with the tet watermelon

We cooled off in the pool before nap time. We also booked a tour for the Mekong Delta. I had planned on going to the Mekong Delta and seeing the floating markets, I had even thought of staying the night in Can Tho, the village closest to the Floating Markets, but there is some risk of Malaria, so then I thought we would just do a day trip, but then a woman that we met on the Ha Long cruise said it was a 4 to 5 hour bus ride there and she said her kids (who were teenagers) barely tolerated it, she felt it was too long for what they saw - a tourist trap. I agree, 8 hours in the car for one day is not worth it! So, instead we’ve decided to just go to My Tho, which is only 2 hours from HCMC and is the capitol of the Mekong Delta region. The tour includes a 2 hour boat ride on the Mekong, which is a good compromise!

Tonight we went to a restaurant that both the Lonely Planet and my friend Andrew recommended, the way it was described, we were expected a food-court sort of place, but found an over-priced restaurant that took too long to serve our food especially with hungry and restless children. We should have known better than to go to a sit down restaurant for dinner when Dean did not have a nap, but in our defense, we didn’t think it was, but when it took us 20 min to order that should have been the final clue for us to leave. But we stayed, the food was pretty good, we just couldn’t enjoy it with 2 sleepy kids.

Day 9 Ho Chi Minh City

2011-01-28T21:51:00.000-05:00

A common site - I wouldn't want to be an electrician here!

Ben Thanh Market

Today we walked around the city. We first went to the Ben Thanh markets then to the War Remnants museum. The Ben Thanh markets are in a huge building, everything is for sale: beautiful cloth, handbags, toys, food, clothes, jewellery….Mikey was hoping to get an orchid, but we didn’t see any of them, I bought a charm. I’ve decided to make Lily a charm bracelet of all the places we go, although she won’t remember the trip she’ll have a souvenir from every country.

The War Remnants museum has tanks, helicopters, airplanes and a photojournalism display, which is what we wanted to see. We looked at all the hardware, but didn’t take Dean in to see the photos. Mike saw them and got an appreciation of what life was like for the soldiers and locals. The museum showed the atrocities of war and left me feeling sad and wondering if there will be a war remnants memorial in Iraq and Afghanistan that people will visit and feel sad and wonder - why? Why did it have to come to war?
We headed back to the hotel for lunch, nap and swim.

The city has been working on setting up lights and street displays for Tet, the Chinese New Year and I wanted to take some night photos, so after the kids were asleep I headed out. It’s Saturday night and everyone is out! Heaps of kids too, it was fun feeling the energy and seeing all the lights. After walking around outside I headed up to the rooftop terrace on our building which has a bar and restaurant and took some more photos of the city, There was a small band playing and a woman singing Carley Simon’s Your so Vain, it was interesting hearing it sung with a Vietnamese accent. I had a little nostalgia for the days before kids thinking that Mike and I would be sitting up there having a drink together instead of taking shifts watching the kids…but it quickly washed away as I think of how fun it is to share travelling with them.

New Year lights in the park

department store across from our hotel

our hotel - it is the year of the cat in Vietnam

lights boarder the main street

night life

view of the park lights from our hotel roof

Day 8 - Ha Noi to Ho Chi Minh City

2011-01-27T20:44:00.001-05:00

Tet or Vietnamese New Year decoration in Ho Chi Minh City

We packed up then walked around the city. Each street is named after the product the shops in that block sell. One street we walked down had toys for sell in every shop. Other streets had hardware, Chinese decorations, etc. It was interesting looking at everything and taking in the local traffic. At 9:30 it was time to get into the car and head to the airport. Ho Chi Minh City here we come.

most of the domestic buildings we saw, even in the rural areas, were tall and thin - with a shop on the ground floor and living above.

Toy shop in Ha Noi

They start them young here!

No Child restraints here - I've seen a family of 5 on one motorbike!

On the way to the airport we saw a lot of motorbikes carrying mandarin trees. This is because Chinese New Year is approaching (2 Feb) and the mandarin symbolize abundance and is used for decorations and gifts. Everyone seems to have a tree tied on the back of their motorbike. I stopped counting the number of trees on motorbikes when I got to 50.

Mandarin tree on a bike

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare - our flight was at 12:50, and it was delayed, so we got lunch and finally got Lily added to our flight from HCMC to Angor Wat, We booked the ticket on line and there was no ‘infant’ option, so we thought we could just call to add her, after calling Vietnam airlines in Sydney and talking to travel agents we realized we just couldn’t do it until we got to a place with Vietnam airlines ticketing office, so we got her listed and paid the tax for her. We also had access to the internet, which we had at our hotel also, but we can’t get onto facebook. I think it must be blocked in Vietnam. While we played with the computer Dean played with his fun pack that we got from the Cathay Airlines flight we took from Sydney, it has been a great activity pack that has kept him occupied for many hours, he also met a little friend. Poor Mikey came down with a head cold last night and he had to endure the flight with a blocked ears, the landing was pretty rough on him.

Dean's airport friend

We landed in HCMC and started peeling off the layers - it is hot here, a welcome change from Ha Noi and HK. We got a taxi to The Rex hotel which was recommended from a friend who traveled with his 2 kids, it is in the heart of the city and really nice. Along the way we noticed that the Vietnamese New Year (Tet) celebrations are ramping up with much more decorations on the streets and in businesses.

We asked the hotel for suggestions of where to eat and we checked them out, but they were way too nice for our kids, we found a Pho noodle shop next to them and ate there.

Day 7 - Ha Long Bay to Ha Noi

2011-01-27T04:25:00.000-05:00

Fishing Village

Breakfast at 7 again and a trip in the Saipan to a fishing village. There are 7 fishing villages in Ha Long, 1,300 people in total. This is the largest fishing village with 300 people. The people used to live in a small boats, live, work and sleep on it, then they built the floating houses that are there today. There is even a school.

Fishing Village school

We toured the village in boats of 2s and 3s with locals paddling us around the area, we went into several sheltered areas where the villagers go when there is a storm.

our local guide paddling us out of the sheltered area

The men in the fishing village fish during the day and the women either sell food to the cruise ships / tourists or take care of the children. Most of the fish we ate on our trip was caught by the people of this fishing village.

The women have food on the boat ready to sell

After the fishing village we cruised back to port and boarded our bus. We stopped in Halong City for lunch, where the hostesses loved Lily and held her while we ate.

