Date Night!
Thursday evening we had our first date night in 4 months. When we got home from work we were rushing around to get everything ready for the sitter. Ty told Jay that he wanted to take a shower so that “she won’t see me dirty.” Oh boy, this kid is going to be trouble!
The kids and Belinda seemed to get along great right away, and Ty didn’t seem at all upset that we were leaving. Too easy. Jay and I didn’t really have a plan, so we headed to Surfer’s Paradise. We haven’t been there yet and it has been on my list for a while. We found a delicious restaurant called Hurricanes. Jay got a steak and I had prawns – the biggest shrimp ever… Best meal we have had at a restaurant in Australia.

After dinner we grabbed some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and headed to the ocean. We are so fortunate to have one of the world’s most beautiful beaches close enough to visit on a random Thursday night. We walked along the sand, splashed our feet in the waves, and watched the blood red moon rise up over the Coral Sea. *sigh*

Such a nice night. Unfortunately our borrowed Au pair plan is short lived, as she became too homesick and is moving back to Melbourne. Nuts. We talked about seeing if we could find a regular sitter because we really need to get out more. 🙂

Memaw!!!!
Jay went and picked up Memaw on Friday morning at 6:00 am. I took the kids to daycare and then I had to go to work. Ty and I were so excited for the end of the day to come so we could go see her. She had a smooth flight, she slept a lot, had nice neighbors, an on time arrival, all of her bags arrived. No worries!
Jay took her around to show her the area. They went to the house first. They drove around Sovereign Island, went to Surfer’s Paradise, rode the buggy to the marina, got groceries, and then went to daycare a little early to see the kids. Her first impressions were that it is hot and busy. There are more traffic/people than she was expecting.
I was glad that her bags arrived because they were stuffed full of goodies from the states. Christmas presents from the Scroggies (thank you!!), Valentines Day prizes, lots of clothes for the kids, real Qtips for Jay, bags of black beans, boxes of hidden valley ranch dressing mix, pink Orbit gum, Crest toothpaste, my favorite conditioner, and Magic Shell!!!!!
Friday night was the usual pizza and movie night, but it was so much better with Memaw! We watched Mr Popper’s Penguins – random, cute movie. She stayed awake until about 7:30, which is really good! She woke around 2:00, unpacked her suitcases and fell back to sleep.

Saturday.
Ty bypassed our room at 5:15 am on Saturday and jumped into Memaw’s bed for a bit before we had to get ready for swim lessons. It was fun for Ty to get to show her his swimming skills in person! Lily had fun kick kick kicking her way around the pool. The teacher called her a water baby today – she sure is!

We came home to get changed and ready to go into the city. Lily found the best place in the house to catch some zzzz’s – on Memaw’s lap!

South Bank.
The weather forecast was cooler and a chance of rain, so we decided to go to South Bank Parklands up in Brisbane. Such a cool, fun place! The walkways were surrounded by these huge vines with purple flowers. Beautiful. There is a man made “beach” swimming pool that overlooks the Brisbane River. Ty loved playing in the sand. Next time we will bring swim trunks so he can play in the kiddie pool. They had a little tent market (bought a dress and the most adorable outfit for Lily) and heaps of restaurants and shops. We ate at a Mexican restaurant – Guzman & Gomez. First Mexican in Australia and it was pretty tasty!
After lunch we rode the Wheel of Brisbane, the largest Ferris wheel in the Southern Hemisphere (I think). Memaw didn’t want to ride so it was just the 4 of us. The views were awesome, even though it was a cloudy day.
There was an Aboriginal festival, which was pretty cool. They had crafts for sale, and they did singing and dancing performances. It was neat – glad we came across that unexpected surprise!

IKEA.
Do you remember when we first moved here and we had to go to Ikea to get furniture. It was probably Jay’s least favorite experience in Australia (and possibly his life by the way he complains about it). I have been wanting to go back to pick up a few more things but Jay never wanted to go back. I mentioned it to sherry and she said she has never been to an Ikea. Woohoo! Perfect reason to go. :). I got what I needed and this experience was much more pleasant.

Roos!
We were on our way home around the time that we heard the kangaroos like to hang out just a few roundabouts up the road, so we thought we would go check it out. Success!!! Wild Roos!!! Memaw must be good luck. 🙂

Rest.
The rest of Saturday evening we just decided to take it easy. Such a fun day.

G’day mates!