AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2010

Kevin and I had our first KFW (kid free weekend) since coming to Australia. It was wonderful!!! We are lucky to have wonderful friends, the Graces, who stayed at our house and took care of our kids! We could not have done it without them! Every time I called the kids told me something else fun and exciting they had done. Thanks Jared and Regina for being willing to help us out. Words can't express how much we appreciate it!!!

We went to the Aussie Open. I still can't believe that we went. It has been on our list of things to do while in Australia, but I didn't think that it would actually happen. Things fell into place and we found ourselves in Melbourne for a long weekend.

We had to start out really early and get up at 3am to get to our plane on time Saturday morning. I was lucky enough to meet some Aussie on-line scrappin' friends in the morning after we arrived for morning tea/brunch. It was so fun to meet IRL.

(Sharon, me, Bree, Maz, and Pene)

After that we headed over to Merv and Margaret's house - they are friends of Kev's parents, whom they met while serving a mission for our church in Melbourne. We are lucky enough to know them as well and we were so happy when they said we could stay at their house while in Melbourne.

We drove over to see the temple. Kev and I went inside shortly after it was dedicated while visiting John and Susan in Melbourne while they were on their mission. It was nice to see it again - even if it was just through a locked gate and fence.

Sunday morning we got up early to head over to the tennis center. Yep, we went on Sunday, don't tell anyone we broke the rules and went to a sporting event on a Sunday. It just happened to be when the tickets were bought. Since we don't normally do things like that we hope that we won't be struck by lightening any time soon. We were there for the fourth round and went to see tennis on the Sunday afternoon session and the Monday evening session.

We had tickets in center court, Rod Laver Arena. The atmosphere all around was fabulous and so much fun!We got to see some good tennis.

Sunday afternoon session

Andy Murray - GRB (5) vs. John Isner - USA (33) final 7-6 6-3 6-2

We cheered loudly for the underdog and our fellow countryman. Although he lost he played hard. He is young and I think we will hear more from him in the tennis world!

Ivo Karlovic CRO vs Rafa Nadal ESP (2) final 4-6 6-4 4-6 4-6

If you know anything about tennis you know who these pictures are of by the first one (yep, butt picker himself Rafa Nadal). For those of you who don't know. He has a routine that he does before every serve and it includes picking his butt. Kev waited and got this picture just for me...LOL!

Monday evening

Roger Federer SUI (1) vs Lleyton Hewitt AUS (22) final - 6-2 6-3 6-4

The crowd was out to cheer on the #1 Aussie tennis player vs the #1 player in the world. The atmosphere was charged and fun! What a game to see!

We also saw a women's match, but we didn't stay for much of it. By then it was so late and one of the ladies was making a funny bird like noise every time she hit the ball. Kev was snickering and we decided since we didn't know them we would head out.

While we were there we also took in the sites of the city of Melbourne and did some shopping in the fashion capital of Australia. It has such charm. I wanted to take pictures of all the old buildings and fun alley ways, but forgot...OOPS!

The problem with a KFW is that I have to be in all the pictures...LOL!

The cathedral on Flinder's Street outside the station

Federation Square

We had dinner with a friend of Kev's from work, who was also going to the tennis, and her friends. It was at this Greek restaurant. I have never had Greek food before. I have to say now that it is one of my favs!!!

While there we also took the time to see Avatar in 3D (this was the one thing Kev wanted to do besides watch tennis). What a cool movie!!! Seriously, I know the message is a bit political, but it was such an amazing movie!!! I LOVED IT!!!

Thanks to Merv and Margaret for dotting on us and letting us stay with them!