Welcome to Sanchez World

Say hi to Byron!  We get him in 2 weeks!

What better reason to go back to Byron Bay so early but not for the wonderful wedding of our brother and sister Shane and Laura!

We decided to take a few days off prior to the wedding and revisit what no doubt will become our regular holiday hangout.  This time we shared it with our sis Sindhi and boyfriend Brad.  Top guy that Brad, he even showed me and Melanie how to surf!  First time on the board and easy peasy !  Who says surfing was so hard…!

This time the princess and I got some bikes and cycled all the way to the light house!  WOW, that is a steep climb, but what a magnificent view!  Cycling back down was way more pleasurable.

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And then off to Tweed for Shane and Laura’s bestest of best weddings.  Its really hard to find some of the most decent and fun people to share your life with and I have to be the luckiest to have such a wonderful extended family such as the Kahler’s! 

Laura looked so beautiful and elegant and even Shane scraped up pretty nicely (even on the back of a big night).  Shane’s speech was heartwarming and his wonderful description of how beautiful Laura looked touched everyone!

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Lots of drinking, partying and fun had by all.  We had a wonderful time and hope to be back up North very soon…this time with the kids!

CONGRATULATIONS SHANE AND LAURA KAHLER – WE LOVE YOU!

Happy new year to all.  We hope you had a brilliant Xmas and NY.

We had a tremendous few weeks.  We took the kids camping again…this time to Port Stephens where we camped at a great site along Lemon Grass Passage and went to the many beaches on offer in Port Stephens. 

This time, both Mel and I were super prepared for camping (unlike last time we went with mum) and were incredibly comfortable.  The kids loved it and so did we.  So much so, we booked again for next year!

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Once the kids were off, the princess and I went to Byron for a magnificent week of R&R.  Neither of us have been to Byron before and we were amazed as to how cool and beautiful it is.   We stayed here and had the most amazing front yard…the entire beach!  We walked the beach everyday and night, we got the most amazing sunsets and sunrises, we had a full moon every night and a king tide that saw me boogie board the waves!  Wonderful food and even a spot of midnight skinny dipping  :-) made for a wonderful stay and as camping we booked again for next year!

Here are some of the great shots we took.

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One week before the end of the school year and its award time for the clan!  Its great to see that all three have received great school awards and recognition.

Starting with James – he received the Celebration of Learning award for his year 4 achievements.  In this photo he is with his teacher Ms Smitz

Nicholas also got an award this year for his performance in Sport…Here is a video of Nicholas receiving his award!

Natasha was not to be outdone and received a Principal’s Award – Her second now..she got one last year!

Congratulations little ones…we are very proud of you!

Harvey and Melanie

My nephew Danny who recently went back to Spain with his family has been playing the Spanish Guitar now for a while and I remember when he first gave me a demo of what he could do…Well he has improved tremendously and has recently posted a video of himself playing Flamenco on YouTube.

Check him out…what an awesome talent!  Well done Danny!

I haven't blogged in a while since we got back from Europe on our most beautiful wedding and plenty has happened since.

Only after two weeks back from Europe I had to go to Whistler in Canada for a weeks conference.  Ofcourse an opportunity to ski two different continents in the same month was not going to let Melanie pass so we decided to go and enjoy Canada.  Although not as picturesque and as sweet as St Antons, Whistler is a skiers paradise.  With so many great runs and tones of snow we had an awesome time.  Staying at the Four Seasons wasn’t to bad either!!

Once we got back it was back to normal life...although plenty has happened.  Something very small like turning 40 for both Melanie and I. 

We decided that this year we would make it our 40th year and not just a birth day.  So we started pretty well with our wonderful European wedding and holiday.  Canada was wonderful and although we did so much on our own we wanted to include the kids aswell so we decided that on the school holidays we hire a massive houseboat and sail out onto the Hawkesbury for the week.  We all had a wonderful time on this great boat fishing, swimming and discovering such a beautiful part of Sydney we never get to see.

For Melanie and my 40th Birthday we booked Quay Restaurant and had a wonderful evening.  Quay is regarded as this years most exclusive and best restaurant in Sydney by the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide.  And it didn't disappoint.  The view particularly was AMAZING.  With 180 degree views of the Harbour we even got some fireworks!

We got much more coming this most important year including James and Natasha's birthday's, Melanie's graduation, selling our house, buying a new one, winter holidays, Nicky's birthday and hopefully even a promotion for me at work!

Will be back with more soon!

The Sanchez Clan!

I don't normally blog about "work related" stuff on our family blog but this is too good to not share.

After 18 years at Microsoft and over 20 years in this industry, very few things now days impresses me.  But as an avid space cadet and total freak of the outer limits it is impossible not to get excited and impressed with what we made available for free online today.

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.

That is what the website has to say ...however you can now download it and look at it yourself ...http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

Here are a few images...WOW!