100 Piece.
We bought Ty a 100 piece firefighter puzzle, and he didn’t have any trouble putting it together. Such a little smarty!

Brekky.
Sunday morning we had brekky at the ramina. Ty, of course, had his all-time favorite meal of pancakes with strawberries and ice cream, and a delicious chocolate milk with chocolate flakes on top. Lily ate some of the pancakes…no surprise that she loved that! The boys went grocery shopping while Lily chugged down a bottle and watched the people and pups come and go. Every time we go to the marina I think about Bandit, and how even if we had been able to bring him here there is no way we would have ever been able to bring him to the marina. :). His little sniffer would go CRAZY! Miss that silly pup…

Lego.
After filling our tummies, we got ready to go see our first movie down under. This was Lily’s first movie ever – The Lego Movie. There was one moment where Lily was asleep in Jay’s arms, Ty was sitting on my lap, and I was just really stinking happy. I love my little crazy family so much. :). Enough of the sappy stuff… So I couldn’t help but make some comparisons during the movie. I am quite like President Business, wanting everything to be neat, orderly, and following the instructions. I may or may not have been known to glue puzzles together in my past… Jay is a bit more like Wildstyle (minus the purple hair), making things up as he goes, totally comfortable with a bit of chaos around him. Ty, of course, is Batman, because he really loves Batman. Lily is Unikitty – she hasn’t yet figured out any emotion other than happy.

Popcorn.
Movie theaters in Australia do, in fact, have popcorn. They do not, however, pour heaps of delicious melted butter on top. I wonder if they have ever tried it. Mmmmmmm…..

Shop.
Since the movie theater was at the mall, we stopped at a few shops before hitting the road. Both kids fell asleep right away, and since we happened to drive by a McDonalds, we decided we may as well swing by and treat ourselves to McFlurries. If the kids knew how often we have done this, they would never sleep in the car. 🙂

Back.
My back has been acting up quite a bit lately. Not sure it is from the chairs at the office or from lugging around my adorable chunky monkey baby, but it is kind of a mess. I am getting a massage Sunday evening to see if she can work out anything. I may have to break down and go to the doctor if it doesn’t get better soon. It is seriously cramping my style.

So that pretty much sums up our Sunday. Back to the grind tomorrow. One week until Rickey arrives!!!!

ANZAC Day.
Friday was ANZAC Day in Australia, which, as far as I can tell is similar to our Veterans or Memorial Day. They have ceremonies at dawn that are apparently very moving, but there was no way I was going to fight the traffic and crowds at. 4:30 AM with 2 little ones. We had a nice day. We went for a buggy ride to the tennis courts, then drove around the neighborhoods. Ty fell asleep on the back seat, and Lily slept in Jay’s arms. When we got home, everyone was rested up so we ate a quick lunch then the boys jumped in the pool. Lily watched them swim while I got caught up on some housework. It was a beautiful day, so I decided that the fresh air was worth the risk of a critter or two sneaking in the house, so I opened up all of the sliding glass doors on the back side of the house. I snuggled with Lily a bit and when she fell asleep I folded our laundry on the kitchen table. I usually hate folding clothes, but it was surprisingly pleasant today with the breeze blowing through the dining room.

Where are we?
Friday evening the boys went for a bike ride and Lily and I walked along. As we were making our way through the neighborhood we crossed paths with a kid sitting on his motorized skateboard cruising along. And then we passed 4 adults in their late 20’s riding their segways around. And then another guy around the same age goes flying by us on his motorized skateboard. Are these normal gadgets back home? Or is this another over-the-top Aussie deal?

Fizi.
Aussies love to “get fizi”, Ty is definitely influenced by this (which is a good thing). So Saturday we decided to try something new. After the 7:00 swim lesson (still didn’t get to ring the bell but Ty did AWESOME), we rushed over to his 8:00 gymnastics trial. He was super excited. When we got there, Ty saw a friend from school, and then he almost couldn’t contain his excitement. Coach Jake called him and two other kids in to the gym, where they had set up all sorts of fun equipment – balance beams, bars, rings, trampolines, vaults, mats. Jay and I took Lily upstairs to get an aerial view of the action. I think he is a natural (I say that about everything…). I was impressed at how well he followed directions and did what the coaches said. Even though there were lots of kids in other classes in the gym at the same time, he stayed focused, for the most part. I am pretty sure that it read his lips, and he told the coach he was wearing his workout shirt. Such a funny little man. The free trial was a success, so we signed him up. He didn’t want to wait until next Saturday – he wanted to go back after dinner. 🙂

