Still Call Australia Home

Now, we have some news that we excluded (to keep it a surprise for our Aussie relatives) from the last blog post... We've moved back to Australia!! WAHOOOO! We've been so blown away by how welcoming and wonderful everyone's been, we really couldn't be happier with our decision! 

When we told the kiddos they were completely speechless (which never happens with Eddie) and Eddie's eyes welled up with tears. A couple days later, she'd obviously been processing it, she said "so now we'll be like real sisters!" Over and over the last two weeks Eddie and Will have just been such sweet, funny, amazing little things and we're SO glad that we won't be missing out on their lives anymore. Truly all the validation we've needed - and we've gotten tons more validation on top of that! We totally lived up to the big sis role at Eddie's dance recital where we screamed our hearts out for her! Such a proud moment, she did soo well!! 

Totally worth sitting through the 2 hours of other kids, but hopefully next year she'll be in more than one dance.. We're also still trying to convince Will to take a boys hip hop class, he's shockingly coordinated, it's quite amazing.

A few days after we arrived Sue and Sir (Claire's parents) had their 50th wedding anniversary and took us all to an incredible seafood buffet lunch at the Hyatt! We caught up with the whole Dace clan and it was really lovely - great atmosphere, food, and company!

That afternoon we had the whole Dawson clan over for an early Christmas dinner - prawns, lamb, sausages on the barbie, the traditional Aussie feast! It was amazing to catch up with all the cuzzies (especially Phe! Looking forward to our "Single Summer" with that awesome chick!) and we had such a lovely time exchanging pressies and stories.

Another highlight of our first week back was catching up with old friends. Lucy and her former (and maybe future) best friend Ali spent the afternoon and evening hanging out around Canberra, shopping, walking around the lake, filling each other in on all the goss, and spent the evening at Ali's watching Love Actually. Han and Claire went out to a funky bar, Public, for a cocktail and a chat. So lovely! A couple nights later, on Christmas Eve, we both went out to the Kingston pub with a bunch of our old friends from high school! It was SO surreal seeing them all, they haven't changed a bit! 

From left to right: Fairlie (super athletic and fun), Courtney (the biggest sweetheart and so gorgeous), Luce, Paige (the absolute life of the party, totally hilarious), Ali (very funny and so nice), Han, and Georgia (absolutely lovely with the most killer bod). We had a wonderful night catching up, drinking, dancing, and having a fair bit of trouble wrapping our heads around us all being back in the same place after so long! 

We also saw Grandma and Grandpa earlier that day for a yummy lunch, Christmas pressies (thank you guys!), and a couple fun rounds of cards! We got a bit lost driving back without GPS but it was actually nice to get our bearings and have a drive around Canberra - it took us a while to realize that the average sized road we were on was, in fact, the freeway and that we wouldn't be able to just turn at the next set of traffic lights haha. We made it back eventually though, with a minimal number of dangerous moments!

The next day was Christmas!! YAAYY! We were hosting so we got to spend the day at home, bonus! Eddie and Will put out milk and cookies on Christmas Eve and in the morning Santa had come!!

Woo! We totally weren't expecting stockings and we're thrilled to find ours full of lovely little things. Eddie and Will are truly the cutest two kids and we had a wonderful morning unwrapping the prezzies in our stockings and all our family ones.

Karen, Zac, Sue, and Sir came over for Christmas lunch and we had yet another delicious feast cooked up by dad! 

Everyone left in the early afternoon and we spent the rest of the day playing board games and card games with Eddie and Will. Such a lovely day!

The next day we partook in the Boxing Day sales with great success! We also ran into Emma Pullinen and our auntie Louise which was kinda crazy..! They're so lovely, looking forward to catching up with them properly in the new year!

In the last couple days we've been mostly hanging out at home by the pool, riding bikes and reading books. We went and saw Big Hero 6 with the kids and it was SUCH a sweet movie, we all thoroughly enjoyed it! 

We also had lunch at Sue and Sir's to celebrate Samantha's 25th birthday (so nice) AND we all made guesses about whether or not she and her hubby Grant would have a boy or a girl - they were finding out the next day..! We both guessed it's a girl buuut we were wrong! A new little baby boy will be with us in a few months, yeee so exciting!! 

