We went to Australia!

That's right, we spent the first two weeks of April this year halfway around the world, in Australia! The kids had been asking to go for a while, since we have family there, and we decided that this year was the time to go - the kids are old enough to enjoy and remember the trip, and also to not be a nightmare on the very long journey. The timing worked out very well with both our spring breaks and spring break in Australia, so we could see Evan's brother and his wife and spend time with them, and I was able to get a great deal on 4 tickets, so off we went!

And of course, like every big trip you take, it did NOT start out well. We were due to be at the airport around 1:30pm that day, and the kids had a half day at school, so we took Lucy for one last good walk before taking her to the dog sitter's...and of course I managed to do this to myself.

 

I didn't do it in any fancy way - I tripped on a part of the asphalt I didn't even see, almost managed to catch myself, and ended up "sliding into home" on my left side. Which resulted in a badly banged up pinky (I was worried it was broken for a while, but luckily just badly bruised), a really banged up chin, and eventually a bruised left shoulder (that took longer to show up). My fingers swelled up pretty much immediately, which I can tell you was not fun on the 14 hour overnight flight!

So, I bandage up, kids come up, Lucy gets dropped off, and we go to the Charlottesville airport. The plan was C'ville to Dulles to LA to Melbourne. We arrived, and of course our flight out of C'ville was already way delayed, which meant we would miss our flight to LA, which meant not getting to Melbourne. NOT going to happen! We rented a car, and Evan FLEW us up the road to Dulles. It was tight, but we made it! Can you make out the worried faces of the kiddos as we went??

Everyone was MUCH happier when we had checked bags, gotten through security, and were waiting at the gate.

And after that, the trip really went smoothly! We spent an overnight in Melbourne, meeting up briefly with Todd (we would see him, Claire, and the kids again after our week alone). We checked out the Melbourne museum (which we had not seen on our last trip), and wandered the city before passing out due to exhaustion.

The next day, we got BACK on a plane to hundreds and hundreds of miles north to Cairns, a town along the northern coast so we could see the Great Barrier Reef and all the beauty to explore. This was literally the view from our hotel room on the first day!

We had a great time in Cairns - the harbor and lagoon were incredible.

And when we went swimming in the lagoon, we had the whole thing almost to ourselves! Very cool experience.

We were in Cairns for 5 days, and did a lot more than just hang out at the hotel, walk along the water, and swim. We also went out to the Great Barrier Reef, had a very wet adventure on Green Island, spent a day in Kuranda (a town in the rain forest), and spent one rainy afternoon at the Cairns Aquarium. I'll definitely be sharing photos from those first 3 as there's a lot of cool things to see! And then we had another week with our family outside of Melbourne and on Phillip Island. It was an amazing two weeks for sure!

Sydney Australia

I didn't realize quite how much in my original post about Australia I had ended up already telling you about Sydney! So, I'm not going to do a big post about it.

Basically, we went to the Blue Mountains on Monday, April 6. I put up my favorite pics from that day already; here's two more:

We then went to Sydney from Tues-Friday. We did so much! Visited the aquarium, walked through the central business district, saw the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, the Botanical Gardens, the Sydney Zoo, Manly Beach - everything we could! Again, I already put those pictures up in my April 15th post. Here are a couple more from our time in Sydney that I really liked:

The Sydney Opera House at sunset

The Opera House with Harbor Bridge in the background

The ocean at Manly Beach

Evan and I on our dinner cruise our last night in Sydney.

Melbourne Australia: The Wedding

We started off on Friday April 3 (day of the wedding rehearsal) by touring through the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. On one side of the Gardens was the Shrine of Remembrance: a memorial for all the wars Australian soldiers have fought in. It's a beautiful memorial.

Evan and Scott in front of the memorial.

We then toured through the Botanic Gardens, and got caught in a huge storm! Fortunately we were able to wait it out at a cafe in the gardens; I got a couple of shots of the rain pouring down. I think you can see it here (you can also see how pretty the gardens are, although this is only one small portion!).

That night was the rehearsal dinner; the best shot I got of the evening was this one taken of Evan and I. It was a great night; lots and lots of toasts, slideshows of Claire & Todd, great food & wine. They don't normally do rehearsal dinners in Australia, but Claire's family all agreed it's a great tradition!

Finally, wedding day (April 4, 2009)! It also happened to be Todd's birthday. So, a doubly happy day! Here we are before the wedding (see how nervous Todd looks!).

