We went to Australia!

That's right, we spent the first two weeks of April this year halfway around the world, in Australia! The kids had been asking to go for a while, since we have family there, and we decided that this year was the time to go - the kids are old enough to enjoy and remember the trip, and also to not be a nightmare on the very long journey. The timing worked out very well with both our spring breaks and spring break in Australia, so we could see Evan's brother and his wife and spend time with them, and I was able to get a great deal on 4 tickets, so off we went!

And of course, like every big trip you take, it did NOT start out well. We were due to be at the airport around 1:30pm that day, and the kids had a half day at school, so we took Lucy for one last good walk before taking her to the dog sitter's...and of course I managed to do this to myself.

 

I didn't do it in any fancy way - I tripped on a part of the asphalt I didn't even see, almost managed to catch myself, and ended up "sliding into home" on my left side. Which resulted in a badly banged up pinky (I was worried it was broken for a while, but luckily just badly bruised), a really banged up chin, and eventually a bruised left shoulder (that took longer to show up). My fingers swelled up pretty much immediately, which I can tell you was not fun on the 14 hour overnight flight!

So, I bandage up, kids come up, Lucy gets dropped off, and we go to the Charlottesville airport. The plan was C'ville to Dulles to LA to Melbourne. We arrived, and of course our flight out of C'ville was already way delayed, which meant we would miss our flight to LA, which meant not getting to Melbourne. NOT going to happen! We rented a car, and Evan FLEW us up the road to Dulles. It was tight, but we made it! Can you make out the worried faces of the kiddos as we went??

Everyone was MUCH happier when we had checked bags, gotten through security, and were waiting at the gate.

And after that, the trip really went smoothly! We spent an overnight in Melbourne, meeting up briefly with Todd (we would see him, Claire, and the kids again after our week alone). We checked out the Melbourne museum (which we had not seen on our last trip), and wandered the city before passing out due to exhaustion.

The next day, we got BACK on a plane to hundreds and hundreds of miles north to Cairns, a town along the northern coast so we could see the Great Barrier Reef and all the beauty to explore. This was literally the view from our hotel room on the first day!

We had a great time in Cairns - the harbor and lagoon were incredible.

And when we went swimming in the lagoon, we had the whole thing almost to ourselves! Very cool experience.

We were in Cairns for 5 days, and did a lot more than just hang out at the hotel, walk along the water, and swim. We also went out to the Great Barrier Reef, had a very wet adventure on Green Island, spent a day in Kuranda (a town in the rain forest), and spent one rainy afternoon at the Cairns Aquarium. I'll definitely be sharing photos from those first 3 as there's a lot of cool things to see! And then we had another week with our family outside of Melbourne and on Phillip Island. It was an amazing two weeks for sure!

Montreal in February

I haven't been including all of my work trips here as posts, both because I'm trying to get through my backlog faster and because they just aren't all that interesting, but when I went to Montreal in February I had the chance to see something very cool that I wanted to share here!

I ended up with a free couple of hours one afternoon while in Montreal, and rather than sit at my hotel I did a quick google search to see if there was anything interesting nearby, and when I saw something that said "Barbie Expo", I immediately thought "I need to see this." It's a traveling exhibit that was installed in a high-end mall in Montreal, close enough to walk to from my hotel, so I bundled up and hiked over. I'm so glad that I did! The exhibit was really cool to see. Just look at the space!

I took photos of TONS of the Barbies, but I'll save you from posting the many that I have and just share a few of my favorites. There were a lot of themes: historical figures, movies, tv, decades, fashion, gems, pop culture, flowers, artists, music, and more!

I absolutely loved this one.

And who doesn't love Barbies dressed to represent precious gems?

This was definitely one of my favorites. Wizard of Oz!

Of course, when I did leave, there was a crazy delay due to snow/ice - the picture on the left was them bringing the de-icer out to try to clear off our plane. I had to fly through Charlotte, and missed my connection due to our delay. The right is me in the Charlotte airport bummed because I had to stay there for a while to make my connecting flight. But I had Starbucks and work to do, and eventually I made it home.

 

...where I found this sign waiting for me. I love those kids <3 p="">

Celebrating 20 years together

In January Evan and I celebrated 20 years together since we started dating by spending a few days in Boston! I had to go there for work, and my parents were nice enough to come to our house to watch the kids so that Evan could join me. Since I had client visits to do during the day, we didn't spend the whole time together, but that was ok as Evan has colleagues in the area and he was able to go work with them.

We were able to do a couple of fun things, in addition to working! We had a free few hours on one afternoon, and at my colleague's recommendation we checked out a place called the Mapparium. It's in the Mary Baker Eddy Library (founder of Christian Science), and is a 1/35 scale glass sphere of the world as it looked in 1935. You walk through it, and the room is completely silent...it's just really cool. They don't allow photos inside, so we took this selfie at their "selfie wall" outside.

 

Definitely a cool thing to do that I'd never heard of before, and am glad we saw!

I had also made us a reservation at Ostra for dinner - wow, it was delicious! And who doesn't love an excuse to dress up? Evan surprised me with flowers delivered to our hotel room as well.

