VACATION(S)!!!

Getting back to reality after 5 weeks of vacation. Well....,.it's been rough. I'm sure everyone feels really bad for me. Kevin tells me that I am turning into a true Australian with that long of a vacation, I have yet to hear of someone taking just a week vacation here- the least I usually hear is 2 weeks! I like that about this culture :). At the end of June Kevin and I took off for a cruise to the South Pacific- we went with some Melaleuca Marketing Executives that won a contest. It was great- lots of fun to meet some of the business builders here. The weather wasn't fabulous but the food was.....enough said. We went to New Caledonia & Vanuatu. I came home from the cruise a few days early to pack and get ready for the next trip- on to Idaho! I had never thought there would come a time where our family was sooo excited for a vacation to Idaho- little did I know our future held living half way across the world.
 Me + 3 kids + 4 airports + 3 planes + 17 hours in the air = an exhausting SUCCESS!

We were so lucky- it honestly couldn't have gone any better. To say the least our trip to Idaho was great. More than ever it has made me so grateful for the wonderful family and friends that we have- that continually show up for us no matter where we are! I didn't fit everything in but it was comforting to know that we still have our house and that will be a reality again- probably before we know it. So Carpe Diem - right?  Just for the record- no matter how old I get I think I will always enjoy hanging out at my moms house- taking care of me....even doing the laundry! Last but not least- then we were on our way to Hawaii! It was Kevin and my first time being there- it was honestly amazing and so good to see Kevin's parents. It had been 9 months and who knows how long until we see them again. They showed us a great time- all of the tourist spots and some of the local secrets. Coming home at night to hang out in their little beach house overlooking the ocean made it feel like a 5 star holiday! 

 

 Kevin buying a drink from the local school....the kids were trying to save up to earn a trip to Australia. 

The coolest Banyon tree I have ever seen- this village in Vanuatu considers this tree it's protector- if a storm comes they gather inside the roots. 

The first plane ride- 14hours from Melbourne to LA (tail winds cut off 2 hours from this direction).

 

Watching the fireworks with my adorable nieces and super cool nephew.....

This picture holds pure joy for Brooklyn- her 3 cousins that make her happier than anything........

                                     50 ft water slide provided by the Andersons.....

         Saying goodbye to cousins.....Carson is the one on the grass refusing to participate.

I was in Idaho 3 weeks out of an entire year and was lucky enough to be here when these two precious babies were born- Kate, my well.....my eternal bff had her 2nd set of twins- Caroline and Colter.

 

Kiwi Loco with Jakie and Ty.....good times!

A Koala and 3 Birthdays!

Well, Australia has been our home now for about 11 weeks. Crazy. The newness is starting to wear off a little bit but oddly enough that makes the home sickness come on. We are losing the vacation feel of things and reality is....we are here, for a while. That isn't bad at all....just different. It's odd- we miss home but we are very aware of the fact that we are really going to miss living here as well. It's really great- so much to offer and discover. I doubt we will see it all but we will try! Also- I will mention that the people I meet here are all so kind and generous to offer their favorite spots to shop, eat and play. They are genuinely hopeful that we will love it and enjoy our time here. As I am writing this very blog post my elderly neighbor just showed up with fresh cut flowers for me- he said he was getting some for his wife and thought of me too. Kev said guys like that make him look bad....we didn't even have a vase so he provided that too. :)

Some new Vocab and Phrases for the week.....

* Heaps- lots, tons..."We had heaps of fun."
*Keen- interested, want to..."Are you still keen to go with us on Saturday?"
*Nappys- Diapers
*Go have a play. Have a bath...or have a nap." -People don't TAKE things here, they HAVE them. I've  already picked up the term "Go have a play!" It's like I am giving something to my kids not telling them to do something.
*A bit- I know I used this in U.S. too but Brooke has really picked it up. She will say "I'm a bit tired" or if I asked if she had fun she would say "Yes- I had a bit of fun."
*Op Shop- is like a D.I. or second hand store.
*Pizzer and Paster-  if it ends in an 'A', people (from what I can tell) switch it to an 'er' at the end.

Did I ever mention the eggs are ALL BROWN here. Yep....not a big deal right? The thing that still gets me is....most of the stores keep them on the shelf- not refrigerated. There are usually some that are kept cold so of course- I usually go for those. Just because the thought of shelf eggs seems wrong, even if harmless. Until this week I only purchased cold ones but the store was out...I considered protesting or boycotting ....but instead I bought warm ones on the shelf. So if we contract Salmonella .....you all know why.

Brown eggs = no Easter egg dying. However- we choose not to abandon our holiday traditions and we found a way to color eggs.....with paint.  Kev and I thought we were supper funny painting our eggs white.

Our Bunny Brownie....my mom used to make me bunny cakes for birthdays so I thought I would give it a try! The kids thoroughly enjoyed decorating him.

