My family and I have settled in really well into California, but with my season approaching it gets more difficult and a bigger strain on my family as i spend time away at events and on training camps. In the past it has been relatively easy as we just took the kids with us, but with my oldest daughter, Tahlia, now approaching school age and my youngest Sienna about to start pre-school, the transient lifestyle of a professional triathlete gets more difficult.I am off to Hawaii and Europe in 3 weeks and as a family we have been planning what is the best option for them. We have decided that Emma and the kids will return to Australia for 6 weeks while I am away, and see all our family and friends at home. Emma has such a wonderful group of girlfriends in Australia all of which have children our age. Tahlia talks on the phone often to her friends at home, and when we asked her if she wanted to go home and see them, her face lit up. It really made me see how tough this lifestyle is on my own family and my younger children in particular. Obviously when I am way they miss their father incredibly, but when we we are here in the USA they miss their close friends at home. It is a catch 22 for us as a family and always plays hard on us at this time of the year.  We have made the move as a family to the USA and will buy a home here in the next few months if one presents itself that we like, but this being said it is a difficult decision and a tough move for many reasons. LA is wonderful and the trip back to Australia is far but easy. I spend a lot of the USA summer in Colorado for the high altitude training and thus LA is a permanent base only for about 9 months of the year. This again makes it hard for the kids.   Anyway I think we have worked it out for now and made the best decision for the next few months. Things will be easier when we finally buy our own home here and can settle into a place of our own instead of a rental place. This is only a few months away and we are looking very hard as we speak. I guess I need to win more events to make the job easier. It will be a tough 6 weeks away from my family but it is for the best for them and thats how we justify it. They leave on May 24 so we still have a few wonderful weeks together before our time apart.