Soap.
The gymnastics facility is a temporary set-up at a school in Coomera, just down the road from swim lessons. Their main facility would be about a half hour drive, so we thought we would give this a shot. It seemed fine to us, except for one thing. Ty had to go to the bathroom before his gymnastics class, so one of the coaches unlocked the bathroom door. Ty went into the boys room and when he came out, he said that there wasn’t any soap to wash his hands. Ok, so we tried the handicap room next to it. No soap. Tried the girls bathroom. No soap. So I asked the coaches if they knew why there was no soap. She said they are aware of it, and have mentioned their concern to the school, but they have not refilled the soap dispensers. The school told them it is a “health and safety reason” to NOT put soap in the bathrooms. Excuse me? What?!?!?!?! That is the most ridiculous thing I may have ever heard. She said something about how kids put soap in toilet paper and throw it. Ok, seriously? Sounds to me like someone has a discipline problem, and should maybe take a look at fixing the root cause of the problem, not just try to implement a band-aid solution. The thought of all of those kids running around all day, going to the bathroom, touching everything, eating lunch, and not having an opportunity to perform basic hand washing makes me almost angry.

Shop.
After gymnastics we went shopping at Robina Town Center. I found some sweet board shorts for Rickey (complete with bikini chics), a couple dresses for work, a fun casual outfit (Jay hates it), and some long sleeve shirts and pants for the kids. Successful outing.

Swim.
Since I didn’t get to swim yesterday, I wanted to jump in the pool today. It was a little chilly in the big pool, so I quickly joined Ty in the hot tub. We splashed around for about an hour, and then Jay cannon balled in. And then Jay decided he would try to play his favorite Wipeout game – Big Balls. He jumped off the side of the pool and tried to land on top of the big Aussie beach ball. Ty thought it was hilarious. Video on Facebook.

Words.
Wacker Packer = compactor

Plunge.
JR nominated me to take the polar plunge for Landon, an infant from Missouri that was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. I cannot even imagine what that family is going though, so I happily accepted the challenge. So it might not have been quite as cold as what some of my Midwestern friends have had to plunge into, but I have been climatized, so 21 degrees Celsius felt about like 21 degrees Fahrenheit. Ty wasn’t about to let me jump in the pool without him, so we both went for a little night swim on Tuesday evening. Thanks to JR for helping spread the awareness and raise money for Landon. Jess, Katie, and Ashley – don’t let me down!

Brisbane.
Jeff and Rachel spent 2 nights in Brisbane this week. The house felt really empty without them. They had some yummy food, saw some neat things, and I’m sure enjoyed a little peace and quiet. They certainly don’t get that last bit at our house! “Hey Jeff!” “Hey Rachel!” “Jeffrey!” “Hey Rachel!” Dinner at our house also was a disappointment…while Jay makes a mean grilled cheese sandwich, it is no steak & shrimp taco…

For any future visitors that want to spend a couple of days in the city, Jeff and Rach are going to send me their itinerary and suggestions on where to stay, what to do, and what to skip (if anything). Maritime Museum, botanical gardens, Southbank Parklands were some good stops.

The Silent Game.
Rachel introduced Ty to the Silent Game on Sunday. He loved it – thought it was great fun. He liked it so much that he wanted to play it in the car on the way to school on Tuesday. “Mom, let’s play Rachel’s game,”. Absolutely! :). Thanks Rach!

Cyclones.
While a tropical Cyclone was brewing in northern Queensland, some great friends wanted to remind us of our awesome Cyclones back home. Brian and Jaclyn sent us an ISU international care package – 2 Iowa State Big 12 champion t-shirts and a package of ISU stickers for the kids. I loved the handwritten note and picture of the pups. Thank you!!!!!

Skateboard.
We took a half day of vacation to spend a little more time with the Bach’s on Thursday. Jay and I met them at Sanctuary Cove for a yummy hot stone steak lunch. Then we picked up the kids and drove 2 cars down to Coolangatta to our favorite beach. After sitting in traffic for probably an hour, we were nearly there when I ran over something. Seriously? What the heck. A teenage kid was riding his skateboard while carrying a surf board down a hill. He lost his balance, the skateboard escaped, and ran right into the road…right as I was driving past. The car is fine, the skateboard is not, and nobody got hurt. I am so over driving….

But we finally made it to the beach, got to splash around a bit, watched the sun set over the Surfers Paradise skyline, and had a nice dinner at the surf club. No worries.

