Lyndon and Christine come to Sydney!

It was so much fun to have family come and visit us! We loved having Lyndon, Christine, Cosette, Henry, and Raphael come and play with us. We were lucky to have beautiful weather. I truly enjoyed going around Sydney and the Blue Mountains, laughing and touring around, showing my family the city where I live, but also doing new things and discovering new places and making new memories. It was a great week.

Gregory and George were so excited to have their cousins who live in Singapore come and play. They kept asking how many days until Coco comes? It was exciting for them to see her when they were finished with school. William and Henry are only a few weeks apart in age, and they just got along famously. They really are two peas in a pod. They love the same things, very curious, and enjoy being outdoors collecting sticks and playing in the dirt. It was fun seeing all the cousins interact and for the most part they all got along really well!

Here are some of the things we did

The Sydney Ferry

The sun was so bright, it was hard to keep our eyes opened for the photo. It was a nice afternoon out on the Ferry. We were on our way to collect the boys from school in Balmain. 

Manly

Manly is normally crowded with people, but because it's not summertime yet, we had the beach almost to ourselves. It was a beautiful night, a little cold, but the sunset was gorgeous and it made the sand look like it was a light pink colour. It was lovely. And yes, that is Gregory off in the ocean swimming by himself. 

Henry's Birthday

When we got home from Manly, we had dinner and celebrated Henry's Birthday. It was fun! Here's a video we made for him.

Hyde Park and Bubbles

I had never seen the bubble man before at Hyde Park. He was awesome. The kids loved chasing the bubbles, and I tried to pop a few myself. 

Botanical Gardens

This place is one of my favourite places to be. I have spent a lot of time in the Botanical Gardens. I used to run through them on my morning runs, and William and I have strolled here many times enjoying the beauty. It's a great place to go when you need to get out of the apartment and out of the city. 

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay

Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour

We have walked around the Maritime Museum a lot, but I had never been inside. I assumed that it would be expensive and because we have so many passes to other things, I just never bothered giving it a go. That's why it's good to have family come and visit, because you try out new things! Lyndon and Christine found out that it was free to visit the museum and you only had to pay if you were to go on the boats and take a tour around. Lyndon ended doing this the next day while Christine and I went to the zoo. Anyway, this place is really cool. It is a huge museum. There is also an inside kids area, where the boys and their cousins loved playing at. I'm glad that we discovered this place before leaving! We were so happy that the kids jumped for joy! ha ha!

International Cousin Sleepover! 

How cool is it that these cousins who both live overseas were able to have their second international cousin sleepover. Their first was in Ireland where they spend Christmas with us a couple years ago. Henry and William were just babies then. Now look at them. So big and adventurous. And we have a new addition to our cousin sleepover, Raphael. What a darling little boy he is. So sweet and willing to go along with us on all our outings and adventures! I was a pretty lucky girl to get to watch these guys for one evening. We really had a good night. We ate dinner, played with toys, and watched Disney movies. Nothing better than being a kid and playing with cousins!

All settled in and ready for movie night! I liked how Gregory and Cosette were cuddling up ready to watch a movie and both posing for the pic, William of course was in the middle of it all, and George was being very responsible and wanting to hold Rapha, all of them just snuggled together and were excited to watch the show!

Taronga Zoo

I have spent so many afternoons and weekends at this place. I love it. A place where the kids can run wild and no one really cares. I think it's a beautiful zoo, and it's been a fun place for our family to spend time together. William and Henry loved running around, collecting sticks, playing in the dirt, and William even picked up Kangaroo poo. That was exciting. The kids all loved playing at the playground next to the Lemur enclosure, and they liked sitting on the elephant statue and posing for photos. It was a fun day out.

I love this photo.

Henry is so cute, and I think this photo captures his personality and loving nature. He reminds me of Lyndon in so many ways as a child. He is kind, curious, and has a great imagination.

Coco and George are off in their world, playing together so well as they did the whole trip. They loved playing all sorts of games together.

And Gregory, he is so good to listen as I call out to the group, "SMILE!" He turned and gave me a cute pose and smile. Thanks Gregory!

Cosette has the best moves! She was showing off her dancing and posing for the camera! This girl melts my heart and is absolutely gorgeous! Glad that she's my niece.

George and Gregory love taking photos of me. I think it's funny. Here's one of me walking towards them to take the camera back, and I can just hear them giggling as they are taking millions of photos.

 I wasn't helping the situation, more like adding to the fire, throwing up my hands in the air and making funny faces at them, ha ha... Good times!!

This area is usually crowded and full of people... Not this afternoon, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. 

This elephant got a lot of love from us. We had a good time jumping on and off of it snapping up a storm of photos! There wasn't anyone at the zoo at this point. It was empty. 

Christine, Coco, and I were the only girls on the trip. Out of ten of us, we three girls were it! Glad we snapped a few photos of us!

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My favourite part of the whole trip was playing night games out  back behind our holiday home in the Blue Mountains, enjoying the fire Lyndon built, eating s'mores together, and telling scary/funny stories together. Then afterwards when the kids were in bed, we talked and talked until after midnight. We reminisced about our childhood, talked about politics, and just had fun together chatting away. Good times. More about this and our adventures in the Blue Mountains to come!