I had a moment or two of wishing I had driven because there were so many beautiful spots along the way, but it was nice to just sit back and watch the scenery go by. 18.5 years ago my mom, my stepfather (Randy), and I did the drive, and I listened to George Michael's "Listen Without Prejudice" over and over again on that trip. I turned that on on my iPod and was flooded with memories and feelings from that great trip. After that was done, I switched over to some Nick Cave. "Murder Ballads" is not normally a sunny-day album for me, but with the dry landscape with eucalyptus trees everywhere, it seemed suited to the environ. Anyway, it was a lovely journey and also time to reflect on how lucky I am to be here, to have family to visit, to have time off to do so, to return to places I love... I'm very fortunate.
Anyway, here's some snapshots from the bus. Oh, and the clouds here must really be the inspiration for the clouds at the beginning of The Simpsons. I swear I've seen the dopplegangers for those clouds here!
Once I got to Canberra, Arnold met me at the bus station and brought me home. Ann was cooking for dinner tonight, but we caught up a bit before going to pick up Georgia and Lauren (Ann's grand-daughters) from school. It took them all of 1 minute to warm up, tell me Americans talk like Barbie, and ask me to say "tomato" (because we say it differently). They also asked if I was from Hollywood. Which reminds me that somebody else asked if I see famous people all of the time a few weeks ago. Umm, that would be a no. Famous people do not populate the whole of the US. :)
ANYWAY, Georgia is a sweetheart and became quite attached very quickly, and Lauren was showing off her piano playing skills, and telling me about her interests. It was fun spending extra time with them because they and their parents are off to Figi tomorrow. Lucky them!
Oh, and I forgot to mention Rupert! Rupie, as he's known, is the dog, and he's just so cute I could eat him up. Here we are:
And here's what he does when you get near him ("scratch the belly please!"):
It wasn't too long before the rest of the family arrived. Stephen, two of his sons (Shaun and Charlie), Tracey-Anne and Niko, Anthony, Annette, Sam, Max, Lucy, Jackie and Lachlan... the whole crew! I actually have a ton of photos from our evening, but I won't post them all here. You can see the fam if you'd like: Photo set for today on Flickr
I didn't get full-on quality time with each kid, but it was so great to see them all. And it was fun talking to Shaun, who had even more questions about America, our perceptions of Australia, and how are we similar/different than our tv shows (which are all over the place here). Plus I had a chance to catch up with A&A's kids and their spouses, which was nice. Needless to say the parents aren't drastically changed in 5 years, but the kids sure are!
With so many kids, the evening involved a bit of madness. But I did manage to get them to sit for a photo with me:
But this was what most of the evening looked like (madness!):
And here's the adults, minus Jackie, (plus Shaun, who's almost adult at 16):
There's also a whole series of funny photos of the kids taking turns holding Flat Stanley (and then taking photos... so some of them are a bit fuzzy). Here's Georgia giving me a huge hug while Charlie is silly with Flat Stanley:
And then the wine and the food and the wine and the food... a wonderful night indeed! But gads, why am I still up? Must hit the hay now!
No comments:
Post a Comment