Tuesday 21 September 2010

The big apple

Alexis texted me that it is only 3 days until we head to NYC. We have an exciting itinerary planned and you are in for a treat to hear all about it. Our wardrobes are planned and we've had fashion shows. Our dinner reservations are accepted and that makes us officially VIPs given that the UN is meeting and the NY film festival is on this weekend.

All that's left is for me to do is stuff all my clothes into my suitcase and then decide what book I'm taking on the plane. Taking a book on a plane... aahhh its been a long long time since that was my priority rather than packing spare t-shirts in case of baby spit-ups.

Thursday 16 September 2010

Camping

Here are the photos from our camping trip. We had intended to head south to Carolina Beach State Park but when we called they were full! So instead we went north west to Jones Lake State Park. It was truly in the middle of nowhere so it was quiet and peaceful. Not many camp sites left when we got there and thankfully we got the last large one. It was a lot harder camping this time because Henry is mobile - trying to touch the fire, trying to run on the road etc. Thankfully we had a portable chair we could strap him into. Lucy says the highlight was toasting marshmallows!

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Farewell Dominic and Amy










A couple of weeks ago we said goodbye to our good friends Amy and Dominic. It's Dominic's birthday this week but on the day of the farewell we surprised them with a mini birthday party complete with presents and cake. The kids had a good time (even after Henry headbutted the wall). Do you like the lion birthday cake I made?

We miss you guys! Happy birthday Dominic.

Monday 6 September 2010

Weather update

We're safe and well. Thankfully Hurricane Earl was a non-event for us. It didn't even rain and it wasn't even windy! (So now we have to drag out the sprinklers to water the grass because it hasn't rained in 3 weeks) We did end up going camping but more on that later in the week.

Friday 3 September 2010

The Lord's Prayer



Over the summer Lucy learned the Lords Prayer. Here she is reciting it after eating breakfast, hence the vegemite mustache! She also memorised our address and phone number. Now she can proudly dial her mum or dad all be herself.

Thursday 2 September 2010

Hurricane Earl

We're bunkering down to meet Hurricane Earl. He's expected to hit the North Carolina coast today. We've put all our outdoor gear into the garage. We've stocked up on food. We've tested the generator. Our camping trip is on hold.

After Earl we're expecting Tropical Storm Fiona. Ironic huh!

Pray that we don't get flooded.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Travel Quests

As loyal readers may know, our family has a couple of travel quests in progress. Here's an update:

Visit all four tennis Grand Slam events
. Check. We attended the French Open and Wimbledon in 2003. We visited the Australian Open and the US Open in 2004. We re-visited the US Open in 2007 to see the men's final on a balmy Sunday night and enjoyed Federer defeating Djokovic (and thus winning his 4th consecutive US title). Although this quest is complete we would never turn down another opportunity to attend a tennis event.

Visit all major Guggenheim museums around the world
. In progress. So far we've visited the museum in the following cities: New York, Venice, Berlin, and Las Vegas. The biggest and best, Bilbao, we have left until last (though not intentionally). It is high on our list of priorities to get to Spain.

50 states of the USA
. In progress. We've visited 23 states. Some for a few hours, others we have literally spent years in. I've mapped out a brief plan for visiting the remaining 27. I think we can do it in roughly 9 vacations which seems like quite a lot. Two weekends away could get us another 5 states. Then the rest are long haul trips.

We were hoping to get to DC this Labor Day long weekend but instead we're staying home and maybe doing some camping. Stay tuned.