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we're home from our fabulous month in Australia; wonderful time with family as a family, tired, sad, excited for the months to come...

Here's Zach reunited with his precious car! Zach still talks about his holiday in Australia, referring to the people we saw and things we did (airplane, zoo etc).


more photos to follow.

autumn leaves

Tomorrow we leave Winter in England for a month of Summer in Oz!

See you soon Grandma, Grandpa, Aunty Seren, Aunty Rachel, Uncle Victor, David, Uncle Bens, Aunty Megan, Eowyn & Coco!

help me

Zach says the phrase "help me" a lot, in a lovely sing-song tone. It is very endearing and thus effective. However his requests are not always safe or possible - for example when he wants to sit inside his matchbox size car and drive it, or when he wants us to magically make the lights flash on his toy ambulance, or light the stove top for him to pretend cook on. The cute "help me"s could go on ad infinitum however many times we explain that something is not possible or safe. It is flattering that he has confidence that we could make these things happen!

copying

Zach wants to be doing the same stuff that we are doing, and he knows if we fob him off with a toy imitation rather than the real McCoy. He spent all morning on Saturday helping Daddy tidy up and prune the garden which he loved.

grating cheese

cooking

making rice

trying out Mummy's blusher

making tea

wearing Mummy's shoes

shaving with Daddy

Emptying

Zach loves getting things OUT of cupboards or drawers organising them carefully on the floor, leaving a little trail of destruction in his wake ... (Gretta i hope this doesn't put you off having us to stay for a month!! :)

Hampshire

Zach loves going to Uncle Matt & Aunty Anna's where he gets to ride on tractors, play the drums, feed rabbits, jump on the trampoline, look at the sheep, chase the cat and watch his big cousins do cool tricks!

Moose

Thank you Gran & Papa for the very lovely standing Moose puzzle! I really like it.

USA Part 2

Here we all are together at the reception following Nana's lovely Memorial Service.

Johanna's wonderful installation - people wrote memories of Nana on red pieces of paper and added them to this floating beauty.

The Donalds (Dennis, Cate, Robert and his fiance Jesse-May and Polly - Mum's sister)

Rudy and Zach playing in our hosts closet after the evening family dinner

A family trip out to Hingham where my Mum grew up

and the Talbots store was first started. Here it is:

Gramps and Nana's house in Cohasset where we spent many a summer until they sold it 20 years ago.

It was gorgeous to re-visit this special childhood place.

The local lovely beach

Johanna and Margot

Sam, Matt, Tri and I went for a very chilly and refreshing swim!

Dig dig digging!


Visiting Mum's childhood neighbours


Saying a very sad goodbye to Rudy early in the morning.

Waking up from a nap on the airplane

USA Part 1

We stayed our first two nights at L'Abri in Southborough, Mass, where Zach had a lovely time playing with friends Ellie and Abby,

and hanging out with Aunty Tri, Gran, Papa, Uncle Matt & Aunty Anna and our wonderful hosts Sue & Joe.

Relaxing in front of the fire with the cat.

We then stayed in Cambridge, Mass. The autumn leaves were vibrant & stunning!

Zach liked playing the piano

and especially hanging out with lovely cousin Rudy

dinner time

bath time

a trip in to Harvard Square

and a fry up with Daddy & Uncle John

Nana

Last week, Sam, Zach and I went to Boston for Nana's Memorial Service. We will really miss her - she was a fun, stylish, fiery, loyal, encouraging, energetic, colourful, gifted, interested and loving grandmother and a great friend. These photos are from summer 2007 which was our last visit with Nana.



Some nice obituaries: NYTimes, LATimes, Boston Globe