Happy Thanksgiving!

I didn't post last week.  I have to admit that it was a little hard for me to be away for Thanksgiving.  It was one of those days where I felt completely misplaced in the world.  It was life as usual here in Oz on Thursday.  Sean went to work, Carter went to school, and Aubrey and I went to playgroup.  I made a nice dinner that night.  Not a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but a chicken dish we all enjoy.  Then, Sean left to go see the new James Bond movie with a friend.  The kids and I stayed home and made paper turkeys out of our handprints.  It was such an oddly normal day.

Carter and Aubrey's handprint turkeys

Luckily, my funk only lasted one day.  Friday morning I got up and talked to my family in the middle of their Thanksgiving festivities thanks to FaceTime on my iPad.  Modern technology is one of the many things I am thankful for.  It has made this move to Australia so much better for me.  I would be much more homesick if technology were just 10 years behind where it is today.  Ten years ago I could not have had a face to face conversation with my family members from almost 9000 miles away.  Ten years ago I could not keep up with my family and friends over Facebook and many connections would just be "lost".  If I did not have these means of communication, I would really feel like I am "missing out" on all my family and friends' lives back in the US.  I know it has made a huge difference in my happiness level while living away from them.  

We got together with some other American friends at the beach on Sunday to celebrate Thanksgiving.  None of us really felt like going through the hassle of making a turkey, so we had turkey sandwiches.  But, with some of the traditional sides and pumpkin pie, it made for a very nice, low key meal.  And, it was a sunny 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius), so it was great beach weather.  We all ate and then the kids played games and went swimming while the adults sat back and relaxed.  It may not have felt quite like our normal holiday, but I will never complain about a day like that.

Aubrey helping me cook.  Maybe we should all wear swimming googles when we cook; you never know what may splash in your eyes. 

There was free face painting when we got to the beach.  So, Aubrey changed from swimming queen to glamorous kitty cat.

The remains of our Thanksgiving meal.  (I forgot to take a picture until my tummy was full.)

The kids are playing with our neighbors' teenage daughters out in the water.

We saw a huge cruise ship going past the beach as it was headed out of the harbour.

Sean and I often discuss all the expensive sports cars we see driving in our neighborhood of Mosman.  Since Sean and the kids love cars, this is kind of a treat for them.  When we were driving home from the beach (in our Ford Fiesta), I decided to take a picture of the Ferrari in front of us.  After I snapped the shot, Sean made a comment about the Lamborghini that passed us in the other lane.  I checked the picture I had just taken, and I got them both.  If there had just been an Aston Martin in the lane on the left, the picture would have been complete.

"Just another day in Mosman"

I will leave this blogpost with an awesome picture I took last week when Carter and I went for a run and ended up at Georges Heights Overlook at sunset.  It is a peaceful spot to reflect on all the amazing blessings we have been given.  We are so lucky.

Good eats (and more)

The weather over the last couple of weeks has been pretty up and down.  The forecast would call for showers every day.  Then, each day would be generally sunny with a storm or 2 that would sweep through in the afternoon to evening hours.  I got used to that pattern, so when the forecast was the same for Saturday, I thought we would probably have a nice morning like the rest of the week had been.  So, I talked Sean and the kids into a little adventure Saturday morning: the Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach 4 km coastal walk.  Unfortunately, the weather was not the same as it had been all week.  The weather turned out to be a colder than expected with big wind gusts, and misting rain.  It was still a gorgeous walk and we made it most of the way despite the less than desirable weather.  We finally abandoned it a little shy of our goal (at Clovelly); we had a little less than a kilometer left to hit Coogee Beach.  We rounded a bend and it got a little too cold, too windy, and too wet all at the same time.  So, we walked a little more inland, away from the coast (where it was a little less windy) and we caught a bus back to Bondi Beach.  **Note to self:  Next time the weather forecast is questionable, I should throw the kids' jackets in the car.**

The purple dot is Mosman (where we live) and the red dot is Bondi Beach (where we started our walk)

This doesn't show the path, but it starts at the red dot and follows the coast down to Coogee.

