We were SO excited to have Kyle and Jules come visit us!! They had quite the itinerary too – flying directly to Sydney to spend time with us for a week (with a side trip to the Hunter region over a long weekend), then spent several days on the southern island of New Zealand, flew back to Sydney for a few nights (repacked for swim suit weather), then up to the Whit Sunday Islands to snorkel and check out the Great Barrier Reef and finally back to Sydney for one last night before taking the 14-hour flight to LAX! PHEW! They probably experienced all four seasons over the course of 3 weeks too (with the worst being on the islands during their snorkel trip, unfortunately).

We were able to find the best accommodation in the Hunter Valley – wine region – since we’ve moved out here (and it only took us 10 tries to figure it out!). As can be seen in the picture above, there were 3 houses on the property including a tennis court, a swimming pool, the owners’ house and hundreds of acres of grape vines. And despite the “hassle” 20-minute drive outside the main part of Hunter Valley, we had several acres of cows, kangaroos, birds, vineyards and millions of billions of stars to gaze at from our own porch!

Even more important, we had ample room to throw around the (American) football in the yard. We also received a case of wine upon arrival, along with a wine tasting and a brief history lesson from the owners. Not sure how we could’ve beat that!!

I raised my hand for the ‘Designated Driver’ role so Rob, Jules and Kyle could have a true experience of Hunter Valley wine tasting. The day did little to disappoint with over 5 stops at the local wineries. Afterwards, we spent the evening playing charades.. which made for an extremely interesting and exciting evening (Rob & Linds vs Kyle & Jules). (Picture: Jules is trying to show Kyle what he should have done when trying to imitate a character). It was great fun!

One of the best parts of their holiday was during my attempt to explain how people in Australia call out to kangaroos. When Kyle and Jules arrived, I told them the best way to see a kangaroo is to call out and chant, “Swish, swish, swish, swish”. During our stay in Hunter Valley we were walking around the property and we were able to get them to start chanting with Rob & me..

They were SOLD!!!

But it was short lived.. Jules quickly caught on and asked if we were teasing them. It’s hard to hear in this video, but still pretty hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01pPxwj7Dd8&feature=youtu.be.