I’m writing this blog on our 6 hour flight to San Francisco! It’s been another early start to the day in order to fly from one side of America to the other to see out our final week. We are tired and starting to miss some of the comforts of home, but the kids are super excited because it’s only a matter of days now and we will be playing in the snow…that’s all Mia has been asking for since we left Disneyland!!! We started this week with a road trip to Las Vegas! I always find this trip an easy and fun one to do – especially once we are out of the city of LA and its billion of freeways that intertwine with one another. Now I can easily say this as I’m never the driver and am so grateful that my husband always braves it for us! It means one less flight and we get to see some of the outback of America! Once you hit highway 15, it’s all the way to Vegas baby!!! On the way to Vegas, in the middle of no where are little townships that exist with nothing but dry barren land around them. We stopped at one town for lunch that had a huge outlet centre and a variety of restaurants to eat at. Lunch was lovely and so was my purchases at the Guess outlet store…this was not planned but such a great find lol! I was supposed to be waiting to shop in Vegas itself!! Due to our little expedition, we arrived at Vegas in dark, but oh what a sight. You literally drive for miles and then in the middle of the desert is big bright lights and a city that never sleeps! It’s a great place to visit and so many things to do other than drinking and gambling, but we never stay long enough to check everything out! But we always stay long enough to shop like there’s no tomorrow, ride that massive roller coaster and see the big and bold sites downs the Vegas strip! It was short and sweet but we had fun!

Our next stop for the duration of the week would be New York, one of my favourite places in the world but of course not without drama!!! Our flight for New York was at 7am which meant we had to be up extremely early to be at the airport. We were up and out and at the airport on time. We checked in and got to security where everything went from bad to worse…. When we went to check in, we were going to be charged $25 per bag we were checking on…$160 later!!!! This was a surprise to us as we never paid any of these fees on our last trip and thought this was included in what we had originally paid (will be following this up with our travel agent on our return)! We were advised that we could take some of our check on bags on a carry on to save some of the cost, so we did…but I forgot my toiletry bag was in one of them! Of course I went through security and too many liquids later, they were going to make me throw out half my toiletries and the kids water bottles. I was going to until the lady said I could check my bag in. I asked if I had time and she said yes! What seemed like was going to be an easy task turned into a nightmare! I tried and was knocked back as there was no time!!! Which then I had to throw out my stuff anyway to get back through security!!! I finally made it through security to find myself waiting for a monorail to take me to the section I had to go to…why do people not tell you these things when you are checking in!!!!!!! I kept telling myself you’ll be right you won’t miss this flight, how could you miss this flight! As soon as the monorail stopped I ran with three bags in toe as fast as I could to our gate number which was deserted. There was no one around other than a lady who I asked so desperately “please tell me I can get on that plane!!” Rudely she shook her head and said “no!” It was 6.55am the plane wasn’t due to leave until 7am and it continued to sit there for the next 15 minutes until it took off. As much as I was pleading with the staff that I had checked in ages ago and was told I had time to check one of my bags in and that I was travelling with my family – no one cared! All I was told is that the doors are shut and you can catch the next flight out to New York at 11.45….5 hours later!!!! I was numb. I was upset, angry, mad. Mad at myself as I felt like I brought this on myself. When I watched my family fly away without me, my babies gone, it felt like I was never going to see anyone again. My heart was ripped right out of my chest for a moment. I sat and didn’t speak to a soul until I pulled myself together and kept telling myself it will be ok. I just had to get through this next 10 hours and I would be back enjoying our holiday!! That I did and after being separated from my family for 10 hours, we were reunited and so so happy again!! All was good in my world. We were in New York and about to embark on the awesome adventures this city has to offer and that we did! In the five night stay that we had there, we fitted in almost everything we wanted to. We watched the New York Knicks play the Dallas Mavericks in a NBA match. This has always been Kane’s dream and it was great to see him with his family for full this. We visited ground zero and saw for the first time the memorial garden that has been created in remembrance of the terrible tragedy that took so many innocent lives. This is always an emotional experience – I can’t even imagine what the city went through on that day. We saw all the favourite hotspots…Time Square, Broadway, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Centre, State Library, Macey’s, 5th Avenue and all the exquisite window displays and I couldn’t leave without a little purchase from Tiffany and Co:) My sister and I did the Sex and the City tour…this was fantastic!!! We got to see so many of the major spots that were used to film the show and we got a photo outside Carrie’s apartment building! My favourite show was being lived out – LovEd it!!! But our highlight for the week, which we always love, is our time at Central Park. We love it there. Kilometres of open space with playgrounds, walkways, park benches and hundreds of squirrels running around. Last time we were in New York it was covered in snow, so it was really nice to see the green grass and fallen brown leaves that covered so much of the park. It’s just such a pretty site and I was fortunate enough to run 10k through the park – was the most blissful run I’ve ever run! It was such a special moment ice skating in Central Park with our three babies. Last time Bailey put one toe on the ice and didn’t attempt anymore, Sienna was a baby and Mia wasn’t even thought of. This time both Bailey and Sienna didn’t give up until they mastered it and Mia loved it!! With the help of Kane and I she went round and round several times! It’s one moment in time I will cherish forever!!!!

I love New York!!! It’s a place I wouldn’t put my children through again though. It’s very very busy, I mean so busy that unless you experience it you just don’t understand busy when I say it’s busy! And it’s freezing!!! When we got up to leave this morning it was -2 degrees. The first couple of days we were there it was quite bearable, particularly the first day when it was 8 degrees. But by the time we left Central Park yesterday afternoon it was 1 degree and we ended up catching a cab back to our hotel as Mia was turning blue!!! But Kane and I will return one day when the kids are older and can fend for themselves! One week to go…the time is going steady and so much has been done, with still so much ahead of us! Fingers crossed we wake on Christmas morning to snow falling – that would be the icing on the cake for this trip! Merry Christmas to all my readers…I hope it brings you lots of love, joy and laughter xoxoxo!