Hey Peeps,

WOW, I can hardly believe that the holiday of a lifetime had come to an end! It has been the most mind blowing experience to travel together to the other side of the world as a family! We have truly been so very very blessed in every way, and certainly have memories for a life time!

This is a run down on what we have gotten up to the past week in our travels…….

So we made it to Toronto, got that big ol’ RV dropped off, and then had the task of driving our new Mini van down into the US to Baltimore, Maryland to visit Kate (my brother’s fiancé) and her family! We left Toronto at about 2pm, and the trip took forever!!! We got held up getting to the border in road works and then at the border as there were so many cars lined up! We also decided that seeing as we will be travelling during the night to take a bigger highway, but it meant that we were travelling a little further in distance. We contemplated just stopping at a motel, but Kate encouraged us to keep going. I was pretty buzzed so ended up doing the driving……..we arrived at 3am! Ridiculous, I know, but at least that way we could really enjoy the weekend with Kate J

Kate’s parents have a beautiful property about half an hour out of Baltimore in a place called Reisterstown…..I was really surprised by how dense the beautiful bushland was around them. They have a big barn complete with a horse, goats, donkeys, and chooks! They really love their animals, and also have two dogs, Luke and Lola who are very much part of the family…….they get to sleep on the bed at night!

Here are a couple of picks of their property……

From one angle of the driveway…..

This is the steeple on their barn….cute ey?

It was so surreal sitting at Kate’s dining table eating brekkie the next morning! It just didn’t seem real that we were there in her house. It feels so great to know where she lives, and also to meet her extended family as well…..such wonderful people.

Here are some photos of Kate’s parents…..

Div and Gail…

The boys followed Div around like lost puppies! They loved spending time with him and he is amazing with kids. Elijah even got to go to work with Div on Monday which was really special for him….

Kate, Tiarne, and Gail…..

On the last day Kate, her mom, and her cousin Kel and I went off to a bridal store to try on Bridesmaids dresses………Yes, I was asked to be a bridesmaid in their wedding next year, which I am beyond excited about!!! Anyway Kate wanted us to try on a few dresses to give her some idea…..whilst we were there, her mom and I found the biggest and gaudiest dress for Kate to try on! You know the big ol’ meringue dresses that some people love??!! It was so funny because when we picked it out the sales lady tells us that it is her most favourite dress in the store, and here we were doing it all as a joke! Talk about funny!

Anyway I did take my camera to the store and had to snag a couple of pictures of the fun we had……..strangely enough, the dress actually fitted so well and didn’t look too bad at all! LOL!

Here is the bride-to-be meringue clad……

The front…..

And from the back…..look at all that tulle!

That evening it was our last night in Baltimore and so we had a big dinner with Kate’s extended family….her aunt and uncle Beanie, and Chris, as well as Tim and Alison and all their kids…..quite the affair! I said I would bring the dessert and so of course had to make an Aussie Pavalova for the event! Here is it all dressed up……

yum, yum

Kate arranged a birthday cake for Mali which was so cute. Actually Grace,(Kate’s cousin) the little girl standing next to Mali was born on the exact same day! How spinny is that?

Bright and early on Monday morning we drove over to West Virginia to visit one of my on-line stamping friends who I was most excited to meet in the flesh! Kim Evans and I have been communicating on-line for over two years, and so it was totally surreal to be able to meet her in the flesh, and what an amazing and gorgeous woman she is too! Kim has been having treatment for the past 6 months for Breast Cancer. I am so amazed at her positive attitude and how gracefully she has dealt with her illness……certainly did encourage me too. It was so wonderful to see where she lives and to meet her fabulous hubby too!….oh and I should mention the big Stampin’Up order I got to pick up from Kim too…..oh la la!

So here are some pics of that visit….

Isn’t she just a gorgeous woman!!!

Steve and Kim…

Us together with the kiddies…..

Here is Kim’s AMAZING crafting space……such a fabulous area!

Out the front of their amazing house! If you look closely you can see Kim’s hubby Steve carrying out my big SU box of goodies….LOL!

Such a special time shared together…….Now I just HOPE that they make it down to Australia to visit us one time!

The next morning we had to be up early to drop off the hire car and to get to the Bus station to catch the big bus to New York City! Whilst it was nearly impossible to say goodbye, we were also looking forward to heading to NYC.

A pic of Kate and I……we had to keep the sunnies on so that we could hide our tear stained faces……man I miss this gal and can’t wait to see her again, whenever that will be!

So we headed off to the Big Apple, it only took 3 hours to get downtown from Kate’s, and the bus even had Wi-Fi which I found amazing.

