Australia Day 1

Well it has been quite a while since I have posted in my little corner of the internet.  So much has happened in the last month it is somewhat surreal.  A couple weeks after our Mexico vacation we had family from Michigan come in and stay for a few days.  We had such a great visit and the kids (8 in all) got along quite well.  I'll get that post up soon, hopefully, but for now I wanted to record our latest adventure before I forget too much, if that is even possible. 

So the day after our family left town Marc returned to work and was asked about the possibility of going to Sydney, Australia for a week.  Marc asked if I would be interested in going with him, so we began to make plans.  Over the weekend I happened to mention that 5 economy plane tickets would be cheaper than the one business class ticket. On Monday he asked the president of the company if he could bring his family with him since summer was almost over (he had already taken two trips to France recently), and it would save the company money. We were thrilled to find out he agreed! Now we had 10 days to plan an international trip for the family to the other side of the world. And it was winter over there. To say were we busy is putting it mildly.  We both had lots to do work related to get ready to leave for 10 days, plus packing, and planning. It was a stressful week, but it was so worth it in the end.

We had a short layover at LAX. There is really nothing that great about this airport. You would think being in LA it would be nice with lots of food options. It's not. And if you want to get to another terminal you walk underground in what looks like a maze for employees. Not impressed.

The girls loved having their own little meals, even if they pretty much only ate the bread and fruit.

A few of us got in a little nap. I have a very hard time sleeping on planes and only managed about an hour or so of sleep in the 18 hours we were on the plane.

We landed in Sydney around 9:00 in the morning.  We checked into our hotel, freshened up, Marc headed to work, and us girls took a quick nap. There was no way we would have made it until bedtime, and we were so tired that no one wanted to wake up after 2 hours. We then grabbed lunch at McDonald's across the street.  We ate McDonald's more this week than we do in a year at home. But when the food is all slightly different than what you are used to you take the kids to McDonald's.  Or Subway. Or Hungry Jacks (Burger King).

Marc had a LONG day of work and dinner with the company he is working with so the girls and I were on our own. We grabbed the free trolley and headed out to Sydney Harbor.

Singing a little opera

The Sydney Harbour Bridge

This big black and white bird is found all over Sydney. It scared Macy when it flew right over her head. And it wouldn't share any of this rice with the other birds.  It kept pecking at them whenever they would get close. I can't remember what type of bird it is, but a lady at the wildlife preserve we went to said they call them rat birds because they scavage for any food they can find. From then on we called them rat birds.

 

A crazy tree in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

After a bit of exploring we decided it was time to catch that free bus again and head back towards to hotel and search for dinner.  After a few minutes waiting at the bus stop I had a feeling I should look at my map again.  The free bus stops running at 3:30 and it was after 5.  We hadn't purchased our Opal transit cards yet, and I didn't feel like figuring out the cash payment system for the bus by myself. It was 2.1km (1.3miles) back to our hotel so we decided to walk. We were tired by the time we made it back, but we were able to check out a couple of beautiful buildings on the way that we wouldn't have stopped for otherwise.

The Queen Victoria Building

Town Hall

After dinner we crashed pretty hard from our busy day. Marc didn't get home until after 11PM and he was so worn out and sleep deprived.  I heard later that he dozed off a little at dinner, but everyone understood. After a good night's rest for everyone we had quite the adventure in store for Saturday.

Mexico Day 5

On our last day in Mexico we decided to take the ferry to Isla Mujeres - Island of the Women. Once over there were rented a golf cart to explore the island. It is a fairly small island, but I'm thankful for Google Maps! Our first stop was a turtle farm.  At one point we pulled over to ask for directions.  It was a local man who spoke no English.  We were pretty impressed by his ability to communicate and our ability to understand.  We found it fairly easily.  The girls really enjoyed feeding the turtles after a week of visiting their turtle friends at the resort.

We walked out on the pier and when we saw this fella Brooke shouted out "turkey!" We obviously have a little more work to do before kindergarten starts in August. :)

We found a local restaurant for lunch and it was really good.  Everyone filled up their bellies which is something I can't say for many of the other meals we had this week. We then headed to the North Beach for some playtime.  The water was amazingly clear and the girls finally had their waves to jump.

Brooke will take any opportunity she can to show off something she had learned (or made up) from tumbling class.

Someone was a little excited to be in the water.

 

Cool kids. 