Yesterday we drove to Thredbo, a little skiing town a couple hours from Canberra, where we're having a mini-holiday and spending New Years. We have a lovely little apartment and we're planning on cloning Mount Kosciuszko (the tallest mountain in Australia) tomorrow! We had a delicious dinner last night at a restaurant with a gorgeous view of the mountains!

Today we rode the chairlift up part way and had morning tea, then came down and went on the bobsled! Han filmed it on the GoPro which was very cool, we're loving our new little camera! It's pretty quiet here but it sounds like new year should be a lot of fun! We're really enjoying the family time and are just overall very happy with how we're finishing up this crazy, challenging, wonderful year!

Highlights of the High Life

The last few weeks have been crazy! We've been SO busy packing and getting ready to go to Australia, but have managed to squeeze in some seriously yummy food (as always) and a few really fun little outings! Here're the highlights:

- The most delicious Cuban food you can possibly imagine! Pulled pork in a citrus marinade with rice, black beans, and caramelized plantains, amazing!! We drove over 45 minutes to get to the restaurant and it was sooo worth it!

- Bread pudding at Urth Caffe (finally!) it was out of this world good

- A Thanksgiving feast cooked up by our amazing Mum, the domestic goddess! Turkey, stuffing, broccoli/cauliflower au gratin, sweet potato with marshmallows on top, mashed potatoes, sautéed brussels sprouts with bacon, corn pudding, and 2 pies, cherry and pumpkin, for dessert! YUM!

- Black Friday shopping with Mum! We left the house at 4:30 and had SUCH a successful morning shopping. Sooo many bargains and minimal impulse buys, love it! 

- The Theory of Everything at the movies; it was absolutely outstanding! 

Eddie Redmayne was incredible and the whole film was totally mesmerizing, we'd highly recommend it!

- ARROW! It's such a great show and we've gotten mum and Q totally hooked! So fun rewatching with them..!

- We reattempted a juice cleanse with much more success! We lasted two days and, while it wasn't ideal, it wasn't awful and we were very proud of ourselves

- Followed up the juice cleanse with Sprinkles cupcakes at the Americana at Brand and did a little more shopping at H&M and Victoria's Secret while we were there.. We went a bit nuts these last couple weeks!

- We also followed the cleanse with a huge Dim Sum dinner at our favourite place, Lunasia, and it was as delicious as always!

- Our last little treats before heading back out to mum and Q's were Dulce de Leche cookies from Porto's Bakery. So good.

- Back out at mum and Q's we caught up with Luke on Saturday which was absolutely lovely and then spent the last week relaxing and getting pampered! We had a glorious spa day at Glen Ivy hot springs with Mum and then went out for holiday mani/pedis together the next day. What more could a girl ask for?!

- Luce and Mum baked up a storm of delicious holiday treats for us (which Q are waayy too many of) and it really started to feel like Christmas time!

- We got the rest of our packing done and, even more exciting, started to really plan our Euro trip! Woo!! We booked our first flight and chose the others, planning on having it all booked in the next couple days!

- On Friday we went to the Mission Inn for dinner and had a walk around to see all the Christmas lights. It was absolutely stunning! So festive!

- Saturday was our last full day before heading to Aus and we spent it relaxing and hanging out, with the yummiest pizzas you could imagine for dinner and got 22 Jump Street to watch (hilarious!)

- Sunday was our early family Christmas and it was so, so perfect. A couple stocking pressies each in the morning, just a taster, then our bigger presents for each other. Mum and Q gave us our backpacks for our trip (they're SO great, we love em!), a new bag each, lovely little decorative boxes and a bunch of other special little things - what really took the cake was Q's extra special pressie.. A selfie stick! Haha you put your phone on the end and it lets you get a wider reach for the pic, too funny. This was our first attempt, not bad!

We also gave Q season 2 of Arrow, did a special jar of love notes for Mum, and gave each other a new gopro to share! So great!

We all had brekkie and got ready then Sara, Darren, Joya, Rumi, and Liam arrived to spend the afternoon with us! We all opened our stockings and presents, drank and ate yet another delicious feast! It was all over too soon and at 6:00 we had to say our goodbyes and head to the airport..!

