HAIR CUT

Madi has wanted a hair cut since before we left the states. I told her that she would have to wait because I didn't have time to worry about that on top of everything else. So at the beginning of the week I had an appointment to get my hair cut (a disaster - I will have to get another one when we move into the house) and Madi wanted hers done as well. She wanted it up to her ears, but I convinced her that to her chin would be good enough, and she also has bangs. She really does look cute and it doesn't get nearly as many snarles.

3 MUSEUMS IN ONE WEEK!!!

In trying to find things to do this week I took the kids to some museums that are close by and some of them free (which is always a bonus in my book). They were all very different, but very interesting (of course I would have learned more if I wasn't with three kids), the best thing is that they all had kids areas.

THE MARITIME MUSEUM: as the name of the museum indicated it is all about things in the water, boats, submarines, etc. We didn't spend much time here to be honest - the kids moved through it pretty quickly. We could have paid money to go out on some ships, a pirate ship being the one of interest to the kids - Cooper was sad when I told him that I wasn't going to fork over the money.

THE POWERHOUSE MUSEUM:

this museum was all about science and industry. They had many stations around the museum for kids to stop and play. There was one for music with a huge keyboard you could play music with your feet on. Madi was pretty good at following the lights to play waltzing matilda. One of Cooper's favorite parts was the huge trains. There was one at the entrance and another on another floor. He was in heaven!! He would have been even happier had he been able to climb on them - it was against the rules, but he tried. They had another section about science and it's uses all around us - I love science so I enjoyed this area (the kids were not as excited as I was). The hit was Zoe's House for the kids.

The first time there they spent half hour - and then we went back and spent another half hour. It was a room full of foam blocks of all sizes to build a house. The frame is what is in the picture. There are also trolleys (train carts) which went on a track and under a boom gate, as well as wheelbarrows for moving the "bricks" all around the room. There were cranes and levers and so many fun things to do. They had to wear a hard hat and vest and they had the time of their lives. On our first trip into Zoe's House, however, there was another little boy there with his father and mother. His father was standing next to the track and Cooper wasn't paying attention and ran right into his leg with the trolley. He immediately limped over to a chair and I asked if he was okay, to which he responded "NO! I am not!!" I felt so bad and wasn't sure what to say to that. He then told me that it was okay and his wife was a nurse if he needed help. She didn't seem to worried about his condition and kept talking on her phone. When she was off she said not to worry he just didn't have enough fat on his bones. I kept apologizing and he told me that really he was going to be fine and that he was a stay at home dad and that it comes with the territory. We left soon after that, but ran into them again (not literally this time) at the playground outside. He seemed fine then. Besides the accident it was a fun day and the kids really enjoyed it. We stopped for an icecream cone on the way home - which is always a nice way to end a day.

THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM: we met us with Kev's friend Jessica and her daughters (Jasmine and Lisa) for the morning at the museum. We have actually done this with her one other time and she gave us her membership card to the museum since they are moving to Singapore in a few weeks. On Thursdays they have a family day and in "Kids Spot" they read stories and have a craft to do. Cooper and Madi also like to go to the bone room (it is full of bones from all different animals) and the discovery room (they have computers and hands on stuff to do) as well as Kid's Spot (which is all hands on and for kids up to 5 - yes Madi is just barely too old, but she goes in to help Cooper so it is okay). This is her creation of play dough - if you can't tell it is a snowman family (apparently she is missing the snow already - there is something wrong with that I think). After the museum we met Kev for lunch at Hyde Park - the museum is right by his building and the park.

CHINESE GARDEN of FRIENDSHIP

On Saturday, August 25th, Kev went out car shopping and I took the kids to the Chinese Garden of Friendship. It was so pretty and reminded me so much of China when we were there last year. It was very peaceful and beautiful and I can only imagne how it would be in the spring and summer when all of the flowers are blooming.

My favorite part of any Asian garden is the flow and the use of natural elements to create something beautiful.

I told Kev that when we get back to the States and I have my own yard again I want to create something like this in my own backyard. Complete with the lake - jokes and stuff!!

The kids favorite part was the huge cod in the lake. They spent at least 45 minutes watching the fish and naming them. They spent most of that time laying down on a bridge bending over - I was certain that Cooper was going in the drink a few times. I had to apologize to so many people that walked by -most of them just smiled and said "no worries". I figured that they were kids and that they weren't hurting anyone - plus they should enjoy the gardens as much as I do, even if it is for a totally different reason.

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

LUNAR ECLIPSE

WE HEADED OVER TO DARLING HARBOR TUESDAY NIGHT TO CATCH A GLIMPSE OF THE LUNAR ECLIPSE. IT WAS SO AWESOME. WE GOT THERE AROUND 7:20 AND IT WAS ABOUT HALF ECLIPSED. WE WERE THERE ABOUT A HALF AN HOUR BEFORE IT WAS FULLY ECLIPSED AROUND 7:55. IT IS TIMES LIKE THIS WHEN WE WISH THAT WE HAD A REALLY NICE CAMERA.

