PARASAILING

While on the boat to the Green Island in the Great Barrier Reef they came around trying to get people to go parasailing. Kev has done this before in Hawaii with his friend Kevin and loved it. I have had no desire before to try it because I am a bit afraid of heights. However, Madi wanted to do it so badly. I told her that I would do it with her. I figured you actually got to sit in a seat it couldn't be so bad. Madi wasn't old enough, but they checked and she is tall so they said she would be okay.

When our designated time to go came Madi was bounding down the pier to get to the boat. She was so excited. Kev was off scuba diving so he wasn't around and G&G took the other kids and watched them while I was gone. It was stormy but better than it had been just an hour before.

As soon as we got on the seat and started going into the air I began to wonder what I was doing up there. I was gripping onto the chair so tightly my knuckles turned white. I was holding Madi's hand as well, but tried not to hold on too tightly because I didn't want to scare her. She was so excited and kept kicking her feet - which of course made the chair swing a bit. I kept talking to her and tried to sound calm. I think it helped that I had to remain calm for Madi's sake. I was scared to death at moments.

I tried really hard not to look down at the boat. As long as I looked towards the horizon and saw the ocean and the island and the reef it was fine, but if I looked down I got a bit scared. They had told us before we went out that we might see a whale so I was searching for a whale - no such luck. That would have been cool though. It was windy and rainy when we got up in the air and the chair we were sitting in would jerk sometimes with the wind. That freaked Madi out too so it wasn't just me. Every once in a while we would lean forward a bit in the chair and I kept wondering what I would do if we plummeted into the sea. Yes, we did have life vests on. Of course we never leaned that far forward.

We only got this one picture and we had to buy it. I figured we should have something to remember the Madi and mommy moment!

All in all it was a fine experience. I am not the type of person who needs a rush to say I have lived. I am perfectly fine with my feet firmly on the ground. I can say I have done it now, but I don't think I will do it again. Of course I have learned to never say never. Kevin, and Madi now, are pretty good at talking me into facing my fears.

LAST WEEK WITH G&G

Last week was a bit crazy around here. John and Susan had some friends drive up from Melbourne to see them and then spent the week at our house. We had two kids sleeping on the floor of our room - Rylee had been in the closet the whole time as G&G were in her room, and Cooper slept by the side of the bed.

The nice thing was the Merv and Margaret were the tour guides for a few days. This worked out great as Kev went to work and the kids to school. I had a few days to get some things done around the house. They took them to the Blue Mountains and down the south coast and a drive through Kangaroo Valley.

Kev took the last two days of the week off of work to spend with his parents. On Thursday after a trip to the temple we went up to Wiseman's Ferry to have fish and chips and a quick look around. It was a lovely afternoon. Strange to only have one child in tow - I forgot how easy it is to have one child on an outing.

Merv and Margaret are lovely people. We first met them when we visited John and Susan while they were on their mission to Melbourne. John and Susan had been assigned to be their home teachers and they invited us over for afternoon tea one day as well as our first footie game. Merv is a huge Australian rules football fan and he took us to see Essendon in the finals. We had front row seats. It is still a treasured memory for both Kevin and I. It was nice to see them again and have their company in our home for a few days.

A TRIP TO THE ZOO

On Friday we took the kids out of school to spend the last day with Grandma and Grandpa before they flew back home. Months ago the kids had told them that the only thing they wanted to do was take them to the zoo. We haven't been to Taronga Zoo since the first month we lived in Australia when we took the ferry over the harbor to get there. This time we drove and the weather was perfect.

We love seeing all the Aussie animals in the zoo. Especially the cheeky platypus who was swimming circles. I have never seen one so active before. We couldn't get enough of the koalas in the trees.

Who can complain when you gets sights like this while at the zoo?

We came out of the reptile exhibit in time for Madi to do this. She was in heaven. This silly girl has wanted a snake as a pet for as long as I can remember. She knew so much about snakes while in the exhibit - it is a good thing for those home readers at school (she is always bringing home the snake ones).

This is about when my camera ran out of battery power. I hadn't recharged the other one since we had come back from the Reef so we were out of luck. Grandma let us borrow her's, but I haven't had a chance to look at the pictures we downloaded from it.

We saw turtles mating - it was very interesting.

The tree kangaroo was actually up high in the tree.

