Because Weekends Were Made For Fun

**Any of you very few readers who had the distinct pleasure of roller skating at Hot Wheels in Miami in the mid-80s catch the song reference in the title??**

By Friday of last week, three out of five of us were in a downward spiral.  As you recently read, Jackson was solid.  Kenyon rocked his first week of school and was doing great.  Sam was okay but even his wake-up-and-stretch-and-meditate routine that had armed him with Zen grooviness the first part of the week was starting to wane.  Alex was actively despising school and everything related to it, and between absorbing Alex's stress and the rainy weather, to say I was on edge would be very kind.

The universe smiled upon us in the form of sunshine Saturday morning, and we eagerly packed up a lunch, gathered our beach gear and ran out the door.  The stress of the preceding week was left in the wake as we practically skipped towards the beach.

We all were reborn with a renewed giddiness, and had a lovely time walking to City Beach.  The water in the harbour was smooth as glass, and we could see straight to the bottom.  We paused and pointed out different types of fish, and Jackson spotted a jellyfish lazily making its way through the water.

As Alex and I jumped waves, he was gleefully exclaiming things like "I feel like tip-tapping!" and "I'm so so happy right now!".  I smiled and laughed, all the while silently hoping he could bottle up this joy and enthusiasm to help get him through this next school week.

On Sunday, we woke up bright and early to catch the train to Sydney, although trackwork on our line meant we ended up on the bus this time.  Sydney and surrounding areas have Family Funday Sunday, which means that for a mere $2.50 per person, there is unlimited travel on trains, buses, and ferries in the greater Sydney area.  A bargain in Sydney?  It looks like this is the only one, so we're going to take advantage of it.  I wanted to do something special to celebrate surviving the first week of school, so I bought tickets to the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum.  Alex was chosen to be assigned to a house by the Sorting Hat; to his delight, he is a Gryffindor.  No pictures were allowed, but the exhibition was an amazing display of Harry Potter film artifacts and the kids were enthralled by the entire thing.  In fact, they loved the whole museum and were exclaiming that it was the coolest museum they had ever been to, even though much of it was under renovation construction.

We headed to Sydney's small Chinatown area for lunch and gorged ourselves on absolutely delicious dim sum.  Dim sum is such a fun culinary adventure, and everyone loved it.

these sesame prawns were my favorite, although Kenyon enjoyed them as well

Alex loved the jasmine tea (cha), and specifically asked me to take a picture of him and his cha.

Jackson made friends with the man selling silhouettes for $2 and got one for free (although we tipped him $1).  While it doesn't necessarily look like Jackson, it was pretty amazing to watch him cut out a silhouette so swiftly.

With full bellies, we headed to the Darling Quarter, where a massive playground with water features was beyond the kids' wildest imaginations.

Unfortunately, it was also beyond 563,295 other kids' wildest imaginations--and they were all at the playground as well.  The simple math of 2 parents + 3 children + massive crowds + playground equipment=a casual father but a stressed-out mother; the risk of losing a child was scientifically calculated (by me) at 1 in 3.

the older boys hard at work at the water scoop...

...while Kenyon chillaxed in the bowl.

We managed the chaos until they had sufficient time to cool off and then called it quits, using Clever Parenting Trick #112--the vague promise of returning 'next time' so they can explore the rest of the park.  To avoid the crowd factor, I'll have to make sure 'next time' is either during a severe hailstorm or at 2am, because it was if we had inadvertently used the Floo Network and found ourselves at Disney World.

Now ready to relax, we looked forward to a ferry ride for a little tour of the Sydney Harbour.  On the walk over, we spotted this...

Words and my pictures don't do the Sydney Harbour justice--it's truly gorgeous, and we all loved every minute of the ferry ride.

I made a mental note to begin buying lottery tickets when I saw some of these estates with their private docks.

the entrance to Luna Park, Sydney's iconic amusement park

The Sydney Opera House is so fantastic.

A man playing the didgeridoo set to some background trance music occupied us during the wait for the bus home...

...and we all felt just like Kenyon did.

An epic weekend was had by all, and here's hoping it will carry us through the week until the next one.  Looks like it's working so far--Alex met his goal of not complaining on the walk to school, and even made a friend!

Wordless Wednesday--Beach Snapshots Through the Eyes of Instagram

The BEACH!!

We've scaled back the excitement over the past couple of days; traveling caught up with the kids and it was showing with the way they were treating each other.  Yesterday was taken up by a disastrous grocery shopping trip by bus (who takes the bus to do a large shopping trip?  We clearly weren't thinking by expecting so much out of the boys, but luckily three-hour naps in the afternoon set things on a more positive note).

I'll write more another time about grocery shopping with new brands and foods--today, though, was all about the beach!  Even though we both adore Denver, Sam and I both grew up on opposite coasts and are water lovers at heart more so than skiers.  There are two beaches in brief walking distance from our condo; as we headed out we ran into Craig, half of the awesome couple that welcomed us at their New Year's Eve party--he told us which beach to go to and walked us there, even though it was out of his way.  So nice.  

ummmmm....yes, please!!

Armed with beach umbrella, picnic lunch, towels, sunscreen and brand new boogie boards, we excitedly made our way across the soft sands of the beach and set up shop for the day.

The next hour was spent doing a whole lot of this...

Surf lifesaving in Australia is serious business; there are flags on the beach indicating permitted areas for  swimming depending on the currents; there are a number of different riptides going at any given time, and the lifeguards can spot them from the sand.

With the lighthouse and the surf, this area reminds Sam of his favorite hometown beach, Its Beach in Santa Cruz.  Miami's placid beaches are nothing like this; I enjoyed being in the water but instead of boogie boarding, my activity was Keep My Bikini Bottoms On.  This surf is not meant for two-piece bathing suits; every wave meant holding on and frantic adjusting.  My mental image of Sam searching the shore for bikini bottoms as I wait semi-discreetly out in the ocean was not far-fetched, but luckily (for all present today), it did not come to pass.  I look forward to another beach trip with more athletic attire so I can try some body surfing and boogie boarding.

I spent much of the rest of the day doing some variation of this...

...relaxing and watching as the boys continue to develop a love and appreciation for the ocean and the beach.

wearing his beloved necklace his friend Finley gave him

I like him.

In another week, the difference in skin tone between Sam and I will qualify us as an interracial couple.  He keeps getting more and more brown, while I vacillate between red and white.  Jackson took this picture of us, after making me wear his other most beloved possession, a Quiksilver hat I gave him for Christmas.  He said he was going to sleep in it tonight.

This older couple looked so fabulous, with her in her Baywatch swimsuit and him with his boogie board.  We also saw a man well into his seventies stride out in the water with a back that looked as if it was leather; he had clearly perfected his body surfing technique over many decades and expertly rode the large waves.

A nice family next to us saw me taking billions of pictures and offered to take one of us as a family.  There went my plan to blend in and not act all touristy.

I'm pretty damn sure we're going to be happy here for the year.  If only we could transport everyone else we love from back home out this way, then it would really be epic.