Weather in Australia

The weather here is different from in the US; it varies more frequently. For example, it might be sunny with clear blue skies at 8 am, but by 12 noon it is wintery gray with drizzling rain. Then at 4 pm it could be sunny and clear again. If the weather says "30% chance of rain" then it really means that it will be raining for 30% of the day (back home, I'd say we had a 70% chance of not seeing a drop of rain if the weather said 30%). The humidity is high and the ground is soaked with dew every morning. LOL, my hair is frizzier than it has ever been! :) - Connie

Week 6 in Australia

Sandwiched around our trip into Brisbane this week was lots and lots of relaxing :)

One of the girls favorite things to do is go outside and blow bubbles.

In Brisbane we all had our first baths since leaving the US (I was starting to get a bit stinky).

This picture of the girls flower balloons lasted far longer than the actual balloons.

We've tried to wear out the girls when we go out on our adventures. They're both little troopers!

More Brisbane photos

Fantastic city! We got a chance to get two solid days of exploring in and the weather was excellent (almost 22 degrees!).

The city really lights up in the evening! We'll have to come back some day soon for a night out on the town.

The Queen's market downtown was my favorite part of the city. We stayed at The Chifley seen here on the left (and on the left in the first photo above as well).

Brisbane - gardens and parks

We took the train into Brisbane and spent the night at a hotel on Queen Street, where there is a nice pedestrian mall. We were walking distance to several parks and the botanical gardens. Brisbane is a really nice city... it's clean and has lots of parks and a nice view of the river and bay. There is also a great public transportation system and it's very pedestrian-friendly. I'm sure James will post more photos, but here are a few of James and the girls in the botanical gardens and in the southpark area. :) - Connie

Sticky seeds!

Whenever the girls walk through the yard, they get hundreds of sticky seeds on the bottoms of their pants legs. Here are Jamie's pants after a 5 minute trip outside on a dewy morning. :) - Connie

The cottage :)

This is where we live right now. :) - Connie

Exploring the Glasshouse Mountains on Father's Day

I had a great Father's Day, thanks girls! We went exploring into the Glasshouse Mountains, walked through a new rainforest, got some excellent views of the mountains and finished the day at a local Italian restaurant.

There were whole sections of the rainforest full of palm trees!

The butterfly cottage is at the foot of the Glasshouse Mountains in the distance, about in the middle.

Fun at the cottage :)

The girls like playing gravity-defying games with Daddy in the cottage... :) - Connie

More pictures from the Australia Zoo

The girls really enjoyed the little kiddie rides they had at the zoo (especially Connie).

All of us got to feed the elephants! This was Anna's 2nd favorite thing of the day (after the jumpy castle).

We were only allowed to pet the back of the wombat because they're cheeky.

This guy isn't Steve Irwin, but this was still pretty amazing. Turns out Crocs can't move very fast on land.

Anna's 3rd favorite thing of the day. Jamie got to ride as well! :)

My favorite part of the day! Although my favorite animals were the Red Pandas (we didn't know they existed before today!)

Australia Zoo!

Today we went to the Australia Zoo, which is about 10 mins from the cottage. We got to do lots of fun things:
- watched otters getting fed
- fed the elephants (they ate fruits and veggies right out of our hands)
- rode some kiddie rides
- watched a crocodile show (intro to that was snakes and birds)
- watched a tiger show
- petted kangaroos and a wombat
- saw a tasmanian devil, a red panda, alligators, lizards, birds, and lots of other animals,
and the girls got to each have a pony ride.


This alligator was giving me the weebie-jeebies looking at me like that!


Salt water crocs can actually get this big!

More photos from James soon!
:) Connie

Caloundra Redux

More pictures from Caloundra...

These guys were getting 20+ feet of air!

Caloundra

Today we drove about 30 mins to the beach town of Caloundra. It has calmer beaches protected by sandbars and islands offshore. There are boardwalks and parks all along the shoreline. As we walked, we saw about a dozen crazy guys kitesurfing (it was really windy).

We stopped at a playground to let the kids play. After our walk, we had a very yummy dinner at an Italian restaurant called Villa Tango.
:) Connie

Chillin at the Butterfly Cottage

We've *really* enjoyed chilling out as a family without all the day-to-day distractions that come at home (like work). The girls have especially enjoyed all the family time.

They like taking breaks and playing learning games and watching videos on our laptops, iPads and iPhones :)

Seona even brought over an improvised jumpy castle for them to play in!

