Victoria's 1st Birthday

Ok, so I'm going to jump ahead a bit from our trip to Victoria's Birthday.  We had a busy week last week, with Dad arriving and lots of cooking and baking to do before the party on Saturday.  Friday was her actual birthday but we had a pretty quite day, just a few presents from us and Nanna & Poppy Shocker, Nana & Pop and Uncle Mike. 

Blowing out the candles (or shall I say spitting on the candles!!)

Gifts from Mummy, Daddy & Charlotte, and a Table & chairs from the "Shockers"

Cheeky smiles :)

The party turned out great, we had lots of people here, a mix of Aussie and American friends.  We decided to make the party as Aussie as we could and made Koala and Wombat cupcakes, plus a massive cupcake with a Koala jumping out the top!!  Sausage rolls were also a hit, but can you believe we forgot to make the fairy bread!!!  Anyway we all had a great time!!  Here are some photos :)

The BIG cupcake!!

 and again.

The Wombat Army.

Koala cupcakes.

Victoria loving the attention!!

Yum, cake!!

NO!! Don't give him any, just because his my boyfriend, doesn't mean I have to share :)

Yeah, these don't taste as good as the cake :(

 Just like my sister, I'm good at posing!!

Interesting games with the balloons :)

And yes, my eyes are still BLUE, hopefully they stay that way :)

Just to top off the weekend we took the girls to see Disney on Ice on Sunday. OMG, I have never seen Charlotte sit still and quite for so long :)  It was amazing!!

The West Coast Trip, finally!!

So finally I am going to blog the trip we did back in June/July to the West.  It's taken me a while because I don't really know where to start, there is so much to tell!!!  I guess I should start at the beginning :)

We flew from Norfolk to Portland and picked up the RV and a Suburban (the biggest SUV on the road) there.  From there we drove out to Yellowstone National Park, then back to the coast to catch a ferry across to Vancouver Island, then back down to Portland via Seattle.  Check out this map if you want to see how far it was, but basically it was about 2500 miles, or just over 4000 km!!  The girls and Jayden were in the Suburban and the boys took the RV :) 

The first 2 days were lots of driving, but very pretty driving along the Columbia river to start and then some very dramatic changes in landscape as we moved from Oregon to Idaho.  Our 1st night we arrived very late in La Grande, OR,  after a big shopping trip to walmart and then a huge drive.  We were very glad to get into bed :) The second night we arrived a little earlier at the RV park in Pocatello, ID, although still tired from the driving, but so excited to get to Yellowstone. 

Charlotte relaxing in the back seat of the SUV!!

The Babies in the RV at Pocatello, stretching their legs.

 Our Vehicles for the next 3 weeks and 2500 miles.

Day 3 we took off into Grand Teton National Park and then Yellowstone, I don't really know what to say other than Amazing!!!  It was funny because we were so blown away by everything and this is what the kids were doing.......

Somewhere along the drive we stopped for Lunch, the benefit of following an RV is that all the food and facilities are there :)  For most of us this isn't a big deal, but when travelling with a 3 year old having a bathroom in front of you at all times is Great!!!  When we stopped there was a cute little waterfall across the road that Charlotte wanted to see, it was so tiny compared to some we saw in Yellowstone :)

When Katie was driving and I was not, I was frantically trying to get photos of all the mountains and snow and great stuff we were seeing.  Some how I managed to get a photo of the one and only bike rider in Wyoming!!!

Here are some of the others I got :)

So that and the next 3 nights we stayed at West Yellowstone.  The RV park was pretty good here, a play area for Charlotte to play, indoor heated pool and some snow, in JUNE :)  It was freezing, one day it got down to almost 0C!!  The first day here Ted and JT went fishing in Yellowstone and Katie and I stayed put at the RV park, the kids needed a day out of the car, and we needed to do some washing.....what good house wives we are :)

The next 2 days we spent driving around the National Park, we saw so many things, but to see it all you need about a month I think!!  We saw geysers, fountains, paint pots, bison, a bald eagle, both a grizzly and black bear and elk, No Moose :(  Here are some photos, the bison were everywhere!!

 

This was at the Old Faithful Inn.

And this was Old Faithful going off!!

Ok, I'm going to leave it there for tonight, it's late and I have a big day at the Children's Museum with the girls tomorrow!!  Stay tuned for the rest of the trip, plus some photos from Katie, I promise I will do it real soon :)

Photos by Rori :)

For those of you not on facebook I thought I should show you the professional photos we got done a few weeks ago, they are magic, we just love them so much!!!  Rori Dellinger was the photographer, a very sweet local lady here in Virginia Beach.  This is just a few and I have used those that Rori decreased in size (the originals are huge!!)  If anyone wants a copy of the originals to print some in better quality please let me know and I can organise it :)

I think Charlotte stole the show (as usual!!), she is one very pretty little girl, and she loves to pose, "CHEESE" :) 

I can't believe it's May!!

It's been almost a month since I blogged, and time has flown.  We have been pretty busy with Bree visiting for a week, and few trips to DC, Easter, Mothers Day and lots of other things, so I will attempt to get you all up to date :)  I think I might do it via photos.......

Charlotte had an Easter Egg hunt at her friend Matilda's house on Easter Saturday, we picked Bree up from the airport late Good Friday, she was a little tired :)



This is Charlotte and Matilda, relaxing after a hard day hunting for eggs!!



Easter morning at home, the Easter bunny dropped a few eggs on his way out so Charlotte and Victoria went searching in the yard.

Charlotte showing off what she found :)

I think Bree was trying to distract Charlotte here to steal some of her eggs :)

Our first Baseball game, Easter Sunday, Norfolk Tides v Durham Bulls, it was pretty hot and we (Norfolk) won 6-5.  I was confused most of the game, but it was still fun.

Victoria on the way home from the game.

We took a trip to Washington DC when Bree was staying with us, we really like the place and there is so much to see.  This time around I got to see a bit more of the "night life" when Bree and I went for a walk to get dinner, I never knew realised many homeless people there are in DC :(

Charlotte and I in DC!!

Victoria got to see her future home for the 1st time!!! 

We went to the American History Museum, some amazing things to see there including the 'Star Spangled Banner', (sorry there was no photography allowed).Bree and I also loved Julia Child's Kitchen and the First Ladies dresses :)

My Mothers Day present, we have not yet tried it out as Victoria has been sick and not up to it just yet.  For those of you wondering what the hell is it, it's a bike trailer for my push bike so I can take the girls for a ride and get a really good workout!!  I am so glad there are not many hills in Virginia Beach :)

Last Thursday we went back to DC for a dinner at the Embassy, Katie our lovely friend came with us to look after the girls, so Jayden came too!!  I love this photo, it looks like he is pulling down her shirt to show a bit of skin :)  They are so cute together, I can't believe how quickly they are growing!! 

And lastly a quick shot of Ted and I all dressed up for our night at the Embassy, felt really weird going out without the girls, it's been a while :) We had a great night!!

Hope everyone back home is well :)