I already put up a few pics of the happy couple, but here are some more from the wedding. This one is Todd & Claire signing the legal forms after the ceremony (that's how it's done in australia).

Claire's parents, Claire & Todd, Todd's parents

The Happy Couple.

Melbourne Australia: Days 1 & 2

Tues, March 31: We arrived in Melbourne. After some time to freshen up at our hotel, Todd, Evan, Scott & I headed out to see some of Melbourne. I already showed you a pic of the Yarra River, and an aerial shot of Melbourne. Here's one more from that first day:

Evan and I on a pedestrian bridge over the Yarra River

Wed, April 1: A group of us headed out to the Yarra Valley, not far outside of the city. We started the day at a nursery/restaurant/gift shop.

Yummy pastries!

This cookaburra hit me in the head while flying to a branch next to our table

We saw 4 different wineries, all with beautiful views
1. Yering Station

Also taken here was the picture from my first Australia post of the group shot of everyone.

2. Chandon

Beautiful view from the Chandon winery

Road leading away from Chandon.

3. Tokar, where we had a very yummy lunch

4. Warramate, Todd & Claire's favorite

And ended the day by going to Sky High to see the surrounding area, but it was so hazy we couldn't really see anything. So, here's Evan at the building:

And then saw Claire's parents' beautiful house up on the mountain

We're back!

Ok, 3 weeks since last post. I have good reason: we were in Australia (as I stated in my last post). I didn't do the smart thing like my friend Becky and schedule posts to go up while on vacation; instead, I left you all with nothing. Sorry!

Australia was amazing. I'm putting a few teaser pictures in here now; I promise to get more in here once I figure out a better way to post many without taking up tons of space.

We spent 5 days in Melbourne (March 31-April 5). We saw the city

Top: Yarra River, which runs through the city
Bottom:a view of the city from the Eureka 88 building, tallest in the city

Visited with Todd (Evan's brother who lives there and we hadn't seen in almost 2.5 years!) and met our new sister-in-law Claire (she's lovely)

Spent time with the family (both in the city & in the Yarra Valley, full of wineries)

Top: Evan's aunt & uncle; Claire's mom Lynne; Lynn & Doug; Scott; Todd, me & Evan at Yering Station winery
Bottom: Todd, Scott & Evan in Melbourne.

And ending with Todd & Claire's beautiful wedding.

On Sunday night (April 5), we flew to Sydney. We were picked up by my friend Leila from high school and her husband Pete (an Aussie). We stayed at their house Sunday & Monday nights. On Monday, we spent the day in the Blue Mountains, only about 40km west of Sydney, but took about 1.5 hours to get there. It was like being in a whole other country! So beautiful.

Top: the "Three Sisters" rock formation
Bottom: mountains, forests & canyons

Top: Pete & Leila Gunning
Bottom: Evan and I

On Tuesday morning, Pete drove us into downtown Sydney (we stayed in the Ibis hotel in Darling Harbor, in the central business district of Sydney). We were there from April 7-10. We had most of Tuesday to wander the city, including a trip to the aquarium

and the Sydney Botanic Gardens

We don't have signs in the US like this, do we?

and our first look at the Harbor Bridge & Opera House.

We spent Wednesday at the zoo, where I pet wallabees

and we saw giraffes with the best view of the Sydney harbor:

followed by more time in the Botanic Gardens, where I got to feed wild cockatoos!

And I got this really cool shot of one flying:

Thursday we went to a nearby beach (Manly beach; you get there via ferry)

And finished the trip with a sunset dinner cruise around Sydney harbor.

We then got home on Friday (after about a 30 hour travel day!), where my parents were waiting for us with Natalie! Being away from her was hard, but it was best. My parents took such good care of her (thank you Mom & Dad!), and she had so much fun with them. They said she was really good - I assume they weren't lying! And really, given everything we were able to do, I think Natalie had more fun staying at the OBX than dealing with the flight, jet lag, and so much wandering around.

But it was SO GREAT to get her back. We missed her! She grew in those 2 weeks, her hair is longer, she understands so much more, and she's got a bunch of new words! She says my parents' dog's name (Rizzo), Calla, down, water, and thank you! She also understands commands, like "no touch", "wash hands", and is doing all kinds of typical toddler stuff (bringing things to us, loading up boxes and removing everything again, testing her boundaries, etc).