6 months

Dear Sara,
Your adorable laugh is contagious.
Your sweet smile melts our hearts.
Your "banana exercise" amazes us
as you try with all your might to sit up from lying down.
You have us all wrapped around your little finger.
We adore you.
Love,
Mom

Around the world in 3 years

It's official. We have now flown our family around the world. Sara was thrilled with the first stamp in her passport and her first visit to the U.S.A.

So... what is is like to travel for 24 hours straight with 5 young kids?

Well, there's always some waiting to begin with...

Once we boarded the plane;
1. Todd and I watched Thor while the older boys played video games and the younger kids watched Kung Fu Panda 2.
2. Dinner.
3. Sara ate her warmed jar of parsnip, sweet potato and carrot.
4. I watched Diary of a wimpy kid 2 while the older boys watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and the younger kids watched Tangled. Sara slept.

5. We watched a beautiful sunset at 4:00pm Brisbane time. The plane lights were turned off and everyone went to sleep except for our kids-- they were just getting started.
6. We crossed the International date line. Luke let a shout out when he saw Special Agent Oso on his in flight entertainment-- his long lost Playhouse Disney friend from England.
7. The kids got a tray of snacks delivered. Todd and I decided that we want to order the kids meals on our next flight.

8. By this time we are approaching the Hawaiian Islands with 6 hours 13 minutes to destination. Our cruising altitude is 33,000 feet. We are traveling approximately 568 miles per hour and it is minus 38 degrees Fahrenheit outside the plane. We have gone 3,729 miles. Only 3,456 miles to go. It is 12:34am at destination. We should be sleeping...but it's only 5:34pm at home.
I put my mandarin orange peels and seeds in an empty water bottle and this keeps Sara busy for a few minutes (even better than the toys I brought for her-- ah, the simple things in life).
9. I watched part of Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Then I dozed for 15 minutes. Mary had to go to the toilet. At 7:30pm (Brisbane time) the kids fell asleep.

10. The next couple of hours were spent drifting in and out of sleep and soothing Sara who was overly tired. Just as I got her to sleep on my shoulder, with 1 1/2 hours to destination, the cabin lights came on and they announced that breakfast service was beginning. Sara woke up. Luke and Mary woke up. Pancakes! We had to wake the boys. They would be disappointed to miss out on pancakes on a Saturday morning.

The sunrise was just as incredible as the sunset a few hours before.

11. I took Mary to the bathroom after breakfast. 

Mary: Mom, is it morning?

Me: Um...yes. (Technically for us it was the middle of the night, but outside it was morning).

Mary: What day is it?

Me: Saturday.

Mary: Hey! Yesterday was Saturday too!

12. The last hour was spent gathering backpack items and taking everyone to the toilet. The older boys got to visit the toilet upstairs in Business class because the toilets near us were occupied. I guess sometimes it's good to go when everyone else has to go.

We landed in Los Angeles and Sara entered the U.S.A. for the first time. An exciting event for our whole family.

We spent 5 hours in the L.A. airport...

24 hours after we left home in Brisbane, we were greeted by the welcome sight of our family.

When we crashed that evening we crashed HARD...

We're a week into our holiday already. We're pretty much over our jet lag now. Things here are different than what we're used to. We've been away for more than a year, so many things are new and strange to us. Some of the things we've noticed:
*Luke learned to use the toilet in Australia. At Grandpa and Grandma's house in the States he said, "This toilet doesn't have a flusher!" (he is used to pushing a button on top of the lid rather than pressing down on a handle).
*Mary: "Mom! Come and watch how this toilet flushes. It's cool!"
*White eggs.
*Weight is measured in pounds, distance is measured in feet and miles, and temperature is in Fahrenheit.
*Selection, selection, selection-- WalMart overwhelmed me this time around.
*Driving. Steering wheel on the opposite side, drive on the other side of the road, and windshield wipers and blinkers are switched. (I can't tell you how many times I turned on the windshield wipers when I wanted to turn).
*Cinnamon bears, dots, tootsie rolls, and new to our kids this time: Charleston Chews.
*Mexican food.
*Halloween.
*Fall leaves.
*Mountains.
*Bananas: 52 cents a pound
*Huge churches.
*And Benjamin's observation: "Utah smells good!"