I’ve been using my Ergo baby carrier to strap her to chairs to eat, but she’s been getting a bit tired of that and welcomed the attention. Mike joked that we found a buyer for Lily and I replied that we should have sold Dean in Japan, as he’s had no interest on this trip, he must be past his sell by date! Then we were back on the road 3+ hrs to Ha Noi. Dean had a nap and then occupied himself with an activity book we brought on the trip. We have 5 activity books, and some movies on our netbook computer, hoping that those last us for all the flights and car rides. Back in Ha Noi we ate dinner at the same place as before took a little walk, but didn't stay out very long as Dean got cold, so we headed back and put the kids to bed and I headed out to the night markets.

If I was in a buying mood there was a lot to buy and very cheap prices, but we really don’t have any space, so I just bought Dean some stickers (full page for less than $1), Lily a hair bow and Mikey some treats from the bakery.

Day 6 - Ha Long bay

2011-01-25T10:14:00.001-05:00

This is our 2nd day onboard the Halong Emotion cruise, we had Breakfast at 7 and then boarded a mid-sized boat (seating for about 30) for the day. We were the only people doing a 3 day, 2 night cruise (everyone else was only on for 1 night) so we were the only people to board the mid-sized boat, everyone else went to the fising village, which we'll do tomorrow. The captain of this boat lives in one of the seven fishing villages, he was very knowledgeable about the area and was kind to Dean, letting him take the helm for a few minutes. The first stop of the day was to a floating pearl farm and jewelry shop. They showed how they raise oysters and induce a pearl to grow. Then finally pulled a mature oyster out shucked it and lo and behold a beautiful little pearl. They also tried to trick us into eating the meat, but no sane person would go near it and good fun was had by all. We didn't buy anything, as the jewelry was priced for tourists and I’ve bought enough jewelry to know a good deal - which this wasn’t!

After the Pearl farm we went to an area for Kayaking. Mike and I debated if we should let Dean go kayaking, as it was quite cold and we didn’t want him to get wet and cold, but in the end Mikey and Dean did go. They went into a few small caves and saw some monkeys! Lucky dogs! Lily and I hung out on the boat, she liked waving at the other Kayakers who passed by.

Dean wanted to paddle the boat

watching the kayakers

For lunch another great meal was prepared that included some food sculptures and we were on our way to another cave.

food sculpture made of cucumber and carrot

On the way both babies fell asleep, and Dean did not want to wake up when we stopped for another cave. I was willing to wait on the boat with him, but one of the men on the boat volunteered to watch him. I was weary and worried while we were in the cave - I thought of Madeline, who went missing on holiday with her parents and other crazy kidnapping cases and drove myself a bit nuts and really couldn’t wait to get back on the boat. I'm usually not a worrier like that, but I am on heightened alert since we are abroad. He was still asleep when we got back, all was well. When we arrived back at the big boat we all ate dinner together - another great meal.

3 in a cave

Day 5 - Hanoi to Ha Long

2011-01-24T23:56:00.000-05:00

After a nice breakfast at the hotel we were picked up by a van and driven the 3 hours to Ha Long bay where we would board a boat and cruise the bay for 3 days. Ha Long bay is a world heritage site comprised of 1969 islands. About an hour from Ha Long we stopped at a workshop/large store where disabled people make and sell amazing crafts, it has everything - elaborate needlecraft, clothes, handbags, paintings, sculptures, jewelry. The woman in this picture was playing with Lily and doing needle point, she was recreating the drawing, by sight - very talented.

Upon arriving at the harbour we took a sampan (small flat motor boat) to the larger boat we would stay on. We were welcomed with a cocktail of fruit juice and showed to our room before lunch. We booked a connecting suite, with 2 small beds in Dean and Lily's room and 1 big bed in ours. The first day we cruised the bay stopping to take the sampan to Surprise cave and Titop Island. Surprise cave was very large, it curved around and up and we exited with a nice view of the bay and all the junks in it.

view from Surprise cave

Titop was an island with a beach and a hike to a viewing platform. Dean wanted to run in the sand instead of hike (he’s such an AussieJ ) so I played on the beach with he kiddos, while Mikey hiked to the top, fun was had by all.

Too much fun, Dean didn't want to leave (no nap Dean is very strong willed)! Back on the big boat we put both kids to bed - Dean was so tired from not having a nap he fell asleep at 6:15. And we took turns going to the dining hall to eat as dinner started at 7. The food was amazing! Great seafood, prepared so nicely. I am a fan of type of Vietnamese food!

Day 4 - Hong Kong to Ha Noi, Viet Nam

2011-01-23T23:22:00.001-05:00

We woke around 7 and had another nice buffet breakfast then back to the hotel room to pack. Dean wanted to take a bath, so as we packed Dean swam (it was a large bath tub, he even put on his goggles). Once Mike was done packing he took Lily to arrange for our ferry ride to the airport. We took the 10:30 ferry and arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. When we checked our bags I noticed that I had been able to redistribute 4.5 kg of weight from my bag. It was 22 kg leaving Sydney, 2kg over which I think they let slide because I am a Qantas platinum member, but I didn't think Vietnam airways would be so kind, so my redistribution efforts of all liquids and heavy items (umbrella, jacket) to smaller backpack paid off. Mike's bag had also lost .6kg, down to 20.2. During check-in we learned we over paid on taxes and could get a refund, we tried to get the refund, but were informed that our form lacked the necessary stamp. At this point we had been through security and Mike didn't think 100 hkd (approx. $33) was worth standing in line, so we were debating when someone, who appeared to be airport staff, offered to go back and get it stamped for us. I was weary, but there was only $33 on the line, and we were willing to lose it instead of going back through security, so we gave it to him. He went back through security using the staff lines so he must've been legit. We got our money and were off to the gate, but the guy kept trying to get us to go to a restaurant with him, finally we lost him when we had to take another tram to our gate and the restaurant was in a different area. After we ate lunch and checked emails we were on our way to Vietnam.

My first impression of Vietnam was from the immigration clerks, they were dressed very formally in uniforms with bars across the shoulders with varying number if stars. They didn't look at us, or speak, just processed the passports and sent us on our way. They just epitomized what I expected a communist soldier to be. Walking through the door after Immigration it was nice to see my name on a plaque held by a driver, that meant our trip to the hotel was going to be worry free. My second impression of Vietnam was that it was just as cold here as in Hong Kong, something I wasn't expecting.

The drive to the hotel was very scenic, rice patties and small communities, as we got closer to Hanoi, the traffic got thicker and the driver got more creative, even getting off the main road and onto a one lane road that had 2 way traffic that went parallel to the road to make some progress. That was crazy! There are heaps of motor bikes and they carry everything from small fruit trees to fish to children.

yes, those are live fish....

