I'm getting there, I'm getting there......

That seems to be my mantra at the moment! I always have several "to-do" lists on the go - for family, for DIY, for my business. I'm one of those people who just has to have lists to make me feel more organised, and I have been known, when writing my list of jobs out for the day, to include a couple of jobs that I've already done, just for the feel-good factor of ticking them off.

My to-do lists at the moment have a sense of finality about them, as they have a strict unmoveable deadline as the family summer travels that I mentioned a few weeks ago start this Sunday! Where on earth has the last month gone?!? These are very special travels, a once in a lifetime trip for me and for T (made possible by the payout from my critical illness insurance last year - cancer is apparently the one illness that the insurance companies don't quibble about!), but it would be nice to think that the boys will get to do something like this again when they're older - but without having cancer first to pay for it of course. In case you haven't recognised all the places featured in the photos above let me enlighten you  - she says rubbing her hands in excitement!!

On Sunday evening we fly out to Hong Kong, where we will stay for two nights. Hopefully we'll be able to recover enough from the flight to see some of this amazing city!

We then get back on a plane and fly out to ..... wait for it...... New Zealand!!!!!! I have always wanted to visit, but never ever thought we'd be able to do. We are visiting my lovely friend Hellie and her family who moved out to Auckland just over a year ago. My excitement at seeing her again has overcome my fear of flying and my worry about how on earth we're going to be able to entertain the boys, especially Jamie, on the flights! We're going to stay with them for about three of our five weeks in New Zealand, but not all three weeks in a row, and the other weeks we will be spending in a hired motor home touring first the South and then the North Island.

Towards the end of August we get back on a plane and fly to Los Angeles - another place I never every thought I'd be able to visit! As T says, we're going to have three winters in a row by visiting NZ at this time of year, so as we've got to have a stop over we decided to make sure it was somewhere hot and sunny! We're staying in a self-catering apartment for five nights, before heading back to the UK, arriving back here on Friday 30th August.

Phew! It suddenly seems real now that I've typed it all up. Millie the cat has gone to stay with my parents while we're away, the house sitter (a colleague of T's) moves in on Friday, everything is booked, and there are piles of packing all over the house, but there is still a part of me that doesn't quite believe that by this time next week we'll be away! I've got a couple of blog posts planned before we go and you can expect them to get more frantic as the week goes on!

Oh, and if anyone can recommend anywhere crafty that I really shouldn't miss, either in New Zealand or LA, please do let me know!