We arrived in Sydney on Christmas Eve and spent the day settling into our rental home in Clovelly, taking in a big delivery of groceries Colette had organized, naps for some, and having a first swim at Clovelly. Christmas morning Santa brought a full night’s sleep for everyone, lots of toys from Rory, and a beautiful sunny day in Sydney! Kathleen and Paddy stayed at Colette and Colman’s overnight to spend Christmas morning with Rory (despite our assurances that Liam and Miles are full of delight and wonder on Christmas morning too!) Then they all came over to ours, which…

On Friday, Colette took “the kids” to the zoo. Quick summary – it was very hot! And the bird show was amazing – they have the birds trained to swoop right over the audience, and there’s a huge condor that is pretty impressive and scary. Birds in flight juxtaposed against the Opera House is quite a sight! Back at ours afterwards, Rory plays connect 4 his way with granny and grandad. John and I went into town to have breakfast at a very bold new place called Edition Coffee Roasters. It was excellent – we had kingfisher sushi, radicchio salad,…

Uneventful trip to Dallas and after a quick bite to eat, final assault on Christmas cards, and a haircut for miles, we are ready to head down under!

Maddie turned 6 today! She started celebrating last Friday with a party with friends and classmates at a Pump It Up indoor play place. It was really well organized, with time and staff to take them through 2 playrooms and also for pizza and cake at the end. Last pic is her pet hamster, Heart (or ❤️)!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend last week with lots of people in from out of town! A few hours after the Turkey Trot, Debbie drove Nana and Grandpa, who had been staying with Debbie and Maddie in Naperville, to our house. We had some time to catch up and play cowboys (that would be me and Maddie!) before starting dinner prep. Here, we are taking a bit of a break from dinner prep to play with space glitter play dog and eat oregano-parmesan crimson popcorn. The bag of popcorn and recipe was a treat from the bean club! I…

John and I started Thanksgiving morning with a 5K turkey trot in Lincoln Park. For readers who want to know more about the history of turkey trots in the US, there’s lots of fun facts here! The weather was a nice dry 32 degrees F / 0 degrees C. The trick as always is to wear layers! Here’s the giant inflatable turkey at the after party Not sure how many people participated but it was definitely in the tens of thousands. Here’s a bit of the crowd. The run took place near where the triathlon bike ride was – what…

We’ve had a really good start to Fall so far this year, in fact so much I haven’t taken a break to do a blog post! Here’s some catching up of what’s been going on since early September. First, this morning John joined me at the Comer Race for the Kids 5K – making this his first running race! He did great (and kept my pace up!) We both finished in the top half of our age group and did well overall, and most of all just enjoyed the run. It is a really nice route through the UChicago campus…

Today was Miles’s first day back at school for his last year of high school. He and our clematis vine have both grown quite a bit! See here in 2012, and today. Best wishes for senior year, Miles!

We’re spending a couple of very lazy days at Hecata Beach, just north of Florence, Oregon. First, a look at our house from the ‘street’, the back porch that overlooks the ocean, and a panoramic view. There is a large band of greenery (heather?) between us and the dunes that line the beach. We found a path through the greenery, and were surprised to see it involved going through a carefully maintained tunnel of low trees! I have never taken a tunnel to the beach before. This morning was foggy but really beautiful at the beach. Readers will note many…

John rode a rental bike to the Portland airport (!) on Wednesday morning and picked up our rental car. We then drove to Lewis and Clark, a liberal arts university in Portland to look around, and were really impressed. We then drive south to Corvallis and took a tour of Oregon state university. Also impressive! We then drove to Eugene to spend the night. We had a really lovely dinner at Grit. Lots of seasonal produce, yum! In the morning John and I climbed Skinner’s Butte while miles read in a coffee shop. What’s cooler than a picture made from…