We were pretty stunned right off how crazy busy this place is! We had to catch a taxi to the hotel from the bus station and man oh man was that the scariest taxi ride I have ever had! Those drivers are complete psychos!!! There are no such thing as lanes, you just scoot on over wherever you want, just make sure you honk and honk some more! Total craziness…… I was pretty shaken up to say the least! Then we are met by the rudest Bell man EVER, and the worst thing is that you actually have to pay them for the service they DIDN”T give you!, Next up the reception at the Sheraton in NYC where we were staying was rude as well…….we were starting to think Customer service was a dirty word in New York! We couldn’t get our room right away so had to head off for a wander around the city first. We went off to Central Park seeing as it wasn’t too far away. It is a really pretty park, but I didn’t spot any celebrities with their kids at the playground……haha

Central park….

We were all pretty knackered that first day, so ended up not doing to much. The next day we had tickets to one of those Hop on-Hop off buses. They are pretty neat in NYC as they are double deckers with the open top……here is a pic.

It was great viewing, but pretty hot in the summer sun. It took so long to get around because of the traffic! We took the ferry over to Staten Island and had a brief look around…..

Next up was The Statue of Liberty….what an amazing sight that is! Here are a couple of pics of that……

A close up….

The Statue of Liberty…

I managed to do a little shopping too……I was super excited to get a little pink bag from Victoria Secrets with some delightful goodies just for me Also spent up at the M.A.C. store in Times square! I truly can’t believe that the product in the US is half of what we pay in Australia! I definitely had to make good use of that ey?

One thing about New York is that it is the city that never sleeps! There is things going on everywhere and people, police, and action of every corner with someone trying to sell you something! It was really special to go here, and now certain things in movies that you watch make sense etc…… but it was good to visit, there is absolutely no way I could live there! It was pretty exhausting as it is so full on. A great place to go if you want to shop till you drop or really party, but not a relaxing place for a holiday. It actually was a relief to get out of there after two days……

Here we are all together at TImes Square in the early evening….

I thought this sign at the top was so funny because it clearly depicted the attitude of a lot of New Yorkers….

Lots of lights and lots of people!

people, people, people……

So we managed to get all that luggage…….and I am talking a LOT of luggage boarded onto that plane and away to Hong Kong.. The flight from JFK to Hong Kong was 16 hours. I was really dreading this trip, but was pleasantly surprised with how well it went. The kids did very well too. I mean with the on board entertainment they love it…….they never get to watch 10 hours of videos in one hit! LOL! At the moment though the Jet lag is starting to kick in as we sway time zones and my head is feeling like it is always spinning.

Our night in Hong Kong was fabulous! It really reminded us of home (Cairns)! It is really humid and warm, so that is good for us to get to climatise a little. Also there were palm trees everywhere, and big green mountains. Here is a pic of our view from the hotel window.

Beautiful place…

We had a reasonably good sleep, although I woke up at 2:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep……all part of the jet lag I suppose! We had a fabulous breakfast in the hotel and then headed out for a walk to the park…….Took some fab shots of the kids here……wanted to share lots, but narrowed it down to these few.

Enjoying a beautiful buffet breakfast together…

Janaya…

Malakai…

Elijah…

I really liked Hong Kong and would love to come back here and spend some more time discovering the place. One thing that really struck me was how immaculate everything was! The gardens, the streets, the airport, absolutely everything was so clean and perfect. The people were really lovely too and they are really big on customer service too which was a nice change, and better yet we didn’t have to tip them for it either!

We flew from Hong Kong to Brisbane which was a 8.5 hour flight….I found this one dragged on. We arrived at midnight and had to get through Customs…..this all takes time. We got shuffled through without anyone going through our bags which was a blessing. Maybe they thought it was a bit to late for young kids to be up at that time of night! It sure was good to get to the hotel that night. We had about 6 hours sleep and then it was up and get ready for the last flight home! I was starting to panic about our luggage because when you fly International you get to have 2 x 23kg bags each! With domestic you can only have one and I knew we were about 50kgs over weight to fly domestic! We got to the Brisbane airport and my to my delight the girl checked it all in and didn’t charge us a penny! What a relief! It would have put a dampner on our trip if we had to pay $500 in excess baggage!

The other wonderful thing that happened at the Brisbane airport was that my dear friend Steph, her hubby Neil and their two gorgeous kids, Jess and Jackson came to catch up with us! It was sooooo good to see the again and pretty special too. Nice to see them even if it was for an hour! Here is a wee pic of Steph and I….

Seeing Steph was certainly the cherry on the top of a fabulous holiday!

So another flight and we will be home at last…..certainly a long way to travel but we have been so very very blessed by all we have seen and experienced and all the wonderful people we have met along the way too. Some people have asked me what I have liked the most on the trip, and I definitely would have to say the people I have managed to catch up with and spend precious time with…..memories to last a lifetime!

Here is a pic of the luggage we came home with!

Yep two trolleys full…..15 bags in total!

I have lots of craft booty to share with you all when I get a chance, and I promise I will share the deets with you all! I actually can’t wait to sit at my craft desk and put some of it to use too! I have to catch up on washing, paperwork, cleaning and not to mention lots of emails first, but it will happen I promise!

Love to all……

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