Ready for summer!

Recent Visitors

Just a couple of weeks ago, we got to put our spacious new house (and our water heater) to the test with three people visiting at the same time! My aunt Jean flew in from California for a quick, one-week visit, and our friends from Davis, Tara and Dani, were in town at the same time. 

Jean arrived mid-week and was eager to check out some of the Australian wildlife. We first visited the Daisy Hill Koala Sanctuary and got up close and personal with a few grazing wallabies and the recuperating koalas. The next day we decided to check out the Queensland Museum near the city to check out the preserved animals that we probably wouldn't see in the wild. That afternoon, we took a hike around Mt. Gravatt, which is a little forest park just a few minutes' drive from our house.

On Saturday, we left Roxy and Nate at home and drove down to Springbrook National Park. We haven't been there since my sister Becky visited a year ago, and it's just as gorgeous as ever! We did the hike to Natural Arch and then drove over to a new section for a spectacular hike to a few waterfalls.

Natural Bridge

Jean beside a waterfall in Springbrook. Should be a great swimming hole come summertime (it was a bit chilly during this visit).

From the trail behind the same waterfall. Definitely want to see it after a storm.

That night we had delicious pizza in Mt. Tamborine and drove home well after Roxy had gone to sleep. 

Tara and Dani arrived back from Papua New Guinea the next day without their luggage (it was lost on their flight from Brisbane to Port Moresby), but with high spirits! 

Nate went to work and the rest of us crammed into the car and drove up to the Sunshine Coast hinterland for a visit to the Australia Zoo, which should be called The Crocodile Hunter's Theme Park, because Steve Irwin was EVERYWHERE (yet somehow I managed not to get a single picture of him)!

Waiting for the show at the Crocseum.

Dani looking a bit nervous with the 'roo.

Super photogenic Tara seems much more relaxed.

Rox practicing her haka face at our 'roo. Check out the size of my belly! Amazing!

Dani and Tara beneath the display that shows how high a kangaroo can jump - see the feet suspended from the ceiling above them?

I'm not the biggest fan of zoos, but The Australia Zoo isn't too bad. There was an emphasis on conservation, they don't use disposable plates (cookery) or silverware (cutlery) in their Food Court, and they even have a big gift shop that sells wares made by Australians in Australia from Australian materials. But, a zoo is a zoo, and the animals were in cages and pens. They had imported elephants and tigers putting on shows and lines out the door to get a $20 picture taken with a bored carpet python. 

Our next adventure was to North Stradbroke to spend the night and wake up to do some whale watching. During my sister's visit at the same time last year, the whales were jumping out of the ocean like popcorn and I was really hoping that would happen again.

We woke up to a cold and rainy day and because we didn't all fit in our car (4 adults + 1 toddler = not enough seats in the Laser), we had to take the train to bus to ferry to bus to get to the hostel on the island. Not so much fun in pouring down rain.

Our hostel was nice and clean and 3 km from town. We took a cab into town for dinner and settled in back at the hostel for a night of movie viewing (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Jurassic Park - classics!). 

It rained all night, but cleared up when the sun came up. The guy at the front desk warned us that whales don't really like storms and we probably wouldn't see many. Unfortunately, he was right. On the bright side, North Straddie is a gorgeous place to visit and we spent the morning checking out the crashing waves and managed to spot a couple of whales.

Walking into town.

Playing in the puddles and waiting for whales to surface.

Napping on our hike around the island.

Jean and me with the whale-less Pacific in the background.

Back at home: Coloring on a rainy day with Aunt Jean

Jean had to fly home the next day, so Dani and Tara took advantage of some downtime and read those addictive books from the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy. Roxy loved loved loved hanging out with the big girls and nestled herself right in with them on the couch. (I think she was reading a book about colors.)

Get comfy!

Dani and Tara had to leave a couple of days later and we had a great time reminiscing about grad school and catching up on the past 2-3 years. 

Happy to report that our full house is a happy house. Jean was a trooper and slept on the couch cushions for a couple of nights in our empty 3rd (!) bedroom and Tara and Dani shared the futon, even when they didn't have to. Nate's big pot of Mulligatawny Stew was a hit with everyone (although I'm sure my Asian-inspired pumpkin stew would have been just as popular).

The Undies have Landed!

We moved last weekend to a new place. It was all very quick - not at all like what we were used to in the U.S., especially coming from a college town where we signed rental agreements 4-6 months ahead of the move-in date.

Timeline of Move:

• Monday: Perfect House is listed on rental website
• Tuesday: Open inspection for Perfect House is held from 4:00-4:15. If you can't make it then, you're out of luck.
• Wednesday: I returned completed rental application with photocopies of our passports, driver's licenses, bank statements, birth certificates, pay statements, utility statements and phone numbers and addresses for two personal references each.
• Thursday morning: Realtor calls each of our references to make sure we are who we say we are.
• Thursday noon: Realtor calls us to tell us that we have been chosen as tenants for Perfect House! We have to submit 2 weeks' rent and a signed copy of the lease within 24 hours (not so easy as we were in the outback with Charlie and had limited/no access to internet banking or a fax machine. Fortunately we figured it out!
• Friday. Start packing as the new lease starts in a week!

