A Great Birthday Weekend by Suzanne

We had another great weekend!  It started off a little shaky, but ended up wonderful.  Friday night we were heading down to Circular Quay,  (the main Sydney Harbour, where the bridge and the Opera House are) to find something to eat.  On a whim, Ethan decided that we should catch a ferry to Neutral Bay, he had heard of it and maybe we'd find some restaurants over there.  The ferry left in 3 minutes so there was no time to decide.  We jumped on!  We got to Neutral Bay and started to walk.  We did pass 2 restaurants close to the wharf, but wanted to go further (plus one looked very pricy, the other Thai, not our family's favorite.)  It was a very residential area north of the bridge.  On foot, not knowing where the business district was (except for seeing the tall buildings too far off for us to get to,) all we could do was walk.  We walked.  It was uphill.  We walked some more.  We were hungry.  We were tired.  We had not dressed for a "hike." I was trying to give Ethan some credit for being spontaneous.  But eventually I had to say, "I'm not feeling it.  When do we cut our losses?"  Finally we all gave up finding that "great area with the cool inexpensive restaurants" that we had envisioned.  We walked back toward the wharf and were planning on going back to Circular Quay to eat, but there were not very many choices of ferries back.  We ended up eating at the Thai restaurant mentioned above.  I was very worried after we ordered, with many special requests for each meal, that we would maybe have 1 out of 5 happy campers when the food came.  It turns out that everyone was satisfied, we even ordered more of the dim sum because they were such a hit!  It all turned out good in the end, the night was salvaged.

Saturday was a little relaxed, we had no plans until dinner.  We decided to go back and see the markets at Chinatown that we had barely skimmed over last time.  They were a hit!  We were of course looking for some gifts for Luke's birthday, and found some, as well as lots of souvenirs that many will enjoy when we bring them home.  I also got myself a great pair of UGG boots.  We wandered back through Darling Harbour (the second main harbour here, also gorgeous) and the Australian car show.

Ethan's colleague, David North, had invited us for dinner with his family in North Sydney.  He picked us up in his car here at the hotel.  It was only about a 15 minute drive to his lovely home and family.  He and his wife Mary have a son Mac who is 10 and a daughter Kate who is 12.  They had also invited another family who lives here in Sydney, Suzanne (pronounced Su-zon) and Gavin and their two 12 year old twins, a girl (Lilliken) and a boy (James).  Suzanne grew up in Sweden and her Swedish parents were there visiting, and came to dinner as well.  What an international group we had!  (Mary, the host, and Gavin, Suzanne's husband, both grew up in England, just to add another nationality to the mix...)

Here is most of the group!  From left to right, back row: Me, Gavin, David, Suzanne, Mary, Ethan, Christian.  Front row:  Lilliken, James, Kate, Marianne

We had a lovely evening with lots of laughter, lots of wonderful food, and lots of wine.  The night was so enjoyable and entertaining.  It is amazing to me that the English language can bring so many people from all over the world, onto the same playing field where we can enjoy each other's company, experiences, and differences.  Suzanne and her parents are lovely singers and they even sang some Swedish greeting songs to all of us.  We had a wonderful time.  The kids all got to play outside together, which is a treat when we live in a hotel!  They also enjoyed the two dogs, as well as some extra TV channels that we don't get here in our hotel.  :)

Sunday was Luke's birthday, and I've been praying all week that it would be a wonderful day for him.  He had really been looking forward to it!  He woke up and got to open several gifts, including money from both sets of grandparents which he loved.  He had chosen to go to Manly beach but the weather was looking a little cloudy and cool.  We stuck with the plan and it paid off.  The sun came out for a lovely day.  We started the day with some Starbucks and some donuts on the ferry to Manly.  We had a great lunch right by the beach at the Manly Grill.  Then on to some beach time.  Everyone played for a long time on the beach, Luke and Elise were the main ones who braved the water.  (Mom did get to lay by myself on the beach for a while which was so relaxing!)  We ended up staying at Manly for so long that we ditched our plan of going to the Sydney Eye, the tallest tower in Sydney, for the views.

Luke sporting his new Kevin Garnett jersey and some legos that he got.