Bondi Beach

The best of both worlds!  Beautiful lap pools right at Bondi Beach.

Carter and Aubrey with Bondi Beach in the background

Sean and the kids posing in front of one of the many cool rock formations we saw on the walk.

Bronte Beach

Another "bath" or pool by the ocean.  This one has a more natural look and appeared to have ocean water in it.

Leaving Bronte Beach and heading towards Waverley Cemetery 

Waverley Cemetery from the south side

A final picture of Sean and the kids shortly before we called it quits on the the walk.

We still had a good time and learned a couple of lessons for if/when we do that walk again.  And, we found a really good hamburger place on Bondi Beach, Moo Burger.  It is a local chain and we will definitely have to go to another one.  We knew we were in a good place when we saw the Heinz ketchup bottle on the table.  That is a rare treat in Australia.  Most of the time we are paying for a small tub of "tomato sauce" at the counter. 

Carter at Moo Burger

View from the restaurant

The burgers we got on Saturday was just a start to our weekend of good eating.  On Sunday, we went over to our friends' house for a barbecue. By barbecue, I don't mean an Aussie barbecue.  I mean a Kansas City BBQ complete with ribs, brisket, beans, and Oklahoma Joe's BBQ sauce.  Our friends (also from Kansas City) have a homemade smoker.  Our friend, Mike, found a butcher to sell him brisket here in Aussie.  The butcher said that they do not use the brisket for anything other than to grind up to make sausages!!!  Mike is able to buy the brisket for a low price as long as he lets the butcher know how much he wants by Wednesday of each week.  Mike smoked the meat for about 9 hours and then we had a feast.  

The smoker.  Isn't it beautiful?

The main course

Yum!!!!

I went out for a walk by myself on Monday night.  It was a beautiful night out and I needed to work off some of that yummy, but not exactly healthy, food from the weekend.  It is so nice that the days are noticeably longer now.  I ended up down by Mosman Bay where you can catch a ferry into the city.  I got down there just a little too late to actually see the sun go down, but the views still did not disappoint.  It gave me some of the serenity I was seeking at the beginning of the walk. 

The red pin shows the Mosman ferry wharf

A picture I caught as I was walking back home; the last drops of sunlight on the Harbour Bridge in the distance.

Today (Friday), was Aubrey's last morning of Kindy orientation.  These are some final pics of her in her uniform for awhile.  She won't be back in it until the very end of January when she actually starts her school career.  After watching her brother go to "Big School" for 2 1/2 years, she is so excited that it is finally her turn.

The kids before we headed out of the apartment building on this rainy morning.

Aubrey telling me to leave because she was "busy coloring".  I guess she is pretty comfortable in the Kindy classroom.  I know that is a good thing, but shouldn't she at least want to hug me goodbye?  

Springtime fun

Sean and I had a great time celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary last Saturday night.  Many people would have done something more spectacular to celebrate a big milestone anniversary, but we are already in Sydney, which is already a big deal.  Plus, we don't often get a babysitter.  So, we took advantage of a kid-free evening and knocked something off of our Sydney bucket list....a walking ghost tour.

We did start the evening with a lovely meal at Darling Harbour.  Then, we headed to The Rocks for the ghost tour.  I've mentioned The Rocks in passing in previous posts, but I have not went into much detail about this section of the city.  The Rocks is the site of the original English settlement in Sydney in 1788.  It is currently a touristy area with many restaurants and shops.  It has an "old world" kind of feel with many original buildings and cobblestone streets.  It contains a wealth of history, and not all of it is good.  It essentially became a slum soon after Sydney was established and was controlled by a gang called "Rocks Push".  The gang would roam the streets to rob and kill sailors and anyone that got in their way until the 1870's.  Then, the Bubonic plague hit the area in 1900.  Needless to say, there were an ample number of tragic stories for a ghost tour.  Sean and I didn't get very scared, but we loved hearing the stories.

