The Great Outdoors, More Visitors, and Coffee

Sydney winter has been quite chilly but sunny nonetheless, so we have been spending our Saturdays in the great outdoors!

Garigal National Park with the Wisconsinites, John's boss and his kids...

And the Spit to Manly walk...

John's cousin, his wife and their kiddos live in Thailand at the moment..and made the trip to Australia for business. We loved having family--especially little kiddies!--around. We hardly ever get to spend time with children or elderly people since we don't have any family nearby...so it's exciting when it happens!

We then had ANOTHER visitor! How lucky are we! My friend from college and her husband were traveling thru on their honeymoon. We caught up for dinner and drinks. Go Blue Demons!

Who loves coffee? JOHN WELLS LOVES COFFEE. So we had to make it down to The Rocks for the Aroma Festival. Coffee for dayyyz

We met up with our friends Shadie and Saul who we met on our Barossa Valley wine tour in Adelaide. They are American and live in Sydney as well. Us Americans gotta stick together!

Speaking of America...we are headed there tomorrow!! See ya soon, Pacific Northwest!

Christmas in July (4th)

To celebrate July 4th being a cold and dark (ok kinda)  holiday in Australia, we packed up and headed to the Blue Mountains for a framily (friends who are family) Independence Day/Christmas in July getaway! 

We rented a big house and brought the dogs. Bomber and Rudy had a big time. 

We hung out, did a few sing-a-longs, hiked, tested our wine knowledge, lit sparklers, sang the national anthem, and made a big American feast. We are very lucky to have some Australian friends who make sure American holidays are a big deal over here! 

Um please note- do NOT replace American Pinterest ingredients with Australian ingredients you *think* will taste good. Nope no no no just don't. 

This may look pretty...

  

But it tasted like sour cardboard. 

Moving on...

We had a great time and are happy our Australians love celebrating America as much as we do!