Look at the concentration on Jude’s face. Last week, with his own money, he bought a little dinosaur dig kit. He then got home and for the next couple of hours picked away at his piece of clay. By the next morning he had uncovered several dinosaur fossils and he was most excited.

Tuesday is fish day at our house. And Jude has been enjoying eating the whole fish. So Marcy would go to Whole Foods and they would pick out a whole fish to bring home and eat. These dinners have become part science experiment, part dinner for Jude as he would dig away at the fish head, poke out the eye and do other things that five year old boys like to do. Here he is with Anna as they both enjoy fish night (Anna had a salmon fillet, though typically she enjoys the whole fish as much as Jude does).

There is a field of dandelions near our house that has become a favorite of Jude and Anna. They have ridden their scooters down there several times in the past week. Jude likes to pick up the dandelion seeds and blow them into the air.

Today we had the Fergusons and Brieres over for brunch and Morgan brought along their new guinea pig. Jude was such a fan of the guinea pigs in Sydney and he was excited to play with this one (named Zipper). Here is Morgan, Anna and Jude enjoying Zipper’s company.

Last week Marcy set up the pool in the backyard and the kids went bobbing for apples. Jude was able to retrieve an apple without using his hands and he was most annoyed when Anna cheated and picked an apple up with her hands.

We spent a great deal of time at home these past two weeks which I know Jude appreciates. One of the Jude’s favorite foods is marshmallows and he also loves roasting them on the fire which we did last year a couple of times. We recently bought a Weber grill and so so after dinner last night we let the kids roast some marshmallows.

Jude also enjoys hammering nails and I admit this is not even something I think about doing with him (I never did this when I was a kid). Luckily Marcy thinks of it so this week both kids enjoyed some time in the backyard smashing nails into a piece of wood.

Jude’s interests keep evolving. While he still loves dinosaurs he is showing more interest in science. In particular he likes space travel and rocket ships. He wants to see pictures of the solar system, his favorite planet is Neptune, and he is interested in the Voyager spacecrafts that we have been telling him about. I notice these days instead of pretending to be a dinosaur, he is often pretending that whatever toy he is holding is a rocket ship doing a blast off.

This weekend we came up to Keystone for the first time in almost a year. The first day we were here we noticed Morgan’s old bike sitting in the garage. Anna wanted to take it out for a ride but we told her it didn’t have training wheels. She insisted so I took her out and held the handle bars while she rode. I even let go for a couple of seconds but Anna didn’t really like that.

Then Jude wanted to have a turn. I did the same thing and ran along with him holding the handle bars. But when I let go he just kept on riding. His balance was good and it looked like he had been riding like that for years. In just a couple of minutes Jude had graduated from training wheels. He was very proud of himself as were Marcy and I. We have said we will take his training wheels off his green bike when we get back to Denver and he said he was fine with that.

This week also marked Jude’s return to school. He was back in Morning Glory at the Denver Waldorf School where he started last year. While this is officially kindergarten, at Waldorf they have two year kindergartens. Next year is the big transition when Jude will become a “grader” by entering first grade. Here is Jude on his first day of school this week.

Here in Keystone we have had quite the active weekend. They have a bunch of kids activities set up this Labor Day weekend and we took advantage of many of them. The bungee bounce was a big hit with Jude. He bounced up pretty much as high as it would go which I estimate is at least 40 feet in the air. While it scared him a couple of times by the end he had a huge smile on his face.

When Anna was napping yesterday Jude and I went for an adventure down by the river. The river was really low and we were able to walk along the rocks for quite a long way.

This picture shows the sun rising over Denver International Airport on our first day back in Denver. We drove from Des Moines to Denver on August 7th, staying at an airport hotel before moving in to our new home the following day. After more than seven months away we were finally back to Denver, and we rented a place just four blocks from our old home in Park Hill.

On our first weekend back they had the annual Park Hill bike parade where Jude decided to get his face painted with a shark. He looks kind of scary.

Since getting back Jude and Anna have been on their scooters a lot, probably even more than their bikes. Last week Marcy took both kids to Wash Park where they spent a long time hurtling around the park on their scooters. Both kids have shown a tremendous improvement in just the last two weeks.

Both Marcy and I miss Sydney. The proximity to beaches and the harbour was something we took advantage of regularly. So, we have decided we want to take advantage of the great things that Colorado offers. This means heading up in to the foothills or mountains at every opportunity. So yesterday we headed to Lair of the Bear, a great hiking area just west of Denver. Jude went hiking all the way to the top of the hill, quite an achievement. Here is Jude playing by the river before tackling the hike.

We have spent most of the last two weeks on our annual summer trip to Des Moines. We arrived here 11 days ago on what was the hottest Des Moines day in 29 years – it was 106 degrees. So it was straight into the pool for everyone. Since then the weather has cooled somewhat but everyone spent some time in the pool pretty much every day.

