Service.
One other thought about Hamilton Island… For the first time in a year I was able to completely relax. I truly had “no worries” for 4 days (after our arrival time mix-up, of course). I think I know why. It felt like the US everywhere we went, we had excellent service. From the poor girls that got stuck breaking the news to us that they had us down to arrive the next day, to the restaurant staff, to the kids party assistants, to the boat ride employees that kept a caring smile on their face even while running from person to person catching puke in a bag, to the “taxi” driver that took us to the airport. Everyone went out of their way to make sure we didn’t worry about a thing. The owner of that island has it figured out. Thank you, Mr. Oatley, for giving me a US feeling in Australian paradise. Oh, and the food was amazing. After a year of having food and service not quite meet my expectations, Hamilton was a breath of fresh air.

I also forgot to include pictures of the artwork that we bought on Hamilton Island. Sherry and I both bought the print of the whole island, and I also picked up the One Tree Hill piece by the same artist. Love them.

Visitors!!!
My oldest sister, Sundie, her husband Brad, and their daughter Lucia booked their flights to Australia this week!! They are coming in March. I can’t wait!!!!!

Prep.
Ty had orientation for “big kid school” this week. He was super excited to see his new school and meet his teachers and some new friends. Jay and I were looking forward to hearing more information about what we need to be doing over the next couple of months to be ready on his first day. When we got there, the kids had no problems jumping into the playground together. Some of the parents made small talk, others stood by themselves (Jay and I fell into the latter group). The teachers came around and assigned us to a room. We went inside and explored a bit before the teachers kicked the parents out.

Jay and I went to the iCentre (library) with the other parents. We had some forms to fill out – a 4 page document asking us to rate our son on a scale of 1-5 on a bunch of different skills and personality traits. I hope they agree with what I said. I probably scored him at a “totally awesome” on something that will later become a problem area…

We had morning tea (coffee, cookies, and gummy bears) and sat by ourselves, waiting for the information session to start. And we waited. And we waited. And then some of the parents started leaving. So apparently the parents aren’t going to get any information… Ok. So Jay and I went to the uniform shop and dropped a small fortune on 3 days worth of clothing. Guess who will be doing a lot more laundry in a few months…

We went back to the iCentre and decided to talk to the dean to find out whatever info he could share until it was time to get Ty. He was so excited to show us all of the rooms and all of the fun things he did. Apparently they gave them a series of activities to assess their skill level in letters, numbers, puzzles, and gross motor skills. He had so much fun.

We took him to daycare and went back to work for another busy busy day. That night he tried on his uniform – stinking cute…

8.
Jay and I have been married for 8 years. Crazy. We have lived in 4 different houses, have 2 beautiful children, work for a great company, have travelled to countless places. I cannot imagine going through these adventures with anyone else. He’s lucky that I go after what I want and asked him to hang out, and I’m lucky that he didn’t say no. Love you, Jay!

Dress Up.
Deep breath for this next section. This week was “kids week” at daycare. They had some fun activities throughout the week. We were told that Friday is “dress up” day. I was a little confused because Friday was Oct 24, and Halloween was a week later. I sent an email asking for clarification on “dress up” because I wasn’t sure if that meant like fancy dresses or Halloween costumes. I was told “anything you want, just nothing Halloween”. Hmmmm…still not sure what that means…. So on Thursday when I picked up Ty I asked another teacher if they were dressing up in Halloween costumes next week, or if the kids were supposed to wear their Halloween costumes the next day. The teacher said, “no, we don’t celebrate Halloween here because of the Christian roots.” Um……… I was a bit taken aback – I am a Christian, and although I don’t go to church every weekend I would say that I am probably more religious than half of the Australian population. And I celebrate Halloween. Always have. And I am not a bad person. And my children who also celebrate Halloween are not bad people. And I’m pretty sure that Halloween’s roots came from Christians. So forgive me, but I’m a little shocked at the moment. I kept my mouth shut and left.

