Byron Bay/Federal

We spent a week up the coast in the Byron Bay area.  Georgy's parents built an incredible home up that way and we were lucky enough to stay there for a few days.
We got to hang out and lounge by the pool a bit.

 

 Howard had this fun remote control boat that we played with a bit too.

I played on the rope swing, but not nearly as much as I would have liked to!

I saw the HUGEST Huntsman spider I've ever seen before.  I've seen enormous Huntsmans each time I've been to Australia, but I have never seen anything like this before!!!  This thing was at least as big as my hand!  YUCK!  Tamara is sweet and amazing, so she caught it in a bowl (this was after it was ON the box she was carrying) and took it outside to let it live. 

We went out one night to a restaurant called The Junction to meet some of Rhys' family members. 

 

There was a lot of wedding preparation going on.  The boys built these bamboo tepee things that held flowers at the ceremony.

The day after the wedding we got together at The Beach Hotel with pretty much everyone who came to the wedding.  We had a couple beach days at Byron Bay but those pictures weren't so good.

  

This trip finally earned Neil his gold status with Delta so we were able to take advantage of the airline lounges.  It was awesome!

Georgy bought George the platypus for Barrett.  He loves it and gives him the sweetest hugs and kisses!  Thanks auntie Georgina!  And thanks for the koala slippers too!   He has worn them but it was hard to get a picture of them on his busy feet.

Where are all the wedding pictures you ask? Well, that amazing day needs a post of its own (plus I need to do some scavenging to get some pictures).

Australia

As you know, Neil and I spent the last 2 weeks in Australia. We planned the trip because one of my best friends was getting married and I got to be a bridesmaid!  We got to Sydney in time for me to go to Georgy's bachelorette party (or hens party as they call it).  Here's me with Georgy and 2 of the other bridesmaids, Lizzie and Sarah. 

Me and Lizzie

We went out to eat at The Australian one night and Neil got kangaroo pizza.  They had a lot of very interesting pizzas like crocodile and duck.  I stuck with an old fashioned margherita pizza.

One of the days, Neil and I took a ferry to Cockatoo Island.  It used to be a prison, but now it's just used for film and art festivals.  I was expecting it to be tropical and have cockatoos, but it was more like a scene from a scary movie.
We walked through Dog Leg tunnel, I can't remember exactly how long it was, but we were in there for a while!

The reason we went to Cockatoo Island was to meet up with our good friend Matt and his girlfriend Lil.  They had been camping on the island all weekend for the film festival.  There's a really good view of the Harbour Bridge from the island. 

It was not a very warm weekend, I don't know how they could stand to stay there all weekend- Plus it was scary there!

I thought this flip flop vending machine at the mall was hilarious. 

 

I did a study abroad in Sydney in 2003 (which is when I met both Georgy and Matt) and then Neil and I went back in 2008 for a vacation, so we've done pretty much all of the touristy things there, but it's always fun to see it again.  Georgy and I went to Milson's point to get some good pictures of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

After Milson's Point, we picked up Neil from downtown where he had been in a meeting at Fidelity.  He wasn't working, he just went in to talk about the possibilities of transferring there.  We went to Coogee Beach and had some lunch.

Another day, Neil and I hung out around Darling Harbour.  We got gelato and went to the Sea Life Aquarium.

We were in Sydney when they were doing Sculptures by the Sea, so we met up with Matt again and went to that.  It's at Bondi Beach and it's a bunch of different art pieces all along the ocean.

This wasn't a particularly awesome piece or anything, I just didn't really take any other pictures.

We went to Moo for some enormous and delicious burgers at Bondi after the walk.

This is a store, I just thought it was a really funny name.  I asked Georgy about it and she said that means the same thing as it does in the states, so I'm guessing it was an Asian owned store or something.

Rhys took us to Cronulla Beach one day before we headed up to Byron Bay and it was the nicest day we were in Sydney!  We had just sent all our luggage up to Byron in Georgy's car or else we would've definitely been swimming (or at least lying in the sand)!

So that's the Sydney part of the trip. Next we flew up to Byron Bay and got ready for the wedding!
(I actually hardly took any pictures of this whole trip. I know it looks like a lot, but we were there for 2 weeks, so this is practically nothing!)

While We Were Out

While Neil and I were in Australia, Barrett got to have tons of fun staying with his grandparents.  He did so well and didn't even notice we were gone (probably).

The first week we were gone, he stayed at Papa and Grandma Johnson's house.  They were sweet enough to send a few pictures to us.

Eating some bananas.

Getting ready for bed.

Playing with this fun ball machine.

And laughing with Jessica.

He was at Pops and Lala's house the 2nd week (yes, we were gone for 2 whole weeks without him!  And yes, it was too long!)

He got to celebrate his first Halloween with some of his cousins.

 

The angriest Mario ever!

And it looks like there was some nice enough weather to play outside.

Thank you guys for taking such good care of Barrett and keeping him on his schedule :)  It made leaving him bearable to know that he was in such good hands!

Family Pictures

We recently had some family pictures done.  Everything went well, I was just a little disappointed in Texas' "autumn."  Since the 3 of us aren't together very much over the next month and a half, we really only had 2 options for picture taking; either take pictures in mid-October in Texas before Bear and I went to Utah and hope that some leaves change or take them when Neil comes back to Utah around Thanksgiving when all the earth is dead and wet and ugly.  We opted for mid-October.  I really wanted some fall leaves, but the pictures turned out fine even without pretty leaves so oh well...  Maybe next year!

The leaves did actually start to change, it just wasn't as amazing and dramatic as the autumns I'm used to.

This is my "behind the scenes" picture I took while the lady was taking Barrett's pictures.

Here's some of my favorites that she took...

Happy Halloween

Neil and I are missing Barrett's first Halloween since we're in Australia but I know he's having a blast with our family in Utah! 

Here's Bear in his bear costume from when I tried it on him before I left.

 

Airplane Luck

Barrett and I have had some of the best luck on our flights lately (minus that one bathroom incident).  On our last flight to Utah (which was October 17th, so that tells you how far behind I am on blogging!) we were on one of the smaller planes so it was pretty crowded but the flight attendant (my hero for the day) moved the guy next to me so that Bear and I could have both seats to ourselves!  That made a huge difference to us especially because this small plane didn't have a baby changing shelf in either bathroom (I swear that should be illegal) so I had to lay Bear down on his seat to change him and I wouldn't have been able to do that if there was a man sitting there!  Plus it was just so nice for Bear and I have to extra space for all our crap!

And he liked sitting in his own seat like a big boy!

Finger Painting

Before we left for Utah, I thought it would be fun to let Bear make a big mess and try doing some finger painting.

I put a poster board in front of him and just plopped some baby food out on the poster.  He definitely had a good time with it and I learned a lot too!  

I had planned to do this outside but when we went out there it was only in the 70's and it was breezy so it was too cold for Barrett to be out there naked.  I brought everything back inside and decided to just try it at the table.  The table stayed clean because I had the big poster over it, I just didn't plan for him to get food all over the chair and floor.  Once he started making huge messes, I hurried and grabbed some towels to put on his lap and on the floor to try to keep things a little cleaner but it was too late.  Oh well.  It's times like these when I'm so glad this isn't my house!

I know it looks pretty gross.  He had fun though and next time I'll know to be a little better prepared for big messes!