FUNNY THINGS!! :)

#1. Kevin told the kids that when he was younger he wanted to be a super hero when he grew up (Spiderman to be exact) to which they both replied that they wanted to be a super hero as well. He also told them that he would wear his Spiderman "under roos" and jump on the couch and run around pretending to fly. Cooper decided that he should also be Spider man and proceeded to jump on the couch and run around (he has to be like his dad). However, he didn't take off his clothes - he seems to have an adversion to being non-clothed. Madi quickly took off her clothes, though, and decided that she would be "star girl" - since she had stars on her undies (very original). I was going to take a picture but decided against it - although I could have embarassed her later in life I suppose.

here is a picture of a superhero that was doing a show in Darling Harbor - it was a bit cheesy to be honest, but the kids loved it. This is how we got on the subject of superheros to begin with - the kids were telling Kev all about the show.

#2. I dropped my key to the apartment (it looks like a credit card, not a key) in the toilet when it fell out of my back pocket. Gross - luckily it was only #1. Leave the rest to your imagination. It still works in the door too!!

#3. Cooper has decided that Rylee's binky should be called a plug since it plugs her mouth - smart little man!!

#4. This one happened just last night (Tues. 28th). I was cooking chicken for dinner and forgot to turn on the fan over the stove (I am supposed to do this anytime that I cook) pretty soon a bit of smoke covered the kitchen - the oil in the bottom of the pan had burnt a little - and the alarm went off. They called down from reception to make sure that we were alright and then informed us that the fireman would be knocking on our door shortly - policy and they could do nothing about it. Madi and Cooper went out into the "back yard" (balcony) and watched two firetrucks pull up. Sure enough four fireman came to make sure that we were okay. They were very nice about it and asked if we had extra chicken because it smelled so good. I was a bit embarassed.

Sorry the picture is hard to see - I zoomed down from 17 stories. Kev said that I should have asked the fireman to take a picture with them. How embarassing!!!

ODE To the Tim Tam...

ODE To The 'TIM TAM'!

Oh how I wish I could share with you this wonderful treat!

(YUMMMM!)

from the land down under where the cockatoo's tweet!

(YELL and SCREAM is more like it!)

The package says, "Hide Me" and I understand why...

(Yes, I do hide them.)

Cause when I take them back and say, "No!" the kids start to cry!

(Don't worry, they do this with every treat! Stace too -- ha ha!)

Two chocolate biscuits with more chocolate in the middle,

(Sense a trend here?)

then covered in more chocolate just adds more to MY MIDDLE!

(I really have had way too many of them, ask Stacy!)

After Jessy taught us about the glorious 'Tim Tam Slam'

(Sucking up hot chocolate through your Tim Tam straw!)

more packages I throw -- when shopping -- into our pram!

(keep up, it's a stroller! And we have a big one too!)

And yes it's a lie -- that I really want to share!

(Just a little brown one.)

Madi, Cooper, and Stacy -- touch my 'Tim Tam', you better not dare!

(Just for the record I have shared a couple!)

LOOKING AT CARS

let me explain this picture, no let me sum up. cooper's bed is right next to the window in their room and every night he falls asleep watching the cars down below on the freeways. he hasn't been sleeping very good since we moved to australia. he falls asleep late and wakes up early and is ornery because of it most days. we hope that this changes when we move into the house. but we think that it is so cute (don't tell him that i used that word to describe him) that he falls asleep with the curtains pulled back looking at the cars down below.

RYLEE

EVERYONE KEEPS ASKING HOW RYLEE IS SINCE SHE IS NOT SEEN IN MANY PICTURES. SHE IS DONG REALLY WELL. SHE IS SLEEPING PRETTY GOOD THESE DAYS - USUALLY 6-8 HOURS AT NIGHT. SHE IS REALLY A GOOD BABY AND DOESN'T CRY VERY MUCH - THIS IS A GOOD THING SINCE HER LIFE HAS BEEN IN CHAOS SINCE SHE WAS BORN. SHE IS NOW LAUGHING AND COOING AT US ALL OF THE TIME. SHE HAS BIG, BEAUTIFUL EYES AND KEV THINKS THAT THEY ARE TURNING ALL GREEN, NOT BROWN, SORRY DAD. WE WILL KEEP YOU POSTED ON THAT. SHE HAS GOTTEN BIGGER SINCE WE GOT HERE, OBVIOUSLY. SHE IS JUST REALLY LONG. SHE SPENDS MOST OF HER TIME IN THE STROLLER (PRAM) SINCE WE ARE ON THE GO A LOT, BUT IT DOESN'T SEEM TO PHASE HER MUCH. SHE HAS HER "TUMMY TIME" AND IS REALLY GOOD AT HOLDING UP HER HEAD. SHE ALSO SEEMS TO LIKE IT, MY OTHER KIDS HATED IT. SHE ALSO DOESN'T SPIT UP THAT MUCH - NO FOUNTAIN THIS TIME. EVERYONE SAYS HOW CUTE AND PRECIOUS SHE IS WHEN THEY SEE HER - EVEN STRANGERS AT THE STORE OR ON THE STREET. IT IS TRUE - BUT I AM A LITTLE BIASED I GUESS.