And because I am slightly OCD (undiagnosed but come on, I know I am), I thought about it all night, and all morning. And I couldn’t let it go. The daycare that our kids go to is awesome. We love it. We love the teachers. We love the facility. We love the way our kids are smiling when they walk in the door and are smiling when we pick them up. And we love how they embrace other cultures around the world by showing the kids about other traditions, do activities, and encourage the children to understand that even though people in different parts of the world may look/sound/act differently, they are all humans and should be treated with respect. We love that. So…this next bit is not in any way meant to be negative to the centre – but I have to express how I felt about the situation because even though I have been here for a year and thought that I was beyond culture shock, I was shocked this week.

I woke up the next morning and did some research. I wanted to make sure that I was making things up. While in the US, there isn’t a huge focus on the Christian part of the holiday, I knew that the tradition was started by Christians. I decided to send the daycare an email with my thoughts about the situation and a Wikipedia link about Halloween. Now I know that on the surface this is probably causing a few you to drop your jaws. And I can hear my mother saying, “nicole!” in that voice of hers. But I wasn’t sending it to stir up trouble. I know how much focus and attention that the daycare puts on other cultures, and I wanted to make sure that they had all of the facts. They may have some good reasons for not celebrating Halloween, but using “Christian background” as an explanation simply does not make sense. I hit send before running it by Jay because I knew he would not approve.

I got a response back from the director of the centre (who copied every single teacher at the daycare – still not sure why…) explaining that the centre has not celebrated Halloween since it opened its doors in 2001 because they do not feel it is appropriate for the age of the children at the daycare to be exposed to the ghosts, witches, gory costumes that the Australians tend to wear.

Hmmmm. Ok. The Frozen song was running through my head over and over again. Let it go, Nicole. But you know me. Impossible. So I wrote back. I said that it is a shame that the part of the holiday that Australians have latched on to is the gory part. I explained that I have so many wonderful memories of Halloween from my childhood, and that it would be abnormal for children at schools and daycares in the US to NOT celebrate Halloween. Most kids dress up as their favorite character, and it is a time to be silly, go trick or treating, and hang out with friends and family. I said that I was not trying to cause any drama, I just wanted to make sure they understood how the holiday is viewed in other parts of the world, and that I will accept this as a cultural difference.

She replied and agreed that it is a shame and that she appreciates my understanding. End of story.

Well, not really the end…

I now feel added pressure to make sure my children get to experience Halloween as it should be experienced. I went shopping for Halloween decorations, and our front entrance now consists of a purple lighted tree, a flying witch, and a spider web. We have a giant spider hanging off our stair railing. And I have 2 bags of decorations that will be put on the buggy this week. We will be carving 2 pumpkins (that cost a small fortune, by the way – the first store we went to was charging $25 for 1 pumpkin!!). Oh, and I put a Halloween music station on my Pandora to blast out of speakers while trick or treating. Take that, Australia.

In case you were wondering, Ty went to school on “dress up day” wearing a Captain America costume. Lily went as Minnie Mouse. Yes, these were their Halloween costumes. No, they were not scary or gory or non-Christian. And the world didn’t come to an end.

Sanctuary.
Saturday morning Ty had swim lessons, then we went shopping (for Halloween decorations), then the boys tried to get Brumby started (still no luck), then I went to get my hair cut. Everyone else went to Sanctuary Cove. So we have taken the kids to the pool their several times and have eaten at the little restaurant. I don’t know why, but it never felt like we were doing anything wrong. But after the kids swam for a couple hours, we found out today that we were “not allowed to use the pool or restaurant” because it is for resort guests only. I was pissed at first. But now that I think about it, yeah, we probably shouldn’t have swam there. Not one of our better decisions…

So back to being pissed… I was. I told Sherry that after this week – with stressful long work days, daycare drama, big kid school, and now being kicked out of a restaurant, I am over Australia. At that very moment, I thought that there was no way I was going to be able to make it another year. I must be going through another dipper. I hope it is just a mini dipper.

