Nana is here

Our first visitor arrived on Sunday. Annmarie is over the moon to have her Nana here.

Today we went to swim lessons and then headed over to Clareville for some beach time. It was a bit too cool to go swimming, but we were able to build sand castles and run around.
Annmarie looks so much like her Dad in these running pictures.
And lets jump.
We've been taking Nana to all of our regular stomping grounds. We've shown her around our town and the beaches. Gone to the park, library and cafes. It's been great fun.

Here are a couple other pictures.

(AM waiting for Nana)

(At the park)

(Looking up at the bats flying over our house)

Orange

Over the weekend we headed west to the town of Orange. It's about a four hour drive. Orange is known for it's white wine and apple orchards. We stayed at the beautiful Borrodell Vineyard.
On the way over we stopped for a quick break at Hungry Jacks (Burger King). A first for AM.
We got there right before the sun went down and took in the views.
We had a fantastic dinner at the Sister Rock Restaurant located at the vineyard that evening.
The next morning we started our day by picking apples right from the apple trees located near our cottage.
Annmarie thought it was the coolest thing.
We later headed over to the Adventure Playground for AM and then came back to nap.
That evening we headed over to the town of Millthorpe to have dinner at the award winning restaurant Tonic. Unfortunately no pictures where taken because we were trying to occupy AM as there was no cell reception on either of our phones. We ended up ordering AM a bowl of ice cream when our dinners where served and she was a happy clam.

(gas station)

The next day Jamie ran a half marathon in the Orange Running Festival, which consisted of 147 runners. Jame came in 25th place with a time of 1:32:55. Annmarie and I stayed back at our room to relax and picked some more apples.
It was a beautiful weekend. I would love to go back.

Sunnies

Annmarie has been wearing the same pair of sunnies for her entire life. Given to her by her Nana (maybe even before birth); they have traveled all over and have been lost and found countless times. As she got older she grew more attached to them and since we have been in OZ, she has worn them almost every day. And quickly started calling them sunnies after receiving several compliments from people. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago they snapped. They lasted longer than any pair of sunglasses I have ever owned. We have replaced them with a cute pair of purple sunnies, but she has told me a number of times that she sill misses her old ones and will ask to see them every now and then.

We will miss you pink sunnies.

(Annmarie and her sunnies)

(broken pink sunnies)

Over the weekend

(Friday night - movie and chicken leg. This was our first time watching Nemo since being in OZ, we laughed a lot more at all the Aussie references.)

(Morning babyccino - it never gets old.)

(Nap and Jamie post training run. Seven weeks until Boston)

(Sunday morning breakfast - Jamie makes a great breakfast sandwich.)

Good Night

A Valentines Post - A bit late

We kept things simple. Annmarie ended up having a rough day at preschool on this day, so it put a little damper on things. Jamie came home with take away and flowers and I cut out some heart shaped watermelon.
A couple of days before we did some Valentine crafts. AM loves glue.
And the Sunday before we headed to Balmoral Bay. Jamie participated in a run with the Sydney Striders and AM and I met up with him after the run for a post race cupcake and brekky.

The Week

After surviving 5 straight days of one of Sydney's hottest heat waves we have settled into some much cooler temperatures and some rain. Yay!

We got through last weekend by going to the beach and searching for restaurants with air conditioning. Seriously, we would call and ask if they had AC. We had a fabulous dinner at the Barrenjoey House, where we took our time eating dinner. Normally, we breeze through dinners, but we let AM watch multiple videos on the iphone and promised her ice cream and a babyccino if she held it together. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Monday brought cooler temperatures and the Super Bowl. We went to a local spot – Newport Arms, that has a sports pub to watch the game. We met a couple of friends and we were the only people in the place for a while until some traveling Canadians joined us. I watched some of the game and spent most of time playing Keno. It wasn’t the same as we didn’t get the commercials. We watched them later on youtube.

We’ve started to settled into a routine again. Everything was pretty much shut down for the holidays and then summer break. AM’s swim lessons have started up again, story time at the library, etc. And then preschool, so there is pretty much something to do everyday.

We are laying low this weekend. It's raining, which is fine by me.

Pictures from last week.

(Cooling off with a milkshake)

(enjoying a shot of soup at an Indian restaurant)

(Superbowl)

(Scone before story time)

(Blowing a kiss at story time)

It's Hot

It's H.O.T. Hot. Hot. We are in full summer mode. For a girl who has spent the last eight summers in SF, this is something. Tonight we barbecued at the beach to stay cool.