Being in Des Moines means lots of treats from Baba and Grandpa. There was ice cream or popsicles every day which Jude and Lily are enjoying right here.

Lily was away at Disney World the first few days we were here but since she came back Jude, Lily and Anna have been inseparable. There have been a couple of sleepovers with the three of them and several special outings with Baba and Grandpa. Then, of course, there are some quiet times with plenty of books.

The local community pool where we are staying is only about 200 yards away. So we have been there almost every day in the last two weeks. The days have been very hot so it has been really nice to have the pool so close by.

We have also visited some other pools in and around Denver. Last weekend we went out to visit Marcy’s good friend Valerie and her daughter Skyleah. Jude and Skyleah are only three months apart in age and they always enjoy playing together. We went to their local pool where Jude and Anna were introduced to diving boards. They had a small one-meter board at this pool and both kids just loved jumping off it.

Speaking of diving the very next day we had a food group (our regular dinner party get together) at Skyline, a swimming and tennis club in Denver. There they had a three meter diving board and both Jude and Anna just jumped off it without hesitation. By the end of the evening Jude was even jumping off backwards and doing twirls in the air.

Of course, it hasn’t all been pool time the last two weeks. In fact, Jude and Anna have picked up a new activity…rollerskating. Marcy bought the kids rollerskates and they have both been out in them several times. Jude has been very patient in learning how to do it but he also wants to know when he will be as good as Red – a character from the PBS show Super-Why who wears rollerskates. I told him about 100 practices and so after today he asked how many were left and he seemed unperturbed when I told him 96.

Jude has now completed his first illustrated novel. It is true. Jude loves water color painting and drawing and he has done quite a few paintings lately. Every painting tells a story in often intricate detail and so this this week Marcy decided to bind 11 of these pictures together into a book. Then Jude described exactly what was going on in each picture and Marcy wrote it down on the painting. His story is about wolves and antelopes. Here is Marcy reading it to him.

We have loved staying here at the Ferguson’s. It has been the perfect place for us to stay while we get ourselves organized after our six month trip to Sydney. While we have stayed here we have bought a new car, a 2010 Mazda CX-7 and we have signed a one year lease on a new house in Park Hill – about 4 blocks from our old place. The kids have loved having lots of new toys to play with and a huge backyard to run around which is what they did for about an hour after dinner this evening.

Soon after we arrived in Sydney we drove over the Anzac Bridge. For some reason Jude really liked this bridge and whenever we drove over it from then on he would always tell us it was his favorite bridge in Sydney. He has wanted to walk over the Anzac Bridge for some time, so on the last Jude and Daddy date in Sydney he did just that. We walked all the way across and then back again.

The last week was time for farewells. I spent some time with friends I wouldn’t be seeing for a while and we had a big family farewell lunch at Ian & Leila’s house. We had the whole family there, other than mum because she is not really well enough these days to leave the nursing home.

A couple of days before we left we gave the kids the opportunity of visiting their favorite place one last time. Predictably Jude chose the Australian Museum and Anna the Powerhouse Museum. They are both in the city so we were able to do both places. While Marcy packed up our apartment I took the kids on the ferry one last time into Circular Quay where we hopped on a train for the short ride to Museum station. As soon as we got there Jude gravitated towards the dinosaur area, his favorite part of the museum.

We have loved staying in Cremorne Point on this trip to Sydney. It is one of the most beautiful parts of Sydney with the harbour right at our doorstep. I already miss watching the ferry boats go back and forth towards Mosman. Coming home from both museums that day it was a picture perfect winter evening in Sydney and with the full moon the scene was truly spectacular. This photo doesn’t do the scene justice but it was the best I could do.

We moved out of our apartment last Tuesday and we spent the final night of our Sydney trip at the Miers house. They have been good friends for a long time and their kids, Alicia and Emily, just adore the kids and the feeling is mutual. Alicia was the only babysitter we had during our six months in Sydney and the kids like Emily equally as much.

Wednesday, July 4th, was the big trip back to Denver. The trip over was relatively pleasant but at San Francisco there were a few problems. There was a huge line at immigration and then our flight was canceled. After waiting in line for half an hour we were able to get on a new flight to Denver and get all our 11 bags retagged and on their way. It took two and a half hours from the time we walked off the plane from Sydney until we arrived at the gate for the flight to Denver. The kids were quite well behaved considering all the waiting and they had only half a night’s sleep.

Here we are now staying at the Ferguson’s house just outside Denver. The Sydney trip already feels like a long time ago. Today I took the kids to the Denver Museum just six days after their last trip to the Australian Museum. They loved playing on the wolves outside the museum – I let them stay there for an hour this evening.

