Up and away!
Patty

Make sure you give a 'wedgie!'
Patty

Lori checks the ropes whilst the youngest scrambles up the wall. woot!
Patty

Patty

...and it is! (hard)
Patty

This indoor cave seems hard....
Patty

All ready for an afternoon of indoor rock-climbing.
Patty

We found IT !!!

Another "Finally" !!! We found, applied, and were accepted to rent a house !!! Once again on this amazing odyssey of an adventure we've been blessed to find what we think is the house for us. Our search for a house took us to many lovely neighborhoods and kind agents and home owners around the western suburbs of Brisbane. A couple of times I thought that we had found it, but there would be something not quite fitting to our situation: bedroom dimensions too small, wrong availability, too expensive, .... But thanks to optomism from family and friends on this shore and in the states, we were lead to the house.

With the house waiting for us to move into on October 17th as the dangling carrot, moving 2 more times before then will be a bit easier to tolerate. Hey, we've been in this current apartment for 6 weeks we might be out of practice hauling around all our baggage! So today and tomorrow we are moving to a 2-bedroom/2-bathroom apartment in this same building for a week. We will then move our belongings to a 3-bedroom/2-bathroom townhouse in Indooroopilly. This is closer to school and work. We will be there for 2 weeks, only drawback is that it has dial-up internet. It's only 2 weeks and IM will still work, pheww. Then barring any complications, we'll move into the house (with or without the furniture shipment) on the 17th.

So, life continues to be good! We send our love to all our family and friends here and there and everywhere!

The BEACH!!! We finally made it!!

Sunday was the day!! We packed up our gear to include sunscreen and togs (that's swimsuits to Americans). We headed north out of Brisbane to some beach on the right! We figured we'd drive until the consensus in the car was ready to make a right hand turn and find a beach. We made it to Caloundra, stopped for lunch at a place where a dude was playing his guitar and singing Eagles songs, Cool!! Lunch was good and inexpensive! Pasta for Audrey, greek salad for Emily, chicken caesar salad for me, chicken caesar wrap for Mark and we all shared a prawn (shrimp) and parmesan cheese foccacia. After enjoying the Eagles songs (no Hotel California, wimper wimper) we went in search of a beach. We saw several areas that people were on the beach, but being this was our first visit to an Australian beach we felt it was wise to swim between the flags. That means that the Surf guards are patrolling and it is shark protected (big nets are up further from shore) Caboulture's protected beach is King's Beach. So we went there! The first thing that we found of note was that the sand was very smooth! Of course the waves and water color were gorgeous too! Also unlike Daytona Beach (or other popular US beaches at school breaks) was that there were not wall-to-wall people! Thank goodness!!! Thinking that maybe we could rent an umbrella for a few hours, I started looking for a vender. Nope none to be found. Not to despair, there were two huge awning structures that provided plenty of space to get out of the sun!! Thank you, King's Beach!! We all slathered on the sunscreen and the girls headed to the surf. The water temp was too chilly for Audrey, but that didn't stop Emily from pulling her sister in! It was so fun to watch them. Inch-by-inch they went in. They made it up to their waists, then that was it for Audrey. Emily retreated to the sunny beach area next to us in the shade. Audrey stayed down by the ocean to make a lagoon and drippy castle, her favorite beach activitiy.

From the site below,
http://www.google.com.au/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&q=
you can search for "King's Beach Caloundra" and you'll find some pics of where we were.

Before leaving the beach for the day, Audrey went on a trampoline bungee "ride". Because of her gymnastics skills, she was able to turn back flips with ease. Her time on the "ride" lasted 15 minutes. When her time was up she was exhausted!! We predicted that she would fall asleep in the car on the way home. On our way out of Caloundra we stopped at a Cold Rock ice cream shop (same idea as Cold Stone Creamery in the states). YUMMY!

We passed the Glass House Mountains on the way home, here's a link to a photo of it (not mine) http://www.bcl.com.au/sunshine-coast/images/tq/032059.jpg

When we got back in to the northern neighborhoods of Brisbane (Aspley) Mark happened to spot a Lone Star Steak House!!! After a U-turn (which are widely acceptable here) we pulled in for some "home" cookin'. We made ourselves and the waitress laugh when she asked if we'd ever been to Lone Star before. Mark replied in his dry, giggly type of humor, "Not in this country!" It was a very good meal and an equally good day.

Today we are (Patty and I) taking the girls to an indoor rock climbing place! They want to eventually go rapelling down Kangaroo Cliffs (where we watched the fireworks from).

More later!!!

Pictures of some Spring Plants in Brisbane

Here are some pictures I found online of some plant species that are found in Brisbane.


http://www.sacramentogardening.com/WhatsInBloom/images/A_Pratt_Yesterday.jpg
The one above is VERY fragrant!! I think it might be similar to a hyacinth, but not sure.

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/0/0f/Jacarandatree.jpg
The one above is just now starting to bloom out, I don't know about the fragrance, maybe Patty will let us know. You have to copy and paste the above link into your browser for this one, not sure what the problem is with just clicking on it.

http://www.inthewildproductions.com/Photos/PortfolioCaribbeanScenes/photos/photo7.jpg
This is a picture of a frangipani tree when it is just starting to put out leaves, which is happening now here in Brisbane. The blooms on this tree (according to my research) are VERY fragrant as well, and are also known as Plumeria (Bath and Body Works have products scented in this "flavor")

Let me know if you enjoy this type of posting, if so I'll search for more and put them on the blog

We found a house that we like and put an application in to rent it. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we are accepted! As regular readers know, the housing market here is pretty tough--good houses go quick!!

Thanks all!!

