Soaking Up the Sun!

On Sunday we had a lazy morning and hung out by the pool in the afternoon, so nice! That night we went out for fro-yo with Emily - on the way we saw heaps of balloons floating off in the sky, so cool - and saw The Wolverine. Hugh Jackman has only gotten better looking since his first appearance as wolverine (over a decade ago!) and he's so cool he made us proud to be Aussies trying to make it in Hollywood.

 Yesterday we went out to Glendale to get the car fixed once and for all! We knew there was a Homegoods nearby, so we decided to go for a walk. We ended up in the most INCREDIBLE shopping area - Americana at Brand! It was like the Disneyland of strip malls; there was jazz music playing from speakers, glorious fountains all over the place, a chandelier strung over a street, and every store we could have hoped for! It was a little dangerous, but we were very responsible and left with just a couple purchases and a Jamba Juice each. 

That night we had a fun girls' night! We went out to an authentic Italian restaurant for dinner and saw The Way Way Back again - just as good the second time. We also said hi to our man Hugh while we were there ;)

Today was our last day before we're working girls (haha just kidding), so we wanted to make it a good one! We got up pretty early, had free Dirty Iced Chai's from Starbucks (thanks MeMe!), and set off to hike Runyon Canyon. It was a great workout and the view of LA was spectacular! The white blur in the background of the second pic is the Hollywood sign! It looked better in person, though, trust us.

We had a quiet night in, getting paperwork and outfits ready, made brownies, and watched Horrible Bosses. Now it's time to get some beauty sleep so we're looking our best for tomorrow!

Acting and Exploring

Yesterday we had another early morning because the acting coach we work with needed us to come in and help out! It was great to catch up with Chambers; so much has happened since we last worked with him! It was also fun to be in more of a mentor role this time around and help out kids in the same position we were in a year ago. We got some great info on how to get extra work, so we'll hopefully be starting that next week - so exciting!

It was a pretty full on day so when we got home we made dinner, watched The Avengers, had cups of tea and shortbread, and passed out for the night.

Today we did a little exploring around Beverly Hills! We walked down Melrose Avenue, this really cool, funky shopping area with vintage stores, lovely cafes and some very tempting window shopping! At one point when we were waiting to cross the street these two really cute guys pulled up at the light and were just being so sweet! They told us our smiles had made their day and that "If I was traffic I'd stop for you." And then they drove off into the distance... Well, up to the next traffic light anyway. It was such a nice little boost, LA life is totally agreeing with us!

Next we went a few streets over to Robertson Boulevard, the (supposed) shopping area of the stars! It was more of a reconnaissance mission than anything, because we really weren't there at the most strategic time, but we're hoping that next time we go we can spot some celebs! It was a really nice area to walk around anyway, and we stopped for a cupcake before heading back to the car.

We went to Ralphs - yet again - and got the ingredients we needed to make nachos - so yummy! We watched Pride and Prejudice while we ate dinner and swooned over the gorgeous Mr. Darcy, *sighhh*. It's been a fun couple days and we have more adventures in store tomorrow!

The Happiest Place on Earth

The two of us were up at the crack of dawn this morning, wide awake and excited to go to DISNEYLAND!! After an amazing effort, we managed to get ourselves showered and ready, pack lunch for in the park, and make a cooked brekkie all in time to leave by 7:00! We filled up with petrol and got on the road. With little traffic, we made it to the park at 8:15, feeling pretty proud of ourselves and ready for a big day. 

We set up our "Annual Passports" - an INCREDIBLE graduation present from Mum and Q, thank you! - and went into California Adventure! We'd decided to save Disneyland itself for our birthday in a couple weeks, so we concentrated our effort on doing everything we wanted to in California Adventure. 

First off, we went and got FastPasses for Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land, then hit up The Little Mermaid, Toy Story Midway Mania, the Ferris Wheel, and Monsters Inc. On the Ferris Wheel we shared a compartment with a friendly woman and her adorable little daughter who squealed and laughed the whole time, so sweet! 

Since we hadn't been very strategic about doing things near each other in one go - and subsequently walked back and forth across the park a few times - we got hungry pretty early and decided to stop for lunch. Our packed lunch of apples and PB&J sandwiches was inexpensive, yummy, and pretty healthy, and it gave us the boost we needed to keep running around.