We arrived at our hotel, got checked in and were on our way out when the lady at the front desk stopped us, gave us a map and told us where we should eat and where the water puppets were. We didn't even have to ask. We are staying in the old city part of Hanoi. It is crazy - mopeds everywhere, everyone had told us, there are no cross walks or signals, just walk at a steady pace across the street and the mopeds will go around you. It was good to know, as otherwise you'd never cross a street! We ate at the first restaurant that we found that the front desk had recommended, it was small (5 tables) but full of tourists, so I figured it was safe. By safe I mean we didn't have to worry about how the food was prepared. Before we left I spoke to our Dr about taking Lily to Vietnam and Cambodia and she said not to let her eat anything, to breastfeed her often and take or cook our own food. So we brought a bunch of baby food and are being very careful. After dinner we braved the streets and motorbikes and headed to the 8pm showing of the water puppets. This is past the kids bed time, but Dean had a late nap and I figured Lily would sleep through it. We stopped at a park that had some cool lights and Lily had her picture taken by some randoms. She has been quite popular with a lot of people staring at her, touching her and talking to her, but not quite the paparazzi trail that Dean had in Japan.

park lights

The water puppet show was amazing. The theater was set up with a pool with curtains behind it and a traditional Vietnamese 5 or 6 piece orchestra on the side. The show was like synchronized swimming for puppets, they enter on polls with the puppeteers remaining behind the curtain. The puppets squirt water, dance, hold candles, while the orchestra plays classical Vietnamese music. It's all very elaborate and dean loved it and so did we, except Lily who slept through it. On the walk back to the hotel street markets had been set up, I noted that I would need to do some shopping after our Ha Long trip. The streets were lively until 2:30am when finally I stopped hearing the roar of motor bikes outside our window.

Day 3 - Hong Kong

2011-01-22T23:01:00.002-05:00

Today we took the ferry to Hong Kong. Macau is a separate Special Administration Region so we had to clear immigration at the ferry station on the way to Hong Kong. Unfortunately we were delayed and missed our ferry because there was no record of Lily having arrived in Macau. The supervisor asked us, 'how many passports does this child have?' we gave her both passports and she cleared it up without much difficulty and we were on the next ferry. On the hour long ferry Dean and I ’took a little walk’ for most of the ride, he just kept saying, ’you and me mom, take a little walk’ so we did, there was hardly anyone on the ferry. Once arriving we walked to the peak tram, that would take us up Victoria peak for some great views of HK. On the walk to the peak tram we saw groups of family or friends lined along the sidewalk or in the stations and around the malls sitting on cardboard having tea, eating and socializing. It was like they were having a sidewalk picnic. At first I thought they were homeless, but they clearly had money, then I thought they were setting up booths for markets, but as the day went on, it was obvious that they were just sitting having a catch up with friends or family. There were small groups throughout the city, most prominent in the covered walkways. Must be what the locals do in Hong Kong on a Sunday - I’m thinking they meet on the concrete due to lack of parklands! Hong Kong does not lack in high-rise buildings, and green is limited. The tram ride was amazingly steep! It seemed like we were climbing nearly vertical in some places. The view of the harbour and city were good from the top, but it was a hazy day. There were restaurants at the top so we had some lunch then got the tram down. On the Tram ride down Dean was over tired from the day before and he fought and wiggled his way out if the backpack, then once we got him back in he promptly fell asleep. Typical Dean, one last fight before sleep.

After the tram ride we took a ferry tour of the harbour. The tour included narration of the significant landmarks, it is a very dense area, and they are still building! I liked the tour, but I couldn’t help but think of how beautiful the Sydney harbour is and how this did not compare at all. Where this had many significant buildings Sydney has natural beauty, which I prefer. When we cleared immigration the officer pointed at Dean’s passport and questioned us which on was he, this happened the 5 times we went through immigration, either they would ask who Lily was or who Dean was, we started pointing at them before we were asked! Due to the late (but very necessary) nap, Dean didn't fall asleep easily and I laid down with him, intending to pack once he fell asleep, I think I fell asleep first though, as I woke when mike got in.

Day 2 - Venetian rest day

2011-01-21T22:46:00.003-05:00

A huge buffet breakfast was included in our room rate, it was delicious and had everything; eggs, hash browns, pastries, fruit, beans and crispy ‘American’ style bacon (yummy) along with some traditional Asian breakfast foods like rice and dumplings, there was even some shark fin dumplings, which I refused to eat out of principle (the sharks are usually illegally caught then they have their fins cut off and the rest of the shark is dumped, it’s a big problem in the seas off Australia) but Mike had some and he said it was good. After we all feasted we walked around the hotel. None of the shops were open (they open at 11) and the kids indoor play area didn’t open until 9:30, so we headed back to the room and I tried to take a nap with Lily as Dean and Mike went to the pool. I was quite run down from getting everything ready the week before (even getting up at 4 one morning because I couldn’t sleep, my mind was too busy with all the things that had to get done) that I just wanted to lounge around, sleep and watch TV. So basically I did that, I did manage to get in some shopping with Lily around the Grand Canal, but wasn't tempted into buying anything. Mike took Dean to the pool and the playground and took Lily for a walk in the afternoon. It’s so unlike me to lounge around like that but I wasn’t feeling 100% so I just went with it. That night after the kids and I went to bed Mike went to the casino in search of a Mahjong or poker to play, but didn't find anything of interest.

Day 1 - Macau

2011-01-20T22:45:00.001-05:00

Our flight arrived an hour early - at 4am instead of 5. We cleared customs then realized we should not have cleared customs. We wanted to take the ferry straight from the airport to Macau, the island we were staying on, however you catch it in transit not after customs, so we had to take a bus then a ferry, which took quite a bit longer. Macau is like Hong Kong in that it is a 'Special Administrative Region' of china sort of like territory and it has it's own currency, which is fixed at 1 to 1 with the Hong Kong dollar. Macau was once a Portuguese territory, now it is known as the Vegas of Asia. We are staying at the Venetian, which is a huge resort casino modeled after Venice, it has a Grand Canal complete with gondolas and designer shops - for those of you who have been to the Venetian in Vegas - it is exactly the same. We arrived at the hotel at 8:45, and our half day tour was leaving at 9, so we missed it. Luckily were able to switch to the afternoon half day Macau Discovery tour and Dean and I took a nap while we were waiting for the tour and Lily and Mike walked around the Casino. The half day tour included stops at the Shrine that Macau was named for, Observation tower, old churches and the main shopping district. The Chinese New Year is in a few weeks so there were many decorations around the city.

After the tour Dean ate his dinner using chop sticks and we were all asleep by 8.

