Although it has been 19 months since I wrote anything on this blog, it only seemed natural to pick it up once we were out of the country once again! A lot has transpired within these past 19 months, we have grown from a small family of 2 to a slightly bigger family of 3 (or 4 if you include the dog Oscar). Jeremiah was added to our ranks just a few days over 4 months ago, and is already eagerly joining the travel adventures that we so love.

This adventure is in Sydney Australia! We are here visiting my second cousin Cathleen and her family. Near to the end of the trip we are taking a little jaunt down to Melbourne to attend a friends wedding.

We began our travels on Sunday morning by jamming all of our bags into our tiny Yaris, and heading off down island to meet my Dad at church. It was a tight squeeze, but somehow we managed to fit our 2 large suitcases, one small suitcase, one backpack and one re-usable shopping bag into our little car along with ourselves and the car seat. Let's just say it was cozy!

After Church was over we had just enough time to say hello to a few people we haven't seen in a while, but then had to rush off to catch the 1:00 ferry. Had we been driving across we wouldn't have made it, but there was plenty of space for walk-ons. However, upon entering the waiting lounge, there was barely room to move! I have never been a walk-on passenger when it was so packed. Half way into the trip things started to get a little choppy. The captain made an announcement stating that if you were not steady on your feet, it was highly recommended that you remain seated, as it was getting very windy and it may be a bit of a rough ride. And it sure was! Needless to say we found our amusement in watching the passengers stagger down the corridors.

As we got off the ferry, Jeremiah had fallen asleep quite comfortably in his carrier on my front, but had a rather rude awakening as we stepped off the boat and temporarily into the weather. Between the howling winds and the accompanying rain, we fought our way down the boardwalk and into the building where we claimed our larger bags. Now for the fun part. In order to get to the airport, we needed to take a city bus, then a new skytrain. We stepped outside back into the weather and joined he horrendously long line going into the bus. We were one of the last people on, and I was fortunate enough to get the very last seat right at the very front. We took up a good amount of room with all of our luggage though! Jammers screamed for the first 5 minutes of the bus ride until Marc had the brilliant idea to turn him around in the carrier so he could see something besides a steamed up window and the blank white wall behind the driver. I obliged, and he sat silent, staring at Marc without blinking for the remainder of the ride. The skytrain was uneventful, and we made our way through all of the security and check-in at the airport without any trouble. Wait, strike that, we ended up losing the Bumbo chair at one point, and Marc and a security guy had to re-trace our steps back through some of the check points to find it. Thankfully it turned up fine, and they didn't need to venture too far to retrieve it.

We managed to kill most of our time in the food court not too far from our gate, and made a makeshift cot for Jam in the cary-on suitcase! He didn't sleep much though... And there's a cute picture on Marc's computer that I'll have to try and post another time.

Grabbing some Chinese Food to eat on the plane on the way to our gate, we arrived just in time for boarding. Jeremiah promptly fell asleep in my lap almost as soon as we sat down, and slept nearly all the way to San Fransisco. Our layover in San Fran was supposed to be only 1 hour, but due to someone clearly not paying attention and driving the catering truck into the plane we were supposed to boarding, punching a nice sized hole in the fuselage, we had to wait an extra hour for them to get a new plane ready.

The 14 hour flight to Sydney went well. Jeremiah slept all but the last hour, and Marc managed to get a bit of shut eye as well. I on the other hand didn't really sleep at all, partially due to my height and the headrests on the plane seats not matching up very well, and partially because I just don't sleep in vehicles of any kind. Not sure why, I just don't. Apparently the Chinese food we ate on the subsequent flight left something to be desired, because it made me rather ill. Between that and the rocky decent, let's just say I ended up a little worse for wear. No sleep plus bad food plus nasty motion sickness is a BAD combination.

We had no problems once we landed, and cleared Australian customs just fine. And the timing could not have been better for meeting Cathleen and Nathaniel. They walked up just as we walked down the ramp!

The extent of our adventures so far have been going to the local mall to get Marc some shoes and me a few nursing shirts that were on sale at Target. Due to the fact that we don't all fit in the vehicle, Marc walked there and back, and had some fun exploring the neighbourhood.

Ooh, latest update, a fellow just arrived to do some routine maintenance and cleaning on the BBQ, and they found a Red Back spider!! It's equivalent to our Black Widow. It is categorized as one of Australia's deadliest spiders! We looked at it, just to say we have seen one before he sprayed it and killed it.

That's about all for now, it's supposed to get up to about 35 degrees today, and possibly hotter for the rest of the week! Tomorrow may be a day when we head downtown and explore the harbour and possibly take a ferry to catch a cool ocean breeze. That last part was solely to make you all jealous. :)

Check back in a day or two to hear about more of our adventures!