Next, we went on Soarin' Over California which is one of our faves! We met these two really nice Kiwi boys in line and had a good chat, not envying them the winter they were about to return to. They'd never been on the ride before so we told them all about it and how awesome it is when you get the front row. When we all got up to the front of the line, we were told that two of us would have to go in row one and two in row three, oh no! Since we'd been on before (and undoubtedly would be again soon), and just cause we're awesome (just kidding, although we did feel pretty warm and fuzzy about it), we insisted that the boys take the first row. It was such a lovely ride - even from row three - and had even greater meaning now that we've moved out to Cali. A little teary-eyed afterwards, we bumped into the guys again and they'd loved it too! The whole experience was one of the highlights of the day.

We had an hour to go until our FastPasses for The Tower of Terror became valid, so we went into the Art of Animation building to check it out. It was so cool! We hadn't realized before, but there were all these awesome interactive things to do - like finding out what character you're most like, or acting/singing a part of a movie and hearing your voice blended with the character's in the clip - and a huge room with screens everywhere projecting images and clips from songs in all the Disney classics. We spent ages just sitting and watching the highlights, rediscovering some childhood favourites. Also, we saw the magic mirror from Snow White! Pretty cool...

The Tower of Terror was calling our name, though, so we left Art of Animation and crossed into the Twilight Zone for a bit of an adrenaline rush. After that, we treated ourselves to ice cream at the Crazy Cones in Cars Land, watched a parade, and went on the Tower of Terror again before heading in to see the Aladdin stage show. We got great seats and were really glad to be off our feet. The show starts and before we know it, this gorgeous Aladdin with a great bod and heaps of charisma comes out on stage! He had a serious Darren Criss vibe about him and he totally stole the show! We were very impressed.

Last on our agenda, and the perfect way to finish the day, was returning to Radiator Springs to use our FastPasses. The stand-by time was 180 minutes!! OH my God! Three hours?! We were so thankful we got to head straight to the front. It was such a fun ride and the cherry on top of a wonderful day! We left the park knowing we'd be back soon and already excited for the Disney extravaganza we have planned for our b'day. 

The drive home was long and Han was super tired, but we made it without any issues - and actually dodged, surprisingly easily and safely, a tire that flew off the car in front of us! We had a quick dinner and fell into bed, exhausted in the best possible way after a great day of Disney magic!

Getting Our S**t Together

We are so productive!! The last few days have been extremely busy but so worth it! On Monday we went out to Ikea in Burbank and the drive was so pretty! We had the most magnificent views of the mountains and went past all the film studios; it was one of those "Oh my god, we live in LA" moments.

We spent an absurd amount of time in Ikea but ended up choosing some really lovely things - a really pretty lamp, little purple boxes for storage, and a bookshelf!

Next, it was time for committed effort at Ralph's, the grocery store. We got great deals, healthy food, and points toward making petrol cheaper! It was actually heaps of fun and we made it home exhausted but inspired to eat well and organise our stuff. We also, somehow, made it home without the loaf of bread we had bought... Bit of a mystery...

That night we realised the second amazing perk of our lovely roommates - the first being that Meme works at Starbucks and brings us free coffee! - which was that Emily recently started working at a movie theatre and gets four free tickets every day! So, Chanelle, Emily, and the two of us all went to see The Way Way Back. We cannot recommend it highly enough! It was SUCH a great movie; it made us laugh and it made us cry. It also didn't hurt that the cinema was beautiful! It was so glamorous, we felt like we were at an actual theatre.

It was a late movie but when we got home, probably because of the jet-lag, we weren't tired. We stayed up chatting with Chanelle until past 3:00am about anything and everything. It was a wonderfully ordinary day.

The next day, yesterday, was even more productive! Job number 1) Laundry. Not too difficult! Definitely a milestone, though. We did three loads and had clean underwear again! Yay!

Job number 2) Assemble the bookcase. Quite difficult... We started off slowly, with a not-quite-right screwdriver - but still, it was almost fun, then we got all hot and bothered, and lost patience rapidly from there. We'd had great intentions of taking pics along the way to show the process, but around the hot and bothered point, we stopped with the documentation - so here's the beginning and the final product:

It really wasn't that bad, once we got going, but with two huge jobs done it was time for... A nap? An afternoon by the pool? Nope, job number 3) Walmart. Lucy, overtired and overheated, decided it was time for some more practice behind the wheel. It was terrifying. Like, actually, truly, all-joking-aside, very frightening. But Lucy kept us safe! And it was really more of a scary start (running a very red light) than anything else. Thank god for Walmart. Within a couple minutes, we had found everything we went to buy: clothes hangers, a drying rack, and a shoe rack - the last one there - the EXACT dimensions we needed it to be! Ahh it was so much more exciting than you would expect! We were on a bit of a high, to be honest, and, so as not to kill the happy feeling, Han drove home.