JONES FAMILY VISIT SYDNEY.....

...AND LET US TAG ALONG!!!

Some friends of ours from high school, Jessy and Kelli Jones, moved to Adelaide, Australia a little over a year ago. We were excited to find out that they were coming to Sydney for a visit, with Kelli's parents, and that it would be after we had arrived. They were so nice to let us tag along with them to see a few sights. It was great to catch up and get to know their kids!! They got to Sydney late Monday afternoon and the kids and I met them at Hyde Park. We then walked over to see the Opera House. At first Madi and Savannah were a little shy, but it didn't take long before they were fast friends, holding hands and running around together. Collin was a little sleepy the first day, but after that he and Cooper spent lots of time together as well.

Apparently Savannah had been waiting since moving to Australia to see the Opera House. So she was very excited. This time around we actually climbed the stairs and looked around and walked inside a bit. Kevin rode the train out to Circular Quay after work to join us and we walked over to the Rocks to find a place to eat dinner. Jessy spotted a pizzaria and they had enough space for us upstairs. It was in an old house and the stairs were steep and narrow. We tried five different medium pizzas - my favorite had chicken, onions, mushrooms, and it was on BBQ sauce. I thought it was a fun place, we will have to go back there sometime. Thanks Jessy!! We then walked around the harbor and saw the Opera House at night. It is so pretty.

The next day Kev took half a day off of work. When he got off we met them at the Darling Harbor park and the kids played for a bit. We then went to an Aboriginal show where a man told us about the aborigonies and played his didgeridoo. I missed half of the show because it was too loud for Rylee and she started to cry a bit. But what I heard was so cool. They make it look so easy. He also told about the history of the didgeridoo and how they are made. Apparently there is a termite that eats a specific type of gum tree bark. However, he can't eat the outside because it is poisionous to this termite so he eats out the inside and hollows it out. Then in the spring when it is all eaten they move to a new home and the aborigonies would go around this time of year and look for hollowed out trees and cut them down. They wouldn't paint them or anything, that is done for the tourists. They would use them for special ceremonies and then they would actually burn them in the fire when they were done. He also demonstrated the sounds that you can make with the instrument and how they were made to represent certain animals. It was all rather interesting. Jessy and his father-in-law had bought didgeridoos so they were excited when he explained how to play them - I missed this part of the show. Cooper didn't seem to like the show too much, but Madi loved it!!

After the show we headed up to the train station and rode over to Circular Quay where we caught a ferry to Manly to see the famous Manly Beach.

(This is Cooper showing his "MANLY" side.)

The kids and the dads rode out on the deck while we stayed inside. The kids were having a great time, especially Collin and Cooper. They were yelling and screaming and having the time of their lives. On the ferry over to Manly you cross a part of the bay where the head waters of the ocean meet - it gets a bit rocky. Well it was a bit windy on the ride back and the boat rocked quite a bit. I thought a few times that we were going to tip over - which logically doesn't make sense because the ferry is so big and wide that it would have to be some big waves to make it roll over.

We had a good time!! The kids played in the sand and chased birds. They didn't want to leave when it was time to go. We watched the surfers. The waves at times were huge (well I haven't seen many ocean waves, so maybe it is all relative, but to me they looked huge and I could never surf them). We saw a few really good wipe outs and some old men going in to surf.

.

While building the biggest and best sand castle in the world, Madi and Savannah were not paying attention to the ocean, a big wave came up onto the beach and their pants ended up soaked. They didn't seem to mind too much and pretty soon were back down on the beach trying to stay away from the waves. By the end all of the kids were wet and sandy, which wouldn't have been so bad except it is winter here and a bit windy, overcast, and chilly. We had a few complaints on our end - mostly from Cooper, who is a bit of a whimp when it comes to things like that as we all know. We are planning on going back in the summer!!

The next day we met up after Kev got off of work and went over to their hotel for dinner. It was a three bedroom and was bigger than ours. After dinner the kids went to the pool to swim. Madi was doing so well. She is getting better. She jumps in and tries to swim - I think that she will love swimming lessons when we put her in them. She was practicing diving and floating as well.

