So, after a lot of uncertainty, waiting around with the job and with the adoption, I decided to go off to Australia for a nice long relaxing holiday, and it was completely awesome. I got to hang out with my dad and my brother and his family, my fast-growing nephews and we had a lovely time all round.

Here are the highlights:

I didn’t sleep as much as I’d hoped on the way over, so here I am on the plane looking somewhat crazed…

Literally as I was about to get on a train to the Blue Mountains – I love it when a poster confirms my life choices.

Love how Australia makes everything sexier – even the pick up point at the train station…

The most spectacular view of the Blue Mountains just down the road from my dad’s new place.

An amazingly tame King Parrot came to hang out with us in the garden – we named him Jasper Parrot…

Then I hopped down to Melbourne to visit my friend CeeCee!

And we went to visit another friend L and visited the Jirrahlinga Wildlife Sanctuary which was very exciting! We saw actual Wombats and everything!

Me and Matilda the wombat!

Sleepy chilled-out koalas..

Blue-tongued lizards

Dragon Lizards

And Monty the Carpet Python

Buck-toothed Kangaroo

And many, many Drop-bears…

Sandy toes…

Then we had wine and mussels!

Then back to Sydney for a lovely family gathering and delicious meal…

Here are all the boys in height order

And the girls, which was slightly less dramatic!

The nephews and cousins

My nephew and I made a cool puzzle back in the mountains.

And then on Christmas Eve I made some homemade Die Hard decorations

I was VERY pleased with the results, and then we watched the movie!

I also met Carl the Cockatoo, who was very tame and let me feed him by hand!

Christmas Day fun and games! – Reindeer quoits

Trampolining

Amazing spread for lunch

Glorious sunny day!

Actual Santa sighting, obvs

Oven mitts game

Racing Demon in the dusk

My stocking present – a magic tree landscape

Swimming at Clarence Dam – a fab day out in the sunshine!

Another nephew with the cats on the terrace

Cockatoos roosting in the trees at sunset

Busting out a little holiday puzzling

A lovely mini-bushwalk to the nearby Pool of Siloam

New Year’s Eve – I was walking to my brother’s house and saw this sign – seemed extremely apt given the year I have had!

The Blue Mountains looking especially blue on this particular day

Then we had a GLORIOUS day out at Kiama beaches

The boys do some bouncing

My brother is building an incredible guest house in his car-port – it’s truly amazing that he has the skills to build something so impressive!

 

Then the clouds rolled in over the mountains and we were literally inside the clouds!

 

Dad and I chose an incredibly cloudy day to visit Scenic World, which was not the best idea, as most of the views were lost in the cloud, but we had a beautiful walk through the rainforest. We also went down the steepest railway in the world which was pretty scary!

Dad was way more laid back than I was about the whole train ride situation…

A few dinosaur sightings…

The rainforest was stunning

And we saw an actual Lyre bird

All in all, it was an AMAZING holiday, and I came home feeling very relaxed and rested. Much-needed and was so wonderful to spend so much time with my brother, and his wife and kid, and also with my dad.