with Annie, Maddie & Tia. We had a very fun day - Dugongs are so cute (and chuppin' - as Mads would say :) Tia loved the dugongs, though they did scare her when the swam right next to her! Tia got a pink stuffed Dugong - she named it "Tia". Mads got a grey one and named it "Bosh" I guess it means Cow in french. Tia loved posing with the mermaid (who looks a little freaky if you ask me!) It was a beautiful day at Darling Harbour - and we really enjoyed a lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water. I wondered if it would be my last?!
whew - it has been so busy and I really need to post some photos from our Cairns vacation and Christmas, but my computer has been acting crazy (and I did a newborn photo shoot for a friend - very fun!). If you want to see some Great Barrier Reef photos you can pop over to my Mom's blog: Rita's Adventures and scroll down a post. We had a blast taking photos with our new underwater point and shoot canon camera. It took video underwater too! I just haven't figured out how to post those yet. I had a deadline to finish the book we ordered on our New Zealand Cruise last year by January 1st so I worked on that almost non-stop between Christmas and New Year's Day. I'm glad to have that completed! After I ordered it they sent me a link where you can view it online. If you have a few minutes and you'd like to see all the fun we had feel free to check it out here: So there is a little of what we have been up to. It has been really wonderful having Matt home almost every day over the past week and a half. We will miss him tomorrow :(
My Mom will be here until January 24th and the children all go back to school the week after she leaves so we have a few more weeks of fun before switching gears to moving in June or July. It has been a really amazing and wonderful three and a half years and we are definitely totally blessed to have had the opportunity to experience living in Australia.
We are really looking forward to the next phase in our lives. (and no we don't have any idea where we will go next - We hope to have some idea by March!) We have been reminded recently of the scripture God spoke to our hearts before we left for Budapest in 2001:
"The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Psalm 121:8
We are trying to get in all the trips we can before we return to the US in July. The kids are on their Spring Break right now and so we took up the offer from the Pastors of our church to stay at their place in the Blue Mountains about 1.5 hours from our home in Sydney. (Tia said we could go to the Blue Mountains - she wanted to go to the PINK mountains!) We arrived on Monday. It was freezing cold. We visited Jenolan Caves on Tuesday. We rode on the Zig Zag Railway and then visited the Toy Museum on Wednesday. We couldn't stand the 5 degree daytime weather (about 40 degrees) - especially at night when we only had one little heater. There was no way we could do all the bush walks we wanted in that weather. We left a day early on Thursday. It was so great to get home and feel the warmth of central heating!
The kids favorite part of the trip?? The candy store of course (we went there 3 times!) :) how funny is this picture?
We awoke yesterday to the sight of an eerie red sky . . . It seriously looked like what you would imagine could be the end of the world. It turned out to be a dust storm - only this was the red dust of Australia's Red Centre! It was crazy dusty. Jonah had to stay home from school because his asthma is so bad around dust. Everything is back to normal today - except maybe the outdoor furniture (the photo below is the patio table, showing where the candle was moved), the windows and the cars :)
They are winners of bracket #1. Tomorrow they play the losers of bracket #2. Brackets #3 & #4 are playing each other. Saturday and Sunday the winners play.
His first at bat Jonah struck out (Matt wasn't happy about that) his second at bat he had a hit that was caught and his third at bat he hit a double that brought in 2 runs. Matt said he played perfectly in the field.
I'll keep you updated as to how they go on Friday!
I'm a little antsy to be home in Sydney while the Little League Team is playing - I'm biting my fingernails down to my knuckles!
Here is the scoop: The first game went well(for our team anyway - I feel kinda sorry for those ACT boys) Jonah hit a double and a single driving in about 4 or so runs. All the boys got a chance to play, and it sounds like some of the kids who have only pitched a few times did awesome! Lots of home runs and 9 pitch innings. The one girl on the team pitched well and hit two home runs. I'm sure this was the weakest team they will play but it has to have been a good warm up anyway.
Next game is in another hour or two - I will update you then :) (whether you want me to or not!).
Matt and Jonah arrived safely to the Gold Coast yesterday for the Australian Little League National Championships! Today they have their first two games. There are 12 teams in the tournament and they are in 4 groups of 3. I will update later about their results!
Everyone is super excited. They looked so professional leaving in their new jackets with "Little League NSW Champions 2009" embroidered on the front.
This is our family scrapbook . . . thanks for stopping by! It's fun for us to stay connected to our family and friends while we are so far from home. PLEASE leave a comment every now and again - it makes us feel like we are not forgotten :)
Aus speak
Chockers (short for Chock-A-Block)
Chock - A - Block (very busy or "full-on"!)
full on (this is the BEST of Aus speak!) Full on means totally busy or completely absorbed in - a child that is super busy can be "full-on" or a weekend crammed with activities is "FULL ON!" We love this expression because it does not seem to have an American equivalent and we can't imagine how we were able to express ourselves adequately with out it!
gobsmacked
Give it a little rub (your head, when you bump it)