And by home, we mean Ralph's... For the bread that we left behind the day before! They were so nice and gave it to us free of charge when we explained what had happened. After that we really did go home and had yummy salads for dinner (made by Luce), organised all our stuff (mostly done by Han), and watched the Bachelorette in a perfectly tidy room with tea and shortbread for dessert.

Today was a bit of a fizzer as far as getting errands done goes - we didn't accomplish what we set out to at CVS, Bank of America, or Rite Aid - but we DID get a random assortment of things at Ralph's: a bottle of water, 2 punnets of strawberries, glue, milk, and a USB. We also sorted out our Disneyland passes!! YAY! So, uhhh, guess what we're doing tomorrow?!

We had another night out to the movies and saw Girl Most Likely - really funny! Kristen Wiig was hilarious and Darren Criss was so sexy! It was just what we felt like - although if we were recommending one over the other, The Way Way Back was still the winner.

Since getting back we've been chatting away and it's taken so long to write this post! We want to get straight to sleep, though, so we have loads of energy to wake up early and enjoy the day tomorrow! Ahh, SO EXCITED!! Oh, and p.s. our blog reached 2000 pageviews! A bit of an achievement - thanks to everyone who's reading it, we're having such a fun time documenting everything :)

Night!

A Perfect End to a Perfect Trip!

Wow! We've had a busy few days with a lot to catch up on! On Thursday we went to the Canberra zoo and aquarium which was so much fun and very exciting!

We were there early and almost all of the animals were being interesting - which is a first in our zoo-going experience. We saw two gay lions getting it on (also a first...), a sun bear playing and trying to scratch an itch that it couldn't quite reach, King Julien from Madagascar, a big brown bear like chewy awwwww, and a lot of Aussie wildlife: dingos, kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, wombats, and emus.

Will recently decided that chameleons, or "camouflage lizards," are his favourite animals. He spent the whole time in the aquarium pointing out the animals blending in, and told us: "I'm a pretty good camouflage spotter." 

We went to the zoo sausage sizzle and had the classic Aussie sausage sangers we've missed so much! Yum!

We had a quiet evening at home and delish salmon risotto for dinner.

Next day we had one very last surprise in store for grandpa... We'd secretly organised with grandma to come over for lunch and the surprise went perfectly! We saw uncle Matt too while we were over and it was lovely to catch up with all of them.

We had driven to their place and on the way back we got a little turned around, yikes! We went the wrong way and were trying to turn around when we found ourselves in the left lane (good) of two left lanes of oncoming traffic (eek! Not good!). Han did a quick reverse manoeuvre and got us back on track but it was slightly terrifying... 

When we got home Phe came over for one last visit. Eddie suggested that we show Phe the finished dance as a dress rehearsal before we perform for the whole fam on Saturday. Mid way through "I Would" by 1D, though, Eddie had a bit of a mishap!

It really was hilarious! Once we knew Ed wasn't hurt we all had a bit of a laugh and had another (more successful) crack at the dance. So here it is, the long awaited, umm, masterpiece...

--- eeeek! Just kidding! It won't upload right now so we'll try again later ---

The next day was Saturday, our last full day in Aus! We got up early to watch the kiddies at their swimming lessons - they did SO well and were absolutely adorable!

After that we went out for a coffee with our childhood friend Nick. It was so great to see him after about 8 years! We've all grown up but none of us have really changed all that much.

We had a lot to catch up on though, and it was awesome to hear all about Nick! He'd just come back from field training with ADFA, so he was considerably more badass than he was the last time we saw him!

Nick dropped us home in time to help get ready for a big Sunday roast with the whole fam. Lucy helped Eddie and Will ice/decorate cupcakes - this is the pose Han got when she asked for "nonchalant."

The lunch was perfect and it was great to catch up with the fam! Sue also brought a tin of our favourite shortbread over for us to take back to LA, so sweet of her! We've already started on it since getting back and it's seriously helping with the homesickness for Aus.

We got absolutely destroyed in the cricket that night, which was entirely depressing, and watched some of the Tour de France before packing our bags and going to sleep.

Yesterday - if it even counts as yesterday, so confusing - we had a yummy breakfast, watched Han's ballet recital dvd, and did early birthday prezzies before heading to the airport. We had a bittersweet goodbye, sad to leave after such a lovely visit but excited to head back to LA. Part of our b'day present was a countdown timer to our Chrissy holiday in Thailand, only 150 days until we see each other again!