Toys.
Friday morning we got up, got things ready to go on a boat ride, and Rach and I went to the grocery store…only to find out that the store is closed on Good Friday. It is open on Easter Sunday, though. Go figure. So Rach and I drove the car to the 7-11 to get milk for Ty. Turned out ok because we picked up some Tim-Tams for Treasury. :). We got the boat loaded up and headed down river. We thought it would be fun to see if we could cruise down to Surfers Paradise, but apparently everyone with a boat had the exact same idea. The Broadwater was so rough…wasn’t much fun, so we whipped El Bandito around and headed up to Tipplers. But when we got there, there were no spots left to beach the boat. So we turned around and headed to Couran Cove. But when we got there, all of the docks were already reserved. :(. So we just bought some sandwiches to go, and ice cream, and headed back up River. We had a nice little lunch on the boat, and Jeff drove the whole way home. Jay got to play passenger, which meant he got to hold Lily, which isn’t an easy task these days. Rach and I held down the bow and soaked up some rays. We may have cranked up the music real loud and danced on the seats. Maybe…

We all jumped in the pool when we got home. And then Jeff and Rachel jumped again. And again. And again. And again. I haven’t seen such a display of cannon balls, can openers, toe touches, front flips, and back dives in years. Oh yeah, and belly flops. Can’t forget the belly flops. And the attempts to jump on top of the giant Australia beach ball. So much fun

After the pool, we went for a super long buggy ride. We thought we would check to see if the liquor store was open. Nope. So we drove to the Golf Course Clubhouse (which is super fancy) and learned that they cannot sell alcohol without food on Good Friday in Australia. What the heck? I am willing to bet they don’t have the same rule on Easter Sunday…so random. Probably for the best.

When we got home, Ty watched Tangled, Jeff poured me a yummy drink, and Rachel and Jay made pizzas. After Tangled finished, next up was Mary Poppins. I don’t think Ty is going to stay awake until 8:00… Such a fun, busy day.

Currumbin.
I finally got a chance to take a picture of our Currumbin group photo. Rocky was a feisty little koala!

9 Months.
Lily passed the 9 month mark this week! Crawling? No sweat. Pulling herself up onto furniture? No problem. “Walking” behind anything that she can scoot across the floor? No worries. She is still the happiest baby I have ever seen. She loves life, everything about it. She has expanded her diet slightly to include some Mum-mums, peas, and puffs. She eats anything we set in front of her. She “talks” a lot. Ty and Lily have amazing conversations that go on for several minutes. I am pretty sure they actually understand what the other is saying. I love both of my babies so much!

Garbos.
Shoutout to Brett for answering the all important question about who picks up the trash. Rubbish trucks, not garbage trucks, roam the streets of Australia, hauling waste to the dump. The blokes that drive the trucks are not referred to as garbage men, nor rubbish men, nor rubbies (I made that up). Rather, they are called garbos. Apparently, as Brett so eloquently pointed out, rubbishos had too many syllables for the Aussie language. Thanks Brett!

Bandidos.
To set the stage for this next story, I need to remind you of something. We decided to name our boat after our dog, Bandit, who we had to leave at home in the US with my sister. The boat’s name is El Bandito.

On Monday on my drive into work, I was listening to the radio news story about a huge drug sting on the Gold Coast over the weekend. One of the guys had been a member of the criminal bikie (like motorcycle) gang – the Bandidos.

My jaw dropped. My mind raced through all sorts of memories. The time that I contacted the boat decal guy and told him we wanted a decal called El Bandito. He came back with samples spelled “El Bandido”. He probably weighed the risk he had – completing a business deal with a potential drug king pin and therefore putting him at legal risk for his involvement vs pissing off a King pin and potentially risking his well-being. The poor bloke probably lost sleep over our request.
And then there was the poor boat mechanic, who thought that Jay was a nice guy, straight shooter. And then he found out what the name of the boat was, and he probably thought we were druggies.
Ugh. And then now I am worried that every time we go out on the boat, we will have a target on us. Either from the marine cops, actual bikies, or just random people that steer clear because of our assumed involvement in a drug ring. Lord. I guess this is the sort of thing you hear about in cultural awareness classes. Brett – how come you didn’t tell us not to name our boat after a major crime gang?!?! 🙂

Bach’s!!!!
Ty was so excited to come home and see Jeff and Rachel that he literally peed his pants. He will hate me for writing that someday… Jay took the day off to show Jeff and Rachel around. I had to go to work, and let me tell you it was so not fun being there knowing that they were playing all day. They have a packed schedule – lots of fun things planned! Is it the weekend yet?

