Dagan starts school at Wollongong Public School

Monday, July 30, 2012

Dagan in his school uniform

Dagan was finally able to start school today.  He is going to Wollongong Public School.  His uniform is much better than Sydney's.  He gets to wear his white school polo and navy track pants or shorts.  He also has a school jacket and a hat.  When we went to sign him up, the office had forgotten to give me a form that needed to be completed for the state.  After sending it in, we have a few more complications which meant Dagan stayed home with me for an extra week instead of starting close to when Sydney did.  It was a bummer, but there wasn't anything we could do about it.

Dagan was nervous about the first day.  We walked Sydney to school and then headed to his school.  We went to the office and met with the assistant principle.  He showed us where to go in the morning and introduced us to Dagan's teacher, Mr. Campbell.  He is in a 4/5 class.  Every morning the kids line up outside for the morning assembly.  Then the teacher collects them to head to the classroom.  His class is on the third floor, so he will be getting lots of exercise. 

When he came out of school the first day, he rated his day a 10 out of 10.  A few children from his class showed him around and hung out with him at recess and lunch.  He will be playing soccer for his school every Friday.  They leave for two hours in the morning.  Then come back to finish their day at school.  It is a nice way to do it, but I will miss being able to watch him.

Celebrated our 17th Anniversary in Sydney

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Can't beat seeing the Sydney Opera House on your anniversary!

Can they reach around the trunk?

Some type of cactus

It is our 17th Anniversary!  We decided to spend it in Sydney.  We went to the Royal Botanic Gardens.  The gardens were extensive.  All of us enjoyed looking at the variety of plants and birds.  We ate lunch at a cafe in the garden.  Then we headed to the Opera House.  On the way, we found these rocks that the kids could climb on, under and over.  They were lots of fun.

Sydney crawling under the rocks.

Dagan climbing over the rocks.

The Opera House is on one end of the gardens.  We could see if from a distance along with the bridge when we first entered the gardens.  Now we were right next to it.  It is a really awesome looking building.  Surprisingly the tiles are cream colored not white as I thought they would be.  Someone told Adam that you wouldn't be able to look at it if the tiles were white.   It would be too bright.

Sydney and Dagan on top of the rocks

Sydney pretending to be the statue.

There looked to be a festival across from where we were, so we headed towards it.  It was in a part of the city called "The Rocks".  They were having Aroma Fest.  It was all about coffee.  It was really crowded.  It looked like a neat area of town to explore, but we decided we would come back when there were not quite so many people.

Dagan was thirsty.

It was a great first day in Sydney.  We can't wait to head back another day to explore something else.

Happy 10th Birthday Dagan!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Dagan's new game

Happy 10th Birthday Dagan!  He was happy that he wasn't in school on his birthday.  He hung out with me.  We went to the farmer's market in town and had a quiet afternoon at home.  He got a rugby game for the play station which will help us learn about the game and a boogie board which he can't wait to try out.  He wanted to go to one of the Mexican restaurants in the mall.  It was ok.  It isn't like back home.  It also gives Adam and I sticker shock to go out for dinner here.  The cost is significantly higher.  It was about 2x as expensive as going to Botana's in Milwaukee.  Instead of cake we had ice cream and watched a movie when we got home.

Sydney starts at St. Mary's

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Sydney's winter uniform

Sydney went to school for the first time today.  I walked her to school.  We met her counselor, signed the form to allow her to have her laptop, and off she went.  Sydney is going to St. Mary Star of the Sea College.  It is an all girls Catholic school.  It has grades 7th-12th.  They have to wear uniforms.  During winter (which is now), the girls wear a button down shirt, a dress, a sweater, a jacket, knee high socks, black shoes, and her hair has to be pulled back.  On Fridays, they wear a navy track suit, a light blue polo, and white gym shoes.  Needless to say Sydney looks forward to Friday.

In the afternoon of her first day, the counselor called to let me know that Sydney was doing well.  Her buddy was helping her get around the school and helping her meet new people.  Her only problem was the awful black shoes had given her blisters.  When Sydney came out of school, she looked happy.  She said her day was an 8 out of 10.  She thought all the girls were really friendly.  They all wanted to talk to her, ask her questions, and listen to her accent.  She will be taking golf every other Friday and joining the orchestra.  I think it will be a good place for her.

Our Air Shipment Arrives

Monday, July 16, 2012

Sydney's room

Dagan's Room/Music Room

 We had a super busy day.  The rental furniture, air shipment, and phone service arrived today along with registering for school.  Dagan and I left Sydney and Adam at home to deal with deliveries and headed to his school.  Unfortunately, the office was closed, so we will have to try again tomorrow.  By the time we got back, the air shipment had been delivered which was around 16 boxes.  The rental furniture had arrived, too.  They did a really good job picking things out.  We even got a keyboard, so the kids can continue taking piano lessons.  The kids are enjoying it.  I love the outdoor furniture.  We will be out there a lot.  All of us agree that the apartment is feeling more like home now that we have some of our stuff.  The quilts on our beds help immensely.  Hopefully by Friday, I will get all the boxes unpacked and everything put away.  It only took 3 weeks for the air shipment to arrive. 

