Perth Visit for the Birthday Boy, June 2011

It would seem that our Perth visits (to date) aren't without incident!! Last time, it was Mark having emergency gall bladder surgery smack in the middle of our holiday. This time, he was struck down with a gastro bug two days before we were due to fly... luckily, that sorted itself out just in time. But then we were delayed because if the Chilean ash cloud!!! It was a bit of a debarcle, watching the QANTAS website and Facebook page (each with conflicting info, of course). Hold time on the phone... well we got up to over 4 hours before giving up. Our 8.10am flight wasn't leaving on Wednesday morning and that was that! We went to bed and woke up to an SMS saying our flight was rescheduled to 7.25pm that night. Oki doki then! Not such a big delay in the end, and QANTAS came through with the goods, without us having to sit on hold to reschedule flights. Job well done, I thought - it would have been a logistical nightmare for QF staff I'm sure!

I'm pleased to report that from there, the trip was smooth sailing and without incident! Hurray! The time goes far too quickly though. Five days just isn't long enough; still, it's better than no time at all!

Nana and Pop were so happy to see their gorgeous little granddaughter again!

Despite a hiccup with our table not being ready on time and eating very VERY late, Mark's birthday dinner was a great night. Liv organised a cake... which was SOOOooo yummy - even at 11pm!!

Hannah loved spending time with her big sister :-)

I loved watching Hannah interacting with the other kids, now she's a little older. We caught up with Alison and her little girl Caitlin... Alison pointed out that we've been friends for 21 years now!! Here is Caitling reading to Hannah - so sweet!

We stayed with Sam & Ryan, and their boys were fantastic with Hannah! Particularly Jonah, who bonded with Hannah one day doing his "watermellon dance" (jigging around in front of her, holding a piece of watermellon above his head!) and making her laugh. So sweet! 

No photos unfortunately, but it was fantastic to catch up with Tracey - kiddie free! We went out on Sunday night, enjoyed a glass of wine, nice food and great conversation for a couple of hours without interruption!

My trip into Shenton Park with Hannah to see my old bosses and work colleagues will become a regular part of any trip back to Perth, I think! It's always so great to see them all and catch up, albeit briefly.

Special thanks to Sam and Ryan for having us to stay with them, and for Mark and Kaz for lending Mark their car so he could go and see his mates while I was off seeing mine! (It was also great to finally catch up with them properly and for Kaz to meet Hannah this time!).

Finally I'll wrap this up with some photos of Hannah on the plane, and a little brag at how well she travelled - both ways! Going over from Sydney to Perth at night, she slept in the bassinet straight after take-off and we got her up when it was time to land. Angel! Coming back to Sydney during the day, she had a 1.5 hour sleep and then had a feed and sat back in the bassinet to play, until it was time to land. So proud of her!