Prawn update.
Yum. I made myself the most delicious dinner last night. Ty helped me clean the prawns (his favorite part was playing with the chopped off heads), and I made rice, zucchini, and a batch of cucumbers & onions. Lily and I quite enjoyed the delicious meal. None of the boys had a single bite of it. Riley grilled burgers for the men-folk. Have I mentioned before how Lily will eat anything I put in front of her? Ty was the opposite (and still is).

Here are some pictures from the shrimp cleaning event. Apparently you aren’t supposed to use a knife to pull out the vein – lessons learned.

Tuckered.
Lily fell asleep on the toy room floor Friday night. She and Riley partied too hard, apparently, as he did his super secret ninja escape move again and disappeared early to bed. Jet lag sucks.

Captain.
Sunday morning the kids woke us up at 5:00 (when do they grow out of that????) so we turned on a Disney movie channel and at least got to lay in bed a while, although sleeping was not an option. We were undecided about what we were going to do on Sunday. The weather forecast had a chance of rain, and I am pretty much over getting stuck in the rain on the boat… We were debating going to Currumbin, Coolangatta, Mt Tambourine… Then Jay assured me that we were not going to get rained on. So we quickly packed up the boat and away we went. I figured it was probably about time I learned how to drive the boat, so I got behind the wheel. I wasn’t expecting to have to do so much steering – I figured it would feel more like driving a car, but I figured wrong. The whole time I felt like I was over-correcting myself, then again, then again. It was also a bit stressful to have to try to figure out which way oncoming boats were heading. Most of the time I cruised along at 6 knots, but there was one stretch where I kicked it up to 30 or so. I didn’t wreck, am glad I tried it, but wasn’t in a hurry to get behind the wheel on the way home.

Tipplers.
Jay really wanted to show me the beach at Tipplers, so he convinced me to go to the place where we have to beach it. I was surprised at how easy it was to do. We got there before they started serving lunch so we decided to hike over to the surf side. We walked along the coolest little path – thankfully didn’t encounter any spiders or snakes. We walked up a hill and BAM!! There is the ocean. And only 1 other family on the beach for as far as the eye can see. Riley ripped off his shirt and ran into the water, not afraid to go face first into the waves. Jay and Lily (in the baby carlos) stood on the edge of the water – just enough to get their shins wet. Ty went searching for seashells. I found a nice spot of sand to lay down and watch the horizon for whale fins. I watched and watched and watched. Nothing. Nuts. Maybe next time.
We let Lily crawl around a bit before heading back to the restaurant. Ty and I did a mini scavenger hunt while we waited for the food, ate our meal, and decided to roll on out. Unfortunately the tide had gone out a fair bit, so the boat was looking a bit more beached then when we arrived. I was worried when the boys couldn’t push her out, but jay started her and was able to reverse out. Phew!! The kids fell asleep almost instantly and slept the entire way home. I was able to relax in the bow. Such a great outing. The area we have called kangaroo point had a few Roos out for their evening meal, which was fun for Riley to see.

Mush.
When we got home, Riley was in charge of the kids while Jay and I made Lily’s food (mushed up veggies) and my salad for the week. It went a lot faster than normal – amazing how much easier things are with another set of eyes and hands in the house. Riley has joked that he is going to get fixed when he gets back to the states. If he gets nothing more out of this vacation, he at least is getting a preview of what life with kids will be like someday. He hasn’t asked to catch an earlier flight out of here yet…

Beach Boys.
I am sitting on the patio listening to the cane toads croak, the fish jump, and the neighbors down the canal having a fabulous time rocking out to some great tunes. And attempting to be the Beach Boys. Only a bit off key.

Funk.
So I was in a bit of a funk this week, hard to really describe how it feels. I guess I must be a bit homesick. But the weekends usually snap me out of it. I know how fortunate I am to be experiencing this opportunity, and how Ty and hopefully Lily will be better off for the adventure, but I still miss some things. Maybe I am feeling this way because the first Costco in Queensland opened up this week. I haven’t been yet, but my Facebook feeds and lots of people in the office were talking about it quite a bit. Rumor has it Hershey’s chocolate syrup is in the country. So if I start to feel really down, I may just make Jay drive me an hour to experience a taste of the US via a Costco visit. Hoping to hold out until after Riley leaves, as I somehow doubt that he wants to go to a Costco while in Australia. 🙂

That’s all I have to share tonight. Have a fantastic week all!!