How James spends his vacation in Australia...

Seona mentioned that she wanted to make a fence between the cottage and the main house, so James took on the task with enthusiasm. Hopefully he won't hurt himself lifting those heavy posts (he had to dig them out of another location, and they have huge hunks of cement on the bottom of each one).
:) Connie

Morning at the cottage

The iPads have been great entertainment for all of us on this trip... books, games, and videos for all of us. We brought DVDs for the kids, but they don't work in the DVD player in the cottage because they aren't coded for Australia. So, thank goodness for the iPads. :) - Connie

Woot! New grill!

Seona came by this afternoon and brought a new indoor grill and a small convection oven (bigger than a toaster oven, and even has a rotisserie). Here's a picture of the first meal cooked on the new grill. :) - Connie

Clean up! :)

Today we decided to clean up the yard and cottage... I swept and washed the floors and washed the windows, and James sprayed the whole place for bugs. Seona was doing some yard work, so James volunteered to help her... he moved some huge fence posts for her. Then we cleaned up the sticks and yard debris around the yard and made ourselves a campfire. :) Now if we could only get someone to mow the grass, the yard might actually be ok... :) Connie

Life in Beerwah

We've gotten all settled in the cottage, which is just a few minutes outside the small town of Beerwah. We've gotten the place all cleaned up and well-stocked. I mentioned to Seona that it was difficult to cook a meal for a family of four on a single electric burner and she said she'd pick up two new kitchen appliances: a toaster oven/rotisserie, and an electric wok. YAY! :)
The girls like playing at the park in downtown Beerwah. The first time we were there, another Mom invited me to take the girls to a play group at the Glass House Christian College (a private primary school and church). I took them and we all had a great time. We're planning to go again next week. :)
Here's a picture of the girls chillin' on one of the chairs in the cottage.

:) Connie

More on the Butterfly Cottage...

Well, honestly, when we got here we were a bit disappointed. The lawn looked like it hadn't been mowed in weeks, there were piles of sticks, yard debris, and construction materials lying around the yard, and there were a few teenagers standing around hosing mud off the front stoop when we pulled up in the camper. I walked over and introduced myself, and we learned that our hostess/landlady, Seona (who lives in the main house on the property), was in the hospital for an unknown illness and would not be back for at least a week.

The cottage itself was marginally clean and within an hour there was a roach crawling across the wall. The stove was a single electrical burner plugged into the wall. No tub, dishwasher, oven, grill, A/C, or phone. We didn't get an internet access code, and our take-along internet via 3G was so slow we practically fell asleep watching our email loading. We were beginning to wonder whether it had been foolish to pay 100% in advance for this place (which costs more than our mortgage back home)!

But, we were exhausted from all of our travels and decided to make the best of it. Now that we've been here a few days, we've learned a few important things... We can keep the cottage clean, well-stocked, and bug free while we're living here (just like back home!). Seona was released from the hospital and seems nice (although she's still quite ill and recovering from surgery). We offered to clean up and mow the yard, but it turns out that Seona's son will mow as soon as he has time. Now we have an internet code and the connection is a little better. Even though the conditions aren't ideal, we are here in a beautiful country close to the Australia Zoo and lots of other great things to see. We knew this would be an adventure with its ups and downs, and that's what makes it a great learning experience for all of us!

:) Connie

The Butterfly Cottage

We made it to the Butterfly Cottage! We're so busy relaxing from our travels that we haven't left the cottage much other than to the parks, playgrounds and the grocery store. We'll be heading to the Australia Zoo and Dreamworld in the next couple weeks in addition to the Glasshouse Mountains. Stay tuned! :)

Oops!

As we were pulling into our last campsite before Brisbane, we heard a slight sound like one of the storage bins was sliding in the back. Didn't think anything of it until we saw the huge scratch on the side of the camper later! Doh! Could have been a lot worse as you can see.. ;)

Good thing we got the extra insurance package for the camper! Hopefully they won't charge too much :)

We're in Brisbane now and will start exploring the area after we get in a couple good R&R days :)

Coff's Harbor

A couple nights ago when we got into Coff's Harbor we were greeted by this fire and a free happy hour! How awesome is that! What a perfect ending to a great day!

Although it was a bit windy, the beach was fantastic! We took a nice day-trip along a path up the mountain next to the beach for some wonderful views.

When we got back, the girls still had some energy for the "Jumpy Pillows". They love these things! They're like trampolines except better and safer.