The flight was entirely unpleasant :( neither of us slept and a baby a few seats away cried for all but, I don't know, about two hours, ugh. We made it, though, and knew Ollie and Wyatt would be at LAX to pick us up... They weren't. Haha we gave them a wake up call and they left soon after to come get us.

We made it back to the apartment and on the top of our to do list was catching up on The Bachelorette! Tonight is the second last episode and we're glad to be caught up! We're pretty into it...

We have a big day of unpacking, errands, grocery shopping, and laundry planned for today, so we'd best be off! It feels great to be back in sunny LA, the city of angels.

Will's Almost-Birthday

This morning we wrapped Will's early birthday prezzies - in the Christmas paper he requested - and, after much anticipation, gave them to him! The Ben 10 PJs and remote-control car were a huge hit and earned us a few cuddles and giggles from the little guy.

We all bundled into the car to go check out dad's work and go out to lunch. We went to the National Portrait Gallery and had yummy beef and mushroom pies for lunch and had a little look around at some rather strange art.

After lunch it was time to finish Will's early birthday off right with some quality time with just the three of us. We checked out this fun toy shop, complete with tents, remote-control bugs, and a talking parrot...

 

Then it was on to Donut King for a milkshake and a donut!

Will's final request for his pretend birthday, besides the prezzies and Donut King, was that we all play hide-and-seek and Simon Says. So, when we got home, that's exactly what we did! Han and Eddie also finished making up their dance - a video will be coming shortly - and we said goodbye to Nan who was catching the evening train back to Sydney.

We had good old bangers and mash for dinner before - drama! The power went out! Will was alarmingly freaked out that we were without TV, but other than that, we just lit candles and waited it out. It was lovely, actually, playing cards by candlelight with background music from Lucy's phone.

 

The power came back on, inexplicably, just a few hours later. A tiring but really fun day, we're feeling so lucky to be able to spend precious time with the fam.

Surprises, Suppers, and Sports!

The Siers fam came over for a Sunday lunch. Without intending to, we surprised Tim and Krystle! Even though the cat had been out of the bag for a while, they weren't expecting us and got a bit of a shock! We played with the kids after lunch - Tim's so funny! We all played with Will's dress-ups, learned some Morse code, and had a good laugh.

Dad and Hannah stayed up for the second night in a row, joined by Lucy and Nanna, to watch the end of what had been a very disappointing couple days of sport. The Brumbies were destroyed on Saturday night by the Western Force in what should've been an easy win. Then, on Sunday, the Aussies lost the first test of the Ashes to the Brits! In a highly controversial match (involving some definite cheating by the Poms and some questionable calls by the umpire) we lost by 14 runs! Ahhh it was awful - but we'll get em next time...

Yesterday was a PJ day and Eddie and Han made great progress on the dance. We played "Simon Says" and Lucy's "Simon says touch ya bum" got a cheeky giggle out of Will. We had yummy Thai food for dinner and laughed our heads off at Hamish and Andy's Gap Year Asia.

Today we celebrated Eddie's birthday way early with a girls' day! We did a makeover in the morning, including a princess braid hairdo, makeup, and manicure - Will got a manicure too - then we went out to the shops!

Now came the challenge: driving on the other side of the road. With Hannah (as usual) at the wheel, the driving actually went fine! We had a couple harrowing moments when we found ourselves on the wrong side of the road, but never any actual danger. No, the real trouble was navigating... With the data on our phones disabled (and therefore no access to google maps) we were taking it old school - as in following street signs. It was entirely unsuccessful. We ended up going across one bridge and back again three different times - once after having the shopping centre in sight - and around countless roundabouts before we finally made it to the car park in Civic!

It was totally worth the effort, though, because we had such a fun time shopping with Ed! She got some lovely things and we bought a few tops, then we went to Donut King and had cinnamon donuts and milkshakes for afternoon tea.

Eddie did a fashion show when we got home, then we rounded up the whole clan to go to Sue and Sir's for dinner. Sir put on an incredible spread of roast beef, baked potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots, and Yorkshire puddings for dinner and Sue made chocolate mousse, red jelly, and a hazelnut torte for dessert! Will fell asleep, poor little guy, so we called it a night - and took a tin of Sue's wonderful shortbread with us!

Relaxing with the Fam

On Thursday we had a lazy morning then went out to lunch with Sue and Sir at Debacle.

 

A few too many slices of pizza later, we decided to walk off our lunch at the DFO outlets! Retail therapy is a wonderful thing! We didn't have nearly enough time, though, so we knew we'd be back soon.
That night we witnessed history! On day 1 of the Ashes test series Ashton Agar, the number 11 batsman, brought the Aussies back from the brink of disaster and into the lead against the Poms!! The (very cute) 19-year-old, in his first professional match, almost scored a century! It was so cool to watch, a definite highlight!