Also...night before Easter Kev looked out our bedroom window...second story and this little guy was peering in on us. We were expecting the Easter Bunny, instead we got a Ring Tailed Possum.

So- we were able to take a trip up to the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast- beautiful places! It kindof feels like these coasts are to Australia what California and Florida are to the U.S. Beautiful and sunny....tourist spots. The Gold Coast is where all of the theme parks are. These places are by the big city of Brisbane and on the East Coast, above Sidney. Anyway- we were there for most of Birthday week so Andrew and Carson celebrated theirs while we were gone and Brooklyns was the day after we got home.

This is a man-made beach in the middle of Brisbane, they are inland just a bit so they made this for the community- super fun with fountains and all.

 

This was on our hike along the some of the Sun Shine Coast- right side jungle looking the whole way and left side staring down and the beach.

We stopped for lunch on this cliff where we watched surfers and spotted some dolphins!

 

At the beginning of our hike we spotted a Koala way up in the tree- he was still there when we finished. That was a highlight for all of us. Hard to see because he was soooo high up. Can you spot him? 

 

Some friends and Melaleuca marketing executives took us to this amazing water fall tucked right inside their town. We went from a parking lot to rain forest in less than 5 min.

 I love this picture. They are so cute.

  

Andrew's 8th birthday! He had a gourmet hotel breakfast of poptarts and soda, and he loved it.

Happy 4th Bir-day Carson....as he would say it. We spent the day playing at an arcade.

Happy 7th! Brooke saw this bear in Costco and was begging for weeks for him. We told her no way...but then we gave in and had him waiting in the kitchen holding a pack of American pre-cooked bacon that Kev smuggled into Australia just for her birthday. She was beyond excited! She carries the bear all over- even though it is way bigger than her. Don't ask how we will get him home!

So- sometimes I have a vision of what perfection would be. For example- for Andrews baptism I had imagined it with our family and friends there- a day full of people and celebration. I couldn't imagine it any other way because honestly- that saying "It takes a village to raise a child,"- rings true for me. We have had so much support over the past 8 years raising our kids. Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles- who love my kids as if they were their own. Friends who are always there for us. So, as you can imagine It was difficult for me but he was anxious and ready to be baptized....

We had the baptism right after church on April 22. He had a joint baptism with another boy, Antone,  from his primary class. The ward was invited to attend- the room was clear full of ward members and several sets of missionaries. As I stood up to give my talk I mentioned that we were a half a world away from home. I thanked them for their support and for being their in lou of our families. At that moment I had an overwhelming feeling of peace. This vision was so different from my original vision of perfection.  However this too......was perfect. 

Happy Holidays!

So here- whenever there is a school break or just a public holiday.... it's the holidays! So the kids are on a 2 week holiday from school. Things are starting to feel a little more normal around here, as normal as they can when you live in a foreign country. We are enjoying it- as we meet more people it enhances the experience.

I though I would start out with a few more vocabulary words for you. The award for the best vocab mistake of the week goes to..... Kevin! Kev has been interviewing new assistants. He found one who he liked, she is about 50 yrs old. He told his staff in a meeting "I think she would be a great assistant because she is really 'spunky'!" Spunky here means - 'hot and promiscuous'. FUNNY! I'm glad they worked that one out or they would think he was a sick-o.

Cuppa- cuppa of whatever: coffee, tea or in my case juice. I went and grabbed a cuppa with some of the 2nd grade room moms.

Just a Tick- just a second..... 'we are leaving in just a tick'

Muckin'- 'Quit muckin' around!', means messing around or goofing off.

Ring- 'Just give me a ring.' Call me.

Sing out- 'If you need anything just sing out!' Just let me know.

Lovely- if food is good, I'm sure other things too. 'This dip is just lovely.'

Cheers- Sometimes people use it to thank you or sometimes they thank you and then say 'cheers', people end emails with it or say it when you open a door for them and such.

No worries- basically saying 'No problem.'

Everyone also always asks how we are 'finding it here?' How do we like it so far.

There are a few phrases I can see myself picking up. Many of them sound more cheery....however to hear a grown man say "Oh- I want to go get some lollies (candy)," makes me laugh....some words sound a little feminine. :)


The school year here starts in February and ends December 21st. So there is only a 6 week summer but after every term the kids get 2 weeks off- that happens 3 times. I actually really like it. It was $650 for the kids uniforms and it was just over $1000 to get the kids registered for school. That is a cheaper public school. However, they do great field trips and in just the 4 weeks my kids have been there they have had 6 career professionals from city come talk to them. I can tell this is a really great school and the moms are so involved. My friend told me to register her 4 girls in their private school, which is most common for middle and high schools here, they could have purchased a really nice car. That is just for one year!

