Roadtrip to Melbourne

The kids have 4 school breaks a year. Two weeks ago was their two week Spring Break. We have been realizing lately that if our tour ends up being 3 years we are almost half way done! We haven't seen nearly enough of Australia! With an adoption going on we decided it would be a great trip to drive to Melbourne (12 hours) , The Great Ocean Road and work our way back to Sydney - We needed to do all this in 8 days :) Since Matt had some meetings he had to get back to, Isabella is in the midst of her competitive gymnastics season and Jonah's baseball season has also started. We packed a load of adventure in just 8 short days (well the driving days were a little long . . . ) We had an incredibly great time! What a beautiful country this is. Here are some highlights of our trip.



October 1 - Leave Sydney at 6:35 am. Arrive Tourne on the south coast @ 7 pm. Yummy Asian noodles for dinner. We were pretty ready to get out of the car, a 12.5 hour drive can get pretty long for a certain little 4 year old!

October 2 - Check out of the hotel and head to The Great Ocean Road. We stopped at a few beautiful beaches and had a great time playing and walking. We watched surfers at a very famous surf beach. It was pretty cool. We arrived at our hotel called The Sandpiper Hotel in Apollo Bay in the early afternoon.

October 3 - We spent the day in Apollo Bay. As soon as the kids were up Matt walked with them the quarter mile down to the beach where they had a great time making sandcastles and playing in the sand. Later in the day we decided to take a drive to the National Park but we were stopped by a tree that had fallen into the road. We had a great time heading down a road and discovering a nice bush walk and ended up at a pretty isolated and beautiful bit of rocky shoreline and beach called Sandy Beach. We got a few good photos here and headed back up just in time to get in the car before it started pouring rain!

October 4- We check out of Sandpiper, It rains all day! We drove to the National Park and this time the tree was cleared out. You would not believe all the Koalas we saw in the trees on the way in. Amazing! We go over to the Waterfall and drive to Marriott in Melbourne, Dinner in China Town. Swim at the Marriott

October 5 - Sightsee in Melbourne

October 6 - We head to Philip Island. This little island is only about an hour south of Melbourne and can be accessed via a bridge. We stayed in the "Hollywood Hotel" that claims a movie star or two. We had a lot of fun going to the Penguin March - you sit on the beach and watch little fairy penguins come ashore. Unfortunately we didn't realize that unless you were in the first few rows you wouldn't see much. It was fun though as some had to waddle past us.

October 7 - Head to the Entrance - 90 mile beach. This was a beautiful beach . . . . miles and miles (about 90 -heehee) of beautiful beach with almost no people. The kids had a blast playing hide and go seek in the sand dunes and making sandcastles. We knew the kids loved it when Jonah said someday he wants to take his kids there, and Isabella agreed : )

October 8 - Head out, stop in Eden, Go to Narooma. WOW! We watched whales in the harbor from our balcony for several hours! They were flipping and blowing water. The big kids totally appreciated it and we were giggling and jumping up and down with excitement every time we got another glimpse. One time we watched a whale give the tail flip 15 times in a row! SPECTACULAR! This was the highlight of our entire trip!

October 9 - Head back to Sydney, stopping in Jervis Bay. Arrive home at 8 pm.

Captain Featherstone!

Elijah is so funny :) He decided to be a pirate for Halloween - so we ordered a Captain Featherstone costume for him. He was watching The Wiggles one morning and he went racing upstairs, he came down in his Captain Featherstone Costume and started dancing with the Wiggles and Captain Featherstone of course :) He makes us laugh every day. What a gift he is to us.

Our family meets the President!

Not so Typical Day - meeting the President of the United States!

Today we had the most amazing opportunity to meet President Bush at a "Meet & Greet" event held for Consulate employees and their families. It was a really great time. We shook his hand, just said a few words (nice to meet you, thanks for everything - he commented on Elijah's light up shoes - I think they startled him for a second, he said they kind of freaked him out . . ) The kids all got a photo with him. Here is something really cute: Isabella and her friend Sophia (my good friend Ashlyn's daughter) wore their Pymble Ladies College school uniforms and in the group picture with the Consulate Kids those two little girs were right in the middle with one hand of the President on each of their shoulders - too cute! Jonah was his right hand man and Elijah was in front of the girls . The rest of the Consulate kids were all around them so they were right in the middle of everything. I can't wait to get the White House photographers photo of that! After the photo with the kids, President Bush went down the line shaking hands and talking to everyone - he was sooooooooooo sweet - Jonah said he is a very good "speechmaker" and really - his speech was truly inspiring! He called himself an Evangelist for Liberty and said that God gave him the responsibility as President of the United States to work to ensure that every man, woman and child in the world has the opportunity to enjoy their god-given right to freedom.

I asked the President if we could have a family photo with him and he consented - we were very excited about that because many families did not get that opportunity. The White House photographer took one in addition to the one we took - and will send that to us later.

We just had a great day!

A typical day . . .

We woke up and I (Ellie) made brekky. The big kids put on their uniforms, packed their morning tea and lunch to catch a ride to the station with Matt in the tinny. I got Elijah ready and popped in to the right side of the Terracon to hop into the left lane of the highway and drop him off at Kindy. We walked by the beautiful houses with their lovely gardens. I popped in to say hello to Katie and drop off Elijah's lunch and morning tea. The kids were sharing their news. Walking back to the car I heard a Kukkaburra laughing and looked up to the Gum tree where there were two other Kukkaburras. I was struck by how many things that were so unusual to us the first few months have become so very normal. I am not sure it will be easy to flip our world again - will it be just as difficult to drive on the right side as it was to drive on the left the first few weeks . . . .?

Kristiana Hope Zhouzhou Witt - "Tia"

We are so thrilled to announce the referral of our baby girl! Yes! She was born July 15, 2006 in YiWu China - Zhejiang province (near Taiwan). She has a heart condition called VSD and she was scheduled to have surgery in June (we don't know for sure if she has had the surgery)

Her papers say "she is quiet and reasonable. She will not stop smiling when others approach her and amuse her. Because of her congenital heart problem, she catches cold easily. She is most intimate with her caretaker who feeds her. Her biggest wish is to be held often."

We are guessing we will travel in January or February to bring her home, we will update when we know more. That is just about all we know at this time - We think she is just the most beautiful little China Doll!

The boys - matching.

Elijah adores his big brother - occasionally the feeling is reciprocated :) When Elijah saw Jonah wearing his flannel pajama bottoms with no shirt, he just had to copy. I love this picture!