Ok! Photos Are Up!

Well some of them..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/josiephotos/

These are the photos that Sven took.. some of them..

Blog updates from the trip will be updated tonight! I hope! Don't quote me on it!! ;-)

Just A Dancin' Fool

Our cousin Jacqui performed in a dance recital last Saturday. She learns tap and jazz at the Greenwich Dance Centre. The dances all looked great this year and Jacqui seemed to be having fun.


Normally she's a little self-conscious, and I'm always impressed when she can get up on stage in front of hundreds of people and be part of a show like this.

Okay! Okay! I Know Everyone's Waiting..

For photos.. and I'm working on it.. but almost 1000 photos is hard to edit and organise!

Hopefully by the weekend I should have it all done ;-)

In the meantime, here's a word from my dad..

george says: VIKA
george says: i need phone bingle on Mascot
vika says: yes
george says: please
vika says: i have no idea what you just said
george says: i need call to
vika says: oh ok
george says: shop BINGLEE
vika says:

So I reckon now.. Bing Lee change their name to Bingle.. I think it sounds catchier anyway ;-)

An excited cat

Zellie: They're home! And they brought me a new bed! Yay!

We're HOME!

Ok so its midnight, Tony is trying to get Josie to bed, and I am nackered!!

The flight was ghastly. Well it could have been worse.

We got 4 seats to ourselves which was great, but Josie was just a real handful for most of the flight. Neither of us got much sleep, but Josie slept between us for about 5 hours. Oh how I wished I could lie down! ;-)

Nevermind.. Mat picked us up from the airport, we got in about 9pm but didnt get through Security, Customs and Quarantine till almost 10pm! I'm happy to be home though.. but its still a big downer to have finished our wonderful holiday.

Now.. sleep, unpack, watch some TiVO!

In that order!

Day 13 - Hollywood, Jay, Silent Bob & Packing

What a sad day today. This is our last day with Harri before flying back to Oz. :-(

I am sooo tired though, have been packing for the last few hours, with Harri and Tony's great help.

So this morning we set off for Hollywood. We parked at the Kodak Theatre and walked up and down Hollywood Boulevard (I think?!) looking at the Stars on the ground. I got some great shots of various actors/singers' stars that we liked, and we also checked out Mann's Chinese Theatre and got some pics of the different hand and foot prints.

We had lunch at Johnny Rockets, but they didn't dance this time!

I got some magnets and a tshirt for Josie at a souveneer shop and then we went off to Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash.

Tony is a huge fan of Kevin Smith's so he had a ball looking around the shop. Its a comic/book shop so Tony was in his element. I took some photos of the place and got a couple of things.

Then we went for some ice cream, and then home.

Josie and I fell asleep on the way home we were so tired, but Josie woke up when we got there so Tony, Harri and Josie went off to the grocery store for some last minute stuff while I stayed back and packed.

We are all ready to go now (its just after midnight). Harri gave me a pill to help me relax, to see how I react to it now in case I want to use it on the plane to help me sleep. I am now a bit woozy!!

So this is the last update from the US and the next one will be from home! Am actually looking forward to getting home now, but not looking forward to the trip!!

The next update may not be for a few days.. I am going to be just exhausted! I just know it !!

Hooroo from the USA!

Day 12 - Photo Shoot and Huntington Beach

Oh boy we had a busy day today! There are just too many photos to show! Check out my flickr site! Have a look at the US Trip sets and also the Sven's Photos sets on the right.

The photoshoot was just incredible and Josie just thoroughly enjoyed herself.
Sven's photography skills are just awsome and I can't wait to get home so I can post some of the photos!

We started out with a green backdrop, a green dress and a red iceblock. Josie did so well and I swear she's gonna be a model some day! She did all the poses and cooperated so well. At first anyway! ;-)

The promise of nakedness and paint kept her in line!

Then she finished her ice block and we moved on to the watermelon. Sven took some amazing photos of her with the green backdrop, green dress and eating a big slice of watermelon. Just superb. And then when she got sick of the watermelon, she was given a pink iceblock.

After that lot of photos, Sven and Harri changed the backdrop to white and Tony and I got dressed up, and put Josie in a red tshirt and denim skirt and Sven took some amazing family shots.

And then at last the time had come for the painting shots. Josie got naked and Harri put some globs of red, blue, yellow and green paint on the white backdrop that she was standing on. She was quite tentitive at first and then really got into it.

The pictures were just amazing. I can't even describe it. She was head to toe in paint and making the most beautiful designs on the white paper with her feet and bum.

And then we got Wowo.

Wowo is her favourite toy. He is a little white (well white when he is clean!) dog that is sold in Coles, Kmart and Target and we have maybe 30 of them lying around the families.

