Bringing in the New Year

We celebrated New Year's Eve by going out to eat at an "All You Can Eat" buffet called Smorgy's. The funny thing about this place is that it's really geared toward kids. It's a little bit like the Rainforest Cafe' with music, waterfalls, and talking animals. The food was average, but the kids enjoyed the atmosphere.

Riley and Brody are posing by the waterfall.


After dinner we took the train to Flinder's Street in Melbourne. The trains were free after 3pm. We were lucky we got on one at all - we felt like sardines. We were heading down to the Family Concert and Fireworks Display at Federation Square. The concert reminded me a little bit of the Wiggles. The fireworks were pretty good too! I have never seen so many people together in my whole life. We left at about 10 when the second part of the evening was going to begin. It was a challenge making our way through the crowds, and keeping track of our kids.

We made it back to the train station without losing anybody. Here we are on the train heading home. Luckily it wasn't as crowded as it was on the way in!

Santa Visited Us Down Under

We all survived our first Christmas away from home! Santa brought things like: bikes, scooters, MP3 Players, speakers, remote control cars, cuddle buddies, Uggs, shake machines, Gap clothes from Minnesota (no Gap down here), and so much more.

Here is Brody with his remote control car.


Here is Taylor with her electronic password journal and a charm bracelet.

Here is Riley with her new scooter.

Now we wait for our next visitor.... Pat’s brother Paul and his son Axel are coming! After that Grandpa Gray is coming in March! Woo Hoooooo!

Early Christmas Present

This was an early Christmas present for the whole family... We brought our bikes down here, but it is VERY hilly. Now we can all actually go on bike rides together. Brody won't be the bottle-neck anymore, it will probably be me! When we come home, we can hook it up to Josh and Alex's bikes, right?

'Twas the Night Before Christmas (or the night before Christmas Eve anyway)

And we were in the hot tub!

We are definitely missing everyone, but also trying to keep ourselves distracted from the fact that we won't be with our cousins, our dogs, or our friends for Christmas this year. This will be the first Christmas that we have not been in Minnesota with our family - even for the 4 years that Pat and I lived in Detroit, we were always home for Christmas! Christmas Eve will be "just us", and Christmas Day we are having Jamie and Sarita over. Pat works with Jamie, and Sarita is his wife. They don't have any kids, so hopefully they'll survive the "chaos" of Christmas with 3 kids!

Christmas Cookies

We did one batch of Christmas cookies, and I'm not sure if we'll do any more. It depends on the weather. The day we did the cookies, it was 99 degrees! It's hard to turn the oven on when it's that hot outside!

"Aussie" Version of "12 Days of Christmas"

Before we teach you the song, we thought a few pictures and some definitions would be fun....

This is a Lyrebird. It's an Aussie bird that looks kind of like a chicken, but with a tail that looks like a lyre (harp).

This is a Dingo. Dingo's are Australian wild dogs.These are emus and ostrich's. You can see the bulge in their neck after they wolf down their food (sometimes they even eat the bag).
This is a Galah.
This is a Wombat.
Kookaburra - a laughing type noisy Aussie bird, similar to a Kingfisher (no picture)
Gum Tree - Eucalyptus (no picture)

Now you can enjoy the song:

On the FIRST day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
A kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the SECOND day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the THIRD day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the FOURTH day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the FIFTH day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Five kangaroos,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the SIXTH day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Six sharks a-surfing,
Five kangaroos,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the SEVENTH day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Seven emus laying,
Six sharks a-surfing,
Five kangaroos,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the EIGHTH day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Eight dingos dancing,
Seven emus laying,
Six sharks a-surfing,
Five kangaroos,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the NINTH day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Nine crocs a-snoozing?
Eight dingos dancing,
Seven emus laying,
Six sharks a-surfing,
Five kangaroos,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the TENTH day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Ten wombats washing,
Nine crocs a-snoozing?
Eight dingos dancing,
Seven emus laying,
Six sharks a-surfing,
Five kangaroos,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the ELEVENTH day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Eleven lizards leaping,
Ten wombats washing,
Nine crocs a-snoozing?
Eight dingos dancing,
Seven emus laying,
Six sharks a-surfing,
Five kangaroos,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

On the TWELFTH day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me,
Twelve possums playing,
Eleven lizards leaping,
Ten wombats washing,
Nine crocs a-snoozing?
Eight dingos dancing,
Seven emus laying,
Six sharks a-surfing,
Five kangaroos,
Four lyrebirds,
Three wet galahs,
Two snakes on skis,
And a kookaburra in a gum tree.

