Our first visitors since the pandemic began (Feb 2022)

Hi everyone!!

It has been a long time since you have heard from us here in California but finally something happened during this long inertia that has been the pandemic…. we got our first visitors since 2020!!! Vicki and Steve, Josh’s parents landed in California finally after what seemed like months of waiting with baited breath as to whether or not they would even be allowed to fly what with Omicron going rife in Aus. But they made it, and we celebrated by treating ourselves to some lush accommodation in Carmel-By-The-Sea.

Wally however was unimpressed, being interested in the only novelty that appears when we go on holiday…

Since this was the first time Vicki and Steve had seen Wally since he was 5 months (he’s now over 2 years old) and the first time they met Oscar, we really focused on making memories. So of course, on our first day there, we visited the Monterey Aquarium.

Wally was so mesmerised by his first sight of the fish he refused to move on. But when we finally got him to budge, he believed us that there was equally awesome things to see elsewhere.

My favourite memory is seeing the pure wonder on Wally’s face.

So apologies to Oscar but I only got very few photos of him that day so I’m putting them all here:

With the aquarium all done we headed back with two screaming children to conserve our energy for the beach the next day. Here, we really hoped that Wally would take to it much better than the last time we went.

It took a lot of convincing by Josh and Steve to finally coax Wally onto the sand.

And once Wally was comfortable on the sand, he had fun stomping on all the sandcastles he made.

All in, a fun day at the beach.

And that was pretty much our trip to Carmel. All too soon, Vicki and Steve had to leave for Australia. But not to worry, we plan on seeing them… and all of you real soon… permanently (wink wink!).

Oh! Before I forget, found another picture of Oscar.

Talk soon.

Sim, Josh, Wally and Oscar.