Waiting for the bus to ballet class

With our babies, of course

A decent substitute for Sat morning running group

While I miss my regular Saturday morning gossip-fest/recounting of husband bafoonary session (er, I mean running with my girlfriends in Boston) a quiet solitary run around the lower north shore of Sydney is not too shabby either. The upside: great scenery. The downsides: I am green with real estate envy (yes, that is a 2-boat garage), and how many flights of stairs does one person have to run up in this city?!

Flowers for sale

Abbey made $10 in about 15 mins hawking paper flowers that were of pretty questionable coloring quality. Must have been the sales pitch that went something like "Hey!!, do you wanna buy a flower?" Or maybe it was the mismatched socks. I don't have to think too hard to tell you where we'll be next Sunday morning.

Fitness lunatics

5:30am, pitch black, freezing cold (in Sydney terms of course, so something like 10 Celsius) and the beach is alive with walkers, bootcampers, and swimmers. Swimmers!! You can't see your hand in front of your face and people are doing laps in the open ocean around the corner from which a shark was spotted a few months ago. Yesterday I could barely find a free locker at my gym at 5:45am. What is wrong with these people??!!

Some random stuff

Hannah rock-climbing at mosman public school family fun day.
Crazy backpacker sunbathing in front of the entrance to the Cairns airport.
My new favorite cafe in mosman complete with fancy coffee (too bad it was raining that day, but it's still so pretty).
Abbey looking way to grown up.
More grocery store insanity.
Abbey's cake creation for 4th of July BBQ.

New Zealand 3 - Camper Van!

Who woulda thunk it, the Whitings in a Winnebego!  After weeks of planning activities and many hundreds of dollars spent on jet boats, horseback rides, boat cruises, penguin sightings and mountain adventures, the only thing the girls were still talking about by the time we got on the plane to come home was how awesome it was to sleep in the bunk above the driver's seat in the camper van.  It was a great way to see the country and the girls would have been happy never to leave the cheesy holiday parks we stayed in along the way, complete with trampolines, mini golf, and lots of other kids to play with.

Even the communal kitchens were a source of never-ending fun.

You can certainly understand why they call Dunedin the "Edinburgh of the South".  We explored castles, ate every meal in a pub, and toured the local brewery.  Even the scenery looks like Scotland despite being literally on the other side of the world.

New Zealand 2

For our last day in Queenstown, we went horseback riding through an unbelievably beautiful valley.  It was all very Lord of the Rings.

Then it was into the car for the long trip to Milford Sound with the girls assuming their usual respective roadtrip positions.

Then it was off for a chilly cruise through Milford Sound.  Hannah braved the elements, but Abbey was happier inside the ship and watching us walk around above her.  As with most public transportation we end up on, the girls were invited to "drive" the tour boat eventually.

Although we were promised an abundance of wildlife sightings, all we got were these 4 lazy sea lions hanging out on a rock.  The scenery made up for it though.  What a beautiful country!