Australia! Welcome to the Land Down Under.....

We flew into Australia on my birthday, July 11th. This picture above shows me celebrating my 37th birthday on the floor of the overcrowded Nadi, Fiji airport waiting on a delayed flight. Good times!



Once we got to Australia, our first order of business was to find the kids a school. We didn't know which part of the city we would be living in, so we tried to look at schools all over the city of Canberra. Brandon chose the Canberra Boys Grammar School, which requires a fancy-pants uniform to be worn daily. See below.

The twins and Savannah chose Emmaus Christian School. It is much smaller than Brandon's school and requires a more casual uniform.

We have loved the topography and scenic countryside here in Australia. Not too far from our house is a huge National Park called the Tidbinbilla Nature Preserve. The mountains are beautiful and the fields are full of animals like kangaroos, koalas, emus, platypus, etc.

Below are some pictures of our day spent at Tidbinbilla.

Dylan and Savannah are sitting quietly- waiting to see a platypus.

The boys looking for wildlife.

Shane and I both think the topography of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) closely resembles the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Having a spring picnic at Tidbinbilla.

These next two pictures were taken on the top of Mt. Ainslie, which is one of the hightest peaks in Canberra. There are great views of the city from the lookout points.

Below is koala in a tree at Tidbinbilla. Did you know that koalas are very picky eaters? They eat only a few specific types of eucalyptus leaves, and these leaves by themselves are not very nutritious. Because of their not-so-healthy diet, they are very lethargic. They have to sleep 22 hours a day because they don't have enough energy to stay awake longer! It seems like natural selection would have led them toward a richer diet, but no. They are quite content to sleep their lives away.

A little stream in Tidbinbilla.

OK, I have to say that kangaroos are EVERYWHERE here! Not just in zoos, not just in nature preserves, but literally everywhere. They are on the side of the road, grazing in the field behind my house, etc. On a typical drive to school in the morning we will see about 50 kangaroos. Amazing! This one in the picture below was on the side of the road. We pulled over, rolled the window down, and I took this picture out the window. Check out the little joey in the pouch. So cute!

We were driving along and so these kangaroos in the field, so we stopped and I took this picture of Shane with the roos in the background.

Believe it or not, Brandon has turned 14 years old! Unbelievable. For his birthday he got a set of cricket gear and he is now playing on his school's cricket team.

It is springtime in Canberra, and it is beautiful! Every year, Canberra has a festival called Floriade. It is an outdoor festival that has vendors selling food and trinkets; there are rides for the kids; but the main attraction is the thousands and thousands of flowers that have been planted months ago and cultivated for the festival. I felt like I was in Holland because it was tulips as far as the eye could see. It was really beautiful.

Exciting Trip to Zamami Island

For Memorial Day weekend, we took a trip to Zamami Island, which is in the Kerama Island chain. We took a ferry boat from the Tomari Port in Naha and it took about an hour. Zamami island was a beautiful place with gorgeous waters, a charming village, and a bizarre little hotel. Our weather was not very cooperative- it rained almost the entire time! We were disappointed, but we didn't let it stop us from seeing the island and having fun at the beach. The most exciting thing that happened occured only a couple of hours after we arrived. The boys were playing around on the dock and Logan slipped in the rain and fell. He split his ear wide open! Seriously, it looked like someone had snipped his ear apart with a pair of scissors. We debated going home on the next ferry, but finally Shane decided to stitch it up himself. Luckily, he had brought a first aid kit that contained sutures, lidocaine and other necessary supplies. All went well with the stitches and we ended up having a great weekend.


These adorable shisha were sitting on a ledge in the village. They are made out of broken pieces of terracotta roof tiles and sea shells. So cute!

Here is Logan's ear after he fell and split it open.

Shane preparing to suture. As you can see in this picture, there was no furniture in our hotel room, other than a small table. For sleeping, there were a few thin mats to put on the floor. Three years ago when we first moved here, it seemed really exotic and kind of fun to sleep on the floor at various hotels. But now, it doesn't seem so fun. It just feels like a hard wood floor.