Cooper's favorite part was when we were looking at the elephants eating and one raised his tail and pooped. Then he proceeded to pee - I had no idea elephants had so much pee it was like a mini river on the ground when he was done. Cooper is going to talk about this for his news this week - oh the mind of a boy.

We saw the penguins at the perfect time. It was feeding time so they were swimming around like crazy. We were all mesmerized a bit I think.

Rylee had a few melt downs. No nap = melt downs.

The kids played at the playground for a while and Rylee never left the water - imagine that.

The red pandas were sleeping much to our disappointment. Last time we were there they were wide awake and we got some awesome pictures.

All in all it was a perfect day.

The next day was a sad day as we said goodbye to grandma and grandpa. Rylee kept walking around saying she was sad - how cute is that?! We will miss them and are glad they took time to come and visit us!

THE BIG SPIDER

Last year a friend of ours sent us these pictures of a spider eating a bird (I went and found them on YouTube so you can see them): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTYBwAs0k6c&feature=fvsr

I think my brother sent me the same pictures and was wondering if they were really true. Now we knew moving here that Australia has a lot of spiders, many of which are poisonous, so I didn't doubt that it was true. So far the biggest spider I have seen in a huntsman. That is until I went to Queensland. We saw one of those spiders that people had sent pictures of, and golden orb spider.

We saw it at the Aboriginal gift and tour shop right before we got to Mossmon's Gorge. The lady running the shop asked us if we had seen it coming in and then proceeded to show it to us. The kids thought it was creepy, but cool, until they saw the dog that was roaming around the shop. Saurus soon became their best friend.

Kev spent a good amount of time getting pictures of the spider. Then I told him that you can't tell how big it really is unless someone is standing there. I guess that someone became me. I seriously couldn't get any closer physically - remember I had seen this spider eating a bird, I kept imagining it eating me. I thought I was much closer than that though. Kev loves this picture because of the look on my face.

It is a bit hard to see, but there is a little spider under the belly and by the bottom leg of the spider. That is the male. Can you believe how small it is in comparison to the female? I wonder if they eat them after they mate...poor fellow. On the way out I noticed another one in the trees right along the path way - although it was only about 3/4 the size.

A NATURAL WONDER OF THE WORLD

Last week we got on a airplane and headed up north to warmer, tropical weather in Cairns (pronounced CANS). This is a great place to go and see the Great Barrier Reef. As this is something that was a definite on our list of places to see in Australia and we knew that John really wanted to see it as well we thought that it would be a fun place to go. We talked to all of Kev's siblings and we all pitched in on plane tickets for an early Christmas present for their parents.

Although it was a bit rainy and cloudy we still had a great time and saw some wonderful things. I will do a quick summary here and then go into details in later posts about some of the things that we did. I have about 1700 pictures and I haven't even seen them all yet.

1. Rylee got her own seat on the airplane for the first time - she is 2 so we have to pay for her now. She didn't like sitting with the seat belt on during landing. Screaming happened.

2. We drove to Mossmon Gorge - BEAUTIFUL!! Madi and Cooper tried to swing on the vines hanging down from the trees in the rain forest - PRICELESS!!! Seeing the huge spider - FREAKY!!

3. Stopped by Palm Cove for a quick dip in the ocean. Madi and Cooper are amazing at body surfing. Collected some sand for the collection.

4. Madi slept in Grandma and Grandpa's hotel room every night but one - such a big girl. Cooper slept there one night and peed in his bed - OOPS!!

5. Spent an entire day on Green Island.

The boat ride out was no fun at all - very rough seas are not good for a girl who gets motion sick really easily. No, I am not talking about Rylee or Madi.

It was rainy and cloudy in the morning, but cleared up a bit for the afternoon.

Kevin scuba dived for the first time. Madi and I went para sailing - if you know me you know this is CRAZY for me to do because I don't like heights. Can't say I will do it again.

Madi mastered snorkeling.
Went in the semi submersible to see the reef - AMAZING!!!

Rylee thought the water was like a huge bathtub and played and played. It was warm and the reef stopped most of the waves from coming in - her ideal water conditions.

Bottled up some sand for my collection.

Grandma and Grandpa went on the glass bottom boats - and Grandma got sick.

We were exhausted when we got back.

6. Ate a huge dinner at Sizzler - I didn't even know Sizzler was in Australia. It was yummy!

7. Spent much time souvenir shopping in Cairns. Stopped by the art museum.

8. Walked down the boardwalk in Cairns and found the best playground ever for the kids!!

9. Played in the pool at the hotel. Madi was upset because it was too cold. Sorry they don't heat up a pool in a place that is usually really warm.