The red pin is on The Rocks.  All of the dotted lines in the water shows the ferry routes.  The hub of the ferries is Circular Quay, which is located right next to The Rocks.  The main road you see crossing the harbour is where the Sydney Harbour Bridge is located.  

Sean just before the ghost tour.  Sydney CBD (Central Business District) is in the background.

Everyone circled around the guide as he tells of a gruesome murder.

Sunday was set to be an absolutely gorgeous day outside.  And, wouldn't you know, it just happened to be the day of "Hunter Valley Uncorked" at Balmoral Beach.  Hunter Valley is the wine region located just a couple of hours outside of Sydney.  On this day, they were having an event to sample wines from the region at our local beach.  It could not have been a more perfect day to enjoy time with friends while drinking wine by the beach.  Carter and Aubrey were with us, but quickly got bored sitting around at a wine festival. Luckily, we were in a win-win situation.  They got to escape the wine fest to go play in the water at the beach with our friends' teenage daughters.  Everyone was happy!

A picture of me (and the top of Aubrey's head) at the wine event.  I'm trying to get used to wearing hats here since the sun is a little much for my fair skin.  Sunscreen alone just isn't going to cut it.

A picture of the kids on "The Rotunda" at Balmoral Beach.  Neither kid looks happy because Aubrey tried to hug Carter for the picture, but he was having none of that.  

This picture is included to show the backdrop of the wine festival.  There were 21 different wineries present.  It was a sunny day with just enough of a breeze that there were tons of sailboats in the harbour.

Today was a big day in our household.  It was the second day of Aubrey's Kindy orientation (i.e. Kindergarten orientation).  I bought her uniform earlier this week, so she really wanted to wear it to school today.  She was so excited and proud to have her uniform on.  Carter was actually pretty excited too.

Here they are running to school.

I am thoroughly enjoying the fact that it is Spring here.  In Missouri, I would associate the smell of lilacs with springtime.  I have not seen or smelt any lilacs since we have been in Australia.  However, there is star jasmine all over the place. That is the scent that now represents Australian springtime for me.  Another beautiful flowering tree here in Sydney is the Jacaranda tree.  Of course, there are tons of flowering plants here, but these are two of my favorites.  

This is right around the corner from our apartment.  All of the ground cover with small white flowers are star jasmine.  I wish I could make this a "scratch and sniff" section of the blog.

              Looking down a local street.  All the pops of purple are jacaranda trees.

A closer look at a local park with the jacaranda trees.

I will end the post with a picture I took while walking down the street today.  I looked over at a tree and right there in front of me was a rainbow lorikeet.  It still surprises me when I see birds like this out in the wild.  My first thought is "Did it escape from someone's house?".  Then I remember that this is the bird's natural habitat.  I'm the one out of place.

The rainbow lorikeet is in the tree on the left.

Getting back into the swing of things

I cannot believe we have been back in Sydney for almost 2 weeks now.  Time flies when you are having fun.  It has brought back a lot of memories for me of how it felt the first time we came.  I took notes back in March during our first couple of weeks in Sydney.  It was really fun to look back at those to see how quickly we adjusted to Sydney time and to help me remember all of our "firsts". 

15 1/2 hours on a plane is a LONG time.  

This time we did not get the luxury of a week to roam around the city at our own pace.  We had to hit with our feet running and try to function on a 16 hour time difference.  We landed around 11:30 Sunday morning and then Monday morning Carter went back to school and Sean went back to work.  It actually did work out okay.  We just got up REALLY early in the morning and tried to keep our eyes open as long as we possibly could at night.  I did kind of enjoy experiencing what it feels like to be a morning person.  Although, getting up at 3:30 am is a little extreme.

