New Country, New Look

The babies and I bid adieu to the Sunburned Country last week. We left Nate behind to finish up some things.

We started this blog originally as a way for our family and friends in the US to keep up with us in Australia. Now it will serve as a way for our Australian friends to keep informed of our life in America! Hence the new look. I'll add more relevant gadgets once Nate gets here and we get settled.

Four Months!

Can't forget about the important things...

Murdoch is four months old. He continues to be a delightful baby. We all adore him, even his big sister, who has started to say to him when he cries, "You're okay, Murdoch." aw.

Cuties

Murri Christmas!

Polaroid from our annual trip to visit Murri Claus! (This is our Christmas card, but it won't make it to all of you until the new year...)

Momruh's Visit Part 2: Champers, Mulligatawny and Pavlova Send-off

Catching up here with a few more pictures from my mom's visit. She went home nearly three weeks ago, but I'm just now getting time to do this. Who knew life would be so busy with two kids?

I took my mom and Doc on their first visit to Straddie. It was a gorgeous day and the island was full of hippies.

Afternoons were filled with exercise sessions. This is Roxy participating in a P90X workout.

The night before she left, we had Mulligatawny stew, a bottle of champagne and a pavlova topped with whipped cream, strawberries, mango, kiwi and crushed macadamia nuts. Yum! We toasted each other with the cheapest champagne in the bottle shop and enjoyed our feast.

My dad made my mom promise to take Roxy out for ice cream. Here's the proof! Everytime we walk past that ice cream shop in the mall, Roxy climbs up into the chair and asks for ice cream. Thanks Mom!

It was great having my mom here. We spent naptimes chatting, planning meals, chatting some more. Or I slept while she read or was in the backyard on a bindi-killing spree (this bindi, not this Bindi). The drive home from the airport was pretty tough, but we're looking forward to her next visit, which is in just a few months. 

Second Anniversary

Today marks two years since we left the homeland for this sunburned country. When we first arrived, I didn't know if I would last six months, let alone two years. But here we are, with no immediate plans to leave, raising our two Aussie babies on the outskirts of Brisbane.

Although she's an American citizen, I think Rox qualifies as an honorary Aussie. She recognizes emus, koalas and wombats in books (but not squirrels), has vegemite on her toast for morning tea, endures nappy changes, sleeps in a cot, and loves going for rides in the pram. Oh, and she enjoys the occasional bikkie as a treat.

I wanted to get a family picture to accompany this post, but I just haven't done it yet. So for now, you'll have to be satisfied with a collage:

 Doc in his grunge onesie.

She thinks she's pretty funny (we think so, too).

Nate on paternity leave.

Me and Doc freshly sprung from hospital.

New Arrival!

We're thrilled to announce the arrival of 

Murdoch Karras 

born on October 1st.

We're beyond thrilled to be a family of four. More to come... Doc is sleeping now, so I'm going to sleep too!

Murri Christmas!

Apologies in advance: Our Christmas cards will be late this year. There's a 'postie' union strike on for tomorrow and I put the cards in the mail today at 5:01pm (sure, I'll blame the strike and not my procrastination). They say it won't affect Christmas mail deliveries, but I don't see how that's possible if there's no one around the sort the mail.

Scan of the polaroid we got at the Murri Claus meet-and-greet.

A few weeks ago, the State Library of Queensland invited children to meet and have their picture taken with Murri Claus. Who is Murri Claus, you ask? Why, he's Santa's cousin! Where does his name come from? The Murri people are indigenous Australians who traditionally occupied Queensland. 

Before he arrived, we danced and sang songs about Murri Claus and his life in the Outback. Last year Murri Claus arrived in a tinny (a small aluminum boat) on the Brisbane River. There were some rumblings about seasickness from our song leader, so this year, Murri sauntered up, fresh off the trail and accompanied by a couple of elves riding on miniature ponies.


Many of the babies in my mothers' group had their picture taken with Santa Claus at the mall. We though we would go the non-traditional route with our bub. 

Who is this? Where am I? Why is everyone so cheery but me?

I expected some tears when we handed her over to Murri, but she did pretty well and only got a little panicky when everyone was trying to get her to smile at the camera. 

She was dressed in the Christmas outfit we got it for her to wear on the plane on our Christmas adventure! We're hoping she'll charm the flight attendants and maybe we can get some free headphones for the flight. 


So a very Murri Christmas to you all! We're celebrating it at the beginning of a nice, hot Brisbane summer. While a lot of you are shoveling your way out of a snowstorm or inching your way through a foggy morning, we're trying to beat the heat! Sure wish you were here!

Current favorite movie

Escape Artist

I was talking to my friend Katie the other day about her cat Brix. Apparently, Brix, an indoor cat, got his first taste of the outdoors a couple of weeks ago and now all he wants is to get outside again.

It made me think of Roxy. She is scooting all over the place these days. I'm afraid my long evening walks get a bit boring for her when she's stuck sitting in the pram for so long. She also doesn't do all that well when I try to browse at the shops. Instead of climbing out, she tries to scoot out of her pram.