Crab pot.
For those that don’t know, Jeff and Rachel are pretty much gourmet chefs. Jeff was more than a little stoked at the idea of catching crabs in the crab pot. They bought a box full of chicken necks and loaded up the bait bag. We will see if we have any luck!

Crab!
Tuesday night Ty couldn’t wait to get home and check to see if we had caught a crab. Jeff, Rachel and Ty ran down to the dock, lifted the pot out of the water, and THERE WAS A CRAB!!! Pinch me – am I dreaming or is there a crab on that pot?!?! Jeff had a classic look on his face. I think he was in shock that it actually worked. And then he realized that somehow he was going to have to get the crab, and all of its pinchers, OUT of the crab pot. And even though it had a mouth full of chicken necks, it was pretty crabby. So, back in the water he and the crab pot went, until we could do more research on what to do next.

Houdini.
The crab didn’t tell us his name was Houdini. If he had, we wouldn’t have put him back in the water. Sometime on Wednesday, that little bugger escaped. So they reloaded the crab pot with more bait and waited. Checked it later and they had caught ANOTHER crab. But, this one was a female and apparently we have to throw back the ladies. So they got her out of the pot (haven’t heard the story about how yet) and decided their crab fishing days are over.

Meals.
I really do not love cooking. I really like eating. And I really like eating the yummy food that Jeff and Rachel cook for me. :). We had lamb chops on Tuesday night and lamb sausages on Wednesday. It was fun trying out foods that we would probably never have ventured out of our comfort zone to try. My favorite dish so far was dessert. I had made applesauce this weekend for Lily, but added too much sugar for her. Lily’s loss, our gain. Rachel made these delicious caramel apple custard pastries. Might have been the best non-chocolate dessert I have ever had. She made the caramel and the whipped cream from scratch. Who does that? Rach does.
I think Ty is loving having them here. This is how Ty has eaten every meal. Joined at the hip…

Beached.
Jay took the day off on Wednesday. I, unfortunately, had to work. They were going to spend the day on St Helena island, which was the first penal colony in Australia. But they weren’t doing tours, so their backup plan was to go for a boat ride. I didn’t realize this. So imagine my major rush of jealousy when I glanced at my phone, saw Jay had tagged me in a post on Facebook, and saw a picture of Jeff and Rachel standing on a beach next to our boat. Damn. Should have called in sick… I don’t think I have ever played hooky, but if there was a day to do it, today would have been the day. They hiked to the other side of South Stradbroke Island on this narrow path through the bush, and on the other side was an amazing beach. Jeff commented that he has never seen anything like it ever before. They got hungry, hiked back, and had lunch at Tipplers bar and grill. Best fish and chips they have ever had. I wish I could give you a play by play of their day, but since I was stuck in meeting rooms and wasn’t there with them, I wouldn’t be able to do it justice. :).

Canal.
Tonight we saw two pelicans floating down the canal, and then 2 dolphins!!

More updates later!

Stage.
While we were getting ready this morning, I had a genius idea that I can’t believe I didn’t have months ago. The movie room, that is now down a couch and TV, has a built in riser. I took the couch off of the riser and pointed it facing the “stage”. Ty put on a magic show for us. I can’t wait to see what shows he will put on for us!

Rain.
The forecast called for a 90% chance of rain today. Some severe thunderstorms. Not worth the risk to take the boat out. Nuts! We had hoped to be able to take Shane and Carrie out to South Straddy Island. Hopefully they will make another trip down under and we can give it another shot.

Tallebudgera.
So, change of plans, we went to the beach instead. We searched for hidden treasure a bit (no luck). I have wanted to try Stand Up Paddleboarding for quite a while. There is a calm area where a creek flows into the ocean – Tallebudgera. We always see people there on boards and kayaks. For $20 I hired (rented) a paddleboard. I did pretty good – only fell off once. I even worked to enough confidence to take Ty out with me. He sat in front while I paddled him to a beach across the water. I will be sore, I’m sure, but it was really fun. Big thank you to Jay for watching both kiddos – including an infant who wants to eat everything within reach and be on the move – while I checked that item off my to-do list. Jay wasn’t able to get any pictures (see last sentence – he kind of had his hands full), so here is a picture of Tallebudgera beach and some random dude paddleboarding there (both pictures taken from the internet).

Outlets.
On our way home from the beach, we stopped at a surf outlet shop. We were on the lookout for board shorts and flip flops for my jeans & cowboy boot wearing brother. They had quite a few at a good price, but none were “Rickey” enough. Those of you who know him understand what I mean. So the search continues….

