Quite the Slacker!

I have been quite the blog slacker since we returned to America!!! As I'm sure you can imagine things have been rather hectic since our return to the US. Needless to say, it has been hard to find time to finish up the Perry Aussie Blog.

First, I'll share a slideshow of our last outing while in Australia. It was a rainy hike near Binna Burra Lodge . . . another rain forest area near our home there. Bryan, Evan, and Grant bared the rain and wind and hiked out to see another waterfall. Evan got a little wet on the trip and so Grant was inventive and came up with a way to dry Evan's shorts. (Evan can't stand to have wet clothes on, so something had to be done!)

Additional pictures include some shots of our final days in Australia and some of the landmarks that we wanted to remember. Make sure to take a look at Evan and Kaden's websites as well and you can see some of their favorite landmarks and people.

After moving out of our rental home in Australia we stayed in the city in a nice high-rise apartment for a week. You can see that Evan really enjoyed loungin' around and the view that we had of the Brisbane River.

We departed Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on July 10, 2008, en route to Sydney and then on to Los Angeles and Denver in the US. Our total trip to Denver would be 24+ hours from door to door . . . uugghh! BUT, it wasn't as bad as it sounds or as we had feared!! After losing Evan's luggage several times and enduring a 13+ hour flight to America with two small children we finally made it to Kimball, Nebraska . . . just in time for dad and Evan to help with wheat harvest! Although our land was not ready for harvest in Kimball there was other ground that was ready so dad and Evan had alot of fun on the farm! Here are some pictures of the trip to Kimball.

We arrived in Moline, IL and returned to our beautiful home on July 15th . . . only to discover a few weeks later that we would be moving AGAIN! We are now in the process of relocating to Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Iowa (just crossin' another midwest state off of our list of places we have lived!) Bryan accepted the position of Export Marketing Manager for the Waterloo John Deere factory. It has been a long process trying to get our house (that needed some TLC) back in order to show and unpacking our Australia shipment at the same time but everything is finally in order! Bryan has already moved on to his job in Waterloo and the boys and I have stayed behind to sell the house. We'll keep you posted as everything continues to unfold and with our new address when the time comes!

As for the Perry Australia website. It will now be a memory . . . you will, once again, have to rely on the annual Perry Christmas letter to keep you updated on our monthly happenings. I will continue to update Evan and Kaden's websites though, so keep those in mind and look often as the boys continue to grow!

Natural Bridge

A few weekends ago we traveled back down to Springbrook National Park to hike to the Natural Bridge. It was a great hike through another beautiful rainforest and the Natural Bridge was an awesome sight as well.

We do have a few more pictures/slideshows to share with you so I will keep posting on the Perry Australia sight for a little while longer . . . so stay tuned!

News Bulletin

I just realized that I sent an email with this slide show to alot of people but I hadn't yet posted it on our website for all of our avid readers to know.

Yep, we're departing Australia . . . tomorrow . . . July 10th! We have been busy the past few weeks getting everything in order to move home. We'll keep you posted on our trek home!

Our One-Year Mark!

Today marks our first anniversary in Australia! One year ago today we left the US en route to Australia. (Today also marks another year for Bryan . . . it's his birthday!) It's hard to believe that its actually been an entire year. I'm sure most of you are surprised too, thinking that we just left not too long ago! Well, it has been a great year, full of trials (having a baby in another country isn't as easy and as similar to the US as you may think!), memories, exploring, and fun times as we have discovered Australia, it's culture, and everything that it has to offer.

We went whale watching on Saturday off of the Gold Coast at "The Humpback Whale Highway" and it was SPECTACULAR!! The humpback whale season is June-November as they are now migrating north from Antartica to have their babies in the warm waters of the Great Barrier Reef. We were somewhat unsure of what we would see or if we would even get to see a whale and boy were we surprised! There were TONS of whales out! At one point there were 4-5 whales "mugging" our boat (that is what they call it.) One even swam right up to the boat. Evan and I were standing on one side of the boat and got to watch it swim under us while Bryan and Kaden, on the other side of the boat, got to see it emerge and were able to hear the low rumbling sound it made. We witnessed all of the "tricks" that the whales can do as well. Such as a full-body breach, half breach, lobbing/slapping of the tail, and fin slapping. At one time one whale continuously completed about 30 tail saps while lying on his back. It was an exciting tour and a unique opportunity, even the skippers on board told us that we had received quite a show.

Here is a video clip of one whale doing a half breach and a tail flap. It's kinda blurry and bumpy but considering we were on a boat and constantly rocking back and forth it came out fairly good.


We also took many photos . . . more than you can imagine . . . so here are some shots for you to see. We were never able to get a good full body breach photo though. By the time it was happening our reaction time to take the picture wasn't quick enough and the photo just ended up looking like a big splash. (I have included a photo I found though so you can see what a full-body breach looks like!) The slide show I used is also called "magnifier" and comes with a magnifying glass that you can use to scan over the pictures and get a better look at the whales.
I also included some photos of some pretty posh houses that we rode by through the channel getting out to the ocean.

Here are some additional pictures of our time with the Davison Family. We hit alot of our favorite spots during their trip here, as well as some new locations.

The Whitsunday Islands

Our friends, The Davison's, arrived from India last Saturday. Chris works for John Deere in Inida on ex-pat assignment from America and they decided to take one of their rest and relaxation trips to see us in Australia before we depart. (We're not so sure about the rest and relaxation part of the trip though . . . they are coming to see The Perry family after all!!) Their plane arrived later than scheduled on Saturday evening and on Sunday both families headed back to the airport en route to Hamilton Island for a 4-day trip to the Whitsunday's.

