After our Tokyo area, Japan family holiday last year, it really woke me up to how much I miss travelling (we I haven't been overseas since E was born in 2012) and what a short time with have with our boys to see other parts of the World through their eyes and make those precious memories.

While there were plenty of exhausting and tricky moments, the experiences we shared and the sights we saw were that much more memorable for having the boys with us. We saw sights we've seen on past trips to Japan that seemed so much different with E & C by our sides exclaiming and pointing ... a simple metro trip had us engaging with Japanese commuters as our boys engaged with their young children - lots of smiles and nodding.
Godzilla over the buildings in Shinjuku was the biggest deal and incited long tales from Ethan about dinosaurs living in Japan hiding among the tall buildings ... magic. The boys also got to make new friends with some of our old Japanese friends and I loved watching them learn from the different customs and mannerisms.

The trip put a few things into perspective for us. We bought a renovator house 2 and a bit years ago that needs a lot of work. We've done a lot of work and continue to, think new bathroom and laundry, painting, landscaping ... but it needs a new kitchen, I hate the tiles and we want a new patio just to name a few items. It all adds up to money and all our spare $$$ go into its improvement.

While we want to continue to tackle the items we can do ourselves or with family like painting and gardening and odd jobs, for the next few years,  we want to save whatever we can not to replace the kitchen etc but to spend on travelling with our boys and making more of these magical memories for our family to share. We won't appreciate a kitchen in 30 years time as much as we will be grateful for these experiences.

We have a Pacific Seas cruise booked for August this year and I am looking forward to the relaxing family break that is cruising. I'm also excited for us to get a very small taste of Island life with the cruise taking in Noumea, Vanuatu and Lifou. We plan on skipping the shore tours and spending some time exploring with the other family we are travelling with as S and I have visited these places previously. A great chance for the boys to get a very small glimpse of the culture and lifestyle that is so different to their own.

Beyond our cruise, I think the boys will be old enough to venture a little further afield (read we are more game to fly with them) and we are in the process of locking down a trip to America in 2019 - June/July or September. My parents would like our whole family to spend a week in Hawaii for my dad's 60th and we figure you can't go to the USA and not visit Disneyland! So the plan is to tack a week on to Hawaii either before or after with my siblings and our families to go to DL. And not just for the children ... S is possibly more excited as Star Wars land/world is scheduled for opening in 2019. I visited DL almost 10 years ago, its still one of my favourite trips ever and I can't wait to share the Disney magic with my little and greater family.

We are also busy planning another trip back to Japan - our fourth, the boys second. Its just too amazing a destination not to visit over and over with so much to see and do each time. We have been 3 times and there is still so much we haven't even done yet and the beauty of the people and the scenery just keeps calling us back. Plus Jetstar offers such good flights and deals that its a cheaper holiday than going most places in Australia.
We would love to visit in Nov 2018 although it may be a little close finance wise to our USA trip so I am looking at April 2020 too - just before the Olympics.
As the boys will be a little older, we want to take them South this time down to Osaka and take in the historic areas of Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima and Fukuoka - a seaside town I only recently discovered but am committed to visiting as its one of the most stunning places I've ever seen in print.

We also want to do some short visits to Sydney and Melbourne and probably another 7 day cruise somewhere in the next three to four years ... ambitious and expensive but pushing our renovations back for these experiences will be well worth it in the long run and we can't wait to get adventuring with our boys.

Any great family friendly places we should get on our 5 year plan list?

If you're a long time reader of my dribble, you may recall my very first post over at Gold Coast Real Estate Girl. For those that don't, here it is ... http://gcrealestategirl.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/world-cup-widow.html
I was bemoaning the fact that I was a World Cup widow but if you continued to read, I got right into the series and even got up for the 1am odd games.

Three years on and the World Cup is coming again. If you're a football fan, you will know the draw for Brazil was done on Friday night at the oh so civilised 3am. Sadly, Australia didn't fare so well in the draw being an unseeded team but I think the media's 'Group of Death' is more than a little bit of an exaggeration. Especially given England, the USA and company didn't fare much better in their Groups.

Obviously no one wants to draw raining champs Spain, Chile AND 2010 runners-up the Netherlands but then again, no one wants Brazil, Portugal or Ghana to name a few either. Scott tells me we are screwed in his oh so succinct summation but I think at best, its an opportunity for our Socceroos to fire up and play against the best there is in the World and if nothing else, take some lessons from the matches for next time and towards preparation for the Asian Cup. At worst, we are done after three games but at least we can say we were there.

I quite liked former Socceroo, Craig Moore's, take on our draw when he likened it to a draw in the Champions league where everyone was worried about their team playing the 2 powerhouse teams in the group and  an unnoticed Valencia slipped through and went on to win the group.

Are you excited for the World Cup? Are you planning to watch the games live next year ... I must admit, my timing is once again impeccable with this pregnancy. E was born right around the Olympics so there was plenty of midnight television that was actually worth watching during all those night feeds and all that rocking and if B2 proves to be similar to E in this regard, then at least I will have the World Cup to look forward to at 2am.