Preparing for Christmas

Since there is no Thanksgiving in AUS (of course) we are already busy preparing for Christmas. I have to admit it seems a little odd to be celebrating Christmas in the summer but Evan is excited for Santa and Christmas trees so we are doing our best! Anyways, we wish you a "Happy Thanksgiving" 2007 - I'm sure there will be enough food consumed to make up for our absence! This picture shows the closest we will get to Thanksgiving while in AUS . . . we have many wild turkeys that roam in our neighborhood park, as well as in most zoo and wildlife areas.


On Friday Angie, Paige, and Christian Leibfried and Evan, Kaden, and I traveled to downtown Brisbane via the Oxley train (above ground subway) to see the annual city kickoff Christmas parade. It was located at the Queen Street Pier shopping center. I think the parade lasted about 10 minutes total but was quite the sight. Children were in different groups singing Christmas carols and each group was dressed in bright and unique costumes. Santa Claus brought up the rear, riding in his black Mercedes. The parade lead up to the Myer shopping center in the Queen Street Mall where there was an interactive Christmas window revealed. We didn't get to see it because of the time and the number of people but we will get back downtown before the holiday is over to take a peek (and get a picture.) Angie and I enjoyed the challenge of navigating to the city via the train (something we hadn't done before) and trying to manage 4 kids in the rush hour city traffic.

Family Hiking

We took a trip this weekend north of the Sunshine Coast for our first family outdoor adventure. We drove near the Glass House Mountains and Evan and Dad enjoyed the Mary Cairncross Rainforest Reserve. They easily discovered why you should wear socks and shoes when walking through a rainforest . . . leeches!! Bryan also received an education on how to properly remove a leech (at least it was only on his shoe!) We then headed toward Montville, a quaint little town that had nice shops and small cafes, where we had lunch. The afternoon was spent hiking at the Kondalilla National Park, through a rainforest, to go see the waterfalls. There was a rock pool at the bottom of some of the falls that many people were swimming in (you can see them on the rocks in the background of our pictures.) Mom and Dad soon discovered how much added weight both boys are when having to carry them when hiking . . . Evan on Dad's shoulders and Kaden in the Bjorn with Mom. Needless to say we were all exhausted by the time we got home!

Australian Education: Do you see anything interesting about this picture?

Yes, SPOILT is a word in Australia . . . very difficult for an American Speech Pathologist to digest!

Adjustment Period

For those of you diligent readers we are sorry for the long break but we have been going through a period of adjustment for the past month trying to get used to being a family of four (and mom just hasn't found a moment to update the blog!) Being away from family and friends and the support that is usually available with the birth of a new baby has been difficult for us but we are happy to have survived the first month! Kaden is growing like a weed and Evan is enjoying being a big brother. Dad is working alot and Mom is trying to figure out how to juggle two at home during the day (grocery shopping with two hasn't been attempted yet!)

We haven't had any major outings over the past month and have just stayed close to home so we don't have alot of pictures to share . . . except pictures of the boys. Now that we have hit the one month mark though we have more trips planned over the next couple of months (summer here) and will be sharing those each week.

Australian Education:
Even though we are in a country that speaks English we still find it hard to decipher their language and communicate at times. Australians are known for abbreviating words, here are a few that we have encountered . . . and Evan has even started using:
- Breakfast: brekky
- Biscuit (cookie/cracker): bikky
- Thanks: ta
- Registration (as in car license plate or car registration): rego
- McDonald's: Macca's (Evan thinks this one is really funny)