The telecommunications system here (Queensland? Australia?) is a bit slow and broken. We were having a lot of connectivity problems at our old apartment (I blame the possums chewing on the telephone lines), our ISP-supplied router is kind of busted and to top it off we had to wait more than a week to get our DSL transferred to the new phone number. 

Anyhow, we are now reconnected to the world wide web. Ready to skype and chat and e-mail with ease!

I'll write a more detailed post about our new abode at some point. It's a great house with a big backyard, air conditioning, a brand new kitchen, a shower with double shower heads (!) and a great big verandah and it's all in within our budget. How is this possible, you ask? It's on a main road, so we gets lots of traffic noise. No biggie - Nate has likened the constant whooshing cars to ocean waves. It's all about perspective, right?

We're right across the street from a great big park full of new birds. Here's Roxy saying hi to the new neighbors:

(Click on the picture to enlarge to see the pretty galahs.)

A closer shot of the galah taken with my point-and-shoot. Google "galah" to see just how pretty they are.

We've been so busy the past few months that Nate has gone a bit feral. Here he is relaxing in the new house and sporting his Wolverine look. 

Eat your heart out, Hugh Jackman!

Grandpa Charlie's Visit

We're moving house this weekend! That means we have interrupted internet beginning on Friday and it might not get reconnected for a week! I figured I had better put up some photos from Charlie's visit while I can. What has he been up to these past three weeks?

Lawn Bowled on the weekends

(Roxy spends her time at Bowls in the sandy gutters.)

Explored the rugged scenery on Straddie (and took pictures meant to scare Grandma Doreen back at home).

Acted as a barber.

Played Wii tennis and baseball.

Climbed an epic boulder in Girraween National Park (Can you make him out about 2/3 of the way up?)

Assisted Roxy on her first bushwalk (she walked 500 meters mostly by herself to Curtis Falls in Mt. Tamborine National Park).

(She didn't like being carried through treacherous sections.)

Worked out with Nate.

Spent time being Grandpa.

He also played lots of mandolin, ate meat pies and kebabs, went to an Aussie Rules Football game, caught World Cup fever, celebrated Nate's birthday with oysters, visited some museums, ate up everything I cooked (even the disastrous rugelach), went on an historic walk, helped out immensely when we were searching for a new place to live, was a great friend to this homesick stay-at-home mama AND also managed to fit in a whole lot of nothing (he's on vacation, for goodness sakes!). 

He's leaving tomorrow morning. :( Come back soon, Grandpa! Until then, Roxy will make sure you get tucked into bed for plenty of nap time. I wonder where I can find a tiny wooden mandolin...?

Busy, busy (but who isn't?)

It's been pointed out to me that I haven't updated since the beginning of May! Sheesh! Where does the time go?

Ah yes, the time goes to building impenetrable forts!

I guess there's nothing really new or exciting to blog about. Life in Australia is pretty boring these days. The weather has cooled off nicely and we're enjoying bundling up under blankets at night. This is the best time of year to live in Queensland: cool nights and warm days and not too much rain.

Our good Aussie girl wearing her Uggs on a chilly morning. (She's wearing an eyepatch to help get her peepers aligned. No pirate jokes, Aunt Becky!)

We're looking forward to a visit from Nate's dad next week. He will be here for three weeks, with a solo sojourn to Sydney in there somewhere.

Roxy put Grandpa doll into bed for a nap. She's practicing for when he gets here.

That's all for now. This last picture was requested by Katie (about a month ago). Taken tonight of preggo me just days from the six month mark. No endless summer pregnancy this time around!

Now accepting name suggestions! We are at an impasse for a boy name!

Life is hard.

Sometimes you just have to take a break on the beach.

Haircut and glasses

Roxy recently acquired her first pair of glasses. We noticed that her eyes didn't look in the same direction all of the time and the glasses should help get them back on track before there's any permanent damage to her vision.

Anyway, the glasses have a strap that goes around her head. One of my friends in mother's group said when she saw her, "Oh Roxy! You look like you should be flying a bi-plane!" They make her eyes look huge and look like goggles.

She's been wearing a barrette in her hair to keep it out of her face for the past nine months or so, but trying to keep the bow on with glasses wrapped around her head is just way too much for mama to deal with, so Rox got her first haircut today.

So cute in the chair! This good behavior lasted about four minutes, which means the cut took about four minutes, 10 seconds.

Nate and I laughed and laughed at this picture. He thinks she looks like Chris Farley. This is the face she makes when someone holds up a camera, which makes me think this is what she thinks we look like when we're smiling for the camera. Thanks Rox.

Glasses off for dinner. Don't want them to get in the way of smearing blueberries all over!