Another day, another plane

We have had a busy 10 days back home in Ottawa and now we head on holidays back home to NL for a few weddings. Literally a "few" as in 3! I am maid of honour for two of them which take place three days apart and D is standing and Mc-ing one and the girls are flower girls for one of them. It will be madness but it will be fun. The 3rd wedding takes place two weeks later thankfully...a little break :)

We moved our stuff into our house this week which was really exciting and the girls were delighted to open their boxes of toys they haven't seen in over a year. Ella is not so delighted at the thought of going on another airplane tomorrow though. She said "I don't want to leave Canada again! To which I explained that NL is still Canada and that this flight will be much shorter.

Nothing better than a wedding to catch up with family and friends though so we are really excited to go home, have some time to ourselves without the kids, hang out with family, celebrate and breathe in the fresh atlantic air.

I will still have a few more posts on here before I shut down the blog and hopefully a few pic's of the weddings. Until then....

update upon arrival

We are back in Canada! Nice to be home but it was not without some suffering to get here. Overall the flights were great, no delays and relatively smooth but Zaiah and Ella and I all came down with a bad cough/cold/fever en route that made it just that bit more painful and stressful. 4 planes, 45 hours, 8 pc of luggage, 2 carseats and a stroller later we are home!!
A nice surprise was my parents being at the airport to greet us and help arrange alternate accomodations for us because of us all being sick and not wanting to infect our friends and to help take care of us as we recovered from jet leg and sickness.

We are on the mend now and pretty much all adjusted. Zaiah has taken the longest and finally today seems to be on the right time zone.

We had a wonderful time last night at a beautiful party celebrating our friend's life because he beat brain cancer. It was so nice to be back and celebrating with them and also to be able to see all of our old friends under one roof in the short stint we are home before we head off to NL for a few weeks.

It feels like we've hardly skipped a beat in some ways and in others we are eager to fill the gap. I am sick of living out of suitcases but having fun all the same.

Its down to 1

One more sleep and we are on our way back to the northern hemisphere. The time has flown. Please be praying for us and all our stuff that we make it back safely and with as little stress as possible. See you all soon!!!!!!

9 years on the 9th

Since we are on vacation and I have no clue what day of the week it is, let alone what the date is I actaully forgot our anniversary this year. But, Kudos to D for remembering.
Can you believe it? We've been married for 9 years! That is insane! So, we've surrvived the 7 year itch and the two years to scratch it :) And under quite a bit of stress I might add. Pat on the back for us!!We got to celebrate twice b/c of the time difference so on our Australia anniversary we each enjoyed something we wanted to do, D going cable boarding and I having an in-room massage while D took the girls swimming. We also hit the Koala park, swam in the lagoon on the promenade and D cooked us a lovely meal for after the girls went to bed and we enjoyed a special bottle of wine that we were saving from the Mudbrick winery in NZ. On our Canadian anniversary we went on a boat tour and snorkeling at the Great Barrier reef. Not bad eh?

After nine years of marriage I can easily say that life with D has been anything but boring, ordinary or routine. We have done so much together and still have so much to look forward to. Its been work, its been fun but its been worth it. I feel truly blessed!

We have made it to the final days of our journey…ending in Sydney. We started off here and drove about 30 hours (felt like 60hrs with two kids in the backseat) up the coast to Cairns over the course of about 10 days and then thankfully flew back to Sydney to enjoy the iconic city a little before heading back to reality.

We are all getting a little anxious to get back to Canada now including Ella and Zaiah. Ella said to me this morning “I’m just a little bit sad b/c I have no friends and no toys…” I said “sweetie, that’s because we are on vacation right now” and she says “but we’re always on vacation!” LOL.  Kids are so funny and so in the moment.
Another funny moment was yesterday when we were all talking about our favorite day on our trip around Australia and we asked Ella what hers was so we said “Was is the beaches? The play parks? Swimming in the the lagoons? Holding the Koala bear? Feeding the Kangaroos? Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef? Sea World? Seeing whales???” And as only a child would, she says “the park!”

She learned to snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef (which she LOVED) but apparently not as much as the play parks  Talk about spoiled. I am so glad they get to experience all this even if they don’t remember it or really ‘get’ how blessed they’ve been by being here. I do hope that subconsciously they will have formed a sense of appreciation for other cultures, for travel, for new experiences and a sense of confidence if nothing else. I hope the stories, pictures and memories they have will hold their attention for learning these things a little longer as they grow because they have something personal to relate to it.


I'll try and get up a few pic's...

limited access

We are heading out on our final road trip before we catch a plane back to sydney and then to Canada. We are spending the next couple of days in Cairns to go snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. I apologize if my blogs sound rushed or I have not responded to some of the emails or comments on facebook but we really have had limted access here. Having a great time though and cannot believe that we are heading home so soon. I miss NZ already.
See you all soon!

catching up with a few blogs at once

Brisbane was fab! We were there on a saterday which worked out wonderfully in that we were able to get the full experience of the weekend market which was amazing and runs all along the river in this beautiful park. Cafes, play parks and man made lagoons everywhere!
Today we were in Noosa and also had a great start to the day by getting up for the sunrise so that D could get in a surf and I a few pictures. We were rewarded for our early morning efforts by getting to catch a glimpse of wild parrots and D getting to surf with the dolphins once again! Noosa is a beautiful town with great surf beaches, shops and cafes. A little more on the high end as far as the beach towns go though.

The rest of the day has been spent driving as we have to make it to Cairnes with enough time to enjoy it as well as catch our flight back to Sydney. The drive here is not compareable to the beautiful scenic drives of NZ.

Australia!!!

G’day mates! We’ve arrived at our final destination and adventure before returning to real life in Canada and have been busy seeing the coast of oz.
We managed to pack our lives for the last 6 months in NZ into our 7 suitcases and one board bag and with help from a few friends we were off on Monday past to Sydney, Australia! We’ve been making our way up to what is known as the Gold Coast this week enjoying the towns and city’s along the way. We are currently heading to Brisbane after just spending a couple days in Byron Bay and Surfer’s Paradise. The further North we drive the warmer the climate so we are chasing the sunshine all the way to Cairnes to snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef. From Cairnes we will then catch a flight back to Sydney and spend a couple days in the iconic city where D will be taking in a shoulder conference for a day and the rest will be seeing the sights.
It won’t be long now and we’ll be chasing the sunshine all the way back to Canada!