 

We were early leaving for dinner, so we went to Top of the Hub to have a drink before dinner. Beautiful views of Boston!

Dinner was absolutely delicious - I even loved their horseshoe crab plates!

Evan had sneakily told them that it was our anniversary, so this is how my dessert came out. So nice!

We were supposed to stay through the weekend, and spend all day Saturday with Evan's brother and his family. Unfortunately, a giant snow storm was coming through and Friday evening our Sunday flight was already cancelled. I had thought ahead, and managed to get us on early morning flights on Saturday. It was good that we were able to get home, but we were really sad to lose the whole day with them! We made the best of the one night that we got, but we were bummed to miss the time with family. Hopefully we can get back up there soon.

Central Park July 2018

On my second trip to NYC for the summer (I went once each month, although I have no photos really to share from my August trip), I was fortunate to spend quite a bit of time in Central Park when not working. I stayed near Central Park, and was able to go on two really nice walks - the first on the night I arrived, and the second the following morning.

One of the first things I saw was this carnival set up near the base of Central Park. The top photo was taken on my evening walk, while the second photo was taken the next morning.

In the evening I walked past The Pond at the south end of the Park; you can tell the weather was nice by the number of boaters out!

The reflection of sky, buildings, and boats on the small boat pond was lovely.

And finally, as I headed back down towards my hotel on the west side of the park (after circling through) I saw these lovely horses peeking at me through the trees. I love the colors!

Upstate NY - May 2018

Back in May, I went on a 3 day trip through upstate NY and then on to Toronto. Because I had to drive between towns in NY, I rented a car, and when I needed to add Toronto to the trip, I thought "why not drive across the border to Canada?" I'd never done that before (I'd never driven in another country before!), and I thought it would be a fun way to see parts I'd never previously seen.

But first, before I could head to Canada, I had to see my clients in NY. Because of the way the visits lined up, I ended up driving from Buffalo to Syracuse and back west to Rochester, then up through Niagra Falls to Canada. I didn't really take any photos of the first part of my trip (Buffalo to Syracuse, or in Syracuse), although I did visit the 6th largest mall in the US, so that was something.

However, in Rochester, my client asked if I wanted to walk around some before leaving, and he took me on a tour of Highland Park.

It's a beautiful park that is home to their annual lilac festival. I had just missed it (by less than a week!), but a lot of the lilac bushes (nearly trees, they were so big) were still in bloom. It looked and smelled absolutely wonderful.

 

I then drove the 3-ish hours to Niagra Falls, where I hadn't been since I was a kid. I paid my $10 fee to park at the National Park, and then checked out the Falls! I could only see them from the US side, which is definitely not the "preferred" vantage point, but it was still awe-inspiring. These photos were taken at Horseshoe Falls.

I then walked the half mile or so over to the American Falls. This first shot was taken as I walked away from Horseshoe Falls - all of that mist! The power behind these falls is crazy.

This video was taken at the base of the American Falls, where the Maid of the Mist takes off from. Watching people walk with the water pounding down practically on top of them was crazy!

Here are a couple more favorite shots I took as I walked all the way around to the end of the Falls. See that blue-ish tower in the middle of the photo below, with the observation deck? It was free at that time of the evening, so I went out on it to see the entirety of the gorge.

I'm very glad that I had the chance to do this on my trip; work travel can be so exhausting that I try really hard to work in things like this when I can!

Evan and the kids learn Va history!

Today's post is guest captioned by Evan! For 3 days at the end of spring break, March 2018, Evan took the kids on a tour of Williamsburg/Jamestown/Yorktown. He sent me all of the photos that he took during those days, and I picked out my favorites, and then asked him to narrate what we're seeing, as I wasn't actually there so I don't know! So, with no further ado...Evan and the kids' fun history trip!

First up - fun in Jamestown.

We do love the history movies at these attractions!

Jamestown! Site of the first English elected assembly in North America. Yes, I'm a government dork.

John Smith, who discovered New Hampshire. Also had something to do with Jamestown.

Jamestown's old main street is perfect for running

Natalie and Henry were the second people to hold this pottery in hundreds of years. Excavated from a live archaeology dig by the staff archaeologist in this pic. 

Day 2 - more Jamestown!

Replica Powhatan village at "Jamestown Settlement"

I think this is the Mary Constant replica, one of the three ships that brought the first settlers to Jamestown.

West or East, Henry?

Next up: Williamsburg and Yorktown!

Williamsburg Duck Donuts, because donuts.

Listening to a traditional toast to General George Washington.

Henry in the Continental Army

She's quite excited.

Natalie and Henry map out military strategy.

They would've fit on the beds of the time.

At William and Mary!

Natalie asked and found out you can major in both dance and teaching. Dance Teacher dreams are possible at William and Mary!

A rampart at the Yorktown battlefield.

Yorktown memorial

Gov. Nelson's house at Yorktown

The battery stormed by Alexander Hamilton at the battle of Yorktown!

Finally, on the way home, Evan and the kids stopped by Berkeley Plantation, where we got married, to show it to them.

Natalie and Henry at the spot where their mom and dad were married.