Bye America...its been a blast!

Its one of those bitter sweet moments where you are sad your holiday adventure is over but also looking forward to sleeping in your own bed...and god forbid eating some vegetables ha ha!  Today we are packing up ready to head for LAX for the trek home...which is no mean feat considering someone has bought way to much stuff (if only I could blame someone else).  Jade is down at the hotel pool complex for one last swim and run around - they have the coolest kids area which has slides and fountains and buckets that tip water on you - so she is in her element!  Our day at Universal Studios was great (after a rocky start with a spoilt brat child) but hey I must admit she has been pretty good this wole trip.  We started with the studio tour which takes about an hour...they drive you all around the complex and show you the back lot where they make all the movies and how they do the special effects and everything.  Drove down Wisteria Lane and saw all the girls houses from Desperate Housewives - they were actually filming that day - but much to Jeremys disappointment it was inside so he didnt get a glimpse of Eva Longoria.  The King Kong part was cool and it made you proud to hear about Weta Digital and listen to Peter Jackson talk.  Jade and I hung out at the Curious George park while Jeremy went off and did The Mummy ride, Jurrasic Park and Terminator rides (which werent really suitable for little people) so that kept him happy.  All in all it was a great day and Jade was very happy to have met and had photos with Shrek and Curious George.  Yesterday we spent our final day at Disneyland going on the rest of the rides so we didnt miss anything...we started with Space Mountain which is a pretty fast rollacoster in the pitch black...Jade was not so impressed with that!  But regained her smile for the Winnie the Pooh ride and her photo with him :)   Another magical day filled with fun rides and things to see...oh and shopping!  Cant wait to show you all the photos.  See you all soon, love D, J & J x

Happy New Year

So as it turns out Jeremy did a great job of driving the Cadillac through the maze of freeways in LA to get us to our Disneyland hotel for the next 6 nights...thank you GPS!  New Years Eve dawned and we hit Disneyland at 8am for the day...god that place is so magical...you dont have to be a kid to appreciate just how cool it is.  Jade had an absolute ball going on all the rides and meeting Mickey, Minnie and Goofy :)  Towards the end of the day the lines were quite long with 60 minute waits on the main rides...but typical Jade amused herself by talking to all the kids in the line and coped really well.  We stayed for the fireworks display at 9pm - which was amazing by far the best display I have ever seen - then headed back to the hotel at 10pm absolutely beat!  We were then awoken at midnight by the biggest rumbling...I actually thought it was an earthquake in my half asleep state...but no it was another magnificent fireworks display at Disneyland which we got to watch from our hotel balcony.  Happy New Year!!  The next day it was up early again for our bus ride to Legoland, which is about an hour from here, where we spent the first day of 2011 going on the coolest rides :)  And the best part was there were no lines as everyone was either still in bed hungover or at the big New Years Day parade they have here.  Legoland has a totally different feel from Disney, but had heaps of rides which Jade could do on her own which was cool.  One particular rollacoster scared the living daylights out of me...but Jeremy and Jade proceeded to go on it another 4 times!  My favourite part was Miniland, which is a depiction of America in lego, it was amazing...unfortunately I only got a brief look as Jade and Jeremy didnt find it as interesting and were busy looking for the next ride.  Today was a bit of a struggle, it seems the trip, weather and crap food have caught up with J and I and we both have the achy body cold :(  This was made a little worse by a freezing cold, rainy day in which we were on the Grand Tour of LA so in and out of the bus checking out all the sights.  So now its an early night ready for our next adventure...a day at Universal Studios.