Spring walk

This has been a solemn weekend down under as we've remembered the tragedy of September 11, 2001. The Australians remember where they were that day just as the Americans do. Grief was felt all over the world that day.

Some friends invited us on a walk along the Brisbane river on Saturday afternoon. It was especially fantastic because Spring is here and the trees are blossoming. Much of this area was covered in 6 meters of water during the floods in January. Look at how beautiful it is again just 8 months later:

Time for a Tim Tam break. Have I mentioned before what Tim Tam's are? Chocolate cookies in all different flavors. My favorite are the dark chocolate mint. Yum! Although I missed out on one this time because I stopped to take this picture. Note to self: One package is not enough for hungry walkers.

You have to know Mary to know how great this picture is. She has always been terrified of dogs. However, she has really become attached to our friend's dog Jessie. It is so good to see her enjoying this.

Cousins

We have lived outside of the U.S. for 3 years now. We try to go home at least once a year but this year has been a little busier than normal and we haven't made it home yet. I can tell that it has been more than a year since we've been home because I'm feeling a little homesick. It's time to go home for a visit.

Until then, I've been going through some old pictures and reminiscing. My mom took heaps of pictures of me as a baby but this is my favorite. I am on the left at one month old. My cousin Ryan is on the right at five months old. Is he is squishiest baby you've ever seen? Adorable!

I have such fond memories of being with my cousins when I was growing up. I didn't have a brother so my cousins introduced me to catching frogs and bugs and they made me laugh myself silly. Once we picked all my dad's strawberry blossoms and put them into jars so that we could catch bees. Another time we caught a frog to put on my mom's car seat.

Families are the best and I am grateful to have been born into a great one. Todd was also born into a great family which means that our kids have great cousins on both sides. We can't wait to get them together again soon.

Father's Day weekend

Father's Day is celebrated in September in Australia. Lucky for Todd we celebrated the US and the Australian Father's Day this year. Actually, that's only fair since I celebrated the the UK Mother's Day in March and the US Mother's Day in May while we lived in the UK.

We went to the Australia Zoo for the third time since moving here. We still saw new things that we hadn't seen before. I'm sure we'll go back another few times and still never ever get bored.

Besides, we're still learning so much. For instance, kangaroos can have up to 3 joeys at once. Multi-taskers. I can relate.

Here we are near the wombats. We were able to pet a wombat this time. I thought it felt like a paintbrush. Mary thought it felt a lot like an emu.

The world's most venomous snake can drop 100 full grown men. Have you ever seen Harry Potter when the glass at the zoo disappears? I told Luke not to tap on the glass.

These water dragons run free in the zoo. We saw several of them this time and our boys love 'em.

Steve Irwin caught his first croc when he was nine years old. Hats off to his mom and dad. We have a nine year old and I don't think I'd be okay with him out catching crocs. Especially after the crocodile show we watched at the zoo. We saw a 15 foot saltwater croc eat a whole chicken in one gulp. No kidding.

Strawberry picking

On the way home from the zoo we stopped at a beautiful P.Y.O. strawberry field.

We decided that strawberries taste even better when we pick them ourselves.

On the drive home through Brisbane, we saw military helicopters in preparation for the 'River of Fire' firework show. Military helicopters circling overhead was an exciting end to a great day out. We watched the firework show from the comfort of home when the little ones were in bed.

Happy Father's Day sweetie! Two Father's Days isn't enough to tell you how grateful we are for you.

Farewell

A month or so ago, we were reminiscing about our house in England and one of our kids said, "Wait! I don't remember my bedroom in that house." Gasp! I know that our children are young and they might not remember the details of our journeys abroad, but I'm going to do capture everything I can with pictures to help jog our memories in the future.

Here are some pictures we took during our last couple of weeks in our Brookfield house. After all, this house is special because it is where we lived when Sara was born.

We set up the tripod for the family pictures. Just before the timer went off for the picture below, someone called out, "funny faces." I was the only one that couldn't come up with something fast enough. The rest of the family did fantastic faces.

The guys.

The girls with Mt. Coot-tha in the distance.

Some of my favorite rooms in that house.