What a year, what a blur.

WHAT A YEAR! What a blur. Sleepless nights, new friends, new countries, long hours, lots of stress, lots of fun, lots of life and lots to be thankful for. We love our little family and have had an absolute blast on this adventure.

I am notoriously bad at keeping an updated blog. The worst part is I totally love it when I do… take it back, the worst part is that I had written page and pages, but they were all lost forever when my Windows Surface crashed and died. I was working on it in a coffee shop one minute and the flashing logo of death was blinking the next. And, of course, I am so technologically advanced that I had it saved… in one spot, on my desktop, with no back up… anywhere. After two months of mourning, I’m finally getting back to it.

And in the whirlwind of the last 9 months, we’re back in Manly (aka the beach in Sydney, Australia). Ross is here for work again and the kids and I get the immense joy of joining for a few weeks! Such a different experience in the winter/spring compared to the balmy summer we experienced, but it’s still every bit as wonderful. My close friend CB once told me that if we were a place embodied, we would be Sydney, Australia. I think Manly more specifically but I couldn’t agree more. There is so much we love about this place – the laidback atmosphere, spending our days in beachwear, drinking copious amounts of coffee, enjoying cold craft beer, being inherently active all while staring at the most beautiful coast.

Prior to getting to Manly, we spent 3 weeks visiting friends and family across the US. I’m realizing we never do anything small or keep things simple and easy. Rather than just spending a couple weeks in one place, it was 2 extraordinarily long flights and 4 short ones to 5 places in 2.5 weeks. We started by flying from Hong Kong to LAX to see Ross parents and extended family. The 16-hour flight couldn’t have gone better, the jetlag couldn’t have gone worse. We said this trip would be spiritually rejuvenating and physically exhausting and that was spot on. We had the absolute best time while sleeping just a few hours every night.

Everyone asks how the flights were. I’d do the flight any day of the week and they really weren’t bad at all – highly recommend flying overnight though so the kiddos will just sleep most of it. Jetlag on the other hand, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Going west was the worst. I’m not convinced we ever really adjusted. Landing in Sydney wasn’t an issue, 3 days in we felt like a million bucks!

We started our trip ‘home’ in Southern California with Ross’ whole family. Beach, family photos, breweries, Knott’s Berry Farm, delicious food, duffy boat, paddle boarding, bike riding, swimming, the list goes on and on. We couldn’t have asked for a better trip. Thank you Randy and Diana!

Next was Wyoming for my cousin Genevieve’s wedding. Long Beach > Salt Lake > Cody, WY. We met up with my mom, Andrew and Rachel when we arrived and waited for Dad, Lainey and Hattie to make it in with the air stream from Eastern Washington. We drank good beer, walked through beautiful Wyoming countryside, checked out Cody and Red Lodge, watched pig racing and attended the most thoughtful, gorgeous wedding in the whole world. It was such a wonderful time to be together with my whole family in such a special place.

On to Washington via a short overnight in Butte, MT. Babies on long car drives are such a crapshoot. As soon as you plan to make it hours, they just can’t hang. When you’re prepared to stop in half an hour, they’re good for 4… you just never know. We’ve learned flexibility is the name of the game. We also got a 4 hour late start that morning when our rental van had a flat tire and good ol’ Hertz didn’t send a spare.

Making it to Washington, we got a few nights to catch up with friends, enjoy some good barn, tractor, Ranger, horse time, visit our Papa and of course grab a cheeky pint at Ice Harbor (our favorite local brewery that supplied the booze for our wedding on Hatton Road).

A trip stateside wouldn’t be complete without a stop in the Big D for some quality time with great friends; and we also got to celebrate baby Harvey’s impending arrival! Visiting family is wonderful but there is something about being with our best friends that is so darn relaxing and rejuvenating too.

It was tough to leave.

Thankfully we eased back into reality with a stay in Sydney (aka our happy place) … after a 17 hour flight, that the kids absolutely rocked. They never cease to amaze me.

God is good and we are blessed.