Like most kids Jude and Anna spend a fair amount of time in the car. All of this time is spent in their car seats, certainly not in the drivers seat. But in Dubbo, where we went recently for a four day weekend, they both had their first taste of what it is like to drive a car. You see, the Dubbo zoo is huge – almost 1,000 acres and so you can drive your car inside the zoo. They have a 10km/h speed limit so it is very slow going. On our first day there it was raining and we literally had the zoo to ourselves so Marcy let Anna and then Jude sit on her lap and steer the car around the zoo. They didn’t do too badly for a first attempt. Below is Jude looking out at the giraffes in the rain.

Luckily we only had one bad of weather in our four day trip to Dubbo. We made it to the zoo three times and by the end of it we had seen most of the animals. One of the best things about this zoo for us is that they had a big kids area which we frequented after seeing the animals. On Sunday they had a big bounce house and there was a big playground that included this hippopotamus that Jude took a liking to.

We arrived back in Sydney on Tuesday with just two weeks remaining on our trip. We are trying to make the most of these last days so today we all went out for some exploring around Sydney. We went to Fort Denison, the tiny little island in Sydney Harbour right near the Opera House. Then it was on to the museum and finally we did a trip up Centrepoint Tower, the tallest building in Sydney. Here we all are being attacked by a giant koala on that visit…

Jude loves animals especially dinosaurs. This is not news to anyone who knows him. But what he really loves to do is create stories with his animals as the central characters. Yesterday, he put together this very elaborate scene on our dining room table where the animals were all in a circle wearing clothes pegs. We didn’t hear him setting this all up so we don’t know what the meaning of it all was but he spent a lot of time creating it and wanted us to leave it there all day which we did.

We have these really pretty birds that frequent a tree right outside our building. We think they are rainbow lorikeets or rosellas, but whatever they are called Jude and Anna both love them. Jude was brave enough recently to hand feed these birds as they came to our balcony. Here he is giving them a piece of bread.

From birds to puppies. Last weekend we visited Uncle Mark and Aunt Robyn’s farm where they had had some new additions to their family. Their dog, Ruby, had recently given birth to seven gorgeous little puppies and everyone was excited to see them. They are not even four weeks old so the kids couldn’t hold them long but they enjoyed the short time they had with them.

Yesterday was June 9th and a milestone in our family’s history. My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. We didn’t make a big deal out of this milestone because of my mother’s health but I wanted to at least honor this date with them. So, I took my parents out to lunch at the local bowling club and we had a really nice meal. My mother acknowledged the milestone several times when I told her and I think she was genuinely happy. We had a great conversation about their wedding day and what happened all those years ago.

The other big news of the week was that we bought our tickets back to the U.S. It is quite sad that our trip to Sydney is coming to an end. We have had a fantastic time here and we will really miss so much about this wonderful city. But we are also looking forward to getting back and seeing all our friends in Denver. We will be back on July 4th.

We had our first family trip away from Sydney last weekend. We took a cruise from Sydney to Brisbane -about 36 hours cruising time with two nights on the boat and one full day. We had a tiny cabin on the bottom floor of the ship but it still had a small window and was perfect for us.

Jude and Anna were very excited to have bunk beds – the top beds folded down from the ceiling – with a ladder up to their beds it was kind of like having a playground in our room. We made the most of the one day on board. The kids swam in the pool, which wasn’t heated so it was decidedly brisk. Anna preferred the hot tub, smart girl. They had a great kids area and on Saturday night we took advantage of it by dropping the kids off there and Marcy and I had a night out for dinner and drinks.

We berthed in at Brisbane bright and early on Sunday morning and we took the journey down to Sea World which involved a bus, train and taxi. We had been talking about what they would see at Sea World and so even though everyone was tired after a very early wake up we checked in to our room at the resort and went right next door to Sea World.

Jude’s favorite thing to do there was to feed the sting rays. We would buy a small cup of food (slimy fish and prawns) for them and Jude would bravely feed the stingrays by hand. As you can see in the photo above these sting rays can be quite aggressive getting up out of the water to snatch the food. A couple of times they took Jude completely by surprise.

The Sea World Resort really catered well to kids. They had a pool area that was certainly built with the little ones in mind. It was heated so Jude and Anna spent quite a bit of time in there every day. Here is Jude showing off his jumping skills.

On Wednesday we flew back to Sydney. That day also happened to be Jude’s 5 1/2 year birthday. Jude wanted to have a cherry pie but I called a dozen bakeries on the Gold Coast and not one of them had a cherry pie. Not to worry, we saw a Krispy Kreme donut shop at the airport back in Sydney and Jude decided he wanted to have a donut. So, Marcy got out five and a half candles and stuck them in the donut and we all sang Jude Happy Birthday. He was thrilled.