Bush Fires

Currently there are bush fires raging in Victoria (the state that we are living in). The fire is about 150 miles away from Melbourne, but the smoke is unbelievable! Today it looked "foggy" outside, but it was really smoke from the fires. Every time we went somewhere Brody would start asking about the campfire. It really does smell like a bonfire outside. Apparently 2 fires have merged, and close to 2,000,000 acres have burned. Currently there are over 4,000 firefighters trying to control the fire.


The pictures don't really do it justice, but this is what we are breathing:

Field Trips Down Under

There are no school buses here. We either walk to school, or drive. Needless to say, it was pretty different for Riley when she rode on a tour bus for her field trip. They went to see a movie at the movie theater, and then they went to a park to eat lunch. Brody and I joined them for lunch.

Taylor also had a field trip, but they had to walk. It was an all day swim party at the local pool, with pizza for lunch. Brody and I didn't get to go on this one.

Taylor and Riley each volunteered to bring a treat for their class. Riley brought "ice pops" which are popsicles, and Taylor brought "ice milks" which are fudgesicles. Both were a big hit!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Christmas is very "casual" down under. It will be very different this year for all of us. It will be warm with no snow. We may even go to the beach! We had to look all over for a Christmas tree. Unlike at home, there are no lots with Christmas trees to buy. We actually found this one at a grocery store of all places!


We didn't bring any Christmas decorations down here with us. The kids will have to make do with these stockings, instead of the ones that Grandma made for all of them! The problem is that these are kind of large!

We were able to find a Santa at the mall that they could all go see.

Last Batch of Tazzy Pictures

You can see our cruise ship the "Spirit of Tasmania" in the background.



This picture is taken out the window of our van as we drove it onto the ship.

Swimming fun.

This is Taylor at the end of the tube slide.

This is Riley at the top of the slide.

This is Brody and Riley at the top of the "Nut".
I'm about 1/2 way up the Nut. I didn't make it to the top. I'm too afraid of heights (what a scaredy cat).

More Tazzy Pictures

Here are the kids on a hike at the Cradle Mountain National Park.

Here we are at Pencil Pines Falls at the same park.



This is a Wombat that was on the side of the freeway.

Here are some more pictures of the Henty Sand Dunes.

Here's some more pictures of the kids on the 40 km Beach.

Here we are in the cave.

Tasmania

We survived our first big trip down under. We took the ferry to Tasmania. The ship leaves at 8pm and arrives the next morning at 7am. We drove our minivan right onto the ship! Pat and Brody stayed in a cabin and the girls and I were in our own cabin. The ride was extremely rough. Taylor slept through the whole thing. Riley was up until 3 am laughing and hanging on in the top bunk.

We arrived in Devonport, and drove to Stanley. Some of us hiked up to the top of the "Nut" which had an extraordinary view of mountains and the ocean. We drove on to Smithton where we stayed at a lodge with a nice heated pool. Our accommodations went slowly downhill the rest of the trip. The next day we went to a dismal swamp. You had to ride a tube-like slide to get down to the bottom to do your exploring. After that we were on to Strahan. Along the way, we stopped at Cradle Mountain, and did some hiking.

In Strahan we stayed at the Cozy Cabins. Luckily I had talked Pat out of camping, because it was quite chilly here. The kids played on the 40KM beach, and went sledding in the sand dunes. We even caught the tale end of a whale rescue. 27 whales were beached, and they were only able to save 5. It was sad, but also very interesting.

Our next stop was Hobart. Along the way we stopped at Field National Park to look at the Tall Pines. They are the second tallest trees in the world, next to the Redwoods in California.

A definite highlight of Hobart was touring the Cadbury chocolate factory. Pat was hilarious at the end, in the candy store.

Another hilight was the petting zoo. Taylor finally got to get up close with a Koala Bear (among many other animals).

Our last stop before the long drive back up to Devonport for our "cruise" was visiting the Hastings Caves and Thermal Pool. The kids swam here for 3 hours.