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.

We have been reading these series of books about Uncle Wiggily for some time now. They are great children’s stories and the main character, who happens to be a “bunny rabbit gentleman” is always having an adventure. So, both Jude and Anna have latched on to this idea and are often wanting to go for an adventure (particularly Jude).

The adventures that Jude most wants is walking in the forest, I think because this is where Uncle Wiggly has his adventures. Luckily we have some great walking trails near our place and on Saturday we went for an adventure through the forests of Sydney Harbour National Park. When it was time to turn back Jude was disappointed, he really wanted to keep going to the zoo – which is where the trail through the national park ends. I said we would do it on the next Jude and Daddy date.

Another book that is popular with the kids right now is Stanley the Manly Ferry – Marcy just recently bought the kids book series. So on Friday we all caught the local ferry in to Circular Quay and then hopped on board the Manly ferry. It ended up being a gorgeous day and we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay as the sun was setting. Here is a picture of Jude staring out at the sunset – I wonder what he is thinking?

This past weekend was Mother’s Day and on Saturday my whole family got together (with the exception of Mark who had to work) to have lunch with my mum. We took this photo because this is almost certainly the last Mother’s Day we will all have together. These outings are challenging for my mum, she is exhausted by the end of them although she seemed to enjoy the meal. The days of taking my mum out to a restaurant are certainly numbered, some time in the next few months she will likely be unable to take outings like this.

On a brighter note, we celebrated Mother’s Day for Marcy on Sunday and she decided she wanted to hang out on the beach. The day was a bit chilly although the water was relatively warm but most people avoided swimming. Not Jude, though. We took the surfboard along and he wanted to take it out and catch some waves. It was a nice one-foot swell, perfect for little kids and Jude caught two waves on his board (lying down) before deciding it was too cold.

We spent all day at Robyn and Mark’s farm today and the kids really enjoyed the extended stay there. Jude and Anna both were able to go for a long horse ride and Jude watched Uncle Mark chop down a tree, cut firewood with a chainsaw, cut back a horse’s hooves, ride on a motorbike and much more. It was quite the day. Here is a video I shot today of Jude and Anna riding Cruz bareback through the paddock. They probably were riding for at least five minutes and both kids did well even when Cruz got a little frisky at the start.

Mark got out this motorbike and was riding around the property on it. Jude was a little uncertain and while he was happy to sit on it, he decided he didn’t want to take it for a ride.

Where was Marcy you might be wondering? She was in New Zealand. Yes, we have had some visa troubles. After being told by United Airlines that Marcy had a 12 month visa, when we called the Australian immigration people a couple of weeks ago we found out that it was only three months and Marcy was, in fact, staying in the country illegally. She had to leave within two weeks and then apply for a new visa while outside the country. So, this morning we dropped Marcy off at the airport and then I took the kids out to the farm for the day. It sounds like the visa was just a formality and we will see Marcy back in Sydney tomorrow night.

Last weekend we were also on a farm, visiting my friend Dicky on his Alpaca farm. But I don;t have any photos to share right now, because they are all on Marcy’s computer which is with her in New Zealand. Have some more next week.

Yesterday we stayed closer to home, venturing down to the Kirribilli markets and we had every intention of walking over the Harbour Bridge again and climbing up the pilons. There is a big park right underneath the Bridge and Jude and Anna had such fun playing in it that by the time they were done it was almost lunch time. Here they are studying the “gumnuts” they had picked from a tree.

Finally, last Sunday I had the pleasure of attending a full day music festival with some of my old uni (college) friends. Saw the Hoodoo Gurus at the Enmore Theatre (a fantastic place for live music) and had a blast. There was even a surprise appearance from one of my favorite bands, the Sunnyboys, from the early 80’s. Great times.

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One of my very fond childhood memories is going to the Royal Easter Show. It has been a Sydney institution dating back to the 1820’s and is one of the largest shows of its kind in the world. It is similar to the American state fair but on a very large scale. It is at the Sydney Showgrounds which these days is in Olympic park.

There are rides galore at the show and you can see every kind of farm animal you can imagine. With Jude and Anna we spent most of our time on the rides and then went and saw the chickens and horses. It was quite a big day and both kids fell asleep in the car on the way home – the first time that has happened in many months.

Last weekend was Easter and the Easter Bunny came and provided some yummy chocolates and other gifts for the kids. Jude was quite excited to get an chocolate bunny and I think it was gone before lunch. Both kids did an Easter egg hunt around our living room where they found some more chocolates and sometimes money inside the Easter eggs.

Yesterday, we went on a bushwalk in a national park not far from our place. It was quite the adventure for everybody and despite Anna having a bad fall at the start the kids had a great time. They were on the lookout for “treasure” which was basically just any interesting stick, leaf or shiny rock they could find (and there were many). We stopped for an early picnic lunch on this big rock by the trail. And yes, Jude did the entire walk in his pajamas.