Adam's and my room - Don't you love the wallpaper?

Part of the modular unit on our balcony.  It will be a great place to read when it warms up a little.

Sydney and I were able to go to her school today.  The visit went well.  They gave us a tour.  Sydney is a little concerned that she will get lost because the school is like a maze.  It is really old and has been added onto quite a bit.  Time will tell.

Dragons Game

Sunday, July 15, 2012

View of WIN Stadium from our balcony

Enjoying the Dragons game and the view

We are back in Wollongong.  It is nice to be home.  We had a slow start today.  We ran some errands in the morning, and then headed to the Dragons rugby game.  We are lucky because the stadium is right around the corner from us.  We are able to watch all the people walking to the game.  The Dragons are the local team. They play in Wollongong about 12 times in the season.  We had fun, but I really don't understand the game.  I need to read up on the rules.  We'll have to go to a few more games to see if we can figure out the rules and strategy of the game.

Great Barrier Reef

Friday, July 13, 2012

First views of a whale

What a great day!  We were up and out of the hotel by 5:15 am.  We had a two hour drive to Airlie Beach to get on our cruise to the Great Barrier Reef.  We went on Cruise WhitSunday.  It was a little wet and rainy on the way out.  It took about 3 hours to get out to the reef.  About halfway, we saw our first humpback whales.  We saw their blowholes and tails.  Sydney, Dagan, and I saw one whale breach 2 times.  Way Cool!  I wish I had my camera ready when they did that. 

Pontoon on the reef

Sydney getting ready to snorkel.

Dagan getting ready to snorkel.

Finally, we got to the pontoon out on Knucklehead Reef.  We got our wetsuits, fins, masks, mouthpieces and jumped in the water.  Once in, a large Napoleon Wrasse fish touched Sydney and scared her.  Then it touched both Adam and Dagan and scared them, too.  Dagan tried to climb on top of Adam's head.  It was funny.  We snorkeled around for while before breaking for lunch.  After lunch we went on the submersible.  We learned that the reef has over 150 types of coral and 200 types of fish.  It was interesting to learn about what we were seeing.  After our ride, we went snorkeling again.  Sydney wanted to pet the wrasse, so we swam around looking for it.  We tried to get close, but it was lower than we could reach.  Dagan had fun trying out the waterslide on the pontoon.  The kids decided to practice diving under the water.  They couldn't use the snorkels, but had fun going down deeper.  They can't wait to go snorkeling again.

Adam and the kids

Kristin snorkeling

Whale by the side of the boat

Whale coming out from under the boat.

On the way home, we saw whales again.  They swam right next to (and under) the boat.  It was really awesome.  The captain stopped the boat for quite some time.  They are really amazing to see that close.  We will not need to go on a whale watching cruise any time soon.

Forest Flying

Thursday, July 12, 2012

We are now in Mackay, Australia.  Adam had a meeting here after Brisbane, so the kids and I are really getting to see the sites.

0.2 Meter sign by the creek

It was a rainy day, but we still managed to have a great adventure.  We headed towards the Eungella National Forest.  We were going to go Forest Flying, zipping lining through the rainforest.  It took over an hour to get out to the middle of nowhere.  We passed fields of sugar cane and eventually came to the rainforest.  It was especially fun since this was my first time driving on the"wrong side of the road" and on the "wrong side of the car".  The GPS on my phone did a good job getting us there.  It just lost the route at the end.  The owner of Forest Flying said we would have to cross a small creek in order to get to their property.  She said it would be no problem.  When we got to it, the kids and I had to stop and contemplate crossing it for a while.  It was 0.2 meters high.  We were in a four door rented sedan.  Where was my truck when I needed it?  We decided to go for it.  The kids rolled down their windows to watch the water.  They said it reached about half-way up the tires.  Thankfully we made it.  After crossing the "small"   creek we had to cross a few more before we got there. 

This one wasn't mentioned.  We thought it was the small one.

This the small creek we had to cross.

Finally, we made it to the site.  We had to open two gates, drive up a very steep muddy hill,  park in the grass, and walk the path into the woods.  Donna, the owner, came to meet us.  She put us in our harnesses which had built in seats.  We practiced about 10 feet about the ground on the practice run before heading 80 feet above the ground.  We wore gloves because our hands were used as the brakes.

