Welcome to the Grandnobles!

We are back in Melbourne now, and I can't believe we are already 12 days in to the new year. We are currently sitting in Melbourne airport with Dave and Bunny, Andy's parents, waiting for our flight to Queenstown, New Zealand. Andy's parents arrived three days ago and will be here for the next three weeks. Ella has been spoiled to have both sets of grandparents around for the majority of the summer holidays! (And we have been spoiled as well, as it is a major help to us!)

Hello Grandma Bunny!

We spent the first day they arrived doing our usual tour of the area around our house in Abbotsford. Going for lunch at Mayfield and then a walk along the Yarra River, past the Collingwood Children's Farm and through Abbotsford Convent. We did a similar walk with my good friend Guillaume who was visiting from London last week, except we went to Three Bags Full for brunch. Every time we have people visiting and show them around the area I get to experience the beauty of it through someone else's eyes, and have a renewed appreciation for how lucky we are to be here. Walking down the Yarra through the farm you would not believe you are only about 2km from Melbourne's CBD!

Lunch at Mayfield

The combination of the heat and jet lag tired Dave and Bunny out, and they had a rest that afternoon in our somewhat cool house. There is only air conditioning in the living room and kitchen in our place, and it is not well insulated, meaning the bedrooms can get pretty hot during the day when the temperature is above 30 degrees. I already want to move again...

Yesterday we went to my Dad and Dave's favourite Melbourne attraction... Bunning's Warehouse! Andy's parents helped us weed and clean up our back garden and we were hoping to buy some sort of sun umbrella or shade sail, as we have full sun there all afternoon. I really want to create a beautiful oasis where I can lounge with Ella in the summer afternoons... reading a book while she contently plays beside me. Hahaha, that is the dream anyway!

After Bunnings we headed to Proud Mary in Collingwood for brunch and then over to Gelato Messina for the most amazing gelato in Melbourne. The flavour combinations there are to die for, I had a caramalised white chocolate gelato with pistachio praline and strawberry donuts. Yum! Throughout our lunch we had to keep Ella distracted as she was super interested in our food, almost swiping my pulled pork sandwich at one point. And she gave us a good glare while we were eating our ice cream, probably pretty annoyed she wasn't getting any!

That night we had a BBQ at Charlotte and Adam's where they spoiled us with a delicious spread including Cuban pork that Adam had slow roasting on the spit for 2 hours. Safe to say we've eaten pretty well since Dave and Bunny got here... the post-Christmas detox is going to have to wait!