Shane pressed his friend Brady, a dentist, into service to help him suture the wound. Thus the two pairs of gloved hands. I got assigned to hold a flashlight to provide adequate light while Shane stitched. Looking pretty good! Shane did a remarkable job with the stitches! Unfortunately, having stitches meant that Logan couldn't get in the ocean for the entire weekend. Bummer.

Logan all bandaged up and ready to go out for dinner.

The boys and their friend, Denver, hanging out in Zamami village.

We ate at several quaint, yummy restaurants on the island. Above is Dylan's meal of grilled eel over rice with Miso soup.
This was the van driven by the hotel manager. He picked us up at the port and drove us to the beach and around the island. It supposedly sat eight people, but at one point we had it stuffed with over 25 people! So much for any seat belt laws....
Savannah and her friends climbing on rocks at the beach.

Girls' Trip to Hawaii!

Recently, Savannah needed to have surgery on her kidneys but the procedure she needed wasn't available here in Okinawa. So, she and I got to go to Hawaii to have the surgery done. We had the best time! The lodging facilities on the Air Force Base were full, so we got to stay in a hotel in Waikiki, just a block from the beach. It was such a wonderful and unexpected treat to be able to spend 10 days with Savannah in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Her surgery went well and we were able to spend lots of time soaking up the sun, sightseeing, shopping, and catching up with old friends. Savannah and I loved the beach in Waikiki!

When we got off the plane, my sweet friend, Amber, had fresh flower leis for both of us. Here is Savannah wearing hers.

This is Tripler Army Medical Center where Savannah's surgery was done.

This is Savannah when she is just waking up from the anesthesia. Not too happy!

She felt better quickly, though.

She recovered well, and two days later we were at the beach!

Here I am with my friend, Amber, who lives in Hawaii. She took us to Kailua beach near her house. It was so pretty!

We were able to go to Pearl Harbor and see the sights there.

Savannah got a hula skirt and was practicing her dancing on our hotel balcony.

We went to a luau one night and we loved it!

At the luau, we each got a wrist lei made for us.

At first, Savannah was a little skeptical of the luau food, but it turned out to be really delicious.

There was a cute little "keiki" at the luau that was helping the children learn to hula.

After the show, Savannah got her picture taken with Chief Tuey Manga, who was a fire dancer in the show. Check out the tribal tattoos all over his legs...

On our flight home, the flight attendant was quite taken with Savannah, and she took us both up to the upper floor of the 747 to meet the pilots and sit for a minute in the cockpit of the plane. Really cool!

COUSINS IN JAPAN

Yes, this really is Jaden holding a python! We went to a place called Okinawa World that is kind of like a museum/park where you can learn about Okinawan culture. She wasn't sure at first that she wanted to hold the snake, but after holding it with her cousins, she decided to go solo.

Adam is loving the snake!

Jaden and Logan at Okinawa World.

Savannah and Jaden in front of a tree full of "prayers." When people receive a bad fortune from a Shinto Shrine they tie it on to a tree in hopes that the fortune won't come true.

This is Jaden's lunch at a Thai restaurant.

Update for Kyle and Emily

On the first day of the trip we went out for a sushi lunch. It was sushi-go-round where the sushi came around on a conveyor belt and everyone could take what they wanted. Jaden was a good sport and she tried some quail egg sushi.

The first evening we went to a place called Chula-U bath house. It has a natural hot spring pool.

The other really cool thing at this bath house was the "Doctor Fish." They are little fish that like to eat the dead skin cells off people's feet. If you put your feet in the water the fish come and nibble on your skin. It tickles! Jaden was really hesitant, and she only dipped her feet in for a second or two.

The next day we went to a restaurant called "Thai in the Sky." It was on a cliff overlooking the ocean. There were some trails around the grounds that the kids hiked on while we were waiting for our table.

The cousins at Thai in the Sky.

I will post some more pictures soon, but I wanted to give you two a little taste of what we've been up to. We are having a blast!