Well Wowo went on a wild ride today. Josie went nuts painting him all different colours. We got some photos of Wowo and he is now drying in the garage. I will put him up in her room on display. And also the resulting painting she did with her feet, I am taking home to do something with. Probably get it framed at some stage.
So that was the photo shoot. When they were done Harri wrapped Josie in a towel and Tony ran upstairs with her and threw her in the shower.

After they got out we all walked down to Huntington Beach to go for a walk along the shoreline. We took the radio flyer again for Josie to ride down in.

When we got down to the water, Josie just went nuts! She really didnt like the waves and the water at the beach in Hawaii. She was scared of the waves.

When we got to the beach today, she was more excited about building sandcastles that the water, but then we didnt stop for sandcastles and went straight to the water.

It was absoutely FREEZING at first! BRR! But then we got used to it and Josie got used to it too after a short time in daddy's arms.

And then it was just free for all! Josie absolutely went NUTS, running into the water, getting absolutely saturated with water.

I didnt expect this so she was in a skirt and tshirt. A white tshirt that was brown when we got home!

She ran almost the entire walk from one side of the beach to the other! I think it took about an hour or more to do the walk and she was running the whole way, screaming at the top of her lungs, jumping in and out of the water, rolling around in the sand (mummy was just trying to restrain her shuddering every few minutes!).

We got some fantastic pictures of her absolutely drenched! In actual fact, both Tony and I got completely drenched as well!

On the way home, because we were just not prepared, we had to wrap her in a blanket so she didnt freeze. Poor thing was like a mummy!

So we got home and all three of us jumped into the shower together. It was SO good to wash all the sand off!! ;-)

Then Allison came over and we had a fabulous Taco dinner and then Sven showed us the photos from the photoshoot. Amazing. Utterly amazing!!

So thats it for today. We have decided not to do Universal Studios tomorrow. There is really nothing much for Josie there and we would rather save the money. So its off to Hollywood and Santa Monica tomorrow! And then home to pack!! ;-( Waaa!!

~Dun Wanna Go!!~

Day 11 - Laguna Beach and The Mustang!

I felt like a real Californian Beach Babe today!

Firstly we all slept in till about 9am this morning! I got up at 9am and had a shower and let Tony and Josie sleep on, and when I got out, Tony was still asleep, but Josie was already downstairs playing with Harri and Sven!

I got Tony up and we all got ready and then I got a ride with Sven in his red Mustang convertable while Harri, Tony and Josie drove in Harri's Jeep.

It was awsome! I have never been in a convertable before and I just loved it! Tony would have been completely freaking out with Sven's accelaration at times, but I just loved it! It was like being on a rollercoaster but not having to actually BE in a rollercoaster!

So we went down to Laguna Beach (with the wind blowing through my hair!) and spent some time at the playground there while Josie had a ball and Sven lay down and had a sleep on the grass (poor thing has a stomach bug). Then Sven went home and Harri, Tony, Josie and I went to a Seal and Sea Lion Rehabilitation centre. They had 3 Sea Lions, a bunch of Harbour Seals and some Elephant Seals and pups. It was awsome watching them interact and listening to one of the ladies explain how the place was established in the 70's and how they never interact with the animals so as not to establish any kind of bond or dependency on either the humans or the animals part. It was great.

After the Seal thing we went to a party for a friend of Harri's. Their son was turning one and we were all invited to celebrate it with them, which I thought was lovely for someone to invite people they don't even know to their son's 1st birthday!

On the way we had the following conversation:

Josie: I like school, but I don't like parties.
Tony: Why?
Josie: Cause I'm scared. They're scary!
Tony: Why are they scary??
Josie: Well... there might be a monster there..

Now this family lives in the most amazing house. It was designed and built by them and is just astounding, built on a cliffside and has the most amazing views. Josie had a wonderful time playing with the kids and running around the place.. until she ran smack into one of the floor to ceiling windows. Twice. Just a testament to how clean the window was, but poor Josie was so embarassed! We had a lovely chocolate cake, which Josie was first in line for, and some great crushed ice and water from their funky fridge!

After that we headed home to change for dinner.

We had dinner at NoKaOi which is a Hawaiian restaurant where Harri and Sven had their wedding reception. The food was fabulous, Tony and I had Baby Back Ribs and I have to say that they were heaps better than Tony Roma's!

Joining us at NoKaOi was Allison and Fiona (an aussie friend of theirs) and we had a lovely time chatting over dinner (poor Sven had coke and pretzels!).

