So the Brown's left the relative safety of Australia for a trip to the US. Mel's first time back in over 4 years and the Brisbrown's first attempt at taking a 21 month old across the Pacific.
I don't have any photo's of the amount of crap we took with us, on the plane as luggage and on the plane as carry on, but lets just say that a man carrying 6 pieces of carry on and a car seat onto the plane is not someone to be screwing with!
Despite all the terrible stories or thoughts we have of 'walking' to America in the aisles of a plane, Hudson was perfect, in fact slept most of the way there, and slept for all of 2 hours of the ride home. Phernergen is the drug of choice. And worth every penny!
So before we left we decided we needed to work out how to entertain a 21 month old across the Pacific. A PSP with train videos did the trick, we even splurged on some kid sized headphones so we didn't have to hear. This is Hudson testing them before we left.
And testing... they were a hit... almost too much of a hit.
All that testing left a little boy tired... So tired he caught greendotitis
Summa and Sam recently had a little girl Zabella (hope I spelt that right), nicknamed Za Za, Hudson got to know yet another Future Mrs Brown.
Seeing as how we were going to America the land of the drivethru, Hudson decided it was best that he practiced his drive thru eating.
He spent another day trying to reverse park on the wrong side of the road... As you can see he got himself all in a bother.
And now the real acid test... Toot Toots on the plane. With a cocktail of Phernergen and Trains, Hudson was soon the perfect plane baby.
And then there was the 7 hour layover in LA. Luckily, the toot toots and some juice were enough to keep him entertained in the Qantas lounge at LAX.
With cabin fever out of the way, and us all in Sunny Washington DC, Hudson flocked to the trampoline at the Radoll's house. Jordan (now known as Jorju) and Eliza (now known as Idah) kept Hudson entertained for 3 weeks on this thing alone.
While lying on the Trampoline, we spotted this in the tree above us.. can you see what it is...?
How about now?
There is different gravity in the US, hence the popularity of the NBA, even Hudson could dunk!
Now this is Tupper. Hudson's Harvey replacement for the 3 weeks. Tupper is a 6 month old chocolate lab, who had never had a person at his eye level walking around with food before. They became the best of mates. Tupper like to play with the hose. However, Hudson was fascinated by the hose. He had never seen a hose before. We have been in water restrictions since he was born.
Which meant it became a perfect opportunity to get nude and drown the dog
We LOVED the hose... damn water restrictions ruining all our fun :p
JO had never been to DC, so we had to take her down to the Mall and walk around. While we were there a B-2 Stealth Bomber passed overhead, was fricking amazing, but we forgot to take a picture of it...
I like to call this shot Segs in the City.
JO and Mel ask Mr Lincoln a question, he remained silent
Mel made a mockery of a national landmark, we may never be invited back again.
To make up for it, they cuddled the concrete
Hudson got into the swing of sleeping during the day for the first week or so. Jet lag is a bitch when your 1
Baby's first burrito
We went and saw the National Marine Marching band play at the Iwo Jima memorial (the one with the five marines holding up the flag) He clapped and sang along like it was a Hi-5 concert, everyone appreciated his enthusiasm
This is the coolest sh*t dad!!
After the band was the Silent Drill. If you have ever seen the beginning of A Few Good Men, where the marines do the thing with the guns and the marching, with no candence (ie no commands), its amazing!
No one moved, yet these guns with bayonets kept flying around everywhere, very cool to watch
Hudson and his new best friend Idah (and yes she only 9, but as tall as Mel)
DAD... we're on a toot toot!
This is Mel's aunts Kim and Terry. Coincedently they are also Hudson's Great Aunts, funny how that works. They are from North Cakalaka (North Carolina) and we went into the city with them to walk the mall and see some musuems, a great day was had by all.
Ever seen the movie Night at the Museum 2 - The Smithsonian... This is the hall in that museum. No Robin Williams, but fun nonetheless.
JO with some inspired imitation... They say its the best form of flaterrey
Dad tried to feed Hudson to T-Rex... he wasn't hungry.
But JO was.
And so was Hudson
Everyone to the Hotdog vendor!!
Life imitating art.
Hudson wore poor old Tupper out.
We found Hudson patting and kissing this statue in the house. The Radoll's were the one's who looked after Harvey for us when we left the US. Jordan (Jorju to Hudson) still misses Harvey and so they have lots of toys and reminders of the big fella around the house. Hudson even went out to get a biscuit and feed it to this statue most mornings.
The Brisbrown's at the baseball.
Hudson and Mel were both at their first game, and both were just amazed.
Someone was having more fun that the someone else...
But then Dad hit a homerun with Icecream in a Baseball cap
And the fun ensued.
One of Mel's childhood memories was feeding the ducks at Burke Lake Park. So we took Hudson there. Where he wasn't so interested in the feeding as he was in the chasing.
The had a minature train ride, which we partook in.
Mum, this is the coolest train eva.
Hudson give me a kiss...
No.
All hands and body parts inside the train please
When no one was watching me and Hudson snuck around the front for a couple of cool photo's. Trains are cool
Craig my old buddy from TOWER in the US was living out in Leesburg (near the outlet mall, which had already put a dent in the credit card that week) On a golf course, while we were BBQing, we let Hudson roam free on the course.
Mel had to chase him to bring him back as some golfers started to come up the fairway
Unlike any other kid on the planet when faced with a large pit of sand... Hudson stared and pointed in disgust... he doesn't like sand... strange right?
This is the new Taylor clan, with baby Payton... Payton wasn't a big fan of Mel, good to see she hasn't lost the touch :P
We were all good for this photo and then Payton turned around to see Mel... and click.
This shot requires no explanation... really. It's just Cara in a nutshell. And even if I tried to explain you wouldn't believe me.
Udvar Hazy Museum, and yes that is the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
Its huge.
And Hudson thought it was the coolest thing... until
He found the even cooler walking ramps... I think he has a little too much of his mother in him.
Just a shot so you can see how Huge it really it.
We all went to visit Lee, she asked how Hudson and Harvey were getting along. it was great to see her.
Hudson was giving Jorju some pointers on how best to combat the bad guys on Call of Duty 2.
The World Cup started while we were in America and Hudson caught Football fever! he even had is very own Vavuzela
On the way home, we stopped in St Louis Airport, its so middle america, that it had rocking chairs in the airport lounges.
As you can tell we had a blast, we made it home, just in time to catch the cold snap in Brisbane. Almost went down to 10 last night :P
Hudson hasn't quite worked out that we've switched hemispheres again, so some sleepless nights are ahead.
Till next time.
K.out