Baby koala pic

Here is the pic of the baby koala we saw at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Emily was able to snap this picture with the remaining smidge of charge in her camera. Good shot, Emily!! Isn't that little guy (or girl) CUTE ?
We'll try to capture more pics of this little cutie in the coming weeks.

Webcam links

Here are a couple of sites to look at some webcams. The first one is for several beach cams. You have to select on the left what speed of download. Then on the right side you can select what state and what beach to have a look at. I'll move these links over to my blogs Links in a few days.

http://www.coastalwatch.com/contents/default2.aspx


http://www.ourbrisbane.com/living/brisbanelife/webcam/

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Hi all!

We finally did something touristy today! We went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary http://www.koala.net/index.htm

We were thrilled with our experience. Up close and personal with a lot of wildlife! We were in a large area with LOTS of 'roos. We fed and pet them. Some were tiny, some were really large, most were medium sized. They were so docile and calm (but still keeping a watchful eye--they are still wild animals)

We also saw the feeding of the rainbow lorikeets--AMAZING!! Audrey was able to hold up her platter of food (a fruit, milk and oatmeal mixture) and attract (her patience paid off) at least 5 to her platter.

We loved seeing all the koala bears. They really are cute, but we were surprised with the noises that they make. (Sounds like they have a bad case of indigestion, 'nuff said, I think!)

A huge surprise occurred when we were headed for the exit, but Mark wanted to take one last undiscovered path (THANK YOU MARK!) there was a a small pen with the sanctuary's first baby koala bear born here on display!!!! It was outside it's mom's pouch! We were able to gaze upon for several minutes before the mom moved around to a more secluded section of the exhibit. It was a perfect miniature version of its mother. It was probably 6-10 inches in length. We couldn't believe our luck! We'll be back to check on it as much as possible.


Below are the links to see our pics with the Koala bears. They should be posted by the sanctuary soon and then be there for 60 days.

www.koala.net/photo/0909021099.htm
www.koala.net/photo/0909020792.htm
www.koala.net/photo/0909020594.htm
www.koala.net/photo/0909020990.htm

As always, more later and miss you all!

Lori

Visiting Australia Zoo

I went to Australian Zoo today. My guts were churning, it just didn't seem right to NOT go, I had to. Steve Irwin, no matter what you may have thought of him, gave so much. It seemed the right, respectful thing to do.

When I pulled the 4wd into the side-road, the media were there to the left, filming, phoning, talking, bored, restless, waiting for something to happen, for something to 'grab'.

Before I got there, I pulled into the local service station, and bought a bunch of local native flowers. As I paid, the sign behind the girl took my attention. "All Aust. Zoo staff to show identification before staff discount."

From 20 employees 20 years ago, to over 500 employees now, Steve (and Terri's) enthusiasm and passion to the animals and their environment, certainly paid off in dollars and cents. I don't mean their own personal wealth, far from it, I mean in the local tourism business and employment of young locals.

The constant stream from the car park of young kids and their mums, pushing prams and strollers, laden with flowers and cards, quickly showed me the way to go.

The elderly were there, in wheelchairs, the infirm, the disabled, the housewives whose kids were employed there, the locals who have seen the zoo rise from a two-bit nothing dump to a world-class tourism destination, they were all there...and the flowers, the candles, the cards, the balloons madly giddying around in the light breeze, the media and the photographers to capture it all.

School kids with creative teachers, and not-so-creative teachers, adding their homemade cards and tributes to Steve, our darling Steve, and also to Terri, Bindi and Bob.

Some brought gorgeous shop-designed floral tributes, others, a simple handful of what-grew-in-the-back-garden.

All nice, all gorgeous, all placed reverently with a small tear, a cough, a nodded head. Respect.

Steve, don’t not Rest In Peace. Get out there and tackle God, and ask him why He sneezed and "got ya"!

Live life gloriously!

Tribute to Steve Irwin - Crocodile Hunter R.I.P.

Video montage tribute to Steve Irwine - our Aussie Crocodile Hunter, here....

Wonderful article and photos about Irwin's passing

If you are curious as to how the locals are grieving for Steve Irwin, this article and photos done so eloquently by Patty Beecham will let you know.

http://www.abc.net.au/brisbane/stories/s1734531.htm?brisbane

hey all!

hey all! i just wanted to let you all know that on friday Matt and I had an addition to our family.... her name is Riley... she is a three month old Siberian Husky/ Rottweiler mix... she is a sweetheart... I posted some pics under my blog, so check them out...

talk to you all later!!


To readers {To see Becky's blog: Click on Matt&Becky to the left under the list of Contributors, her Blog name is Just Randomness} From Lori

Magnificent Night!

Our family was delighted to be included with two Brisbane families to enjoy the Riverfire pyrotechnics display. As a fantastic beginning and a conclusion we also witnessed the awesome power of the RAAF F-111 as they performed their exhilirating Dump and Burn.

In expectation of large crowds, we decided to use the public transport. When we arrived at the train station the girls took over in demonstrating how to purchase tickets for us all. Mark and I were very impressed! Tickets purchased and off to find the right track--no worries, mate! They took us right there. The punctuality of the train system is very impressive, we had only to relax a few minutes and our train pulled in at the posted time. Two stops away and we were off to walk to meet up with our hosts. We walked along the bikepath next to the Brisbane River. This was a very pleasant walk and not long before we reached our destination at the base of Kangaroo Cliffs. Where only a few short weeks ago we were at the top of the cliffs being interviewed by Spencer at the ABC! We settled in at our picturesque location to share food, drink and conversation---what fun! Before we knew it, it was time for the Dump and Burn followed by the fireworks! I will post pics soon!

GREAT EVENING!!! THANKS!!