This is the closest we got to a family picture the other day... :)

Hello from Guam! We're still loving all of this family time which is why you're still not seeing a lot of posts. And we have both bad and good news. The bad news is that there won't be another blog update for probably a week and half. But the good news is that the next post will have a lot of great pictures of our trip to Australia!

We fly out for the land down under tomorrow evening. Luckily for us, it's only a four hour flight and there's no time zone change, so we won't have to deal with jetlag. (I've come to really appreciate that given my previous cross-world travel adventures with Caroline.) We'll get a night's sleep before heading out for an adventure on the great barrier reef. Get this... we're spending a day swimming the reef with Caroline, taking turns snorkeling, riding a glass bottom yacht and my favorite part -- a helicopter ride back to land! After years of my husband flying helicopters on nearly a daily basis, I finally get to experience riding in one! Granted, it's not a super cool Navy MH-60S Knighthawk, but I'll take it.

The next day we're going to "Breakfast with the Beasts" at the nearby Safari. Wondering what that is? Well, it's breakfast with a pride of very hungry lions. We'll be eating breakfast ourselves with the comfort of a wire fence between us and the lions. Carnivore party! After that, we'll explore the safari for a bit and then head over to Kuranda to check out the tropical rain forest, kangaroos and koalas, Aboriginal dancing and shops. Sounds like fun, but it's going to be a really busy day!

After one more night at the hotel, we'll wake up and fly to Sydney to meet with my awesome friend Kirsty, and her husband and two small girls. To say I'm excited to see them doesn't even begin to cover it. Kirsty is dear to me and I don't get to see her often, so this is a treat. Kirsty and her husband, Mark, are from Australia (well, Mark was born in New Zealand, but spent ample time in Australia and is a citizen there as well). I'm sure they'll know the ins and outs of Sydney and we'll have a blast with them. Oh, and the older of their two daughters is Caroline's age, so the girls will have some entertainment. The children are GORGEOUS and I look forward to some great pictures of the three of them together.

We'll be in Sydney for 6 days and 5 nights before we make the flight back to Guam. Is it sad that I consider an 8 to 9 hour flight a short one?

Anyway, we're really excited about this long-deserved family vacation and can't wait to share all of our experiences and memories with everyone back home.

No blog entry would be complete without some pictures, so let's get to those!

Caroline's really enjoying having a dad home to climb all over.




She's still the sweetest, kissiest baby ever.

Being silly and cuddling with me on the picnic blanket.

A little worn out?

Second wind!

Bentley and Caroline.

Being silly in her monkey pajamas.

Cuddling with her Dada.

Cheesing it up in her Uncle Matt's baseball cap. It's actually the squadron hat that the guys are allowed to wear with their flight suit.

This is one of my favorite smiles of Caroline's. It's the smile she gives me when she's doing something silly and it gives me the warm fuzzies every time I see it. It's also the smile she does that makes me see a glimpse of my dad (Jeff) everytime.

Loving her Aunt Kristina's sunglasses!

And due to a couple of requests from family members, here are some of the homecoming pictures that appeared in the slideshow from the other night. If anyone wants a bigger copy of a certain picture, just leave a comment or send me an email and I'll send it to you.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and a half and we'll post when we get back. And hopefully I'll spend all of time out and about in Australia instead of hospitalized like last time, haha. Fingers crossed!