First Day of School (Again)

Summer vacation down under is over, so the kids went back to school! Brody got to go this time too! Brody is going to Friend Street Kinder. Down here, preschool is called kindergarten, and kindergarten is called prep year. Today he learned that instead of saying it's time to clean up (like they do at home in school), they say it's time to tidy up. The big sand box outside is called the sand pit, and for group time they go sit on the mat (he kept thinking they were saying map - he was expecting them to say carpet).


Taylor and Riley have new teachers and new classes, but they are still at the same school with relatively the same schedule. Riley's teacher is Ms. Tirtilas.

Taylor's teacher is Ms. Rymer. Taylor's grade will be moving into a brand new building on the campus very shortly!

Australia Day

It was Australia Day today in Australia. It's kind of like the 4th of July at home, except it doesn't seem very celebrated here. It is a holiday, so Pat did not have to go to work today. Since the kids are still on summer vacation, we decided to go to the beach. There was an event that we "almost" entered - The Thong Challenge. You could buy an air mattress for 30 dollars, and be in the world record attempt for the longest line of air mattresses in the water. We were late getting there and feeling rushed, so we decided to be spectators.

Instead, we just tried to enjoy the beach. It figures that with all the 100 degree days we've had here that the day we go to the beach it's only 70 and windy. It actually seemed cold - I even had goose bumps! The kids weren't even interested in playing in the sand, which usually occupies all three of them for hours.

Slang Down Under

Not only is there an accent down here, but there are also many different sayings, and even different names for the same things back home. So we put together a list of these things that we hear while we are down under. Some of them we've even adopted now ourselves!

Right-o
All right then, when hanging up or saying goodbye

G’day mate
Hello

How ya goin’
How are you

I nearly made it
I almost made it

Have a look
Take a look at this

Have a go
Take a turn, you try it

Rubbish
Garbage

Cheers
Bye

No worries
No problem

Tiggy
Playing tag

Mum
Mom

Bloke
Friend

Witches Hat
Orange construction cone

Good on ya
See ya later

Take-away
Take-out food or take-out box

How’d ya go
How did you do (when trying on clothes,etc.)

Post
Mail (which is delivered on a motorcycle)

Zed
The letter Z

Sultana
Raisin

Capsicum
Red pepper

Egg fruit
Eggplant

Summer Swimming Lessons

Even though it's January here, it is still summer vacation - so that means swimming lessons for Taylor, Riley, and Brody! They were all a little concerned that they weren't going to have good old Amanda (I think she's been teaching the kids how to swim for about 6 years) - in their own pool at home, but they all did great. There are definitely some differences in the drills they use here, but as usual the kids adapted very quickly.

Great Barrier Reef - Hamilton Island

We took our second big trip while down under. Pat's brother Paul and his son Axell went with us too. We all stayed on Hamilton Island and visited the Great Barrier Reef. It really was beautiful there, and double the fun with our cousin Axell!

Here are Taylor and Riley standing on the deck of our hotel room.

Taylor and Riley are swimming in one of the many pools at the resort.

This is Taylor holding a Koala bear. This is very significant because this was all she talked about doing before we left Minnesota. Once we arrived here, we discovered that we were not allowed to do this anywhere in the state of Victoria! Wow, the kids sure were excited when they learned that they were able to do this on Hamilton Island!

One day we rode on this boat out to the reef. It was about a 1 1/2 hour ride out there. The seas were 1.6 meters, and the winds were 15-20 knots. This meant nothing to me, but after the Tasmania ride, Pat was very concerned about me - so I took a motion sickness tablet and was fine both on the way out and on the way back in. Needless to say Pat, Paul, and all the kids were also just fine. Once we got to the reef, we had 4 hours to snorkel as much as we wanted. They also had submarine rides. I think there were 280 people on this boat.

Obviously the photo doesn't do it justice, but we had to put at least one picture from underneath the water. The fish and coral were really unbelievable to look at - tons of bright colors, and fish everywhere - just ask Riley. We even found Nemo - seriously we saw a clown fish. We didn't get a picture of it, but here is a picture of some other fish, and coral, etc.

Here we are after the big trip out to the reef.

Riley's Front Tooth

Riley finally lost one of her front teeth. The tooth fairy brought her 5 dollars!! I think she looks much cuter than Grandpa does with his one front tooth!!

Brody's Birthday Celebration

Brody will turn 5 on 1/21, but we celebrated early since one of his cousins were here. He got leggos and a scooter - among other things!

Antibiotics Did the Trick

The kids are feeling much better, and even convinced Pat and Uncle Paul to wrestle with them!



This is why Pat's neck was sore the next day.


We're all hoping that Brody and Axell stay healthy before we all head to the Great Barrier Reef!

Strep Throat Down Under

We discovered that we can all get sick down under just like we can at home. Unfortunately, even though our first visitors are here, Taylor and Riley are both sick. Fortunately Brody and Axell are still very healthy. Paul and I need to remain creative with activities given the current status of all the kids. Pat started this whole thing, but he still needs to go to work every day.

It was 100 degrees today and Taylor and Riley both had to go to the doctor. They both laid around most of the day with pants, long sleeved shirts, and blankets on! We are all hoping that their medicine kicks in tomorrow, because we're running out of things to do!

New Year's Eve with Bartels!

Our New Year's Eve celebration just didn't seem complete without our cousins or our dogs (or Henry's hot tub), so we decided to celebrate New Year's Eve with the Bartels in cyberspace. It was midnight New Year's Eve in Minnesota, and 5pm New Year's Day in Melbourne. We had Josh, Alex, Shanny, and Sherry on the webcam!