Carter handled going to school that first week pretty well.  Getting up wasn't a problem because we had already been up for HOURS by 9:00 am.  School gets out at 3:00 pm, which is 11:00 pm US Central time (aka, Kansas City time).  That is pretty late, but it is not absurd.  What made it rough was participating in the after-school activities and getting all the homework done in the evenings.  We did a lot of the homework in the wee hours of the morning when we first woke up.  I felt like celebrating by Friday because we got it all done and we were almost fully adjusted.  Plus, we had a free weekend to do whatever we wanted.  

A lot of people would probably choose to have a quiet weekend at home after all our recent travels and overall busyness.  But, we don't seem to know how to "stop" for very long.  We heard about a vintage car show up at a place called The Entrance.  Once we looked it up and saw that it was called Chromefest and it was "a tribute to classic American autos, hot rods, and rock and roll", we knew we had to go.  Saturday morning we loaded up our Ford Fiesta and headed a couple of hours up the coast.  It was a pretty drive and the kids took naps in the car.  Even though we were on the go for most of the day, it felt relaxing because we were on our own schedule.  The Entrance is a really laid back beach town.  We cannot get enough of these gorgeous beaches in Australia; each one carries its own unique beauty. 

The purple pin is where we live and the red pin was the location of Chromefest

Yet another breathtaking Australian view

A picture of the sandy bar separating the ocean from the lake at The Entrance

Sean's favorite car of the day

Aubrey's favorite car of the day

On Sunday we continued what I now like to refer as "Sean's car weekend".  We went down to Darling Harbour for the Australian International Motor Show (AIMS).  It is always fun to check out all the new cars coming out and dream a little.  

The kids and I outside the auto show

Sean's favorite car at the Australian Auto Show; it is a Ford concept car called an Evos.

Our second week back in Sydney has been pretty eventful as well.  The springtime weather has been awesome.  Aubrey and I got to go to the beach for the first time since the winter.  It was fantastic.  The crazy, intense Australian sun is totally going to fry us as we proceed into summer.  But, for now, it feels like heaven laying out on that sandy beach. 

Aubrey at our local Balmoral Beach.  I think we are really going to like summer here.

We also got to experience our first Australian Halloween.  We are lucky that there is an area close to us that celebrates Halloween and enough houses participate so that it is "worth it" to get out and go trick or treating.  Carter had a soccer game after school.  Then, the kids quickly got changed in the car and we hit the streets to trick or treat with a group of Carter's friends.  Since it was still daylight, people could not turn on outside lights to let trick or treaters know they were welcome.  So, the houses that were participating put Halloween decorations outside on the front of the house.  We walked around until dusk and then it was time to go back home.  That is one big difference about Australian trick or treating (vs. the US) - it is all over by dark (about 7:00 pm).  The kids had a great time and said it was the best trick or treating ever.  They say that every year, but it is still really nice to hear. 

Halloween fun

A close up of Carter in his zookeeper costume.  I forgot to have the 2 kids stop and pose for me, so this will just have to do.

Aubrey as a mermaid

A picture of most of the kids that came out trick or treating with us

Today, November 2nd, is yet another big day.  Aubrey went to her first day of Kindy orientation this morning.  She was so excited, she could hardly stand it.  She had a great time.  Plus, it is also Sean and I's 10 year wedding anniversary.  So much has changed in 10 years.  I am so thankful for the wonderful life we have created together in those years.  It was a typical anniversary for us in that Sean bought his own gift; a techie gift that he will enjoy more than anything I would have gotten him.  He got me a beautiful amethyst necklace that I will cherish for many years to come.  We are looking forward to a night out on the town this weekend to celebrate.

I can honestly say that as hard as it was to leave our friends and family in Kansas City, we are happy to be back "home" in Sydney.  The trip back to the States really helped us put everything in perspective.  We are no longer feeling homesick.  Instead, we are just really looking forward to enjoying the rest of the time we have here in Australia.