To Hong Kong - Finders Keepers

2011-01-20T10:42:00.001-05:00

During our flight to Hong Kong Lily was asleep in the bassinet and Dean and I were cuddling across our two seats when there was turbulence around 2am, so I had to get Lily out of her basinet, which disrupted Dean and woke her. When Lily had resettled Dean was suddenly upset again - his monkey neck wrapper had disappeared. I looked all around us and couldn't find it. The fact that it wasn’t near us disturbed me, so although Lily and Dean went back to sleep I couldn't sleep - I wanted to go look for the monkey. Once the seat belt sign was off I put Lily in the basinet and looked around the seats again, then I got out of my seat to hunt for the monkey. I found it wrapped around a woman's neck behind us. I don't know if she was sleeping or if she just had her eyes closed, either way, I said ‘Excuse me you have my son's monkey’ (also gesturing as I'm pretty sure she was Chinese). She gave me a sly look then handed it back. All I have to say is - Who does that? Who takes a kid's neck wrapper then blatantly wears it next to the scene of the crime? Welcome to Asia where finders are keepers.

Au revoir Sydney

2011-01-20T06:00:00.001-05:00

We spent our last day in Sydney at Darling Harbour. Mikey and Dean went to the playground while Lily and I went to the Accenture office to turn in my laptop and building pass at Pyrmont, just next to Darling Harbour.. I have put in for a transfer to the Denver office and am still waiting to see if it will come through, regardless I needed to turn in my Australian assets.

At 10am we all met Analia at Wildlife World in Darling Harbour. Wildlife world was pretty good, it had a lot of reptiles, and a good crocodile exhibit , there were some kangaroos, koalas and wombats, but they were all behind glass. I think Featherdale is the best animal park in Sydney, then the zoo, then the aquarium, then this one. After our fill of animals we had lunch at James Squire on Kings St wharf (next to Darling Harbour). Dave (Analia's husband) stopped by during lunch since he works in the area. We then headed back to the hotel to get our bags and spent the rest of the day at Dave and Analia's. It was a nice relaxing afternoon. At 6 we all headed to the airport, it was really nice of Dave and Analia to see us off. They wanted to rent a car and drive us, but we no longer have car seats so we all took the train - at that time of day it's probably quicker anyway. After getting all checked in we hung out in the Qantas first class lounge where Dean found a little Chinese boy to play with and Lily crawled around. As our 10:30pm flight time approached we took the kids for a walk hoping they would fall asleep. It worked for Dean, but Lily was in party mode, laughing and smiling at everyone - not tired at all! Dean slept through the boarding process and into the night, Lily fell asleep shortly after take off, when I put her in her bassinet. Our adventure was off to a great start!

Where does the time go??

2011-01-12T08:28:00.003-05:00

I can't believe it is already Thursday night, we have been so busy there has barely been a moment to breath. The packing the trip planning and selling our stuff! When will it end? Well tomorrow the packing ends, as the shippers are coming to pick up our 20 boxes, 2 bikes and 7 paintings/photo frames. All major items have been sold on ebay and will be picked up over the weekend. What's left is one couch, Dean's bed, our bed, kitchen table and chairs which the Salvos will pick up on Wednesday (we'll stay in a hotel Wednesday night). So it is coming to an end. And I am TIRED, but excited for the weekend and next week, as most of our to do list is done and we can just relax and have fun (I hope). I did have a little time to complete one last craft, I had some left over fabric from making my nappy bag and decided to make a hat for our trip. Stay tuned for some photos of it when we are on the road.

Dean and I had our last Thursday catch up with Jo and Charlie today. We all met at the pool, which was really fun and necessary considering the high humidity and heat, it's been super sticky. It has been a wet summer, and right now there is record flooding in Queensland. Brisbane, the capital, is flooded and the Accenture office is closed and power has been cut to many places. It's devastating. A swimming mate of mine was telling me on Tuesday that a similar flood happened 37 years ago and it flowed down to NSW and the old Manly pool was destroyed. Hopefully the flooding doesn't spread and that the clean up is quick, apparently the flooding peaked today and it was lower than for-casted, so that's a good sign.

Mommy and Dean Time

2011-01-09T06:28:00.000-05:00

on the move!

Today Dean and I went to the pool. It is rare for Dean and I to do something by ourselves, usually it's Dean and Daddy and Lily and Mommy or all of us or myself and the 2 kids. But today I wanted to take Dean for a swim and since there have been blue bottles on the beach I took him to the Manly pool. I have not been there since Dean was 9 months or so and I had forgotten that it has such a nice toddler pool. It's an outdoor pool complex with 4 pools, 1 - 50m, 1- 25m, 1- baby pool that is about 1 foot deep and 1- toddler pool that is about 3 foot deep, on Dean it was from waist high to shoulder hieght. We spent most of our time in the toddler pool and some time in the baby pool. Dean loved being able to walk around in the toddler pool, he towed me around by my leg, played with my kickboard and put his arm around my neck and walked me around, telling me I was a kitty cat or a baby. I had so much fun playing with him in the water. When we got home he told his dad he wanted to go swimming again, I'll take him on Wednesday weather permitting.

our local thai food place - the yellow building with Pacific Thai on it.

For dinner we got take away Thai food and ate at the picknik tables on the promenade. After we ate Dean wanted to walk on the beach so we played at the water's edge while Mikey took Lily to the store. Dean and I saw a blue bottle washed up on the beach and we studyed it, I've seen them washed up before, but never seen one move. It appeared to have a head that it was moving back and forth, I got this little video of it, I don't have time to edit it, so it's not very refined.

As Dean was playing in the sand I was looking out at the ocean and thinking of leaving, and I thought about Lily turing 1 in Dubai and then thought that we should have a 1 year birthday/we're back party a few weeks after our trip. I started to think where to have it and immediately my mind was thinking of outdoor locations, parks, playgrounds, etc. Then I remembered, her birthday is in winter in the states, we'll have to have it indoors! Silly mommy.

'round the world

2011-01-07T07:41:00.000-05:00

Our Trip Home

For one of the first birthday's I had here I asked Mike for an Australian centred world map. I wanted it so we could plan our trip home - the long way. You see, our time in Australia was never meant to be forever, when we moved here it was in response to a posting for a job from the Accenture Alumni email group. The posting said there was a long term project at the Australian Taxation Office, implementing Siebel and TAS and they needed people. I had worked with the Siebel software for 5 years, so on a whim I sent my resume. When they emailed and rang I was in shock, 3 months later we'd sold the house and we were on our way to Australia for 2 years (that was how long the project was meant to be) or maybe 4, as that was how long our visa's were good for. 6+ years and 2 kids later we're still here. Because we left in such a hurry and never meant to stay we made decisions about our possessions (our things in a 9x9 storage shed, our mail (thanks Janet for always forwarding it) and my Denver house - with an interest rate is much higher than the current fixed rate of 4%) that need to be dealt with and were never meant to be permanent or even for 6 years! These things could get sorted out while we are living here on an extended trip home, but the point is, that this was never meant to be forever. We were always planning to leave, which to us meant travelling west until we got home, a big 3 - 6 month trip around the world - no rent, no jobs; it was going to be perfect. Enter Dean and Lily and now we are not so footloose and fancy free, but we are still going home the long way, just not as long and not as many stops. Also our timing is a bit off, since it is the Northern Hemisphere's winter we need to stay south or near the equator, as we are not geared up for winter, as Mike recently put it, "I scarcely recall the sensation of being cold" and our kids have never experienced it. So when we were planning this trip, I dug out the map that had all the places I wanted to visit circled with dry erase marker and we looked at the Southern hemisphere circles and planned our route, so here is our 4 week around the world itinerary...

