Missing the Mudfords

Just back from a morning walk along the Nha Trang beach. Sounds lovely and peaceful right? Yah, not so much. I "reckon" a few million people were out on scooters this morning continuing the insanity that was last nights Sea Festival. Appears we arrived in the middle of some massive something...and so have 50 million other people. Not upset to be leaving today...and heading to what we think is a quieter place. However, we are back to the Tyndall Four today and are already missing the Mudfords ("Muddys"). Over the past 6 days, we have had many laughs, seen some good sites, eaten some great meals, had a few drinks and learned many new phrases (budgie smuggler being one of my favourites...can you guess what it is? A speedo swimsuit. Brilliant right?). There are others that I have recorded in a special section called Mudford Slang, but will keep this post PC as there are a few children who read this. Lol. 

Being with Kylie and Andrew brought back so many memories of our time with them 18 years ago...and now we've created new ones. Crazy to think they ended up with two daughters (fabulous girls!) and that we could pick up where we left off so easily. The girls got along so well...all 1 year apart with Robin (11), Sophie (nearly 12), Abby (nearly 13) and Ashlee (14). They spent hours comparing life on the other hemisphere, and were immediately comfortable with one another just as we were with Kylie and Andrew when we first met while waiting to climb Mt Bromo in Indonesia. 

Kylie is eligible for long service leave in 4 years and they hope to make a trip to North America and know they are welcome in our home for as long as they'd like. As 4 years seems far away, we were tossing around a meet-in-the-middle strategy and determined the only logical place would be Hawaii...how horrible. We will see what we can all manage but suffice it to say we do not want to wait another 18 years to see them!

Robin was a little down last night (homesick for her life at home) after we parted ways and I know she will miss the girls. I had a similar reaction when Stephen and Kris said goodbye in Kyoto in May. We are back to being reliant on one another for entertainment today and head out on yet another long car ride to our final destination in Vietnam. Abby is already talking about when Matt and Jeffrey come in just over a week...hard to believe we had nearly 2 months on our own as we are clearly craving peer time!