We then said goodbye until next time. We are going to try and make it to their house before they leave in May. It was so good to spend time with Jessy and Kelli. We got to get some advice from those who are in our same situation - which was extremely helpful. It was wonderful for Madi and Cooper to make some new friends. They have needed someone else to play with besides each other. It is so good to have friends! We love all of our friends and miss them terribly.

LITTLE ROCK STARS

Madi and Cooper have been rock stars for the past couple of weeks. The funniest thing is that they have fans - there are pretend girls following Madi and pretend boys following Coop around. I asked them what rock stars do and they told me that they sing, dance, and play music "of course". Today I told them to go dress like a rock star should so I could take their pictures. They are so much fun!! Love them with all of my heart and half my liver!!

RUGBY VS FOOTY

As all of you know, I love American football (especially the BYU variety); however, since they don't have that sport here we have been watching Rugby and Australia rules football or footy. When we were here 8 years ago to visit John and Susan a friend of theirs actually took us to see a footy match and we liked it then, even if we didn't know many of the rules. Well, we have decided that between the two, rugby and footy, we like footy better. It is more fun. We really don't know many of the rules now either, so I looked them up on line today using Wikipedia. So that you can all enjoy the sport as well, here is the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football#Rules_of_the_game

I think that if they introduced Australian football to the US it would be a huge hit. It is fast paced and can change quickly. The funniest thing to me (the athletic trainer in me) is when a player gets hurt play continues with the hurt player on the field and the physio (physical therapist or trainer, as far as I can tell) runs out on the field with everyone playing around them and assesses the player. They are so tough and wear no pads or helmets. They get hurt and it doesn't seem to phase them. It is a good time.

I will miss BYU football and will follow it on the net. If anyone can think of a way to record the BYU vs Uof U game on DVD and send it to us while we are here so we can continue the competition (we wouldn't want the children to forget who they vote for "blue team" or "red team," plus Rylee has to choose a side as well) plus any other BYU games that are on TV, let us know. I am giving you plenty of time to figure something out.

The only thing that we need to do is figure out a footy team to cheer on. We can't remember who Marv took us to see 8 years ago, John and Susan maybe you can help us out with that info.

Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Kev's Thoughts (House Hunting)!

I hope you have all been enjoying our blog (Well, Okay Stacy does all the work so it is mostly hers). There was just one section that I wanted to talk about as Stace didn't take much time talking about it and I think that people would find it interesting. The subject is house hunting!

Stacy only posted pictures of the house that we liked and ended up getting. She didn't explain how lucky we are though. We have had a hard time finding 4 bedroom houses in our price range. Most all of the houses around Sydney that are on the train line are all older houses. Even the person that was taking us around told us the the "Modern" house that we found is very rare. Most of the houses are a lot older, have cracks in the walls, older weird pattered carpet, different paint colors, etc. I am not saying that they were bad, we actually liked some of them, but they are definately not what we are use to back in the states. I am going to show you some pictures.

This was the second house we looked at. It had a big canal running down the front yard. The first thing Stace and I thought of was our kids falling into it and us never being able to find them. These cabinets are typical of other houses we looked at. When you open them up the insides look like they were all unfinished in my opinion.

Some of the houses had carpet made of interesting colors.

The next house was nice and even had a pool. The only thing different about this house was that the master bedroom and a small loft were on a second level. The stairs were a little scary for me as I could imagine what I would have done with them when I was Cooper's age. It was also on a very busy street.


The next house had really cool ceilings. The house after this had the same thing. They told us that is was something they did back at the time these houses were created. The problem with both of these houses were a little older and had cracks in some of the walls. They told us that was normal. They had this house listed as a 3 or 4 bedroom house. Come to find out that the 4th bedroom was a 5 ft. x 8 ft. sun room in the front of the house. The only other thing that made me laugh was that the 2nd bathroom was pink and blue. The tub, sink, and toilet were completely pink. Cooper didn't like that very much!


The next house is one that Stace and I thought we might try for if we didn't get the one we got. Stacy described it as "Charming". It was a little older but still nice. The issue with it was that we either dealt with three bedrooms or we turned the family room into a bedroom (it did have doors).

The garage is pictured above and there was also a run down stable attached to it that I wasn't thrilled with. I could see the kids playing in there and hurting themselves. The garage is typical of most garages we saw. They were not kept up very well and they always told me it was just where you park your car.



The next house is one that we went back to see for the second time. It was a good price and in a nice neighborhood. It had some weird colors in some of the rooms (Madz liked the purple one above). It also had a crawl space underneath the house that gave me the creeps to walk into. I am just not use to crawl spaces.




The next house was on a HUGE hill and was in terrible shape. Even Sue (The lady taking us around) got in the car and said, "Well, we can scratch that one off our list."





The last house was nice but had way to much wall paper in the house, and it was all flowers! And how do you like the blue bath tub. I am just sad that I didn't get a picture of the pink one!

That was one long day, right Coop?!?