Sydney to Hong Kong (3 nights)
to Ha Noi Vietnam (4 nights)
to Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon (4 nights)
to Cambodia (3 nights)
to Bangkok, Thailand (4 nights)
to the Maldives (5 nights)
to Dubai (3 nights)
Dubai to Denver - this hasn't been booked yet, there might be a stop in Florida or Europe, still working out the details.

Although we could've spent a month in Vietnam alone, we compressed it to that we were making progress and so that we could get home within a month. We're still seeing quite a bit and I think by the end of we will have felt that we experienced SE Asia, had a nice Diving vacation in the Maldives and experienced the excess of the Middle East with Dubai and I think with the 2 kids we'll be glad to be home and feel that a month was long enough.

Unrelated to the above, this photo was taken today:

We have a crawler! (our building in back of her)

Getting ready!

2011-01-05T05:09:00.001-05:00

The move is well and truly underway. We have listings on ebay.com.au and gumtree.com.au, listed the car for sale, we've booked the cleaners, inspection, flights, hotel accomo (for 3 of our 7 locations), packed the kids suit cases, have 2 large piles in the sun room - one for goodwill and one for shipping, there is still a huge to do list, but we are ticking some off each day. One of the items on the list was to get Lily's 12 month immunizations. She isn't quite 11 months, but we wanted to get them done before traveling to SE Asia. The Dr said it would be fine, so she got them yesterday. She was such a star, she didn't even cry for the first one, the second one she cried a little by the third she cried more, but recovered quickly. The rest of the day she was fine, although she had a rough night, waking a lot and was miserable today, so we gave her some Panadol which sorted her out.

I've been trying to swim or take a dip in the ocean everyday, I've got to make the most of my time left by the ocean. So today during nap time I went down to jump some waves. Earlier we'd heard on the loud speaker that there were some strong rips, as I was jumping some waves I started to feel the strong pull of a rip and sure enough I had drifted just outside the flags, I moved a few feet and all was good, the flags were spot on today!

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

2011-01-05T04:45:00.000-05:00

...don't know when we'll be back again.

Blogging is as much about what you write about as it is what you don't. There are the rainy days, the days where I crave adult interaction, the tantrums, potty training accidents, the crying (that girl has some lungs) and most recently, the move. I don't blog about most of the above items for obvious reasons, for one, you don't want to read about them and because I want to focus on the positive and remember the good times, but I haven't blogged about the move for other reasons. Firstly, I wanted to ensure all involved parties were told by me and didn't happen to read it here (pretty sure they don't read my blog, but wanted to be sure) and secondly, I have been struggling with the concept. So here it is. We are leaving Australia, we are leaving in 15 days, we have the flights booked, have given notice on the apartment and I have resigned from Accenture. We are going, there is no turning back, it has taken me 2 weeks to come to terms with it, but I have.

Mike has been wanting to return to The States for some time, I have been torn. I love my lifestyle here. I love being up the stairs from a beautiful beach with clear water, the weather is enviable (no heater or air con needed), I walk everywhere or take the ferry, Dean has friends his age, great friends, I can see platypus and pet kangaroos :) . I think this is a perfect place to live, except for 3 things: Family, Friends and Cost of living (how long could we live in a 2 bedroom apartment, and would I ever be able to justify buying a (small) house for 1.2 million that requires work??). There are other great things about The States also, mountains, snow (we'll see if I still count that as a positive after my first winter..), Mexican food!!! And above all it is HOME.

So we start our journey home on 20 January, we chose this date on 15 December for 3 reasons:

1) Mikey had the option of taking a new position or taking a package and he chose the package (15 Dec)
2) Mikey has some good job leads in The States, and we are optimistic that one will come through shortly
3) We wanted to travel home the long way and thought we should leave sooner than later for reason #2

Since we made the decision, I have struggled with it. There were several different paths we could have taken - spent next year working in Canberra for Accenture, Stayed in Sydney as Contractors (we both had offers) or leave. Leaving is the least known, the least secure, the most change and we chose it. Are we crazy? Moving back to a country in recession without a job? Moving back to the Northern Hemisphere for their winter? Taking an around the world trip with a toddler and an 11 month old? Yes, yes, yes. But it at the time it seemed logical. All I can say is stay tuned, it's bound to be an adventure!

Feels like home

2011-01-03T06:03:00.000-05:00

We drove to Canberra to celebrate the New Year with the Camerons. They have just finished building an addition on their house and were having a party to 'break it in'. We left a muggy Sydney and when we stopped for lunch in Goulbourn (an hour outside of Canberra) I told Mike that I loved the dry heat, it felt nice, it felt like home. I also said that I was glad we lived in Canberra when we first moved here. It's so different from Sydney, yet so Australian. The rolling hills, old gum trees, open space, and living near the wild life - Kangaroos a 15 minute walk from the centre of the city, and platypus in the wild 40 minutes! Yet really it’s a tourist’s view of Australia, as most Australian's live in the major cities. Sydney is a very different life style, it’s such a big city that you have to drive at least an hour to get into the bush, where you might see a kangaroo, but more likely a wild brush turkey. I love living by the beach and Sydney harbour, but in many ways it doesn’t feel like Australia, Canberra feels more Australian and at the same time it feels more like home.

Beach Beach Beach

2010-12-30T05:24:00.000-05:00

Oh sand, how I love to eat thee

Ahh the beach, oh how I love thee! With Christmas and Boxing Day on Saturday and Sunday respectively Monday and Tuesday were public holidays, which meant the volunteer surf life savers were on patrol. My patrol was on Tuesday afternoon, the beach was packed at Manly and as I walked down to Queenscliff to start my patrol a woman approach me asking if I was on duty, I replied, 'no, but how can I help?'. A little boy had lost his parents, so I jumped off the promenade and found a Manly SLS who had a radio and could assist. That was the only incident I had for my half day of patrolling. Queenscliff only had about 30 people in the water with an additional 20 on the beach. I spent most of my patrol chatting to a member who travels to SE Asia frequently on business. He gave me a lot of helpful tips for our upcoming trip.

