Christmas in Bonnies

We forgot how many pictures we took of Christmas day at Bonnies with the clan and MAN WAS IT A GOOD DAY. Make as many Aussie references you want with "A dingo ate my baby" and "This is a knife" but you really haven't seen anything until you watch the movie The Castle or meet my parents in law in their backyard at Bonny Hills (slash Bonny Doon) a beachy country town 20 minutes away from Port Macquarie...It reminds me of 70's Mainland America when life must have been simple, somewhat pure and original. People seem so jaded these days whether it's global warming or all the media that surrounds our everyday life making life just that much more complicated than it is...In this special backyard at Bonny Hills 5 minutes walk to the beach, it felt as if you could really block out the entire world, and that somehow you would still be standing if the earth collapsed. I loved every minute of being there and watching my son play all day and go to sleep at 7pm, so tired from playing solely with sticks and dirt. Christmas with the family here was heartfelt, cozy, simple yet so so pleasant. Phe had lots of gifts to open but the real presents that brought him the most joy were his new friends Michael and little Emma. He pretty much confessed his love to Emma the first day he met her and would not shut up "Ehhhh----Maaaaaaa Ehhh--maaaah" all day long. Maybe he'll ask her to his Junior Prom who knows, but it was pretty darrrrn cute watching them play together.

The Billabong--Australia.

I haven't blogged in about 2 months I know I suck and I really have no excuse now that I am a full time mother and all. We recently came back from a month long trip from Australia where my husband is from and visited his home town and contemplated not coming back to Hawaii. First of all, I love Australia. It's a beautiful country and the people are just....RAD. Everyone is down for a drink after 3 p.m, you get paid triple the amount on sundays, they have socialized medicine, they also give you 10 grand or something when you have a baby (look it up) and a place where religion doesn't play a big part in the community. Basically, it's like the entire country is left wing so you're not really offending anyone. I also would like to mention that they cook pumpkin there in the most spectacular and delicious ways.

We will definitely be moving back there sometime in a year or 2 and this trip back really proved that my little son is a full blown Aussie. He ate vegemite, avocados and mangoes off the tree meanwhile chasing kangaroos and throwing rocks like bush tucker man in his red budgee smugglers (Australian for speedos). His grandpa is like a cross between Crocodile Dundee and Robert Deniro and seeing them two together made me not ever want to separate them...I think children have a 6th sense and they can distinguish different energies...The last time Phe met his Aussie fam, he was 4 months and merely rested in peoples arms, but even after 7 months later, it was like he could tell these were his family from his beautiful nurturing aunties and their boyfriends to his funny nana that cooked him all of his yummy meals and veggies straight from her garden to his grandpa who is a legendary character to sugarmama who he was convinced was one of the wiggles. He met some new faces this time including his 80 year old great grandma who he dubbed "GiGi!!." It took him a glance and he wouldn't even hesitate to go to them..He was at home with them.

It's always such a pivotal and beautiful part of life when a new baby is born and after a year it's certainly been the most life changing experience...But seeing the impact that Phe has made into every one's life was just something all on its own. Even his other great grandmother who was never a crowd pleaser was just smitten and I was convinced she honestly fell in love all over again with life. I know I am so lucky to have my son surrounded with so much love.

Here are some few winners from our day at The Billabong near Port Macquarie, NSW , Australia where Phe's eyes had opened up to a whole new world. It's a fun little wildlife park and I thought it was the most appropriate way to begin my sequence of Australia trip blog posts... Enjoy, and if you've never been go to Australia..they got things right over there.