The next day we went and saw Despicable Me 2, which was hilarious, and Eddie and Hannah started their 3rd, semi-annual dance to One Direction. If Han makes it through alive we'll upload a video of the final product...

Today was the day we made it back to DFO to finish our shopping. The sales were awesome!! Perhaps a little too tempting, poor Luce now has only five cents to her name.After our shopping trip we went to the train station to pick up Nan! She's as fit as ever and it's great to get to see her for the next few days!

Top Quotes from Will:
"Not if they're too juicy, just plain juicy"
- Will, when asked if he wanted strawberries

"Hannah, do you have prickly legs?"
"Sometimes - a bit at the moment.."
"Mum's legs are prickly ALL the time"
-Will, just as Han was tucking him into bed *



*Contrary to Will's statement, we have it in good faith that Claire actually sports silky smooth legs.

I Love a Sunburnt Country

We played Pirates and Spies with the kiddies in the morning then went to the Arboretum. It was beautiful but FREEZING! We hadn't fully remembered how cold Canberra winters get! We had a great time though, and Eddie and Will loved the playground!

 

 

 

Before heading home, we went up to the "Wide Brown Land" sign on the next hill over.

The quote comes from a poem (which Dad recited to us from memory) by Dorothea Mackellar:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

 

We went home and got ready for dinner at the Press Club! We had a bit of a drama over who would wear what - because we both wanted to wear almost exactly the same outfit - and then got one last opportunity to surprise family members with our presence in the country. We gave Sue and Sir, our step-grandparents, quite a shock when they came over to babysit Ed and Will for the evening!

The party at the Press Club was hosted by the Australian American Association, so we fit right in! The Harvard Krockodiloes were there to sing for us and they put on a great show! We met a few of them afterwards and had a drink - which we were all pretty excited about, having come from the US with its high drinking age.

 

 

They were going to a pub after the show and we were tempted to go with, except that it's a pretty bogan place and we were still jetlagged and exhausted. So, instead, we had Maccas drive thru for dinner and went home.

It was the right call because we were obviously tired! The next day Lucy slept in until after 12:30 and Will, amazed, said "I can't believe it! Lucy's sleeping is the biggest!"

We had a chill day at home and helped Ed and Will ride their bikes - then we attempted to ride their bikes...

That night was family movie night and we watched "The Indian in the Cupboard" which featured two annoying kids, some mild racism, and the dad from Raise Your Voice. It was a fun night, though, and we definitely felt cosy and settled in.

Aussie Surprise!!

When we got back to the apartment after our day at the beach we had to hurry to get ready to go to the airport!! We were headed on a top secret trip to surprise Dad, Eddie, and Will in Australia! Ollie and Wyatt dropped us off at the international departures terminal and we checked in easily at the Qantas desk. On our way to security we spotted Leo and had to take a pic!

Only once we were on the plane did Lucy realise how terribly she got sunburnt at the beach! Her full body sunburn throbbing, it seemed like the best idea for both of us to try to get some sleep...
Ten hours later, we woke up! With only three hours left of the flight, we each watched a movie (Pulp Fiction and A Beautiful Mind), had brekkie, then found ourselves flying over the beautiful Australian coast!

We had made it home!

We cleared customs and navigated our way to the domestic terminal no worries - now all that separated us from the fam was a half hour flight to Canberra! Despite our uncontrollable excitement, the flight went by quickly. When we hopped off the plane, Claire was waiting for us with hot coffees and excitement that rivalled our own. We drove home and Claire dropped us off around the corner to wait while she went inside. We couldn't resist snapping a quick selfie before we went inside!!

We snuck up to the door as quietly as we could and rang the doorbell...

It went perfectly! For the first time in her life, Eddie was speechless - though it didn't last long - and Dad and Will were completely surprised!

For the rest of the day we hung out, read stories, played hide and seek, walked up to the park and had coffees at the café next door.

Later on we had our cousin Phoebe and her boyfriend, Jordan, over for dinner and got to do surprise #2 on them! Dad made lamb shanks for dinner and Lucy and I fell into bed, actually quite late, after surviving a huge and wonderful day of travel and excitement!

Quotes from the kiddies:
"Is this a dream?!"
- Edwina, when we arrived

"Hannah, did you order a little cup so you could finish first?"
- Will, about Hannah's chai latté at the café

"Maybe I could do some ninja moves... And kung fu moves..."
-Will, when Eddie told him he'd get hurt if he played rugby