We're writing this post from Sydney airport after a really pleasant flight from LA - we had a mini row with lots of legroom all to ourselves! - while we wait to go on to Canberra. 

Our flight here was delayed so we missed our connection but we got on the next flight and only have to wait an extra 15 minutes! Woo! We'll be in Canberra in no time, can't wait to see Dad, Claire, and those gorgeous, crazy kiddos! Yeeeee we couldn't be more excited! We're nearly there!!!

The Absolutely Incredible End of an Era....

The last two weeks were our last fortnight with Sully before she moved back to Michigan. We were sooo unbelievably bummed to see her go but oh man did we make the most of our last days together!

Monday 3/11

After our craaazyyy Horror Nights at Universal, we slept in and went to Crave Cafe for a delicious brunch - it's a suuper trendy spot so we brought our hipster A-game haha. We had a chill day, did some grocery shopping, baked the most delicious cookies EVER (they had cornflakes, marshmallows, choc chips, & peanut butter chips, amazing! Here's a link to the recipe: http://www.shutterbean.com/2013/cornflake-marshmallow-cookies/#more-21389), and had a snacky dinner of meats and cheeses. We also went out for late-night manicures to get ready for the Marine Corps Ball on Wednesday!! So exciting! Han got dark blue, felt very edgy..

Tuesday 4/11

On Tuesday we headed out to San Diego! ROAD TRIP! Sully was a total legend and did all the driving and, with "Jealous" by Nick Jonas playing on repeat, we were there before we knew it! We spent the afternoon at the San Diego Zoo which was really fun. Definite highlights were the giraffes, Mary the (dancing, it was hilarious) Elephant, the most handsome lion ever, bears of all descriptions aaaand the cutest panda in the world!!

After the zoo we went to Lolita's Mexican restaurant for some killer California burritos and nachos, then met up with Luke and Greg for our first time Go Karting!! It. Was. Insane..! We did three races and really weren't amazing at it (especially Han) but it was so fun!! At one point there was a huuuge pileup which was simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating and we were really stiff the next day, but we had a really great time!

After that we said bye to the boys and went to our hotel to get some beauty sleep before the ball the next day!

Wednesday 5/11

It was the day of the ball! We had some slight logistical challenges getting to the hotel/casino where it was taking place, but finally we got there and started to get ourselves ready! Sully did an amazing job of Han's hair & makeup, we both helped her coiffe to perfection, and some perfect red lippy sealed the deal! A few selfies, our classic smile, laugh, kiss trifecta, and we were ready to head down to the ballroom!

We had SUCH a fun night!! It was truly one of the best nights ever! The ceremony was quite moving and extremely patriotic, we felt quite honored really to be there for it. 

By the time we got to dinner we were starving and the meal didn't disappoint! Waldorf salad appetizer, stuffed chicken, steak, & veggies for a main, and a chocolate tart for dessert! We met some of Luke and Greg's higher-ups and everyone was so friendly - for a while Greg disappeared so it was just us three girls with Luke and he got some seeerious cred from his mates, which was kinda fun! Greg resurfaced after a little while and we took some legendary group pics with the official backdrop, love em! Luke and Greg were the best dates a girl could ask for, absolute gentlemen!

While Greg mingled, the three of us and Luke danced for hours! The crowd started thinning out till it was only us on the dance floor and we still didn't stop! The DJs played "Jealous" for us twice and around 11:00 we were gonna call it a night, we started to leave and everything, but Sully led the team in a legendary rally and we danced till they kicked us out at 12:00! We taught Luke our selfie series on the way out and went up to the room, on top of the world after such a fun night! 

We re-rallied (with the help of some comfy clothes) and went downstairs to try our luck at the slots! 

It was super fun! We obviously didn't win anything, but it was all in the spirit of things and it was really the perfectly hilarious way to end the night - especially with a little Ocean's 11 stunt to get away from this strange, drunken guy hovering around, very funny. We sang Jealous in the elevator and fell into bed happy as can be!

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we spent out at Mum and Q's hanging and relaxing after our busy few days! It was just what we all needed, their place is such a little paradise!