See ya Truckee...Hello California Highway 1

What an awesome Christmas Day we had waking up at Kristina's and watching Mack & Jade opening all their presents from Santa in their stockings.  Ian made us all pancakes...then Kristina and I headed out on a mission to find a turkey.  We did manage to find one...but did get side tracked visiting Sqaw (another skiing resort) and doing a spot of shopping (god I love America - shopping on Christmas Day!).  Then we all headed out to Sierraville to spend the rest of the day with Red and all the family.  It was a fantastic day and our new American family even said it was their best Christmas ever :)  Boxing Day dawned and Jeremy went snow mobiling again with Ian while Red, Kristina and I went shopping in Reno at Legends which is a massive outlet shopping centre...well I was in heaven...even had my own personal shopper in the Adidas store!!  All was going well until I got a phone call from Jeremy to say he had come off Leroys snow mobile after hitting a tree!  Luckily he was ok...just hurt pride and some pretty mean bruising.  The next day we said goodbye to everyone and Red drove us back over the mountains to San Fran.  What a cool city!  We spent the afternoon exploring Fishermans Wharf...then Red and Jade headed back to the hotel to watch Rapunzel while J and I headed out for a night on the town.  We had a reccomendation to eat at Scomas which is apparently a world famous seafood restaurant...well lets just say if Americans think that seafood is world famous they need to visit NZ!!  It was about as good as the seafood we get in our pubs!!  Anyway the next morning we all jumped on a double decker bus and went on a tour of the city which took us over the Golden Gate bridge...very cool.  Then it was an emotional goodbye to my sister before loading up our hire car to head for California Highway 1.  Now for the cool part...the man at Hertz recognised Jeremy as being Maori and started talking to us about Once Were Warriors...next thing you know we had a free upgrade to a 2011 V8 Cadillac with all leather interior and a ridiculous amount of room!  Off to Monterey we went with our GPS guiding the way and only 2 arguments later we made it!  This morning we started out with the Monterey Aquarium (Kelly Tarltons eat your heart out) the place was amazing!!  It was absolutely massive!!  We spent 2 hours there before Jades legs gave way and I'm not sure that we saw it all...incredible.  Then we hit the road again heading for our next stop Pismo Beach...down Highway 1 through Big Sur.  Apart from nearly blowing me off the cliff due to the wind each time I made Jeremy stop so I could take a photo of the amazing scenery it was an amazing ride...what a beautiful rugged coastline!  Now we are about to crash for the night after a big meal at our hotel restaurant ready for the drive into LA tomorrow.  Watch this space for how we cope with the crazy freeway system we are about to come across!

Christmas Eve

Its lunchtime Christmas Eve and everyone is prepping their pork ribs with secret recipes ready for our rib cook off at Kristina's tonight...cant wait!  Apparently it is going to snow tomorrow so we should have a beautiful white Christmas...we're all getting the hang of living in the snow now and really enjoying it.  On Wednesday Ian took us for a drive around Lake Tahoe...wow...what a beautiful place!  He was a great tour guide filling us in on all the history of the area - took heaps of photos (loving my new camera just quietly) and played in the snow.  Thursday me, Red, Jeremy, Drae and Jade went up to Northstar which is a really flash resort about 10 minutes from Kristinas house.  It was amazing!  They have a big outdoor ice skating rink so Jade had her first go on ice skates.  Then we caught the gondala up the mountain and went tubing...so much fun...you get towed up to the top on an inner tube then slide back down the mountain :)  Yesterday the boys took Jeremy snowmobiling...must say I was a bit nervous waving goodbye to him...but the look on his face when they got back was priceless!  He had the best time and in his words "was happier than a pig in shit" ha ha.  Today they are going out in the valley to shoot targets...I've got a feeling he is not going to want to leave this place!

Snow, snow and more snow!!

After a hideous bumpy 12 hour flight in which I cried in the first hour...we made it!  Red was there to meet us at San Fran airport and we did the big run into each others arms.  Then after jamming our 3 ginormous suitcases into her little Audi we hit the road heading for Truckee.  So weird being on the other side of the road...especially on the freeway...the fast lane is the slow lane!  It was a slow drive over the summit of the mountain with everyone pulling over to put chains on their cars to get through the snow.  After 5 hours we finally made it out to Sierraville where Kristinas partner Ians parents live in a lovely big warm home.  Had a fun night with everyone catching up and drinking duty free vodka...finally hit the sack at midnight.  This morning Red and I went to Reno for some groceries and I had my first Costco experience...what a store!  They have everything from alcohol to groceries to tires to tvs to clothes...crazy!  Now we're back home in the warm and Jade is rugged up in 2 jackets and snow boots and outside with Kristina having her first play in the snow.  Time for my first lesson in watching NFL...

Welcome!

Jeremy, Jade and I are heading off for our first adventure together as a family...to the big old US of A!  We fly out on Saturday the 18th of December direct to San Fransisco where we will be met by my very excited sister Red and niece Kristina.  They will then take us on a scenic 3-4 hour drive to where they live in the snow by Lake Tahoe in a little town called Truckee. 

Cant wait for Jeremy and Jade to experience their first white Christmas in the snow and spend the festive season with my family. 

Stay tuned as I blog about our fun times ahead including screaming snowmobile rides, driving on the wrong side of the road and Disneyland!!