Vacation!!

Again, I procrastinate - been a couple months since updating yet again!
Biggest news was my visit back to the US for 3.5 weeks. It was glorious and it was so hard to leave. It was not a very relaxing vacation however with so much going on. We flew to New York and had one day to recover before the craziness began. We went to a wedding on Long Island on the Saturday morning and made it to the cocktail hour of the reception at which point we hit the road to drive to Maryland for a wedding that evening. We missed the ceremony (as was expected) but made it for the reception and the after party at the hotel that night. This wedding was for a girl from our Master's program so we also got to catch up with good friends. It was a great time and we all partied well into the night (including the bride!).
The next day we drove back to NY and hung out there for a few days with Brent's family. I also got to meet up and have dinner with a friend of mine that now lives in NY, Kate. Her family has a summer house just a couple down from our old beach house in Santa Barbara so we spent every summer together and have known eachother forever. It was so fun to catch up with her and in NY of all places!
After eating glorious NY pizza we headed down to Tampa, Florida for a week to spend time with Brent's family down there. Brent got pretty sick so we didn't get to go to Miami as we had wanted to, but it was still fun. Brent celebrated his birthday while we were there and he went fishing with his brother and cousin. They didn't catch anything and they all got very sunburnt, but they had a blast together. I knew I would just roast, even with sunscreen, so I opted to stay home. Good choice!
From Florida we flew to California and spent a couple days at my parents where I went to my 10-year high school reunion. It was really fun to catch up with everyone and we had a pretty good turnout with about 50% of the class being able to make it (my class was less than 40 people). We had it at a picnic ground on the lake and we had fun watching the kids in the water and all chatting away. Good times!
We then spent a day and a half in San Francisco where I tried to eat as much sourdough as possible (still wasn't enough) and then got back on yet another plane to head back east to Boston.
Boston was awesome and I think it may be my new favorite city. I loved all the history and the people were great and such good food. Expensive though, I spent more there than everywhere else combined! I was in Boston for yet another wedding, this one for a couple that got together in our Grad program. It was tons of fun and so hard to leave!
After 5 days in Boston it was back on the plane to head down under. There was lots of plane drama which resulted in us having to spend the night in Denver and got our luggage lost, but it all turned out ok because I got to visit my cousin that lives in Denver and we got upgraded to business class on the flight to Sydney. I don't think I can ever go back to economy on that flight now. I actually slept for half of the flight since your seat reclines to a full flat bed and they really take care of you! I loved it.
Once back in Australia (luggageless, but eventually got it back) we headed up to northern NSW for my family reunion. It was massive but fun to see everyone and have a couple days relaxing on the beach. I got really sick, but managed a visit to Sydney for a couple days to hang with my siblings which although went too quickly, was super fun. Made all the more interesting when I got kicked by a kangaroo resulting in a massive bruise on my leg. If it were the US, I would be sitting pretty with a nice settlement right now, but unfortunately this is Australia :(
My parents came down to Canberra for a visit and that was good fun. Then it was time to eventually get back to work after 5.5 weeks off. I love that I get so much vacation time here!
I will also eventually post pictures...one day!