With Mikey being home I've been able to dash out during nap time and have a swim, yesterday was one of those days. My swim was cut short though, as while I was riding a wave in I saw a blue bottle next to me, and although I only saw one, that was enough. The blue bottles are blown into shore when there are strong south eastern winds, and within a hour or a day they can appear and disappear, so my philosophy is, I live next to the beach, and if there is a chance of a blue bottle sting, I leave and come back another day.

Today we started the day at the beach heading down around 7:30, it's a great time to go, before the hot sun and January crowds. Dean befriended a little girl and we chatted with her parents for a while, they were really nice. We came home around 9:30 for Lily's morning nap and just as we were heading out to lunch we heard the shark alarm go off. The shark alarm sounds a bit like an evacuation siren, and we can hear it clearly from our apartment. Dean and Mikey went to the roof to look for the shark, but didn't see any, apparently several other occupants had the same idea! We then headed out for a walk and lunch. As we were walking on the Promenade the lifeguards made an announcement over the loud speakers, it went something like this, "For those of you who have just arrived at the beach, there is a confirmed siting of a shark. If you choose to stay in the water and you are bitten by a shark, we will not come out to rescue you, you are on your own." Fair enough I say! There were several board riders out there and a life guard on a jet ski trying to encourage the sharks to leave. Most swimmers had left the water though. Nothing like a shark alarm to clear the ocean!

After lunch and Lily's nap we headed back to the beach and Dean's friend from his daycare in the city (he attended a year ago) was at the beach with her mom. I chatted with her and she said there were 6 sharks when the alarm went off, just little ones though. And there were no incidents, so all was good.

Maybe he'll be a lifeguard like his mommy and grandma

or a biker like his daddy

Mikey catches a few waves

Boxing Day

2010-12-30T04:28:00.000-05:00

Boats, Boats everywhere

Boxing Day is the day after Christmas. It's called Boxing Day from an old English tradition when employers boxed gifts for their workers the day after Christmas. Aside from being a public holiday in Australia it is significant because it is the day that the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race starts. This boxing day we spent the day on the water in a ferry with Rich, Rachel and Max watching the race. This special Sydney Ferry with a jazz band and commentator on board had us cruising the harbour for 3 hours learning about the race and having a great vantage point to watch the boats. As I am posting this blog several days later, we know the winner was Wild Oats (which has won the lat 5 races) second was Loyal. These boats were first and second out of the harbour as well. When the race started they expected rough weather and seas and wondered if Wild Oats would be able to win in such conditions, which it has proven it can.

The boat with Channel 7 on it is Wild Oats, Loyal is the one with a Zebra

First and second out of the harbour and first and second in the end.

The day started out cloudy with a little rain and the weather for the race was rough seas, several boats had to pull out due to damaged sails and one had some crew fall overboard. The race also started with some drama, a spectator boat collided with one of the racing boats, nothing like a crash to keep things exciting!

The boys watch the boats and Mikey watches the boys

Dean Max and Lily liked the Jazz Band

The last hour of the cruise the sun came out and it was a gorgeous day. When we got home it was hot and I really wanted to swim, so we quickly got changed and had a nice evening swim before dinner and bed.

Christmas in Manly

2010-12-28T03:10:00.002-05:00

Dean chose Dee's presents to open first.

Lily crawls to get to her Cheetah toy

Despite going to bed quite late (8:30) Dean was up and at 'em early as usual. He had crawled into our bed in the wee hours of the morning, I got up at 6 to feed Lily and amazingly she re-settled, she normally doesn't resettle if she wakes at 6 or after. Dean and Daddy got up shortly after and at about 7 Dean comes running into our room, and excitedly says 'Merry Christmas Mama'. I get Lily and we all head into the living room. Dean has already picked the 2 presents he wanted to open first - one for Lily one for him. He loved all his presents, the key set and Fire truck from uncle Dee, the book and monkey neck wrap from aunt Jenny. We got him a mechanic set that has the parts to build a motor bike, car and airplane along with screws and a drill. It was something I just happened to see and thought I'd buy and it was a hit. He took the drill and the keys my brother got him with him everywhere! He'd stop and drill the pram, the sidewalk the railing. Glad he liked it, it's funny that it was just a one-off. Lily got some noise makers from Aunt Jenny that I was using to incentivise her to crawl (worked a little) and a cheetah toy on wheels from Dee. We got her a little doll, she played with her toys, but mostly wanted to be supported in walking around. We also got them new books, Mike made the comment that he doesn't know who gets more excited about the new books, Dean or me. I do enjoy getting new ones, when you read 3 or 4 or nap time and bed time everyday a new book is necessary! Aunt Jenny wrote and illustrated a children's book for Dean's birthday (he opened it at Christmas time) it is such a cute story with beautiful illustrations, Dean and Lily are so lucky to have an Aunt and an Uncle that are both artistically talented.

Lily checks out the book Jenny wrote

Hopefully they get some of those genes, as I have no artistic ability! After opening presents and breakfast Lily and I took a nap and Dean and Daddy went for a walk. After the walk we had our own sausage sizzle on our balcony and all went for another walk. Another perfect day! So many people were at the beach, lots of families with picnics. Lily did a lot of walking in her Christmas dress and had her photo taken a few times. When we got home we video conferenced with Jill, Hope and Faith, the girls opened their gift while we talked. We ended Christmas with a nice dinner of chicken skewers on the barbie and the kids were in bed by 8.

Excellent Christmas Eve

2010-12-25T06:37:00.002-05:00

Ahhh, body boarding! A rare treat.

It was a beautiful day - I don't think there was a cloud in the sky and it was a nice warm temperature. Mikey went into work for a few hours in the morning and the kids and I went out for Bacon and Egg sandwhiches (we have no breakfast food in the house) and then the playground. Mikey got home in time for lunch and we got takeaway and ate on the corso. On the way home Dean fell asleep in the pram, he was quite hyper in the morning, which I'm sure burned a lot of energy. I tried to put Lily down for a nap, but she has started standing in her cot and we haven't lowered it, so when she protested I got her out and laid her next to Mikey who was settling in for a nap. A few minutes later they were both asleep.

