Usually, the first reaction people have when I tell them I am traveling to Australia is “You’re so lucky! I’ve always wanted to go.” But, for me, going to Australia is going home – like a visit to the midwest or the east coast for a number of my US friends. While we definitely plan to make this a true vacation over the new couple of weeks with hikes and visits to museums and walks through the city, we are also enjoying simple things like visits to the playground. In fact, getting the boys outside for at least part of the day is key to our sanity.

This weekend we’ll be enjoying some time as an almost-complete family with my two brothers, sister-in-law and nephew all visiting. The only person missing is Kei but he’ll be with us in spirit from the other side of the world. In fact, I’ll be happy to have a drink on his behalf when we visit a nearby winery tomorrow (we all miss you honey).

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some photos from a very ordinary visit to the playground a couple of days ago. The only difference between this playground and those we’d find at home was the wombat-shaped bouncy ride.