And then because Sven wanted to get some fresh air, and Harri wanted to accompany Sven, I got to drive her Jeep home. That was an awsome experience in itself. That car GOES!

So tomorrow is Photo Shoot day. Sven is gonna take some photos of us, he is a wonderful photographer and we are so lucky to have him do this for us! Check out his stuff at his homepage. And please pray that a. he is well enough tomorrow, and b. Josie cooperates!

Thats it for now!

~Later Dudes~

Day 10 - Seaworld

Shaaaaa...MU!

We saw Shamu last but he was absolutely fantastic!

We started out nice and early this morning, it was a 2 hour drive to San Diego to Seaworld. I almost fell asleep on the way there.

One of the first things we did there was meet the dolphins. They had this large pool where we all stood around the sides and the dolphins came right up to you for pats on the head. You could lean right in and rub their noses, it was awsome! Josie was a bit scared to actually pat them on the head, but she did get very close! Tony and I had some pats and it was just amazing!

The first show we got to see, after having some lunch, was the Dolphin Show, which Josie absolutely loved. The jumps and heights they got to were just amazing. There was a gag thing that we saw last time where they pick a family out of the crowd and the mother does a thing with the dolphins and everyone claps, and then the mum and dad watch while the little kid does a thing with the dolphins and while everyone is watching the kid, the mum falls in and gets saved by the dolphins and everyone applauds and it turns out the mother is one of the trainers. It was funny the first time we saw it, a bit less amazing the second time ;-)

We then headed over to the Pets Stadium for the Pets Rule show and on the way we ducked into Shamu's Happy Harbour Playground where Josie had a wonderful time on the equipment. The playground itself was just amazing, catering to kids of all ages, down to little crawlers with a supervised area.

Also on the way to the Pets Rule show we stopped in to see the huge Clydesdale Horses. Josie just loves horses and she was amazed by their size.

Just before finally arriving at the Pets Rule show we made a brief detour to the Journey to Atlantis ride where Harri was brave enough to go on the ride by herself. Tony and I are really not into rides.. we don't like the acceleration thing (you might remember from the Disneyland Update), but we did take photos and applaud Harri when she came down the huge waterfall drop.

Finally we got to the Pets Rule show. It was utterly amazing, and I htink one of my favourite parts of Seaworld. They had the most amazing trained dogs and cats and pigs and even pigeons! The dogs did everything from clean the house in preparation for a date, to catching a boat across a pool. The cats ran up a huge pole and across tightropes to run into small doors, and they all just ran from one place to another, absolutely coordinating with eachother.

They had things like 3 black cats running into a large pretend pot of cream and then coming out completely white, or 3 black cats and a white cat running into a door and then 4 black and white cats running out of the same door, as if the 3 black cats blended with the white cat. It was all very funny. Especially when a large daschund ran into this big hotdog and three daschund pups ran out.

After that it was time for the Clyde and Seamore's Risky Rescue show at the Sea Lion and Otter Stadium. On the way we saw some sharks and Manatees but they we in dark rooms so picture taking there was difficult.

Clyde and Seamore's Risky Rescue show was as awsome as the last time we saw it. The Sea Lions were amazing, the Otters were very cute, and the Walrus was just magnificent.

And then it was time for Shaaaaa.....MU!

The show was just awsome. Josie had wanted to sit in the soak zone, where you get wet, but it was 530pm by this time and getting a bit too cold so we sat the the topmost section of the soak zone and didn't get wet, much to her chagrin.

The killer whales were just amazing. I just cannot put into words how magnificent they are, and how intelligent! Its one thing to see dolphins doing these things, but to see a huge whale jump and turn in the air is a sight to behold.

By the time the Shamu show finished the park was closing so I quickly got a couple of magnets and a tshirt for Josie and we were off.






I suggested to Harri, as we were leaving, that we should grab some dinner asap because Josie would fall asleep soon, but Josie and I were so exhausted that we both fell asleep about 3 minutes into the 2 hour drive home and didnt wake up at all. I was just so knocked out that I remember Harri parking the car back at home, bolting inside to go to the loo, and Tony coming around to wake me up. He kept poking me in the arm and the head and the cheek, and I remember thinking "I need to wake up", but I just could not make myself wake up, or open my eyes! I felt absolutely drugged and it took probably a full 5 minutes before I could move. Most bizarre.

Now on a completely different note, we got home to find Sven with a very funny story! Should anyone receive an email with an mpg of someone driving off with a petrol bowser sticking out of their little red Mazda MX5, that would be Sven. He had stopped into a petrol station to get some fuel, and because in the USA they are able to just lock the bowser into place while fueling, well, he kinda forgot about it and drove off. You hear about it happening, but personally, I have never known anyone who actually did it! Especially someone who works in the automotive industry, *designing cars*.

