3 weeks living with Grandma and Grandad

We had no home to return to, so we moved in with Mum and Dad, not really knowing how long we would be there for! It was a bit of a tight fit and the girls seemed to be sleeping in a different spot each night (on mattresses on the floor), but we liked being there. A big thanks to Aunty Elle who enjoyed a few restless nights of kids coughing and sniffing and basically just taking over her room.

It was bitter-sweet staying with Mum and Dad though, I mean, it was fantastic really - full time babysitters (Mick and I even got to go out to the movies, and I could take off for an 8pm run any night) dinners cooked, morning entertainment for the girls (which meant lots of sleep-ins for me) no bills to worry about and minimal housework to do (thanks Mum). They even gave us a car to use! What a life really! But then comes the bitter - living out of a suitcase, the stress of trying to find a house to rent, a car to buy and a school for Leilani! And the worst part - was us getting anxious about getting our stuff out of storage! (It was a very exciting thought - to see all your stuff again! Leaving it all behind for 12months was fine - but once you're back, you just WANT it and WANT it NOW!)

Anyway, it all turned out well, and we ended up being there for 3 weeks, which was a great length really, and during those weeks we got up to all sorts of things....

Everyone came over for tea and we got even more Christmas presents. (It was great!) Gave out a few too.... like this Alian outfit (from Toy Story) for Zak, which I think was too small and may have to become Charlie's!

And a chef's apron for Locke - which he was way more excited about than I thought - always nice when you get a present right!

During our first 3 weeks home, Emily and Leilani visited Aunty Alison for a much needed haircut...

...Emily visited the hospital with a very sore arm/shoulder caused by Aunty Elle! (But it was an accident!)

Emily dressed up as a nurse at Olivia's house...

What cute girls - if I do say so myself!

They ate heaps of ice-creams! (It's always fun at Grandma's house at Grandma's house hooray!)

I got a new iphone and the girls became addicted to the games for a few weeks! (And taking photos with it! They took these two of each other themselves...)

Mick took a few photos of the moon and became fascinated about how different it looks here and from England.

We went to little Charlie's 1st birthday party, which was the hottest day ever - check out the girls faces here....they aren't sunburnt - just red from the heat!

Lani won the pass-the-parcel and was absolutely over the moon with the prize! (She actually said that she would have been very very upset if she lost - which made me a little concerned! lol)

And we did lots and lots of other stuff - but have no photos, so I can't remember what! A BIG thanks to a Grandma and Grandad who looked after all of us so well, and put up with us for 3 whole weeks! The girls loved being there, and so did we!

Chilling out with the Challis'

We stayed in Launceston for a couple of nights before heading home to Hobart. It was great to be around all the family again and the kids especially loved playing with their cousins. I wasn't really with it for most of our time here because I was so unwell, which kind of sucked but I feel really thankful that I was able to rest and take it easy and not have to worry about food or entertaining the kids! Gail and Philip looked after us all really well - as usual, so being sick wasn't too bad. Here are some photos we took over the couple of days we were up there:

{We celebrated Christmas again while we were here and it was great! (It actually did feel like Christmas too!)}

{Emily checking baby in between present opening}

{Emily showing baby the roll-up she got from her stocking!}

{And within seconds of pulling out a....}

{... fruit-box, Emily gave a quick pose and then...}

{... she was into it!!!}

{Pretty happy about Sultanas - one of Em's favourite foods!}

{Outside jumping off the jetlag! (which actually none of the kids suffered from at all!)}

{Em and Daddy having a kiss - check out Max on the side - Classic!}

{Leilani checking Grandmas Advent Calendar}

{And the cutest scene ever was watching Emily and Leilani reading to Gus!}

They are both little 'mothers' and just love 'helping' with little kids (who are often just as big as them!)

{Mick had to get a photo in the sun to send his work mates back at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton! They have had an average of 0˚C this winter... while we have been living it up back here in Summer!}

While they...

{sang 'Yippee - we're home'.....}

{... played follow the leader around Melbourne Airport...}

{... posed for the camera...}

{...ran around and around and around...}

{more poses}

{...pretended to be asleep...}

... emptied their bags out and played with all their stuff....

... balanced along some beam and fell off ....

... talked and talked....

WE.... sat there, hardly saying a word (too tired to speak!) trying very very hard to keep our eyes open!!

These were our first photos taken back in Australia! The girls had a lovely time playing at Melbourne airport, until...

... during check-in Emily decides to fall asleep in my arms - making it very difficult for me to carry my bags and hers - all the way through security and up to our gate (which was like as far away as they get!!)