 Dagan went first, then Sydney and then me.  It was a neat experience to view the forest from above.  The trees were beautiful.  On the second run, we saw lots of fruit bats.  They were hanging from the branches.  They are rather large.  Sydney also had a palm branch land on the cable behind her, so I had to move it when I got there.  They are much heavier than they look.  Surprisingly, we didn't get super wet because the branches of the trees worked like umbrellas.  You got the most wet when your body brushed against the palm branches.  I would have loved to get some pictures while we were doing this, but didn't want to bring my camera out in the rain.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Mirmar

On the Brisbane River

We had a really fun day.  It started off with breakfast at the Pancake House again.  We could go there every day.  Then we went to the boat launch to get on board the Mirmar.  You can take this cruise on the Brisbane River up to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  They had a commentary for the first part of the cruise.  It was interesting to learn about Brisbane, the river, the animals, and the flood of 2011. 

Once at the zoo, we headed to the koala photo area.  We wanted to make sure we got to hold one.  The koala was a girl. She was a little heavy.  You held your hands flat in front of your stomach.  The koala sat on them.  Then its arms were wrapped around your arms.  We were its "tree."  Dagan went first, then Sydney, and then me.  After the official photo, we were able to take our own pictures.  They are a lot softer than you might think.

View of part of the zoo

One of the koalas

After we had our pictures taken, we wandered the sanctuary.  It wasn't a big zoo, but it was in a really neat setting.  The cages were placed between the trees and paths were added accordingly.  There were tons of Koalas.  We had never seen so many.  They said they have 130.  They had them in retirement, bachelor, Kindergarten, Moms n babies, the Cubby Hole, and more open aired cages.  They were awake and very mobile.  It was fun to see. 

Tasmanian Devil

Feeding a red kangaroo

We also saw a platypus (no picture unfortunately), wombats, dingoes, many birds, a Tasmanian Devil, a perentie (largest lizard in Australia), more kangaroos, and many other animals.  We fed red and gray kangaroos and wallabies.  It was a great day.  It would have been nice if Adam could have joined us, but someone has to work.

a perentie

Explored Brisbane

Monday, July 9, 2012

I am hiding in the fig tree.

A path through the garden

The kids and I explored Brisbane today.  We had breakfast at Pie Face and were off.  First we went to the Botanic Gardens across from our hotel.  The trees and plants were labeled which is nice since they are so different from ones we see in America.  The birds are different, too.  We liked the big  white bird with the long black beak.  It looked like it should be an evil character in a cartoon. 

The strange bird we like.  It is an Australian white ibis.

Goodwill Pedestrian Bridge

We then headed towards the Goodwill Pedestrian Bridge.  We wanted to go over to Riverlife.  It is a place where you could rock climb and rappel.  It ended up being a rather long walk and the rappelling we wanted to do wasn't available at this time.  The website never gave specific times.  We were bummed and tired, so we hopped on a water taxi and headed back to the hotel.  The kids swam before we went to Queen Street Mall for ice cream. 

Abbey Medieval Festival

Sunday, July 8, 2012

The canons were really loud.

We arrived in Brisbane last night.  This morning Adam took us to the Pancake House.  It is housed in this old church.  It is awesome.  Most of the pancakes or crepes are served with ice cream.  Yum!!  Afterwards, we headed to Abbey Medieval Festival a little north of the city.  It was interesting.  We liked the canons, oil wrestling (a little strange), and the jousting.  I think we had more fun people watching.  Half of the crowd was dressed for the occasion. 

Waiting for the next canon blast

The Joust

When we returned to the hotel, the kids decided to go swimming in the pool.  I thought the water might be warm because it is warmer in Brisbane than Wollongong, but I was wrong.  Other people staying at the hotel watched the kids get into the cold pool and just laughed because no one else wanted to swim.  It was much too cold out.  The weather during the day was in the high 60s.

First Full Week

July 2, 2012 - July 6, 2012

Adam headed to work this week, and the kids and I were on our own.  We went to Crown Mall to do some exploring.  We found an art store, a place to get players/chargers for their iTouches, kitchen gadgets, and more.  We also wandered the local grocery store called Woolworths.  There are some things the same and lots different there.  We have already discovered that you should purchase Australian brands because the American ones we tried just don't taste the same.  It will take some trial and error to figure out which brands are the best.

Most mornings, I spent cleaning the apartment, washing the dishes, and moving things around to meet our needs.  I wanted things in some semblance of order and wanted to be ready for when our air shipment arrives and the rental furniture.  Each afternoon, we went to the beach for some quality ocean time.  The waves can be quite large.  One one end, there is a lighthouse.  There are rocks at that end.  It is a neat spot to explore when the tide is out because there are tidal pools with small fish, crabs, and other wildlife. 

Fun in the big waves

Freighters are a frequent sight here

Lighthouse at the end of the beach

Where is Dagan?

On the 4th of July, we went to see Ice Age 4.  We wanted to do something American.  Adam needs to head to Brisbane and Mackay during the next week for work, so we are going with him.  It will be fun to explore another part of Australia instead of sitting in the apartment without our stuff or him for the week.