Australian Halloween

Taylor is a sleeping baby, Brody is of course SpiderMan, and Riley is a Diva on American Idol.


This time Taylor is a cry baby.


Well, there pretty much is no such thing as an Australian Halloween. They don't really celebrate Halloween here. Needless to say, we did still bring our costumes with us! We also saw a pumpkin at the grocery store for $20. Since we had about 5 of them sitting in our garden at home, we just couldn't buy 3 pumpkins ($60) to carve. We can carve extra ones next year instead. We were invited by a friend of Pat's to a costume party at his house. He is from Canada and was dressed up exactly like Austin Powers. Pat and I had our masks on, and the kids all had their costumes on, and brought home some candy......

Australian Currency

This is what the money looks like in Australia. So far, we have been using the following bills. A $50 bill, $20 bill, $10 bill, and a $5 bill. They are a little slippery compared to ours, and they vary in size.



This is what the coins look like. So far we have been using the following coins. A 50 cent piece (the biggest with an octagonal-type edge), a 20 cent piece, and a 10 cent piece. These are all silver. The gold coins are dollars. The biggest gold coin is 1 dollar, and the smallest gold coin is 2 dollars. We will mail some home to Bartels so they can check them out.

Driving in Australia

What's it like to drive a car in Australia? It depends on who you ask. If you ask Pat, he'll say "no big deal". If you ask me, I'll say "AAgghh".

First of all, they drive on the opposite side of the road here as we do in the United States. To add to the confusion, the steering wheel is on the other side of the car too. And don't forget that they pretty much parallel park everywhere. There are very few parking lots. I have some good stories about driving "down under" for anyone who's interested. Our rental car in this picture is a Toyota Tarago. It's very similar to a Sienna.

Melbourne Zoo

Here we are at the zoo. There are parts of the zoo (like this one) where you walk on paths with the animals. Unfortunately they don't come near you. Here is Taylor with an emu.

Here Taylor, Riley, and Brody are posing with some Kangaroos!

Mebourne Aquarium

Today we went to the Melbourne Aquarium which was very fun. The place is pretty big, with lots of fish and sharks. We didn't get a picture of the "Finding Nemo" tank. It had Nemo and everybody else - it was pretty cute. This is a diver that is hooked up so that we can ask him questions while he is under the water.



We did a lot of walking today, we were all wore out. We ate frozen pizzas in our apartment for dinner, and the kids rented movies for the evening.

Cosmic Bowling

After a week of the kids putting up with looking at houses and furniture and other "stuff", we took them bowling Friday night!! It's the nicest bowling alley we've ever been to! As you can see, Riley had fun dancing to all the loud music.


They even had couches! I know these look like pumpkins, but they are bowling balls.

16 Bruce Street

We ended up getting our first choice!! It is in a suburb called Balwyn. It is 11KM east of Melbourne. It's a very quiet neighborhood with good schools. Here is a picture of Riley in the backyard (it needs to be mowed).

Here we are on the patio (it even comes with a nice big table).

We THINK we got a house

This is a tower you can climb up at the park near the house.

We'll know for sure tomorrow. Once it's 100%, we'll put some pictures of it out here. In the meantime, here are pictures of the kids at the park near the new house.

Waiting

Today we waited around to hear which house we got.

This is the pizza joint near our hotel that reminds me of Donnatelli's in good old Mahtomedi:



Here they are at the park near our hotel:

Our Apartment

Everyone has been asking the kids about our apartment, so here are some pictures of what it's like on the inside...

This is one of the bathrooms:



This is the bedroom that Taylor and Brody share:

This is the "TV area". You can also see the patio, and Riley's bedroom:

This is Riley's room:

This is the eating area. You can see parts of the entry way and the kitchen:

House Hunting

We looked at 6 houses in 6 hours today. Three of them are a possibility. We are "bidding" on one right now (so is someone else), and should know hopefully tomorrow. The searching involved lots of time driving around in the car, so the kids were understandably bored today. As soon as we decide on a house, we will post some pictures.

As a reward for the semi-good behavior the kids did get to go to McDonald's today for lunch. They all got a Happy Meal. The chicken nugget version only comes with 3 nuggets - I'm noticing other "portion control" things down here too. The McDonald's here even had turkey sandwiches. Pat worked late tonight so I made the kids Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for dinner. Taylor and Riley thought it was o.k., and ate some of it. Brody did not like it.

Day 2 - Already Need to Visit the Doctor!

Scrapbooking fun!

Riley is enjoying her treat after the Dr.




















At the Park - notice the palm tree!!



Poor Riley. She has such a high threshold for pain. She complained yesterday of her ears still popping like on the airplane, especially when she burped or jumped around. So she went to bed with a dose of Motrin, and said they were better this morning. After Pat headed to work, the kids and I headed to a park. I noticed Riley holding her ears, and looking teary-eyed. Crying, she said her ears were still hurting. So we figured out the phone system and got an appointment at the Doctor's. At this office, you go into the Doctor's office, and it really is an office with their desk and everything. The doctor does all the vitals and everything. No nurses anywhere. Anyway, Riley has 2 ears that are very infected. She got Amoxicillin that is white, and actually tastes pretty good. We walked to the doctor (which was much farther than I estimated) so when we were done I gave them a choice. We could take a taxi back to the apartment, or walk and then stop on the way for a treat. Of course they all opted for the treat!!

The other portion of the day, the kids assembled their infamous scrapbooks. They turned out nice, and they had fun doing it.

Things are Different

Check out the size of our refrigerator!!


Rice Krispies are called Rice Bubbles. Coco Puffs are called Coco Pops. Frosted Flakes are called Frosties. Our first visit to the Grocery Store was interesting - not many comforts from home. We didn't recognize many brands. The real bummer is there are NO Ho-Ho's to be found! The birds wake up around 3am here. The kids like ordering pop at the restaurants because you get a little glass bottle of it that you get to pour into your own glass (no refills though).

Jet Lag?

This is the entrance to our apartment.






Our first day was pretty uneventful. Once we got all 16 pieces of baggage to the apartment, we went for lunch. After that we went to a park. We got there shortly after school let out so there were lots of kids there. Taylor, Riley and Brody played some tiggy (just like tag) with a group of kids. Then later Taylor played some soccer with 2 other girls. After that, we all showered and went out for supper. Brody literally fell asleep at the table (it was about 3am in Minnesota)! He never woke up again. So far, he is the one that seems like he will have issues switching time zones. Taylor and Riley have done well so far.

Are We There Yet?

Minneapolis to Denver
Denver to LA
LA to Sydney
Sydney to Melbourne

WOW - we did it! It went without a hitch. Taylor, Riley and Brody were very well-behaved - we even received many compliments from fellow travelers.

On the flight from Denver to LA Riley was the "lucky" one to have to sit next to a stranger. She and Bob hit it off, and entertained each other the whole way. It was funny.

On the flight from LA to Sydney Riley lived up to her reputation, and pretty much never went to sleep. I checked on her at 3:30 am and she was still watching the movie Cars (in French). Also on this flight Taylor met a little Australian girl named Ella, and taught her how to finger weave!

On the flight from Sydney to Melbourne, Brody konked out before we got on the plane. When we woke him up to disembark he was really mad because he didn't think the plane ever went anywhere!