Today I took the kids up to this great playground and met up with one of my old college friends and his kids. There is a cafe and big field for kids to play in, there is a bike trail, a fantastic playground and it is right on the water – a kids paradise. Both Jude and Anna had a great time playing with the other kids and we spent almost four hours there. Meanwhile Marcy went for a long hike and went to see a movie.

Speaking of Marcy – even though she is not doing as much yoga as she was in Denver, she still has enough strength and talent to do a handstand. I couldn’t even attempt this, particularly on the hard rock.

Last Saturday was my birthday, the first one I had spent in Sydney in 22 years. I had a great day with a visit to the beach in the morning, a family lunch, a visit with my mum and then prawns and champagne on Balmoral Beach for dinner. Anna actually snapped this photo of us – she is becoming quite the little photographer at the tender age of 3.

For weeks now we have been seeing the seaplanes near our place and when we were out on the Harbour. Jude has been asking for a long time to take a ride in one so this weekend we did just that. We drove over early to have breakfast at a local cafe by the water and then we caught a boat out to the waiting plane. Jude was very excited about it and he loved every minute of it.

I thought the seaplane ride was amazing. We went all around my favorite parts of Sydney – including the northern beaches and Pittwater as well as taking in all of Sydney Harbour. We did a figure eight loop around the Opera House and Harbour Bridge and here is one of the best photos I took.

Sydney has a lot of birds. Every morning we are woken up by the kookaburras making their loud and somewhat obnoxious call at the crack of dawn. And we have a tree right outside our balcony that is home to dozens of rosellas – a really colorful Australian parrot. They even come on to our railing some times, so I snapped this photo last week much to the delight of the kids.

Finally, I want to talk about my mum this week. She is one of the main reasons we are in Sydney for six months. She has Alzheimer’s disease and has been getting progressively worse for some time now. She recognizes me some of the time, but interestingly she recognizes my Dad all the time, at least until now. She has some very dear friends that she has known for over 60 years and we got them together for lunch this past week.

My mum, Pat Bernard and Betty Phillips met while working at Ryde Council in the early 1950’s and have remained good friends ever since. When my mum quit the council to become a full time mother just before my brother was born they kept in contact. In fact, until my mum moved into a nursing home a couple of years ago they had seen each other once a week for morning tea or lunch every week for several decades. With my mum’s declining health this is almost certainly their last lunch together. These women were so important in my mother’s life but now she barely even remembers them.

This weekend I went out of town for the first time since we had arrived in Sydney. There was a bunch of guys from my high school getting together in a town that was a about an hour and a half away by train. I received a phone call around 7pm from Marcy asking what the emergency services phone number was (it is 000 or as everyone here says, triple-0).

Jude had his fingers stuck in the bath tub drain. Yes, you read that right. Somehow with the suction of the drain he had three fingers stuck and they simply wouldn’t come out. So, Marcy tried olive oil and soap and nothing. So, she called 000 and the fire brigade came calling. They initially had no success until someone had the bright idea of ice (of course, that is obvious in hindsight). With that the fingers came out one by one. I was getting the blow by blow from Marcy via text messages and was relieved that everything was ok. I was not looking forward to a 100 km taxi ride back home if there was something seriously wrong.

In the end Jude was pretty excited about the whole ordeal. He loved telling me all about it and this is certainly one for the family history book. Tonight when I was giving him a bath when I pulled the plug on the drain he moved his fingers down there again, so I promptly pulled him out of the tub. I think he wanted to have the fire brigade come back for another visit. So, there will be no more staying in the tub while it is draining anymore.

I have talked before about how much we love where we are living. We are right on the harbour and have a beautiful foreshore walking trail outside our door. Last week we walked along this trail about 150 yards and saw a huge ocean liner anchored in the harbour.

Every Wednesday Jude has a halfday at school. So, once a fortnight I pick Jude up from school and we have a Jude and Daddy date, which usually involves going to Manly and having some lunch there. After lunch this time I took him up to North Head which marks the north entrance to Sydney Harbour. It is a national park and they have lots of interesting plants and insects not to mention a great view of the city.

Today, Marcy had a class so I had the kids all day. This evening I decided we go down to the ferry wharf to greet Marcy as she got off the ferry. When we arrived at the ferry wharf there were some people fishing and Jude was asking them all kinds of questions. They were good sports and gave Jude a hand line to test his luck. He actually had a couple of nibbles but didn’t land a fish. But the highlight was one the guys there actually hooked a pretty big octopus and Jude watched the whole thing, mesmerized. We decided we really need to get Jude a fishing rod.