Thursday, June 11, 2009

Our Family Holiday

We are home from our holiday to LA. The week went so quickly over there and we crammed in sooo much it wasn't funny. Will bore you with what we did and share a few photos :)

Sunday ~ Flew in to LAX. The flight was great the girls were so well behaved and slept a fair bit. We then went and picked up our rental car and went to the hotel. It was about 8am so our room wasnt anywhere near ready as the people hadn't checked out yet so we went for a walk down to the Promenade in Santa Monica and had some breaky and a look around. We were all buggered as D and I both didn't sleep on the flight so thought we would go for a drive until our room was ready. Just went around for a drive in the city etc. Went back to hotel and room ready so had a bit of a sleep. A work friend of D's asked us out to dinner so got the girls and mum room service and we went out for a lovely dinner with them.

Monday ~ Went to San Diego to go to Seaworld. This was great and the drive was lovely to see the different landscapes. Girls and us all loved Seaworld. So many animals we had never seen before like Beluga Whales, Flamingos, Orcas, Walrus', the list goes on and on really and the children's ride section was great. A few pics from Seaworld:

Dolphin Show
Dolphin Show

SHAMU Orca Show
More Orca Goodness

Chloe watching penguins
Chloe watching penguins

Girls watching Beluga's
Girls amazed by Beluga's

Girls watching Polar Bears
My girls

Beluga Whale
I <3 Beluga's

Tuesday ~ We all slept in til 10am this morning and D and I had a meeting organised with his managers to discuss the move at 11:30 so was pretty rushed to get into the city by then but mum had the girls at the hotel while we did this. Then when we got home we went for a drive down to Hollywood, did the walk of stars, Rodeo Drive, and the Chinese Theatre. This was the girls first encounter with Mickey Mouse [url=http://www.smileys.me.uk/][img]http://www.smileys.me.uk/smileys/Happy/happy0163.gif[/img][/url]

Girls with Mickey
First encounter with Mickey Mouse

When we got home we went for a walk down to the Santa Monica beach area and to the pier and took the girls on the Ferris Wheel and had dinner down there.

Pics down at the pier:

Ferris Wheel

View of Santa Monica from the Ferris Wheel

View of the Valley from Ferris Wheel

Anyone for Shrimp?

Wednesday ~ We went on our tour of the Canejo Valley area with the Relocation group. We loved the area at first sight and was very reassuring to find an area that we knew that we could live in. We looked through 4 houses and loved all the areas. We went out for a corporate dinner with work that night and the girls stayed with mum and had room service again.


Thursday ~ Today we were meant to look at another area with the Relocation group but decided against it as we loved the other area so went to Universal Studios for the day instead. Some pics from Universal:

Chloe at Universal Studio's

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Chloe getting her face painted

Chloe as an Angel

When we got home we went for a LONG walk down to Venice Beach were everyone is sooooo crazy it is not funny but a nice experience anyway. Then walked back down to Santa Monica and had dinner there.

View of Santa Monica pier on the way back:

Santa Monica Pier

Friday ~ Today we went to Disneyland. We got there at 10am and didnt leave until after 10pm after the fireworks display. It was a huge day and Chloe didn't sleep a wink all day. Was an awesome day and both girls loved it so much we went back again on the Saturday until we had to catch our flight. Some pics from Disneyland:

Chloe with Cinderella
Chloe & Cinderella!

Chloe as Snow White
My Snow White

Carousel Ride
Giddyup!

It's a Small World Ride
Daddy and the girls on It's a small world ride.

Chloe and Sleeping Beauty
Chloe and Sleeping Beauty

On the Dumbo Ride
A rare photo of me and my girls

Chloe with Snow White
Chloe & Snow White

The girls in Minnie Mouse's House
Chloe & Vannah in Minnie Mouse's House

Chloe at Pixie Hollow meeting Tinkerbells friend
Chloe at Pixie Hollow

Saturday ~ Spent the morning packing up then off to Disneyland until we needed to go to the airport. Our flight didnt leave until 11:30pm so was a hard ask to keep the girls awake but they managed. Another great flight and the girls slept most of the way. Arrived in Sydney Tuesday morning late so we missed our connecting flight so had to take a later flight. While waiting for the connecting bus to the domestic terminal Vannah decided to do the BIGGEST poo in history. It involved throwing all of her clothes in the bin AND throwing the pram out also as it was everywhere. Another flight from Sydney to Bribane and a long drive home...

We are all well recovered from the trip now and planning for our big move in a few months. So yes we will be moving to the US very soon!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Happy Birthday

Today is my gorgeous husbands 30th Birthday! We had small celebration with family and friends on Sunday but my gift to him is a weekend away by ourselves to the same place that we spent our honeymoon, Huncy Hideaway.

This is such an exciting prospect for us as we have not been away as a couple for over 3 years now. Watch out for some pics in the next few weeks ;)

A trip to Slaughter Falls

We ventured out to Mt Cootha on Saturday up to Slaughter Falls. It was sooo lovely and had forgotten how nice it is to get out into nature. I took the camera of course :)

Here are a few pics of Chloe as Vannah was not in a photo mood :)

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Summer Memory

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More pics on my flickr stream

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

And the winner for the worst photo goes to...

ME!!!!

And here is the proof:

And the winner for worst photo ever goes to...

The photo above is my attempt at getting a photo for Savannah's passoport. It was an absolute disaster. What they ask of an 18month old is just rediculous but hey. Looking at the camera, no smiling, mouth closed just one of those things is hard enough let along all of them. I have submitted their passports this morning so fingers crossed they get approved. I am so nervous!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

More pics...

A few pics that I absolutly love of Chloe in her Pettiskirt that you would have seen in my last post...

Dancing Beauty {Explored #35}

and yet more petti FUN

And a few pics taken today with my new camera...

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Home and on the same page

My husband arrived home from his work trip to LA today and I am sooo pleased to have him back as are the girls.

It was wonderful to have lovely cuddles and chats. It is also nice as we have been able to finally have an indepth chat about the move to the US and we are both on the same page about it. We are very excited and have decided we want to persue this and make it work. So next step is to organise for us all to go over and check it out for the final decision and to look around and find somewhere to live...

Oh and so excited my gorgeous husband bought me back an early mother day present. A new Canon EOS 50D DSLR and a 24-70mm 2.8 L series lens. I am in camera heaven :)

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

A big leap

My little family have has a big decision to make. We have been offered an opportunity of a lifetime, to relocate to Los Angeles. Although it could be very easy to jump very quickly into this and make the decision based purely on the huge monetary benefit this would be to our future but that will not be the case.

Damian is over in the US at the moment but once he returns it will be all systems go in terms of talking this through and coming to a decision. At this stage I am thinking that our family is strong enough to make this work and make the best of the opportunity. I am having fun if nothing else researching all the possibilities.

The biggest clincher at this stage is me actually going over there to check it all out so that will be next on the agenda. They will be paying for us to go over for a mini holiday to see if it is a place I would like to call home.

All very exciting and frightening at the same time...