~Later Dudes~

Day 9 - Disneyland - Oh The Exhaustion!!

You really do need at least a week in Disneyland!

Thanks to Allison and her friend Donna we scored free tickets to Disneyland today! Thats a saving of a whopping $79 per person! And it included California Adventure!

We had to get there at 1pm to meet up with the guy who works there who got us in. And we left at about 9:30pm after having dinner. Josie was knackered and fell asleep in the car.

California Adventure
So first off we went into California Adventure park and specifically the California Soaring glider simulation ride which takes you all over California on a sight-seeing glide. It is really well made with the rows of seats hanging from an armature rather than being bolted to a moveable platform like similar things we have at SeaWorld on the Gold Coast etc so it was really smooth in it's movements.

Unfortunately both Josie and Tony experience fast- acceleration- giddiness which scares the poo out of them.



We thought Josie would quite enjoy it actually as she hasn't been frightened or experienced the problem for over a year and has gone on increasingly fast, spinning type rides without any issues. But this ride is designed for maximum realism and sensation and depicts a flight over many parts of California from a sometimes not insubstantial height with frequent accelerations (simulated) to breakneck speeds. So it managed to push her buttons. And it took quite a while to convince her to close her eyes when she felt bad. Tony was closing his eyes frequently from the moment the seats rose into position, before the movie even started!

In the end though he couldn't watch parts of it, Tony actually really enjoyed the ride and wishes he could tolerate the whole experience. He had to admit that Allison made a good call tricking him onto it (well more just keeping him in the dark until it was too late) as it was something he definitely would have simply refused to do if he had not found out exactly what it was right before they entered the ride.
Josie on the other hand was a very unhappy camper for another hour or so. And taking her to the A Bugs World thing right afterward turned out to not help so much as it was 3D and like all 3D movies they have to have things shoot out at you to show off the 3Dness and the audio was REALLLLY loud. So while that didnt freak her out more than the ride it did keep her the freak that she already had going on. Luckily we were there for about 9 and a half hours so the vast majority of the time she was having a ball. And it's a shame because the Bugs World thing was actually quite good. Just bad timing.

After a rather more sedate ride on the Heimlich (the caterpiller from A Bug's Life) train ride she had calmed down considerably (though she was still determined to find fault with everything at that point so agreed that the ride had been ok but despite demanding Daddy's presence when entering the train then proceeded to lament the absence of Mamma when leaving it.

Next we went and walked through an area which showed off some American farming stuff and I swear they had cow poo smell going on the approach but when we go to the display area the cows were fake!!! In this area we went through tours of how both Tortillas and Sour Dough are made.

The Tortilla tour was very informative but the Sour Dough one had Rosie O'Donnell and another commedian doing a schtick presentation to explain the process and it was heavy on the schtick and extremely light on the explanation. Absolutely no idea how Sour Dough is made or why it is any different from other bread. Something about a patented strain of yeast bacteria.

But the tours made us hungry (man! Corn Tortillas taste gross on their own!) so we then decided to stop for lunch and let Josie continue to decompress from the false start. She was actually really interested in the Sour Dough baking machinery so she was well on her way to enjoying the rest of the day already.

After lunch we hit the Muppet Show 3D experience for out last thing at California Adventure before heading over to Disneyland!!! The muppet thing was really good for Tony as he was an avid fan as a child and we got him the DVDs for his Birthday one year. Josie is starting to like them too but they were for him originally. It was again quite loud and things jumped out at you so Josie was not completely taken with it but she had settled down considerably by this stage so she seemed to enjoy most of it.

Disney Land
First stop in the wonderful world of Disneyland was a picture in front of the Mickey Mouse floral clock and then on into the park. Inside we immediately hit a shop where we bought Mickey Mouse ear hats for Josie, Rachel and Miriam. They shall hence forth be known as The Three Mouseketeers.

Well once we get back home and give them to them that is. While Allison and I were in the shop Harri, Tony and Josie had lined up to get a pitcure with Mickey but it turns out Josie was still not happy enough to have a picture taken with him and refused to exit her pram that Hari had precured for us. Even the reverse psychology failed us as Tony's leaving Harri behind in line failed to spur Josie to leap from the pram to rejoin the line. So Harri got her photo taken with Mickey instead!

