In the last week of June Chris and Grace left for Australia.

Airport fun: Stuffed animals, and a visit from cousin Lily and her parents at LAX.

Chris and Grace spent the first week with Grandma and Grandpa. Grace took the through-the-window shot of their living room, but spent most of her time playing beauty shop with Grandma.

I arrived a week later, and we were invited to house sit for our friends Pip and Andrew for two weeks. Fronting on to Middle Harbour, accessible by an inclinator, with spectacular architecture, scenery, and bird-life, we were ruined for any other house in Sydney!

   
From their garden we could scramble down to the tide pools and beaches below. We walked all the way to Balmoral beach several times.

 
Sydney's main rock is sandstone, and the water makes beautiful shapes in it.

 
We spent a lovely evening with John and Helen. Amazing coconut prawns!

 
And a couple of beachy play dates with cousin Kasumi.

  
The house was dangerously close to the fantastic Bather's Pavilion at Balmoral. We breakfasted there with Peter, then took my father there for his birthday.

 
One afternoon we went for a bush walk from Clontarf to Dobroyd Head with Phil, Genevieve and the twins.

After two weeks by the harbour and another back with Max and Lill, we finally moved into our Sydney home on July 29th. Grace had been going to Neutral Bay Primary for a week in a borrowed uniform when we moved in, but by the middle of the next week she was proudly sporting her own "uni". Shown are the front door and the backyard/family room of our house.

 
In the garden there is an orange tree and a lemon tree, with some fruit still hanging on. Grace enjoys making orange juice whenever anyone looks like they might need a glass.

Our friend Anjel (who babysat for Grace in Seattle) arrived for a visit just four days after we moved in. It's great to have her here and to visit the tourist sites like Centrepoint Tower (above) with her.

A visit to the sandstone main quadrangle of my alma mater, Sydney University.