The plan was for me to go grocery shopping during nap time as we only had some grapes, milk, eggs and refried beans and that wouldn't do for Christmas! Normally I use the time when both kids are napping at the same time to do something that is non-kid friendly or something for myself - within the confines of the home. Since Mikey was home and sleeping I could do anything! So, I decided to spend the time body boarding. What a great decision! The waves were perfect for the boogie board and I felt so rejuvenated and alive out there. I had to tear myself away, but at last I did. When I got home I took Lily to the store. When we got home Dean excitedly told me that he lowered lily's bed, lowered was a word he worked hard to say - cute. We headed out at 5 to meet some friends at St Mathews on the corso for their live manger and nativity scene.

3 kings ride camels down the corso

St Mathews and the camels

Sauage sizzle - so Aussie, the shepards are serving it up.

Dean pets a camel

Dean and Max help feed the calf

All the kids enjoyed the manger

Max and Dean

After church we stopped at the corso play ground for a little while and Lily made her first forward progress in a crawl! A small peice of paper was the incentive. Whatever it takes Lily! After the playground went to a fish restaurant intending to get takeaway to eat at the beach, but instead the boys sat down at at a table so we joined them. We finished the night at the beach running around. What a great day, one of the best Christmas Eves I've had!

Dean and Max chase and tackle Rich

Fast Dean

Look at those baby blues

Beach with Daddy!

2010-12-22T07:44:00.003-05:00

Mike has this week off of work, so we all spent some time at the beach today. This week the water has been so calm and clear it resembled a lake. Today was the first day there were some small waves.

Lily enjoyed her beach time - she loves to play in the sand, doing almost anything to get her hands in it. Today I think she made forward progress in a crawl, which would be the first, she usually moves backwards when trying to crawl. What she really wants to do is walk!!

Dean practices paddling

Lily loves to stand, here she's holding onto the beach umbrella

Helicopter patrols the water

As we were playing in the sand a helicopter was circling, then hovering over the same spot for at least 10 minutes. We watched as an IRB went out the same spot the helicopter was above. This type of behaviour generally means a shark has been spotted. The Sydney beaches have helicopters that patrol the waters looking for sharks, when they hover it means they've got one in site. It was pretty far out, so there was no shark alarm or clearing of the water.

For dinner we got a take-away pizza and ate it on the prominade, then Dean wanted to ride his bike on the beach so we went down the stairs to the beach. I pushed the pram as he rode his bike. We ended up chasing eachother around beached sea weed until finally I convinced him to head home around 6:45. Gotta love those summer nights when the sun is up until 8.

7pm to 5:30am

2010-12-20T06:02:00.001-05:00

Wow! Lily did it, she slept from 7 to 5:30 am without waking! Then she slept until 7. I think this has only happened one other time in her little life. Unfortunately, I was woken at 4 by Deanosaur, he was crying, 'soft blanket, soft blanket...." it had fallen to the floor and he couldn't find it. I found him at his door, gave him his blanket, gave him a cuddle and back to bed. I couldn't go back to sleep though, I just kept thinking, how was Lily's routine yesterday different from any other day, and how can I repeat it so she sleep through again?

Santa comes to Manly

2010-12-19T06:11:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning we had a video call with Mike's Parents. We use Yahoo video messenger which is similar to Skype. It's a free service with a bonus is that it's integrated with Yahoo email, so you don't need another sign in or password. On the call Dean opened his birthday gifts from his grandparents. He got some cute clothes, a kite, a book and a top that lights up when it spins. Dean was really excited about the kite, so after we got off the call we headed to the beach to do 2 things - 1 - see Santa arrive on a rescue boat and 2 - fly the kite. Dean has a one track mind and he was only interested in the kite, unfortunately for him the rest of us wanted to see Santa. The last 2 years we've watched Santa arrive at Queenscliff beach on an IRB (Inflatable Rescue Boat), this time we were planning to head down to Queenscliff, but Dean was on foot and wanted to fly his kite which would likely turn the 20 minute walk into an hour. The nippers practice on Sunday and they were out in force on Manly beach with their parents in tow. We thought we overheard that Santa was coming to Manly beach, so we asked -- and sure enough he was due around 10:30 (same time as Queenscliff) so we stayed local.

This year Santa arrived on a row boat! Pretty cool. I got some video footage that I'll upload when we get some time....After Santa arrived Dean flew his kite, it was so easy to fly, not the like the paper bag and wooden dowel ones I used to make when I was a kid :). We got home just in time to turn around and get Karma from the ferry wharf. Karma is a good friend of mine that I worked with in Canberra and Sydney. She grew up in New Castle (2 hrs north of Sydney) and transferred to the Chicago office 2 years ago - she loves living in the US. She is in town for Christmas and we were lucky enough to spend the afternoon with her. It was so nice catching up with her and to see that she is still really happy in her adopted city.

Charlie's Birthday Party

2010-12-19T05:50:00.001-05:00

Charlie's Birthday party was on Saturday, it was a pirate themed party at their house in Freshwater from 10:30 - 12. I swam in the morning. We had regular training from 8-8:45, then we did some relays. My lane won the first relay which was 25metre freestyle, then we did a fun relay which was swimming a 25 with a floating noodle as a baton. Most people put the noodle between their legs and swam freestyle. Knowing that my kick is my strength I used the noodle as a kickboard. After my lap I got several comments from my team mates about my fast kick, one comment was from our previous coach who has coached for 40+ years, she said, "you must've been born with that kick', well yes, I've always been a kicker, if only my arms could keep up! After the swim I had a quick coffee with the club. One of my mates who has been absent for several months was back in the pool and I caught up with him. I think Michael is in 60's, he is a lively Irishman who has worked and lived all over the world. He was a business consultant for one of the big 5 and now he works in a similar capacity for charitable organisations. We talk about business, the economy, politics, he is knowledgeable and funny, I always leave our conversations feeling like I've learned something and/or chuckling. This time was no different, we talked about US politics and he asked if I was back at work then he had a few funny stories, it was good seeing him again and he looked great - 40 pounds lighter and healthy.

After swimming I picked up the kids and we went to Charlie's party. There were 8-10 kids, about 50/50 girls/boys. Jo painted tattoos or eye patches on all the kids, Dean got a green one that looked like a shiner by the end of the party! The kids played Pin the Backpack on Diego, Pass the Parcel, Sleeping Lions and had a scavenger hunt. Then there was cake and some free time to play. The cake was amazing! A pirate ship with plank and full sails, Jo did a great job! Dean participated in all the games, he really got into Sleeping Lions near the end, dancing up a storm!

Pass the Parcel

Dean got the Parcel Prize - a Periscope

Sleeping lions - they dance then when the music stops pose like sleeping lions

Happy Birthday Charlie!!!

10 Months

2010-12-14T22:44:00.000-05:00

Lily is 10 months today! She is an interactive, busy girl who loves to go for supported walks and furniture surf. She smiles readily and giggles at her brother and loves to play in the sand (and eat it) she'll do almost anything (including commando crawl) to get her hands into it.

