Happy New Year, everyone! We have met our Australian Family in the airport and were instantly connected. The Conlans are as fun and happy as we imagined they would be. We could have stayed and visited with them for days but two short hours was all we had. They continued on to supper and Candy Cane Lane with Mom & Dad and then headed to the farm on New Year's Day. They are all settled in and have been building snow forts and snow angels already!
After saying good bye to the Conlans and Mom & Dad, we headed through security and had a yummy supper of ribs while watching the World Jr. game. Our flight to Vancouver was quick and uneventful. We all watched movies/TV. I don't think Khye even spoke once! Our layover in Vancouver was also short. We toured their airport and checked out the fish in the aquarium. Two other exchange families from Alberta were also on our flight. Stephanie will also live a few hours from Sydney and Joe and his family are heading south of Perth. We may have to head that way for a visit. They also brought 2 boys ages 13 and 10. We were late taking off and didn't leave Vancouver until 12:25am on January 1. The first third of our 15 hour flight was spent sleeping and after that, we ate, watched movies and colored. No reading, minimal fighting, minimal napping :( The boys were very amazing and rarely asked how much longer! As we neared Sydney, we all changed into shorts and started to get very excited! Customs was a breeze and we anxiously headed down the ramp looking for Mary's sisters Michaela and Marg. I guess it isn't hard to pick out the Jackson 6 and we were all happy to find each other! Our 9 suitcases and 8 carry ons were packed into their 2 cars and we were off on our first adventure!
Sydney is full of beautiful buildings and parks and I was thinking of you all along the way, Jodi! We stopped at the botanical gardens where they were still taking down gates, etc. from New Year's Eve. At the bottom of the hill was the harbour and across....the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge! I have to admit, I had a moment....relief, happiness, wonder. We actually made it! Walking around the harbour, we loved the gardens, the different birds and the fish & eels. We had a picnic in the garden and then headed to our hotel. We enjoyed a swim in the pool and a walk to the mall where we bought groceries and supper at.......McDs! We all crashed by 8:00pm and we were up just after 6:00 am this morning. We'll have to work on that! We're off to buy a vehicle today so have to get going. Thanks for all your wishes! Talk soon. Love JJ
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