.Sydney in an instagram.

We are just finishing our school holidays here in Tassie, it has been action packed and actually flown by so quickly. A couple of months ago I thought I'd check out flights to Sydney for the holidays and see if there were any good specials going. Must have been my lucky day because I got some great deals and booked for the kids and I to spend a week with Aunty Carli.

I was a bit nervous to fly with three kids + a baby on my own but they were such troopers and made it really easy. Harvey discovered the in flight magazine on the way over and spent the whole trip ripping out the pages and scrunching them up!

I had nothing on the agenda for the trip, we were happy to just hang out and let the kids have a good play with their cousins. It was nice to get out of routine and not worry about the day to day happenings that come with running a home.

While we were away, Oscar celebrated his 8th birthday. Granny made him a very creative solar system (his favourite topic at the moment) cake that we all enjoyed at family dinner. Jaron wasn't going to come to Sydney with us, but ended up booking flights at the last minute to come for a few days because he didn't want to miss out on Oscar's birthday. He doesn't like it when we leave him - I couldn't think of anything better than a few days on my own at home without the kids!

 

On Oscar's birthday Carli had organised tickets for us to go and visit the International Navy Fleet review in the city. We had such a fun afternoon and evening together exploring the ships, sailing the harbour on a ferry and enjoying a yummy dinner and dessert together. I still can't believe Oscar is 8! We have his baptism to get ready for next week now.

While Jaron was with us, we snuck off to the temple together while Grandad and Granny looked after the kids. So refreshing and uplifting.

 

The weather was just perfect, we've been having constant rain, wind and cold at home and Sydney was the complete opposite with beautiful sunny days - even reaching 39 degrees on our last day! It was so nice to get a burst of heat that will hopefully see us through to the end of the yucky weather that we are having at home. It was hard for baby Harvey to sleep though - he only knows full-length suits and warm swaddling to get to sleep so was a ball of sweat most of the time!

 

The kids playing "hose limbo" with Carli which turned into a massive water fight and lots of wet, squealing children!

 

Mum and Dad have been on a cruise through the Pacific Islands and came home on our last day. They returned tanned and well rested, and bearing gifts for the grandchildren. Lil and Michaela spent the afternoon watching YouTube videos of hula dances and had a show ready for us that evening.

We managed to squeeze in a swim on our last day too, it was so hot and super windy and the kids didn't hesitate jumping into the water to cool off. I even squealed my way in (the water was cold!) and ducked under to cool off!! It's been way too long since I last went swimming.

 

Our flight home wasn't quite as smooth sailing as we had to get up at 4:30am to make it to the airport (yep, cheap flights usually mean dodgy times!). The kids were great considering they were woken in the middle of the night but didn't travel as happily. I didn't feel very happy about having to get up so early either so we were all grumpy together! Thanks for having us Aunty Carli and the gang - especially in the middle of a super busy time for you guys, we love you!