While thumbing through some greeting cards, I turned around and saw this:

Lucky for me (and her!), she didn't have all the kinks worked out:

Those pesky feet sure get in the way.

I don't think she appreciated my laughter...or the laughter of a fellow shopper.

She spends some time every day looking longingly through the security gate we've installed on the front door.

"Nobody knows... the trouble I've seen...."

She's got a game plan, though. Sometimes I find the friends that she's sent to get help.

Her most trusted friend, Giraffe Reimsen. She should probably send one of her friends with legs next time.

Ashley's Visit

Nate's only first cousin Ashley dropped in for a visit at the beginning of October. She's traveling all around Australia (she's in Western Australia at the moment), and we were lucky enough to be a part of her itinerary. We hadn't seen her in three years!

Roxy modeling her new little ripper shoes Ashley got for her.

Overseas visitors means one thing: Lots of new adventures! Ashley dubbed Rox, "Adventure Baby," because she did so well on our daily trips.

Day 1: Gold Coast, Surfer's Paradise and Coff's Harbor.

Ashley has surfing on the mind, so I thought she would be the perfect guest to take down to the Gold Coast. It's only about 75 km down the road and we haven't been there yet, so we hopped in the car to see if it really is paradise down there.

Well, it's not. When we told Nate about it that night, we used words like, 'tired,' and 'run down,' and 'not paradise,' to describe what we had seen. There were lots of skyscrapers, overpriced food, crowded roads, only so-so beaches and surf. We spent some time on the beach, but it was really windy and there were dead jellyfish in the surf, so it wasn't ideal.

One of only two pictures I took on our visit to the Gold Coast. Deserted beach because of the wind and sand.

The trip wasn't a total bust. We escaped the Brissie heat and also drove over the border into New South Wales for about ten seconds, just to say we did it.

Day 2: Moreton Island

The next day we ventured off-shore. Ashley works for a ferry company in Alaska, so we decided to take a local ferry to Moreton Island, the 2nd (3rd?) largest sand island in the world. It's just off the coast of Brisbane, about an hour and a half by boat. It's very sparsely populated, but there are lots of campsites and the only non-camping accommodation is the spendy Tangalooma Resort. We just went for the day.

Ferry ride!

Lots of activities to partake in on the island.

Day 3: Glasshouse Mountains

Day 3 was a Saturday, so Nate was off work and joined us on our adventures. We drove north to the Glasshouse Mountains, which are in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. We were in Australia Zoo territory and traveled on Steve Irwin Way for a portion of our trip. The guidebook describes the Glasshouse Mountains as, "ethereal volcanic crags...[that] rise abruptly from subtropical plains." Sounded promising, and lucky us, it delivered!

We hiked up to the top of Mt. Ngungun after a picnic and we could see all the way to the Sunshine Coast.

Ashley in the Ngungun Cave on the way up the hill.

Stopping at a look-out on the way up.

Ashley setting the self-timer with the Sunshine Coast in the background.

Extreme breastfeeding!

Day 4: Sunshine Coast, Moolooba, Peregian Beach

We piled in the car the next day and drove north again, this time in search of beautiful beaches. The Sunshine Coast did not disappoint! We have been up there for when my mom visited in February, but Rox was just a wee thing back then and the weather didn't really cooperate, so we didn't get a lot of quality beachtime.

This time we had perfect weather and a game baby. We started out with a yummy fresh lunch in Moolooba and drove up to the lovely Peregian Beach where we spent the afternoon tanning (Ashley), napping (Nate), reading (Cory) and eating sand (guess who).

Nate built Rox a fortress in the sand.

The dancer in Ashley came out when it came to posture.

She got a smooch for walking so well. Lookatthosebuns!!!

Ashley flew onto Perth the next day. She thought she might come back our way if the beaches in Perth weren't as good as the Queensland beaches. The last I heard from her, she was snorkeling with turtles and sharks, so I think we might not see her again on this trip. It was great to have her and we had a great time exploring so many new places!

One year in Oz

We've been here for just over a year! Can you believe it? I remember writing home to my sister about two weeks into it, crying, and telling her that I wanted to go home. She told me that it would get easier and that the year would fly by. I didn't believe her, but wouldn't you know it? She was right!

Of course, it hasn't hurt that we've had visitors almost nonstop since December, and that we went home for a visit in June and that I went home again in September/October. It also doesn't hurt that we've been able to visit some amazing places since we've been here (just wait for the Kakadu post) and we've got even more trips planned.

For now we're smack dab in the middle of our second spring in the Southern Hemisphere. The jacarandas are in full bloom and the days are warm and dry and they're predicting the warm and dry weather to continue all summer, thanks to El Nino.

I think it will be too hard to summarize the past year, but that's the point of the blog, isn't it? If you want a relive any moments, just use the directory over to the right there.------>

Here we are a year ago. Obviously, this was taken when we were still in California.

When Roxy was still Bruce.

Here we are now (well, a few weeks ago in the Northern Territory):

Croc-free waters.

