Samuel with a very proud Nan. This boy was totally spoilt while we were away. So much so that I am barely able to put him down now without him getting incredibly upset. And don’t even get me started on the good sleeping habits that have gone out the window… He’s just lucky he has a lot of cuteness in his favour.

Thomas checking out the horses in the paddock behind Mum and Dad’s place. I love that he had a chance to really experience nature, complete with the sound of kookaburras laughing in the distance.

Nearly at our destination…relatively speaking anyway. I took this photo during our layover in New Zealand. I think it was about 5:30am local time which made it about midnight US time… I think. Honestly though, we were beginning to get delirious at this point, after about 18 hours of travel and already one layover in San Francisco. Thankfully the kids had managed to sleep well on the plane and were both rather happy. Thomas is enjoying his Toy Story colouring book that I saved especially for this leg of the trip. Nothing like a little bribery to maintain the calm.

We actually sat at this very same couch on the return trip. Thomas made some comment about being there before…

P.S. You will notice that I missed a day. We missed August 8th altogether on our trip to Australia thanks to that tricky International Date Line. Don’t worry, we gain a day at the other end (although it will be spent traveling). Just wanted to explain because I know you will all be wondering… haha.