We ended up going to another restaurant that is open to the public.

Relax.
When we got home, the kids both fell asleep almost right away. Ty slept for almost 3 hours. Lily didn’t wake up until morning. I blogged, we watched Top Gear, and we put up our Halloween decorations. I think we all needed a rest.

Bird.
On Sunday, we got up early to feed the Lorikeets at Currumbin. Unfortunately, due to the abundance of natural food available to the lorikeets, there were only a handful that came to feed at Currumbin. It was a very calm bird feeding – nothing like the experience that I had with my brother. But one landed on Kirk and Jay, so it wasn’t a complete fail.

Shows.
We were told when we entered the park that a lot of the exhibits are currently closed for renovations. So we decided to do things a little differently. Instead of racing back to the kangaroo park (which was closed) and making our way to the front of the park, we started at the beginning and did almost all of the shows & photo opps.

Koala.
First up – koala. Kirk held a koala. Lily smiled for the camera.

Roos.
While the big kangaroo park is closed for renovations, they have a smaller area set aside with a few kangaroos that you can pet. Kirk got to pet a kangaroo. Ty had fun feeding them.

Croc.
Next up – Ty held a saltwater croc. It’s a good thing he was there because I don’t think memaw or papa would have held it.

Gross.
We made our way to the pelican and eel feeding. Gross. The Pelicans were cool – they swallowed fairly large fish in one giant gulp. The eels ate chicken necks. They were probably 4-5 feet long, and they slithered into the shore, and then kicked it into reverse and wiggled their way back into the water. Back and forth, back and forth. It was kind of cool, kind of nasty. This was the first time we had seen that show – worth the stop, for sure.

Zip.
The playground equipment at Currumbin has a zip line for the kids. We have tried to get Ty to hop on before, and we wouldn’t do it. This time he was up for the challenge. He LOVED it. Papa pushed him on one end, Jay pushed him back. He had a blast. I think this would be a great addition to Leaf Lake – a zip line from the treehouse to the swimming pool…

Doo-Lots.
Our morning tea entertainment was Dr. Doo-Lots, a goofy guy that teaches kids fun facts about different animals. Ty volunteered to go up on the stage and he spun the wheel to learn about a lizard. He won a free drink and 2 wristbands for volunteering. 🙂

Snake.
While we were waiting for the bird show to start, Ty went up and held a python. It licked him. I would have thrown that thing across the park. He just smiled.

Birds.
We watched the bird show, which is always entertaining. Afterwards Ty got his picture next to the Barking Owl.

Australiana.
We went to the Australiana show next. I was hoping it would be as cool as the sheep shearing show that we saw in New Zealand, but this guy only sheers 2 sheep a day, so it wasn’t quite as impressive. :). Lily liked seeing the sheep dog.

Boss.
We had to show Kirk the giant saltwater croc Boss Hog. He must have been hungry because he didn’t waste any time jumping up and grabbing his meal for the day. Pretty impressive.

Dingo.
Lily and I took Memaw and papa up to see the dingos while Ty and jay went back to the playground.

Scenic Route.
The kids (and me) were pretty well wiped out, so we headed on home. Jay and Kirk took the kids in one car and since they fell asleep right away, they took the scenic route home up the coast. They drove past the Gold Coast 600 and through Sovereign Islands. Probably a good thing we didn’t take Kirk through their earlier – I think he is becoming somewhat numb to the crazy amounts of money spent on homes, boats, cars, etc on the Gold Coast.

Buggy.
Sherry and I got home and ran to the grocery store. As soon as we got home, Ty wanted to decorate the buggy for Halloween. It turned out pretty good!

Jack.
And last, but not least, we carved our jack-o-lanterns. Jay’s bat turned out pretty good after lots of practice runs on a cardboard box. I went for the simple, traditional design. The kid who had just spent all day holding all sorts of disgusting critters wouldn’t reach his hand in the pumpkin. I didn’t mind, though. :).

That’s all for now! G’day mates!