Storm.
We left the stores and got in the car just as the first raindrops started to fall. And then man did they come down hard. I am so glad we weren’t out in the boat for that one!

Flicka.
Ty had taken a 15 minute nap in the car and somehow he felt rejuvenated. When it was time to lay down and take a good nap, he couldn’t fall asleep. So we all camped out in our bedroom and watched Flicka. I can’t believe I have never watched that movie before. I love Wyoming. Ty liked the movie too. We recorded it – now we can watch it whenever we want.

Baby food.
I spent a couple hours making Lily’s food – sweet potato, carrots, zucchini, squash. I tried to make applesauce using a recipe I found online. I should have thought about it a little more because the recipe called for sugar. Lots of it. So Lily won’t be eating applesauce…nuts!

That’s about all to say about Sunday. Really not too exciting. Have a great week!

Rubbish truck.
Ty has been fascinated by garbage trucks for quite some time. Aussies call garbage “rubbish”, so Jay and I have been encouraging Ty to ask his teachers if they are called “garbage trucks” or “rubbish trucks” here. The suspense is killing me. Anyone know the answer?

Riley.
Jay’s nephew, Riley, is coming to visit for basically the entire month of June! The flights are booked. We are really excited. I think Ty is going to be super pumped to have someone to play every sport imaginable with for a whole month. And man, to be spending a good part of the summer after your freshman year of college in Australia….sounds pretty awesome for Riley. We will do our best to keep him entertained and hopefully give him some lifelong memories.

Swim.
Saturday was the start of a new term for swim lessons. We decided to let Lily sit out a term or two, as her lessons were feeling repetitive. She probably would be doing the same class for quite a while, so we will consider adding her back in a term or two when she gets a little older. We will all just watch Ty for a while.

Mummy Tree.
We had a package to pick up from the post office so we went to Sanctuary Cove after swim lessons. We had a yummy brekky, and then Ty got to open the package from Nana, Papa and Aunt Brookie. They sent a book about Australia and a metal detector for the beach! So fun! I can’t wait to try it out. I am sure we will find a buried treasure. The Cove had the Mummy Tree Markets – all sorts of fun booths with cute kid stuff. They had a bouncy house and a petting zoo. Ty had fun with the animals. He held a hamster for a while – really hope he doesn’t ask for one….

Clean.
Somehow the cleaning lady decided to not show up on Friday, which normally wouldn’t bug me too much, except Jeff and Rachel are coming on Monday and I didn’t want them having to walk into a pigsty. Not that they would care, but I do. :). So, we did quite a bit of scrubbing on Saturday. I had a great idea while I was cleaning. We have this big “movie” room that has a TV and two love seats. We have never once watched a movie in there – such a waste of space. I have been begging Jay to move one of the couches down to the toy room, but he is as stubborn as a mule. I was able to convince him to move one of them into our bedroom, and we moved the TV as well. Ty thinks it’s pretty cool. “You can watch Tv while you are sleeping!!”

Hoops.
After we finished up the cleaning, Jay and Ty decided to hop in the pool to cool off. They got out the basketball hoop and had heaps of fun shooting baskets.

Lily loved pool time as much as the rest of us.

Convertibles.
You would think that in a land of endless summer, there would be convertibles all over the place. But there aren’t. Jay read in article in a car magazine about it. Aussies tend to have a thing about making sure people don’t get too big of a head. Apparently driving a convertible is too flashy – too “hey look at me I’m awesome.” Which at first thought makes some sense. And then I think about the houses, boats, and hard-top cars that people here have and think, why not just have a car without a top? Does it really make that much more of a statement?

Dogs.
They don’t mess around with dogs here. There really aren’t many fru-fru dogs. Nearly all of the dogs we see are short hair, burly, stocky, tough looking dogs. They make me grip a little tighter to Ty’s hand and plan an escape route with Lily’s pram (stroller).

Ramina.
After the boys finished their swim, we got cleaned up and went to the ramina for dinner. The place was packed. We couldn’t get a table at our top two restaurants. But our dinners at the third place option were delicious. I finally had a yummy steak. Yay! Sweet potato hash browns. Chocolate mousse for dessert. Yum.
Jay and I decided that we will probably say for the rest of our lives, “remember that one time when we rode our buggy to a marina that had 5 different dining options?” Life is pretty great here. We are so fortunate.

So yeah, another pretty normal, run of the milk Saturday in Oz. Nothing too exciting. Hope this post doesn’t put everyone to sleep…