After the beach we just came back to the hotel, showered, and went down to Darling Harbour to eat dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe, another choice of Luke's.  It was the most American place we have been yet, and we had some great American food.  We ended the night with cookie cake ( baked in the hotel with slice and bake cookie dough) and watching a movie that Luke had received from Nana and Papa for his birthday.  He had a wonderful birthday, one that he'll never forget!

Amazing Whales: By Brady

So a couple of days ago, we went whale watching. It was pretty fun, and AMAZING! The weather was ok and every time you would walk outside, there was a huge breeze that almost knocked you off your feet. We saw like 3 or 4 groups of whales and towards the end, we were following a group, and then this happened!

Pretty cool right, here are some other pictures of the whales we followed.

Anyway it was a success for us that day, and we all had an adventure. Till next time folks.

Dolphins at Watson's Bay by Elise

Yesterday we went to Watson's Bay by a ferry.  We saw dolphins swimming in the ocean!  It was fun.  We went on a playground there.  There was a small beach too.  We also found lots of sea shells.  I am collecting sea shells to bring home with me.  Mom and Luke ate the famous fish and chips, but not me.  I don't like fish.

American Fun: By Brady

Last weekend we got to go visit some Americans. How exciting!  People finally talk normal. My Mom knew the other Mom from highschool. They have a daughter my age named Lainie, and a son who is 10 named Keaton. My brother and sister played with them most. We all had a blast. They practically have a beach in their backyard ( it was only like a 3 minute walk).

We had an amazing time at the beach. They had a sea salt pool, and boogey boards. The water was freezing cold, but you're at the beach you really could care less. While we were down there, me and Keaton built a ditch in the ground. It was just supposed to be a wall that would be impenetrable by water, and it turned out like this.

After the beach, they served an amazing dinner that included steak, chicken, and hot dogs. It was scrumptious. I wish I were back with them, we all had an amazing time. Well I'm off to further adventures, see ya later.

Luke's special Weekend

I am now counting down to my BIRTHDAY!!!  It is only 5 days away. We are all going to Manly the whole day.  It will be awesome, well I think. And guess what we are going to go to the top of the Sydney tower. Imagine what all the sights we will all see.  This will be a very very special weekend.
Also I am going to a Australian museum today. But the best part is we are all in Australia.



LUKE

Fun with some Americans and some Whales! by Suzanne

We had a great weekend!  There is a girl I knew in high school, we were cheerleaders together our senior year.  We recently connected on Facebook, and I had been following her family's move to Australia!  Her company brought them down here for 3 years from Kansas City, and they have been here almost 2 years.  She was the first person I e-mailed when we found out we were coming down! They live right along the beach, about an hour and 20 minute train ride south of Sydney.  We had been trying to find a good time to get together and this past Saturday was our chance.  We left our hotel early to catch the train to Thirroul, the larger train station close to the Duckworths.  (Andrea Reeves Duckworth and her husband, Mike, and their two kids, Lainie and Keaton.)  They picked us up in their car at the train station, and she looks exactly like she did in high school!  It was wonderful to see some Americans and get to hang out at a real house!  :)  We quickly all changed to go to the beach.  We walked there from their house, a couple blocks away.  It is quite mountainous down by Austinmer, their town.  Just gorgeous!  The beach is directly across the street from their son's public elementary school.  The water is still very cold, but the kids all enjoyed it and got in.  The waves were really big, larger than I expected them to be.  They had these cool ocean pools, just areas where they have set rocks in a large area to sort of keep the largest waves out.  It makes it safer for people to swim who want to stay away from the large waves.

Elise loved playing with Lainie all day!

The walk down to the beach.

Brady  is in the ocean pool here.

Our group!

Brady and Keaton dug a deep hole in the sand.

This is as close to surfing as Elise got!

Ethan and Luke tried some boogie boarding on the waves.  They had some falls...as well as some success.  They had a great time!

That would be Ethan's leg being thrown around in a wave...

Cool shot of Ethan!

After the beach we went back to the Duckworths house and hung out on their deck, then had a BBQ for dinner.  The kids enjoyed getting to shoot baskets, play in their yard, play xbox, and Elise even got to play with Lainie's American Girl Doll stuff.  What a great break from our hotel in the city!  They hosted an amazing dinner and were just so much fun.  It was by far the best conversation I've had since coming here!  (besides Ethan, of course.)

Andrea and I on her deck.  What a view!

The four of us eating dinner.