AND

... just before boarding Leilani decides to fall asleep - making it impossible for us to carry our bags, them and their bags!

This was the worst part of the whole trip - I was so disappointed with the Jetstar supervisor.

I went and asked them for some help before boarding and explained that we couldn't carry all of our bags because the kids had fallen asleep. Any other day I would have just woken them - but seeing as though they had probably only had 5 hours sleep in the last 30 hours - there was just no way we could have woken them even if we tried. The girl I spoke to said we could board first and she would get someone to carry some of our bags for us - but then the supervisor stepped in and said we had 'too many bags to carry on' (1 more than we should have had) she spat the dummy with us and was so rude - made us stand there and wait while someone came and got 1 of our bags to be checked on.

We were kind of annoyed at being treated that way, but really, too tired to even care. (But I get really annoyed when I think of it now!)

Things didn't get much better when we arrived into Launceston with the girls half awake and not wanting to walk. They were tired and started to cry - which turned into screams when they saw the sniffer dog! We walked in with crying girls and tired arms from carrying our bags, the girls bags and the girls and tried to look happy for most of the Challis Family waiting for us. I think they were shocked that we all looked so awful!!

D Day

The day we often thought would never come....came! Monday 11th January 2010 our hotel shuttle bus dropped us off at Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport....we were on our way home. This is the last photo we took in the UK!

After that, the camera went away for our long trip home.

We flew from Heathrow to LA, which took about 11 hours. We had a 2 hour stop there - which was really very boring. We all had to get off the plane and go and wait in this big room. We had to be checked by immigration before being allowed to enter a secure room (we even had to apply for an online visa before we left) - all a bit silly really as it's not like we could escape the room anyway! Having kids was a bit of a bonus at this point because we got to skip the massive queue and go straight to the front! We were then back on the plane for a 13 hour flight to Auckland. I know I say this often but Leilani and Emily really were such good kids on the plane. We really didn't have any problems with them at all and they handled it all so well. They slept at different times from each other though - which didn't give us much of a chance to rest, but it did give them a break from each other.

I was actually looking forward to the flight home - some time to sit back, read, and watch movies, but I got so sick that I couldn't even do that!!!! I had a headache, runny nose and a bad fever and felt absolutely terrible. (I'm sure I had swine flu!) So I was totally stressed about how the kids would handle the flight - when in fact it was me that struggled!

Our flight must have been a little late getting into Auckland because we had to rush to make our Melbourne flight and only just made it. Three hours later we were arriving into Melbourne!

We got through immigration and customs pretty easily but then had to wait 4 or so hours for our flight to Launceston. It turned out to not be so bad - I think we were just happy to be off the plane and back in Australia!!

Threesixty presents Peter Pan

We travelled up to London the day before our flight home, and stayed at Heathrow Airport for the night to make our afternoon flight the next day a little less stressful. We decided to take one last trip into London that evening - to say goodbye - and boy did it turn out to be adventurous!!!! A simple trip into the city on the tube turned into a bus, train and cab ride!!! We had booked tickets to see Peter Pan at the O2, which was being put on by a theatre company called threesixty.

We ended up being late for the show due to tube lines being closed and the O2 Arena being a little further out than we had expected! We didn't miss much though and the show was really good. Leilani especially enjoyed it and the 360˚ experience was pretty cool. The show was in like a big circus tent, but the roof was a movie screen, and they projected things on the whole roof - all 360 degrees of it - it was awesome! And then the actors had a stage in the middle of the arena that people sat all around - on every side. The guy that played Captain Hook was a famous actor - Jonathan Hyde (he was in Titanic, he was the hunter in Jumanji, and the butler in Richie Rich, among other things).

We were all quite tired after the show - from a full on couple of weeks of packing and saying goodbye so we had a quick look around the O2 and headed back to Heathrow (this time on a much simpler route!).

{It was freezing by the way - but that goes without saying really!}

{The O2 was pretty cool and the girls enjoyed running around in the big open space!!}

We got asked if we would like to sample the next big thing.... 3D TV! 'Why not?' We said! They had big comfy bean bags and full-on surround sound! It was great, but to be honest - a 3D TV is the last thing I would really want! The girls just liked the glasses...

... I LOVE Emily's eyes in this photo!!!

It was sad getting on the tube for the last time, it was sad looking out at London and feeling like it was only yesterday that we saw it for the first time. I feel sad that we are no longer there. (But at the same time extremely grateful that we were even there!)