On Sunday the 15th we headed back into LA and had lunch at Aroma, Sully's favourite cafe, then went to an evening church service at Mosaic. Erwin spoke and the sermon was really great, very inspiring. It was also World Adoption Day, so we drew smiley faces on our hands in solidarity with that beautiful cause!

We had a yummy dessert at Alcove, one of our favourite cafés, then headed back to our apartment. 

Last week was a little less crazy cos Sully had to work on packing and organizing things for their departure, but we still managed to see each other every day! On Monday we had dinner with her and her mum, Angel, at a restaurant called On the Thirty - most amazing gourmet pizzas you could imagine and Mac & Cheese to die for!

Tuesday was probably our least successful day ever haha. We went to Urth Caffe (which took ages longer than expected between traffic and parking) for their amazing bread pudding. They were out of bread pudding (devastating) so we got a cream puff thing and another dessert to share - half an hour later, we've had our coffees and other cake, but no cream puff, so Han went in to ask and they'd given it to someone else! What?! Very disappointing.. Afterwards we went to LACMA as we'd planned and got there around 4:15- also stressful with traffic and parking. When Han went to the window to get tickets, the guy informed her that they start to close at 4:50 to be completely shut by 5:00! Seriously?! Bummer. We got to see what we'd really wanted to though, which were the beautiful streetlights. After many failed attempts, we finally got some good pics and called it a night! 

What really turned things around, though, were In-N-Out burgers. Thank you lord!  

Wednesday was a chill day, we went to the Americana at Brand for pumpkin flavoured sprinkles cupcakes and a few deliciously cosy flannels and sweaters, success! We're loving the slightly cooler autumn weather. Han babysat in the afternoon and we went to Angel and Sully's for takeout for dinner and a bottle of champagne, lovely! 

Thursday and Friday we mostly just chilled out during the day, Han did some babysitting, and we went out to two amazing dinners with Sully! Thursday night for our last time just the three of us we went to Eveleigh and it was absolutely perfect! 

We truly couldn't have imagined a better last hurrah. We ate, drank, and talked for hours - still in denial that, in a couple days, we wouldn't be seeing each other for months..! 

Friday night's dinner had a bit of a lead up - true to style, we left getting the present we'd planned for Sully till the last minute! So after Han finished babysitting we raced over to Pier 1 for a beautiful picture frame and a jar for Sully to start saving to visit us - like the Paradise Falls jar we have to save for our trip - then to CVS to print out photos from the ball. We were so happy with how everything came together and glad we made the effort! We're gonna miss that gorgeous gal and now there's no question that she knows it :)

Dinner with Angel was absolutely lovely - made lovelier by a successful surprise we helped orchestrate! Luke drove from San Diego and met us at the restaurant and, despite our collective lack of any kind of poker face, Sully totally didn't expect it! Dinner was outta this world good - Luce has langoustines with pasta and Han had seafood risotto, then we all shared tiramisu and chocolate mousse for dessert, delish! 

We went back to Sully and Angel's together to sleep over before they left the next day.

Saturday was absolutely crazy!! It turned out that there was actually a TON of stuff to do for them to be ready to go! Eeeek! The two of us, Luke, Angel, and Sully set to work packing their cars up for the trip and getting rid of whatever wouldn't fit (a lot of which went in our car to take to a Girl Scouts garage sale, really killin it on positive karma points that day!) Finally after over 7 hours of carrying, packing, shoving, rearranging, sweat, tears, and laughter, everything was packed! We went to Aroma so they could get one last latte for the road and around 4:00, we said our goodbyes.. 

Even as they were diving away it still didn't seem real! Partially because we were so exhausted but also probably because it marked the end of an era. Most of the happiest, craziest, funniest memories we have of LA were times with Sully, and now that she's gone, that awesome chapter of our LA journey is over. We know she's on to bigger and better things, though, and we're confident that we are too! 

The last few days have involved a lot of catching up - on errands, TV, more errands, chores, and sleep. We've also been planning Q's birthday weekend and putting heaps of effort into a rather exciting theme, but shhh, it's a secret.... Tomorrow we'll finish birthday prep, a couple more errands, maybe treat ourselves to something yummy, and then on Friday the birthday weekend begins! Can't wait!! 

Yes, it's the end of an amazing era - but it's also the beginning of a new one and there's no doubt it'll be even better!