When I was searching out places to visit on the island I came across a gelateria that was opened by a couple from Italy. Ummm.... yes please. That quickly made it on our must stop list. They had white chocolate and strawberry so I was thrilled.  Unfortunately it wasn't nearly as good as the place we frequented in Italy. But it was cold on a hot day, so I'll take it. Shortly after grabbing our gelato the rain started.  We decided to go ahead and take the next ferry back and cut our afternoon short. By the time we got back to our resort it had cleared up so off to the pool we went.

We ended our evening early because we had a 7:00AM flight to catch.  That meant our airport shuttle was coming at 4:15. And that meant we had to be up E.A.R.L.Y. We had an amazing time, and I am so thankful that we were able to experience this with our children.  We made some great memories that I will cherish for a lifetime.

Mexico Day 4

The Tuesday of our trip was our anniversary. 14 years celebrated in Mexico with our children.  That wasn't part of plan when we looking at places to go on vacation, but the way the sky miles worked out put us in Cancun on June 2nd. I wouldn't change a thing.  We had such a great, relaxing vacation with the girls.

Marc and the girls had a surprise for me for the evening.  They were very good about keeping the secret, and they were super excited too.

We went on a pirate ship dinner cruise! I'll admit I was a little concerned about three little GIRLS enjoying this with no nightmares, but Marc assured me it was a kid-friendly adventure. We made sure to get to the dock early.  The pirates were roaming around talking to the guests.  They were in full on pirate mode, but I really think that seeing and talking to the pirates in advance helped calm any fears that might have arisen. In fact, at the end of the night Kayla said it wasn't scary because she was so used to the pirates that the show was just fun. Anyway, in our waiting we met Pirate Johnny. He was the ship's drunk. Figures. But he came and spoke with our girls several times and remembered their names all night. He had all three of them saying "argh" like a real pirate too. At one point Marc asked him where a good spot to sit would be.  He said that he would show us once we got on board. Not only did he show us, he actually had them save the front row for us!

 Since we were now buddies with Pirate Johnny, who happened to be one of the main characters, Marc was hand picked to come up on stage for a little performance.

Part of this performance was to gargle while singing La Cucaracha. The catch was that they were gargling rum. Marc was able to tell one pirate that he doesn't drink alcohol so they were able to get him some water instead.  The new catch, they told him very clearly NOT to drink the water and to spit it out when he was finished. I'm not sure which option would have been worse! ha!

The pre-dinner entertainment had me looking over at Marc wondering what in the world he had gotten us into. Thankfully it all went over their heads. Dinner was yummy, steak and lobster for the grownups and hotdogs or nuggets for the little ones, and then it was back on deck for the pirate show. The girls loved this so much and I'm so glad that we were able to do this as a family.  I would never have planned it, but I'm so grateful that Marc did.  The girls had a blast. We ended the night with a dance party and balloons.

Johnny came back over and made swords out of the balloons for the girls. I'm thinking he may have young girls at home himself.

Once again I'll try to add a few more pictures of the show from Marc's phone when he gets it back. What a fun and different way to celebrate 14 years with my hubby!

Mexico Day 3

The beautiful weather had disappeared by Monday. We had been in the pool 15 minutes when the lightning began.  Back to the room we went and games were pulled out. By mid-afternoon the weather had cleared enough for us to embark on our next adventure. We got dressed and planned to take a ride down memory lane.We were going to walk down to catch the local bus, but the hotel shuttle was right outside the lobby.  We jumped on and that took us halfway to where we were headed.  It dropped us off at a sister resort so we took a few minutes to walk around.

We then took the bus to La Isla.  Marc and I went to this outdoor shopping mall when we were on our honeymoon.  It was fairly new at that time and we have had a running joke in our family about my "Mexican filtered water" experience there. We walked around for a bit and grabbed some ice-cream

 

We did a little souvenir shopping and the girls made a "tough face" while wearing some sombreros.

Another quick ride on the bus took us to Pancho and Willy's.  We enjoyed a Mexican fiesta and a show of Mexican dances.

Kayla and Macy even joined the dancers on stage at one point.  Brooke wanted nothing to do with it, but we had a great time watching the girls.  Once Marc gets his phone back (another story for another post) I'll add the pictures of the girls dancing.

 We returned to our hotel a little after nine, but when you are on vacation that doesn't mean it's bedtime...

it's pool time! The pool lighting changed colors at night and the girls were dying to swim in "colored water." We only had about 30 minutes to swim before the pool closed, but they of course had a great time.

Another day ends and we headed to bed exhausted once again.