If you haven't visited us yet, you still have time! Plan your trip! Buy your tickets! (Try to avoid December, January and February, though. It gets pretty warm 'round these parts.) Thanks to all of our previous visitors, I know all of the best places to take out-of-towners for day trips. Like this place:

Moreton Island: Just a short ferry ride away.

Or this place, just an hour's drive:

Mt. Ngungun. If a baby can hike it, so can you!

Or this place:

North Stradbroke Island looks like California, but the water is warm and there are kangaroos.

We've got a couple of empty months coming up. We don't have anyone scheduled to visit us, so we're going to have to do some exploring on our own.

(This post is a bit scatterbrained, but it's better than nothing, right?)

Straddie and Cans

Nate's sister and brother-in-law, Eliza and Andrew, showed up about a week and a half ago from Philadelphia. After a day or so of acclimating, we took advantage of the perfect Brisbane winter weather and went on a few adventures.

View of the Pacific from Straddie.

We took the ferry out to North Stradbroke Island, also called "Straddie" by the locals. The island is about a half hour away by ferry and a prime location to watch the migrating whales. Lucky us, we spotted some while eating lunch. We also watched a pod of dolphins surfing and playing in the waves for about half an hour. We would have joined them if the water was just a tad warmer.

Eliza and Andrew on Frenchman's Beach.

We forgot the baby carrier and had to fashion a sling from a blanket. Here's Nate carrying a sleeping Roxy down the epic staircase to Frenchman's Beach.

The next day we drove over to Mt. Coot-tha and hiked up to the summit for a great view of Brisbane. I didn't have my camera (but I remembed the baby carrier!), but I have no doubt we will head up to Mt. Coot-tha again in the future.

My sister Becky and her travel buddy Linsday arrived a week ago. The next day we all boarded a (delayed) flight to Cairns. Cairns (pronounced Cans), is the most popular place for tourists to depart the mainland and visit to the Great Barrier Reef and Far North Queensland.

Waiting at the airport for our delayed flight.

Cairns is full of hostels, tourists, backpackers, rental campervans and tour companies. We stayed at the Bellview Hotel, a family-run hostel across the street from the marina. It was clean, cheap and had a night guard imposing quiet hours from 10 pm - 6 am. The staff was very friendly and helped us book our tours and car rental. I think we will definitely stay there again if we go back to Cairns.

Perfect weather for our trip in Far North Queensland.

Sidewalk just outside of our hotel reception.

The Bellview from the street.

We had two full days in Cairns. On the first day, we took a day trip out to Green Island, which was about a 50-minute boat ride from the mainland and we snorkeled in the Reef right off of the beach.

Nate and Roxy enjoying the beach on Green Island.

Lindsay on the beach at low tide.

One of the pesty "ducks" that steal chips right out of your hands! (Duck is our nickname for this bird. When we arrived on the island, a little girl was pointing at one and calling it a duck. We didn't figure out what it actually was, so for the rest of the trip, any pest bird was called a duck.)

Walking out to the boat at the end of the day.

Becky brought everyone underwater cameras, so you'll have to wait until those get developed to see anything under water. Nate, Linds and Becky swam out the furthest and spotted a sea turtle, giant clam amongst all of the colorful fish.

It was Eliza's first time snorkeling and was her last for the rest of our trip. After the choppy boat ride and fear of the open ocean, Eliza and Andrew decided to stay on land for Day 2.

Our friends Eddie and Lisa flew down from Papua New Guinea and met up with us after we returned from Green Island. They get plenty of snorkeling where they are, so they decided to accompany Eliza and Andrew in the hills for Day 2 while Becky, Linds, Nate, Roxy and I booked a snorkeling trip to the Outer Reef.

I get quite seasick, but decided that I could tough it out for a day if it meant seeing more of The Great Barrier Reef. Our tour departed at 9 and returned at 4:30, with 1.5 hour boat rides there and back.

Becky and Lindsay had no problems with seasickness. Roxy threw up her breakfast about an hour into the ride, but was just fine after that. I took ginger pills (dramamine and breastfeeding don't mix), and threw them up just as we arrived at our first snorkel spot. I felt queasy for the rest of the trip and threw up again on the way home. I felt great once I got into the water and would have just as soon swim 60 kms back to Cairns than get on the boat again.

Becky and Roxy

Sadly, Nate fared the worst on the boat and getting into the water didn't help at all. He spent about half an hour snorkeling around, but the rest of the time he was hunched over a puke bag aboard the boat. If you ask him about it, he will tell you that the half hour of snorkel time was worth all of the suffering!!

Poor Nate!

Roxy enjoying the boat ride more than either of her parents. She didn't go into the water, but we got her dressed in her swimsuit so she would fit in with everyone else.

The other half of our party spent the day in the hippie rainforest village of Kuranda. They took a skyrail up and the scenic railway back down. They wish they would have taken the skyrail both ways.

Coming up: Daintree River, Cape Tribulation, Coral Sea, Crocodiles and much more!!