We have been invited back again and would love to see their wonderful family again soon!  We took the train home that evening and everyone was exhausted after such a full day.  Thanks to the Duckworths for an amazing day!

Sunday morning we got up and headed to Circular Quay to catch a whale watching boat.  It was a fairly hazy day but that didn't keep us from finding some humpback whales to follow.  They were not far outside of the harbor, and we just followed them along the coast.  They head south for the summer, away from the warm water.  Ethan, my resident photographer, caught some great shots, especially of the one and only time a whale jumped out of the water for us!  

 

What a cool shot!

Pulling back into Darling Harbour after the tour.

You can see the calf swimming right beside the mom whale...

Another shot of the jump!

We ended the weekend by meeting Ethan's boss down here for drinks at Darling Harbour.  She has been wonderful and we had a great time with her as well.  Quite a full weekend, as usual!  We take advantage of the time that Ethan is not at work.  We are about 1/3 of the way through our time here.  I have to try and just take it all in, and enjoy every moment that we get in this beautiful country.  This is the chance of a lifetime for us and I do thank God for this gift every day.  Until next time!

Our Home Away from Home

So my friend Debby Brown has asked for some pictures of our apartment/hotel room!  I still don't know what to call it, because it's really a hotel room but it feels weird to be living in a hotel for 3 months.  I have to admit, the cooking has been pretty difficult.  Our oven is so worn that I can't read what any of the buttons say.  Add the fact that it cooks with celcius degrees, and I'm still learning that conversion, and it's all just a big guess as to what the oven will do.  Then there is the stove.  One burner on the stove works really well.  And by really well, I mean you barely turn it on, and it's ON HIGH.  All of the other burners don't seem to do much.  So when I need something to cook on the stove, I must stay close, and keep turning it on, then off for few minutes so things won't burn.  It's always interesting, and you really never know what you are going to get!  

You can picture us in this living room much of the time.  We do school in here, the kids watch TV in here, and you see that glass table on the left?  We eat our meals at that table as well.  (When we don't go out!)

Here is the lovely kitchen!  It has a small dishwasher, a small refrigerator, that the oven and stove. Oh, and a microwave too.  Because food here is so expensive, we do really try to cook in at least some dinners.  At lunch time there are millions of options all around, all the food courts that are mostly under the office buildings.  After 5:00, all of these food courts close down since the working crowd is gone.  There are really not many eating options close by, unless you want to spend a minimum of $20 per person.  And even for that, not just a ton of things my kids will eat!  The good thing is that you don't have to add tax or tip.  Which is good, because the service is usually AWFUL if it exists at all.  I have yet to see a piece of ice in any drink, unless it came from McDonald's or Hungry Jacks.  We have made Tuesdays Pizza Hut night, and we usually have a homemade taco night, and we've done a few other things...there is a grill we can use up by the pool, so we've grilled burgers, (kangaroo burgers too!), chicken with pasta and the best alfredo I can manage with my crazy stove.   There are also McDonald's and Hungry Jacks (their version of Burger King) and Subway close by that are always open.  I have a hard time even defining what Australian food is really like.  I would say that all types of Asian food are by far the most  common thing that I see.  Definitely a lot of fish and chips as well, and there is a store called "Pie Face" that is on many corners.  It has little 4 inch pies, fruit pies, etc but also the meat pies that Ethan has referred to.  Several choices of meats and sauces in them.  I have not tried one!  But I did promise Stefanie Haddock that I would try to post a picture of them!  Sorry, don't have that pic yet.

This is the second bedroom.  Many nights it goes unused, believe it or not!  Sometimes Brady does choose to sleep in here alone.  But the loveseat in the living room is also a pull out twin bed, and one kid sleeps on it every night, with another kid always choosing to sleep on the floor in there!  It does however, provide another "space" when some of us need "time away."  :)

Here is our bathroom.  It works out just fine.

This is the master bedroom, pretty much the same as the second bedroom but it has a TV, the second bedroom does not.

This is the view off of our tiny little balcony.

Another view...

And one of our favorite places...the rooftop pool!  Elise and I come here almost every day.  The boys come too, not quite as often.  As the weather continues to warm up I'm sure it will be a more important part of our days!  (When we're not at the beach...)  

We are looking forward to another fun weekend, and will post pictures next week!

Suzanne