10. Drove through the sugar cane fields.

11. Ate a BBQ dinner at the hotel. The lights were out so we had to do it using the headlights of the car. It was a bit like camping.

12. Went to the botanical gardens. The best botanical gardens I think I have seen. They were gorgeous. I love the tropical plants, but could live without the bugs.

13. In Katumba went to the butterfly sanctuary. Surprisingly for a girl who loves butterflies I have never been to one of these before. It was fun to see them landing on Madi and letting her hold them. 14. Grandpa treated us to ice cream.

15. Hiked to Barron Falls. Kev got to use his Japanese to talk to some people. Madi was amazed when she heard him talking in another language. It was cool to see the awe in her face - she was proud of her daddy.

16. Flight home. Rylee fell asleep finally in my arms. Only to wake up 20 minutes later when I went to move her into her own chair. Never went back to sleep. I ended up with a cold on day two of the trip and my sinuses were killing me. I took cold medicine for the flight which didn't help much. When we descended into Sydney I thought my head might explode. The pain was so bad. It felt like little needles being pushed into my sinuses and then shooting pain across my eyes and forehead. I was so glad when we finally landed.

17. Getting home at 11:30 pm with a very exhausted family. It was a wonderful trip and we created more Aussie memories!

THEY ARE HERE!!

Friday night you would have thought we were going to Disneyland the next day. Nope! Just waiting for grandma and grandpa to come. The excitement was palpable. The kids were wired and running around. Madi was convinced that she would never be able to sleep - she was wrong thank goodness.

After then arrived and we chatted a bit we headed into the city on the train. We went to Paddy's market to get started on the souvenir shopping for grandma. We then walked over to Darling Harbor and showed them where we used to live for the first month we were here.

The whole reason we went to the city was to catch Vivid for the last weekend. It was crowded, but so cool to see the changing lights on the museum and on the Opera House.

It was crowded, but it was a pleasant night. I was worn out by the time we got back home - I can only imagine how grandma and grandpa must have been feeling.

Tomorrow we head up to Cairns to see the great barrier reef! Maybe I won't be able to sleep tonight because I am so excited! It's no Disney, but it is a natural wonder of the earth!

SWINE FLU

A few weeks ago they sent a note home from school stating that if you had been to countries affected by swine flu, Japan, Mexico, USA, etc or the state of Victoria in Australia (they are being affected badly by the swine flu) you had to quarantine your children at home for seven days.

So what about if you have someone coming to your house from a swine infested country?

Well I went and asked at the office yesterday (Kev says I shouldn't have). The secretary wasn't sure what they would have us do. After school today I talked with the big man himself, the principal, I could tell he wasn't sure what the answer was. Lucky for us we are going to Cairns anyway. Monday was the only day they would go to school. Not anymore. We just got one more day added to our holiday.

We also have visitors coming from Victoria (friends of grandma and grandpa are coming to stay with us for a week to see them). However, by the time they get to our house the seven days will just about be up so if they have swine flu they would know by the time they get to our house.

Good ol' swine flu gave the kids one more day with grandma and grandpa.

Seriously, it shouldn't be THIS big of a deal. Unfortunately the World Heath Organization just raised the swine flu to a pandemic sweeping through the world. I still think they are making too big of a deal out of it. But we got another day off of school - the kids are happy!

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

I have had two very wonderful ladies show me love recently with an act of kindness and I feel so blessed and loved.

Last week my friend Carli showed up at my door with this delicious banana bread. She knew we had been sick around here so she thought we could use a little something. She lives about 30 mins one way from me and totally went out of her way. I wish I were more like her.

Then early this week a package came in the mail for me. I didn't recognize the name or the address (there was only a last name on the package). This is what was inside the box

After a little research I finally figured out who it was. One of my scrappin' friends, Rachelle (Chelle's creations), sent them to me after some chatter on the SM forum about smores and my love for them. She created a really cute camping kit with these fabulous pictures of smores in them so I created a LO about my love for smores and she decided that I needed the makings.

When you haven't had a smore for a long time it tastes so good. Not only that what a thoughtful thing for Rachelle to do for me. I wish I were more like her.

So if you have a thought of something kind to do for someone - don't hesitate!! You just might make their whole day!