Hat's secured we went onto the Walt and Mickey statue and took photos in front of them and each little statuette they had of other characters around that little area. While Tony and Josie and I were about this Harri and Allison headed off to the Space Mountain rollercoaster and we proceeded through to Sleeping Beauty's fabulous, HUGE, PINK!!! castle. Inside we found the promised Merry-go-round that we had been instrumental in bringing Josie out of her funk. She immediately started to jump up and down and shout "horsey!! horsey!! mewwy-go-wound!" at the top of her lungs and was her normal self again. Tony took her on while I took pictures and I should mention at this point that all these rides and experiences we had been on so far had had no more than a 5 minute wait to enter! At Disneyland!!!! The number of people there today was just fantastic! Not deserted but not packed to the gills either. Cos really a funpark that is deserted is an interesting experience (we've been to Australia's WonderLand when it was well and truely on the way to the scrap heap) but not what you want for your first time at freaking DISNEYLAND! We didnt feel the amount of people that were in there with us until closing time when everyone was packed onto Main Street all heading in the same direction. Even then it wasnt what it would be on a busy day but it did show you how many people you can pack in there without it looking very full.

Anyway, the merry-go-round went well and then after an abortive attempt at the Dumbo ride (one of the ones that you sit in little containers - in this case in the shape of dumbo - on the end of an armature and they start to go round and round and also up and down) which once it started up and Josie saw how fast it went (not one of the sedate versions this one) was quickly turned down. She was definitely not up for any more fast-paced action today thank you very much. I was still quite proud of her because on the way into the line for it she was saying she was scared but she wanted to go on anyway. So at least she had the gumption to face her fears when it was anybody's guess whether the ride would actually be scary or not. And if she knows she's not going to like it then why go on it. I say she did well to face her fear and made a good decision in the end to boot.

Instead we took some pictures in a peter pan sky sled, a tea cup and found the spinning tea-cup ride which Josie did go on with Tony and had a ball (she always loves that one) and came out absolutely back to her old self and excitedly yelling for Mummy and telling me all about how she went on the "spinning tea-cup wide!". Of course she proceeded to act very silly and increasingly looney for the rest of the day. Wack is a mild description of our beloved daughter when she is in high spirits.

By this time Harri and Allison rejoined us (Josie really must have been feeling better after her fun ride on the teacups because she immediately abandoned Daddy - her usual refuge when she is 'out of sorts' and attached herself to "Auntie Hawi".
Im so happy with the way Josie has absolutely bonded with her Auntie Harri on this trip and simply loves to be with her. And Sven is turning out to be a big hit too. Both Harri and Sven are very young at heart types who get the most out of life and Josie responds to that. And they are both exceptionally good with kids - based on their interaction with Josie at least.) and we headed off to find the ToonTown area and this is where we spent the rest of the day in the park itself (about 2 - 3 hours).

Josie really loved everything in this area and completely sparked up and we thought why not just let her go on whatever she chooses in that area rather than rush around trying to see little bits of the other sections and not really have time to enjoy them. So we turned her loose and she just went for it.

She climbed all over the ToonTown Trolley (which was an excellent find because we had promised her we would go ont he Waikiki Trolley and we never got the time to do it), went through Minnie and Mickeys houses and at the end of the Mickey house tour we found Mickey waiting to take photos with us! And Josie agreed to pose with mummy and daddy for photos with Mickey. She even kissed his nose. And I have to say, the guy in the Mickey constume was really very good at expressing that happy, positive Mickey vibe with just physical movement. He made her completely relax and giggle and enjoy her time with Mickey. Although she still refused to leave the safety of Daddy's arms for a one-on-one with him.

After the photos she returned to the main section of ToonTown, played on some kiddie cars and went into Goofeys Backyard for some playground action. Where she (and mum and dad) found Allison and Harri already sitting on a bench like two old grannies watching there grandkids play.

Josie had a ball playing on the slide and climbing through the watermellon tube and the boxes and drinking water from the sprinkler out of the air (which Daddy was not thrilled about but managed to restrain himself from interfering with - Go Daddy! Progress!) until it was time for the park to close.

We got halfway out of the joint when we remembered we had to take family pics on the steps where Kye's family always take family pictures every time they go to Disneyland. I think they have pics from their honeymoon up to having both grown up kids in them. It is a really wonderful tradition and Kye asked us to continue it on our visit and we were happy to oblige. I only hope there will be occasion to add to the first one at some point in the not too distant future. And with more kids too!

After a brief stop for magnets and a hoody for Tony and shirt for Mat we exited the park and had a lovely dinner in a restaurant attached to the park.

All in all Josie behaved beautifully all day. Even when she was out of sorts she was not overly cranky or willfull or naughty. She was a real champ today and overcame a good scare to have a great time. My only one regret is that you really cant do Disneyland in one day. It takes at least 5 I reckon! Hopefully we'll get the chance to finish what we started.

~Later Dudes~