Andrew and Brooke on the first day! They have to wear the hats at recess the 1st and 4th semesters- sun smart school.
Yes....she's mine :). So cute but she said she only wore it because Aunt Leah wanted a picture. I can only get her to wear it like once a week but it's so cute on her!
This is there school- it's pretty old and historic looking but they have updated it and added a new addition on the back.
New addition...and the playground grass is turf. They also have 3 sandboxes.
These next few picts are at the Victoria Street market. It is awesome there- a huge square block of just an outside market- under a metal canopy. They have clothes, cooking supplies, toys, souvenirs, and food. I believe they are open year round. This is Brooke with a potato dipped in batter and fried. And it came from a Chinese booth. By the way....when we say Idaho here people say "oh- home of the potato!"
Tons of fresh fruit and veggies....I love it!
Meat market across the street from this market. Seriously a building filled with vendors selling meat. One guy had beef ribs in an open box on the ground....needless to say- I purchased from the next guy.
We are really close to a train station and the kids love to ride it- it is quite handy. The kids and I took it the 2nd week we were here to the zoo while Kevin was out of town. This is the central big station downtown where the trains come into- I took this picture when we were switching trains.
Train ride!
So the story with Kevin's foot is still sortof a mystery. While he was traveling on business we think he got bit by something. The problem was that it got crazy infected- it was so swollen and he couldn't walk to get onto the plane to come home. They wouldn't let him get on plane and sent him to hospital- he came home the next day and was on in-home hospital care for the next week. It was awesome having the docs an nurse come to the house so Kev could just be home with us. Carson didn't leave his side- at the end of the week the doc told Carson that he was released from the hospital too and that he was also going to have to get out of bed soon!
Kevin's IV of double dose antibiotics hanging from the curtain rod :).
Here are just a few random pictures of a few things we have done and seen. This is the first beach we went to- Safety Beach on Mornington Peninsula. So clean and beautiful!

This huge dome is the stadium where Kevin got to watch some of the Australian open tennis tournament. Botanical gardens- they had 1,800 different kinds of trees and plants there- it was awesome.
St. Kilda beach near downtown Melbourne. It isn't very clean but it was an awesome view.
Wind/kite surfing. We don't know the official name but these guys were all over and it looked like so much fun!Last but not least. This is a picture of our safe haven....our home away from home. Oh Mackers (McD's) how we have such a love hate relationship. In Idaho Kevin and I would protest before we would eat here.....now we look forward to it. Soda's with Ice and a cheeseburger that tastes so familiar to us. Not to mention....the only good deal we have found in Australia so far....the ice cream cones are only 30 cents! However- value meals are only available from 12-2pm....otherwise you have to order the meal separately!

Until next time! Cheers- Steph

The move...

These are a few of the pictures of our journey over to Australia and our first few days. Kevin has some better pictures of the plane ride that I will get on here soon. Besides our suitcases we were allowed to send 500lbs of our personal belongings. Sounds like a lot....but turned out that it's not. Below is what 500lbs looks like.

Saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa....

The first of 3 flights....kids were super excited, I think I was numb.

Carson fell asleep in the LA airport on the floor waiting to board for the 16 hour flight- we tried to keep him up but luckily he slept for almost 8 hours of the plain ride too.
Andrew loved the T.V.'s on the back of each seat. They were seriously so nice, I think I slept a total of an hour and a half on the flight so I was able to catch up on my chick flicks.

Our first sight of the Australian coast line...
Landing in Melbourne.....looks like...not what I had imagined :)
This is our 2 story plane. It was 10 seats and 2 isles wide.
This is the comforting big sign we saw in the airport.
Downtown Melbourne, pretty beautiful.
Many of the streets are lined with trees like this, it's beautiful.

Our new townhome- it really is beautiful and we feel quite comfortable in it. There is no yard just a little porch out back.

Carson- sleeping on an Ikea bed in the middle of the store. He and I had the hardest time adjusting to the time difference. There was a lot of shopping the first few days because we didn't ship any furniture over- it was cheaper to buy it here.

Instead of 50 cents for the little kiddie rides they are all a $2 coin, Kevin told them to enjoy the ride because it was the last one they were going to get while here. ;)

I was a little overwhelmed after the first grocery shopping trip. The butter comes in solid blocks of 500 grams (1.1 lbs) or in 1.5 grams (3.3 lbs), and the cheddar cheese is white! Medium cheddar is called Tasty Cheddar. I found the cheese at the end of the shopping trip and trying to adjust to all of the new brands and not finding just our normal basics I was....a little flustered. Kevin recalls me turning to him and saying "The cheddar is white here, I'm just not sure I can do this anymore- you pick out the dang cheese!" So much to take in the first week and I am still struggling with the easiest way to measure butter from a big block.

This picture doesn't give justice to how huge this block of butter is!

I took this picture in our travels...Idaho??? Nope....Australia.

More pictures to come!