We have been debating for the last 24 hours whether we go to Vega for 7 days OR Hawaii for 7 days when grandma and granddad come out for two weeks in August.

Hawaii is a place none of us have been to, so we don’t have a clue what to expect, but Vegas – Vicky, Simon and Elliot have been before so we have an idea where to go etc.

Suspect that Hawaii may just win out even though it is more expensive.  It is also 5 hours longer to get there on the plane 🙁

We found a shop last night that sells British chocolate so we nipped in and bought ourselves a few bars.  A bar of Cadbury Caramel that would have cost no more than £1.50 cost us $6.99 + tax ….. Guess it worth the extra cost – v nice to have a few chunks of it after tea last night 🙂

We also bought a magic bullet blender in Costco so we are V likely to be having frozen cocktails tonight when the boys go to bed 🙂

The company has just finished a record month, ending a record quarter, ending a record year – GREAT news 🙂

We have been out on the bikes tonight for a nice cycle around – the buys loved it – lots of giggling and launching from in the trailer.  We have found some really nice neighbourhoods that we would like to consider living in downstream.

We are presently watching Burn Notice – think it is possibly the best TV show on right now – really cool – shame that there is a new guy that has joined the team – he feels just wrong.

Finally, Simon has located the last two copies of Holby City so Vicky is happy again 🙂  We have three episodes to catch up on so I guess we are going to be having a HC session one evening over the upcoming long weekend.

We saw or felt rather the temperature rise to around 94 or 96 degrees yesterday.

We were out on the bikes when it was approximately 88 degrees and Simon definitely felt it, given that he tows both boys in the trailer… It genuinely felt like there were a couple of additional rocks in the trailer from the last time we were out – if this is a sign of a fitness challenge, then Simon has a LOOOONNNNG way to go unfortunately.

Then to top it all, when we got home little Olly was asleep in the trailer, but had delivered a sleep crap – it had unfortunately decided that it was not to be contained by his nappy – oh yes readers, it had escaped down his right leg and transferred onto the seating in the trailer 🙁  Not only this but given the temperature, it was super heated…..

We are fast chasing the guys back in the UK with the weather now – since we have returned to CA from FL, we have found it to be over 80 degrees every day, with little clouds on any day.  Typical that the summer that we chose to leave the UK is the best summer in the UK in as many years as we can all remember 🙁

The weather in Los Gatos area has been terrific this week – high 70’s in temperature, a light breeze and ZERO humidity 🙂

Simon bought an Apple MacBook Pro a couple of weeks ago and is finally getting the hang of the thing.  He claims that it performs slightly better than his previous laptop, and he fits in better in Silicon Valley with it 🙂 Y, OK, just a sales pitch says Vicky…. 🙁

We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend with the bikes and stuff.

A BIG thank you to Jon, Vicki and Mia for having us for just over two weeks – we had a great time with you guys.

Ft Lauderdale was HOT, VERY HOT, and VERY humid  We got back late last night to no humidity and cool air – it was very refreshing :-).  Shame it took Simon 1.5 hours to find the car in the car park – baring in mind he parking it specifically so that we would be able to easily find it and get home quickly 🙁  MUPPET

Simon went out to New Orleans, New York and Chicago with Jon over the two weeks, with Vicky and the boys staying in Ft Lauderdale with Vicki and Mia.

Ollie is NOT yet walking although his personality and attitude is coming through nice and strong 🙂 Two days before we were due to go, Ollie picked up on Croup – the local doctor gave him a “shot” and said he was OK to travel – the shot definitely fixed him up and he was good for the flight to FL.  Within a few more days, he sorted himself out – but it was worrying for a little while 🙁  He has also had temperatures, the runs and sickness while we have been away – oh joy of joys.  Elli not experienced any of the above…

Ellie had a few good opportunities to swim in Mia’s pool and is slowly progressing again – i.e. he has become less worried about getting water in his face etc, and was getting rather confident in his abilities 🙂  <Maybe when we are up with our lease on the white house, we will look for something with a little garden and a pool 🙂

We have been to many splash parks in FL, a safari park (Lion Country Safari Park in West Palm Beach – was V COOL), the beach and tres amounts of shopping.

In fact while we were aw we bought Vicky two (yes that’s right TWO) nice diamond rings – the bling is incredible and the deal was pretty good too.  She certainly appears very pleased with the acquisition, although Simon is aware that the diamond situation is probably not yet over.

Elliot has learned a new phrase, although none of us know where it came from – basically, if he suggests that he “is going to put a smack on you”, I think you understand what he is proposing to do…

Finally, we are 23 big sleeps from heading back to the UK for a little while – Simon for one week and Vicky and the boys for three.  So we need to plan what we are going to do for the two week that Grandma and Granddad are with us in mid August.  Simon thinks that a cruise to Hawaii sounds great, but we also are considering renting an RV to head down to coast to LA.  This seems to be gaining desirability from all else as well 🙂