Below are her stats:
weight: 8.7 kg / 19 lbs - 50%ile, down from 75%ile. She is losing those rolls!
Length: 72.5 cm / 28.5 inches - 75%ile
Head: 41 cm - still in the 0%ile

Hopefully she'll be walking or crawling soon, she gets so frustrated not being able to follow her brother around!

Sibling love

2010-12-13T22:31:00.000-05:00

I was lying awake around 6am listening to Lily chat to herself. She has cute little morning noises that start escalating when she is ready to get up. This morning her little chat suddenly turned into a distressed cry. I wondered what happened and then I heard Dean's little footsteps on the hardwood, and saw him in the doorway. She must've seen him get up and leave. Poor little thing had been left alone in their room. I got up and when she saw me she smiled and kicked her little legs in happiness, I bet she was thinking, 'I haven't be left, she came back for me'. I brought her into our bed for a cuddle with Dean and she had a huge grin for him.

Amelie's party and Surf Patrol Proficiency

2010-12-13T02:49:00.000-05:00

Of the 11 mums and bubs in Mothers Group there are only 3 that I still keep in contact with. 3 moved overseas, 1 moved to Melbourne and a 5th moved to Wollongong (1.5 hrs away) and the other two we just lost contact with. Of the 3 I still keep in contact with one is Jo and her son Charlie, the other is Lisa with her daughter Amelie and the 3rd is Isk and her daughter Taya. Taya's birthday party was the week before Dean's, Amelie's was the Sunday after Dean's and Charlie's is next week. It's great to see all the kids and catch up with their mums and Dean has a great time.

For Amelie's party on Sunday I had my annual surf patrol proficiency or refresher course, so Mike took Dean and Lily to the party while I did my proficiency. For the proficiency we went over first aid and CPR then did our run swim run and some rescues. The water was a chilly 17 degrees, and it took me a good 15 metres before I could catch my breath enough to swim with my head in the water! But once I got used to the cold the swim was good. It was also nice practicing some rescues. There were 2 mates from my first training course 2 years ago who were also doing their proficiency we got some coffee after the course and had a nice chat.

We all arrived home around noon, with Dean very excited about the party he attended. It's on to Charlie's this Saturday.

Charlie and Dean at Amelie's birthday party

Deanosaur has a Birthday Party

2010-12-11T00:46:00.002-05:00

Dean had a great time at his party, as did his 7 mates who attended. The weather was great, the location worked well and the birthday boy was all smiles. I swam on Saturday morning, then Mike, Dean and Lily arrived with Karen and Ned our friends from Canberra around 9:45. We set up and the kids started arriving around 10:15.

The kids played on the playground until 10:45 then we had a dinosaur scavenger hunt, played musical statues (this was too advanced for most) and pass the parcel. After that, we had fruit, cheese and cake followed by face painting and playground mayhem, finishing up at noon.

The venue, a nice grassy area to play games and playground in the back

all the kids and their snacks

Mike baked and decorated the cake

Happy Birthday Deanosaur!

Five boys on a slide

Millie the cat and Dean the bat

Lily the butterfly

The Silly Season

2010-12-09T16:39:00.000-05:00

The Australian's call the holiday season the Silly Season. Having Christmas and New Years during the summer months does make things just a little busier, crazier, sillier. With work parties, BBQs, Christmas shopping, Surf Patrolling and...Birthdays, my normally simple life has been quite busy. For example, yesterday I, sent Christmas packages to The States (I think they'll make it), wrote the christmas letter, met Jo and Charlie for a play date, bought birthday gifts for the 3 birthday parties Dean is invited to (in the next 2 weeks), drafted the Christmas letter, bought gifts and prizes for Dean't party, baked his cake and took the kids to see Santa. Woa, I always thought the difficulty in having a birthday near Christmas was for the child, but now I realise it is shared with the parents who are getting all the birthday planning done along with Christmas, making this season even sillier!

Dean's birthday party is this Saturday, we're having it at the Diggers club where I swim with the Masters group. It has a nice outdoor area with playground, great views of Curl Curl beach and is kid friendly. This is the first party we've had for him and he is really into it! Surprisingly, so am I! I am loving all the preparations: making the invites and asking Dean who should come, shopping for the contents of the party bags and planning the games. Can't wait his special day tomorrow!

Bondi to Bronte

2010-12-05T06:52:00.000-05:00

There are many ways to get from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach. One is a nice coastal walk involving great vistas of the rugged coast line, another is to swim 2.4km. Sunday was the 10th annual B2B swim and my first open water swim of the year. Not just first competition, but first swim, I haven't swam in the ocean this season at all. I've played with the kids, done a bit of body surfing, but I haven't done any ocean swimming, partly due to time contraints, but also the conditions haven't been very good. Manly has had strong NorthEastern winds for most of November which create a cold current, choppy waves and sometimes blue bottles, so the few times when I could've swam I haven't wanted to brave the conditions.

When we arrived at Bondi the race officials declared the water temp of a cool 17/62 degrees which was cold enough to allow competitors to wear wetsuits. I never swim in a wetsuit. Even when we SCUBA dive we dive in water warm enough not to need one. I own one, which I've used a handful of times to surf and once for surf lifesaving drills, but I've never done any distance swimming in one. On Saturday one of the ladies that I swim with told be about an ocean swim she was at the prior weekend where 100 people were treated for hypothermia. The swim was less distance than the B2B and known to be an easier swim (less current). Knowing this I packed my wetsuit as a backup. Since I hadn't done any ocean swimming I wasn't sure what my tolerance for the temperature was and I hadn't done the B2B before, so I didn't know how long it would take, however, I also wasn't sure about swimming in a wetsuit. As I was getting ready for the swim I stood in the water and it was cold, the type of cold where your feet hurt. I wasn't feeling overly confident and so I asked myself what could I do to decrease my nervousness at this moment and I donned my wetsuit did a few practice strokes and went for it.

It was a great swim! The visibility wasn't very good, but it was a good distance, I felt strong and really enjoyed it! With 500 meters to go (a surf patrol member on a board informed me of this) I couldn't believe I had less than a quarter to go. As we approached Bronte, I could feel the current and for a little while wasn't sure I was making forward progress, but I just kept at it and then I was there, in the surf, surfing in. When I emerged I found Mike and the kids at the finish line, they completed the coastal walk as I swam, both kids were sleeping soundly. I can't wait for the next ocean swim!

Click here to see a 20 second video of swimmers on the second half of the course, taken by Mike along the coastal walk.

Swimmers starting out

We swam right by this great Tall Ship