We stayed at Daydream Island Resort & Spa, one of the islands located in the Whitsunday's. It was a beautiful location with lots of things to keep us busy and with a welcoming and friendly family atmosphere. The Daydream Outdoor Aquarium was very unique and is believed to be the world's largest, man-made living coral reef lagoon system. It's a complex and stunning network of reef lagoons containing thousands of tropical fish, live coral species and diverse sea creatures such as sharks, sting rays, anemones, sea cucumbers and star fish. We enjoyed watching the barramundi and sharks be fed on several mornings, as well as getting to explore the many unique star fish and sea cucumbers in the lagoon. Most of the species we were able to view from this lagoon system are often unseen by humans in the natural environment as they live at great ocean depths. Some of the other additional perks of the island that we enjoyed include watching a movie at the open air cinema one evening (Chris & Bryan were able to do this), swimming in one of the many pools, and hiking through a rainforest located on the island.

The highlight of the trip though was taking a one day cruise out to the Great Barrier Reef. We booked all of the kids into the Skipper Club on Daydream Island for the day so that the adults could enjoy their one day out . . . kid-free. We rode out to Knuckle Reef with Cruise Whitsunday's Great Barrier Reef Adventure. (On our way to the reef we were also lucky enough to catch a quick glimpse of a humpback whale migrating north.) Once we reached Knuckle Reef we all decided to go snorkeling. It was nice but alot of work as the waters were somewhat choppy and difficult swim through. We then all decided to try scuba diving so that we could get down deep to enjoy one of the 7 Wonders of the World. None of us had ever tried diving before so this was a new experience. AND it was spectacular! It took a little while to get used to breathing under water without panicking but soon we were all swimming near the ocean bottom checking out the beautiful reef. We like our first dive so much that we decided to go for a second dive before leaving the reef . . . and enjoyed it the second time even more than the first! It was definitely an experience that we will never forget.

After four days in the Whitsunday's we headed back to Brisbane to explore and share our city with The Davison's. More to come about the rest of our trip . . .

Stradbroke Island

This weekend took us out to Stradbroke Island just an hour off of the coast of Brisbane. We went out with friends to stay the weekend and explore. The only way to get our car there was by ferry. We stayed at a place called Amity Bungalows (or "dumbalows", as Evan would call them.) This was a resort located at the northern tip of Stradbroke Island right where the Coral Sea meets the South Pacific Ocean. It was a quiet and tranquil location that really made you feel like you were camping in the heart of the rainforest. Our bungalow was called "Possum Lodge". We also had our own private jetty, pool, and kids playground. We were told that wild dolphins would come to our jetty every night after dark to feed. We stood out on the jetty for quite awhile and the dolphins kept going back-and-forth between the jetty's around us but never got right underneath us. It was still very interesting to watch. There were also friendly kookaburras that would perch on the deck of our cabin (and would wake us with their cackling/laughing every morning.) We caught Evan on several occasions going out and having conversations with the kookaburras.

We spent some of the weekend hiking and 4-wheel driving on the island. Our friends brought their 4-wheel drive vehicle so we all piled in and drove several of the beautiful beaches on the island. This is a very unique and fun experience, but kind of just felt like driving on snow, without the cold, in America. We also went "back-roadin'" on the island to see the sights.

Our first hike took us along the whale watching path. There were several platforms along this one mile track where you could sit and watch the ocean for the whales migrating north. Unfortunately we were never able to locate one because the waters were too choppy but the locals did tell us that there were whales in the area (whale watching season is June-November.) We also took a hike on the Gorge path. This was a beautiful walk along the rocky coast of Stradbroke.

Kitefest 2008

We traveled to Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, for their annual Kitefest event.

Just a few interesting tidbits about Redcliffe . . . It is the site of the first European settlement in what was to become the state of Queensland and is a peninsula that sits right on the ocean and looks out onto Moreton Island and to the open sea. In the early 1900s "holidaymakers" came to Redcliffe by steamboat because there wasn't a road/highway easily accessible from the mainland. We were able to travel easily over to Redcliffe on a looong bridge.

We enjoyed yet another new town and adventure but the day was actually so windy that we didn't get to see alot of kites up in the air. Can you believe that? Too windy to fly a kite!!

I added some additional interesting pictures to the slide show. One is of the Bee Gees' house in Redcliffe. Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb lived in Redcliffe from 1958 to the 1960s and their old house still stands much as it did then. We have also discovered a unique way that Australians "add-on" to their homes. There isn't alot of room to expand homes on the ground level, because most houses are built too close together. But, instead of adding to the top of the house and adding a level upstairs, it seems that most will raise the house up on stilts/beams and build a level underneath.

This past weekend Bryan and I were also able to have our first date night since moving to Australia (can you believe that!?) Well, it will also be our last date night while in Australia! (See our Australia education below to understand why!!)

Australian Education:
OK . . . this may not exactly be "education" but it was a BIG eye-opener for us!!
Here is the pricing low-down for our "date night":
Dinner (semi-casual restaurant): $138.00
Movie: $28.80 ($14.40/ticket)
Parking for the Car: $12
Gas to get downtown: $10
Babysitting: $75 ($15/hour) . . . Don't get any ideas Kaitlyn!!! :)
GRAND TOTAL: $263.80
Now you understand why "date-nights" are few and far between when living in Australia!