The holidays were
During the holidays:
Jackson traveled home to see Paul - alone! I promised not to embarrass him at the airport, and I am proud to say that I didn't break down like a wailing maniac until he went through security and I was out of his sight. After that, it was a full on fountain fest, where I felt like the worst mother in the world for sending my kid across the world on a plane alone. Once he landed, I was able to breathe again, and he said the traveling was pretty uneventful. From there, he had a great time visiting with Paul and Becky.
We had family in town! Jackson came back home, along with my parents, Joe, and the boys. For the occasion, we rented a "people mover" - a monster van that seats 12 people. It actually wasn't too hard to drive, but it was a bitch to park. It served it's purpose well, allowing all of us to go together, rather than taking 2 cars or the train. The following week, my father in law arrived. We did a lot of things with everyone here - we saw all the famous sights, and then some. One of the best comments of the visit: The boys went to Bondi and saw a lot of topless girls. Cam, my 10 year old nephew, said it was the "breast day ever".
I feel like I have to expand on one day in particular. We decided to visit the Blue Mountains. They are just outside of Sydney and there are some spectacular views there. We went, we drove around and saw the sights, and we had a late lunch. Brynn threw up in the street just after (details). We then got back in the van, and Jeff started to drive around, looking for "some off the beaten path" action. Now this is where I start to get nervous. Jeff has ideas - really out of the box ideas - sometimes. (Flashback to the time when we were considering buying a new house back in Raleigh, and he thought we could empty out the current house to make it marketable by storing our things at the new house in a rusted 18 wheeler trailer that he found on Craigslist for 80 dollars, in the driveway of the new house). But anyway - he take off in search of the great outback, the things you won't see on "one of those tours".
It is important to note here that we have had major amounts of rain this summer, to the degree of flooding.
So we start down a dirt road, and I'll say this - the views were second to none. Gorgeous. It's one of those views that you just can't capture with a camera. A little while into the drive, we saw kangaroos and wallabies. We did not see any houses or people. A little while later, we saw more kangaroos and wallabies. The road was wet and there were some big puddles, and I thought we were going to get stuck for sure. I kept wondering how we were going to get my mom down this big ass mountain in her wheelchair. Anyway - We still saw no houses or people. Two hours in, we had no GPS signal, no cell phone reception, and had STILL NOT SEEN ANY PEOPLE. Now, my idea of adventure is going to a new hair stylist, so I was feeling very uncomfortable at this point. Jeff wouldn't even look at me, knowing I was fuming (and carsick!). And finally,we ran into a paved road, and picked up a GPS signal again, and we were able to get home. Phewwwwwwww.
The time with our families went by too fast. Hopefully we'll make home at some point this year!
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