2nd week in Sydney..we are still alive!!

Here is our weekly update

Monday - I had to do laundry and Kev went back to work, so we stayed at the apartment all day - imagine if you will three children and their mother in a two bedroom apartment. It was a long day so for FHE we went up to the pool and had some fun. I stayed in the hot tub the whole time - the pool was too cold for me. Rylee spent the time snoozing away in her car seat - what else is new?

Tuesday - we had no food in the apartment for lunch so I took the kids up to McDonalds (we have eaten there so many times in the past two weeks, not really my favorite place but if you have kids you know that they love it). We got food and went to Hyde Park to eat and chase birds. I got up there and realized that Kev's building for work is right there so I took some pictures. He is on the 15th floor and he can see the park and the Opera House from his window. He is going to take the camera to work one day and take some pictures so that you can see his view. Next week we are going to meet for lunch at the park. For those of you who don't know (which would be most of you) Hyde Park is a huge space of green in the middle of the city - it is a bit like Central Park in NY I suppose. I love it!! It is so peaceful and the trees are so cool!!

Wednesday - we spent the whole day lookint at houses. It was exhausting. We did find one that we really liked. Here in Australia you have to submit an application even to rent a place. So we submitted our application and are just waiting to hear back from the owner. Apparently there is already an application from another couple and the landlord keeps putting off when he is going to make a decision so we wonder if he wants to wait and see if he can get more applications. The housing market here is not doing well and there is not much out there to rent. Usually they say that when you find something that you like you have to snatch it up quick. It is also more expensive now to rent than it was months ago. We are hoping that we will be okay - our budget is only a guestimate mostly since we haven't ever lived here. Most of this experience is on faith anyway. Anyway we should find out tomorrow (Monday) what the land lord has decided. If he takes a different applicant than we are hoping that the company will let us have another day out with Sue (she is our relocation person, and she is lovely). We will let you know what happens.

Thursday - in the afternoon we went to the park and then suprised Kev by walking to meet him at work. There are actually two AMEX buildings here in Sydney and he was at the other one (not the one in the picture by the park). We got to walk across a pedestrian walkway across the harbor which was fun for the kids. We then went to the shopping center (mall) to eat dinner and to do a little shopping and looking around (mostly looking around). Here everything closes at night by 6:00pm, except for Thursdays - a little strange that they chose Thursday.

Friday - we stayed at the apartment again and once again the kids went swimming with Kev at the pool. I try to go out at least once a day with the kids, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. The apartment starts to feel really small if we don't do that.

Saturday - we went to the zoo to celebrate our 9th anniversary and for Madi's b-day which is Tuesday the 14th. I will do a seperate post for this since we have lots of pictures. It was a fun day!!

Sunday - we went to church today in the city. We knew that there was a branch that met here right next door to the AMEX building. Come to find out it is a Young Single Adult branch, so there was no primary. Madi and Cooper did great though and they went to Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society with us. They were remarkably reverent and we were so proud of them. It is a strange ward, and they have many people there that are not single adults. People who come into town for work come, families on holiday, etc. So they don't mind if we come for a couple of weeks. It is just easier to walk about 15 minutes to church than to catch the train and spend most of the day in transit to go to church. We could attend a family ward that meets after the YSA branch, but it is a Chinese branch and we wouldn't understand anything that they said. After church we headed over to the park for a picnic before we headed back to the apartment. Cooper's favorite thing to do is to chase the birds. We fed them the uneaten crust of Madi and Cooper's sandwiches and then Cooper spent time chasing the birds around the park. We then came home to rest and relax - the best thing about Sunday right!!!