Day 4 – Tour of Blue Mountains

Here are the pictures from the tour I took of the Blue Mountains. It was a sunup to sundown trip, I am sooo tired! Definitely one of the top 10 experiences of my life.!

Pic23 The way I started my day breakfast on the balcony watching ocean

 

Pic24 Kookaburra

 

Pic25 Me and koala

 

Pic26 Koala

 

Pic27 Me and Roo

 

Pic28 Aussie penguins (didn't know they had this but I also saw one swimming in the ocean right next to me the other day.

 

Pic29 Emu

 

Pic30 Taz Devil

 

Pic31 Blue Mountains

 

Pic32 Cable car I rode to bottom of Blue Mountains

 

Pic33 Waterfall in the mountains

 

Pic34 Pick of the mountains at ground level

 

Pic35 Me and the 3 Sisters. Called this for the myth is that 3 sisters were turned to stone after marrying 3 men from a different tribe that they were are war with.

 

Pic36 Back at Sydney Harbor with Opera House in backround

 

Pic37 Aussie natives putting on a show in the harbor

Best News of Our Lives!!!

Yesterday, Lexus had her follow-up MRI at Children's Hospital. This time they scanned the brain and the spinal cord. It was a rough night to say the least. First, we had to remove her earrings which she just got last Friday. The first scan of the brain went well, but her head started hurting severely during the spinal cord scan. We took a break for her to calm down and redid the scan again. The worst part of the night was putting her earrings back in, poor thing! I had to really push the second one through. I spoiled her with Greater's ice cream on the way home. BUT…IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!!!

Today, we found out Lexus never has to go back to Children's again for her Chiari unless her headaches return!!! We are all "over the moon" with this great news!

Austin and I decorated the house tonight for Christmas while the girls were out living it up. Lexus attended Redsfest with Steph and Kimberly went to the Children's Theatre with Aunt Sue and Halle to see "Holiday Follies". Kimberly has really gotten into the Christmas season. Tonight, she created her own recreation of Santa's sleigh by using ribbon to tie all her Webkinz together and ringing jingle bells pretended to call them by name. I LOVE her imagination!

Day2 - Not much happened today. I had to go to work; I know that's horrible right. Anyway, here are 2 pics of the view from the new hotel and a pic of dinner. This is Coogee Bay and the dinner is swordfish. I went into town again. Today, I slept in a bit and woke up to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore; it was nice, sorry if that is rubbing it in. I will soon be heading out to get breakfast since the hotel breakfast is $35 for the buffet, I think I will walk down the street and find something else. The trip I was planning to take to the Blue Mountains was booked and I am going to do that tomorrow now. That is an all day trip that has me leaving the hotel around 6am and not getting back till after 8pm but, I should be seeing lots of beautiful sights, I can't wait.

 

Day 3 – I spent it just relaxing on the beach. We took a bus ride to nearby Bondi Beach after breakfast. I spent time surfing the waves and just goofing off in the water. The waves are a lot bigger than anything I have experienced. After that laid and napped on beach for a little while. This sounds nice but it had its downside. The wind was blowing so hard and kicking up the sand it was like being sand blasted but still better than working. After that a late lunch and back it the hotel. I then took a walk around Coogee Beach and watched the sun set over Australia.

Pic 1 Bondi Beach

Pic 2 Bondi Beach

Pic 7 Standing on Coogee Beach looking back at my hotel

Pic 10 Cliff line at Coogee Beach

Pic 19 Cliff line at Coogee Beach

Pic 20 Me on cliff line at Coogee Beach (playing with camera self-timer)

Pic 21 Looking down over the edge of cliff line, much much higher than pic looks

Pic 22 Me on cliff line walkway at Coogee Beach (self-timer again)

Greetings from Sydney, Australia

Greetings from Down Under! It's been one crazy adventure just getting here. I left on Monday (Nov. 30^th) and arrived on Wednesday (Dec. 2^nd). Where'd Tuesday go??? The first leg of my trip was a 4 hour flight to L.A., 4-5 hour layover and the second leg was a 15 hour flight to Sydney. Jet leg is really messing with my sleep patterns right now. But, at the same time it allowed me to watch the sunrise over Sydney at 5:00 a.m. Spent the first day walking around Sydney and just taking in all the sights. Finally got to the hotel in Coogee Beach this morning and then off to work today. Then off for three days as the Australians celebrate Christmas down under. Hope everyone enjoys the pics!

First Class Seat

View from hotel room, Sydney Opera House at the right

Close-up view of Opera House from hotel

Sydney Tower

St, Mary's Church

Front of Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbor view from behind Opera House

1st night's dinner

G'Day Mates,
Randy

Black Friday & More

Happy Thanksgiving! The kids and I spent the morning watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day…such a great tradition. We did our usual thing; spending the first half of the day with the Grothaus Family and the evening with the Ossege Family. Food was delicious everywhere we went. Kids were overjoyed to see cousins on both sides of the family. We finally got to see Maggie's ring in person…stunning! My cousin Andy and his fiancé Maggie got engaged about a month ago. We are so happy she will become a permanent member of the family.

 

We did venture out on Black Friday to Christmas shop for nieces and nephews. We did not get up before the sun did. We've found if we leisurely go from store to store; the whole process is not stressful, but actually enjoyable. We finished everyone on our list in just one store…yippee! You gotta LOVE Target! Lunch at the mall was a bit crazy. Securing a table required stealth and strategically tactical movements. A little more shopping (teacher's gifts) and ear buds for Randy ended our day…or so we thought so! We were passing "Icing" and Kimberly blurts out "I want to get my ears pierced!" To our continued surprise, Lexus chimes in "Me too!" We have always told the girls we would pierce their ears when they asked for it. We trooped into the store to inquire about price, etc… Kimberly selected a pair of pink crystal flowers and Lexus picked the clear crystal flowers. Kimberly bravely went first, jumping into the chair with enthusiasm. They double teamed her; piercing both ears simultaneously. She couldn't wait to pose in front of the big mirror and model her new earrings. Lexus was more apprehensive about the whole process, but continued to convince us this was what she wanted. She did shed a few tears at first, but was beaming with pride as she showed them off to family.

 

Today, we are braving the chilly weather to put up Christmas lights/decorations. Why didn't we put them up the last two weekends when the weather was picturesque??? Randy was out of town on hunting trips and we don't want to wait another two weeks when we have another opening in our busy schedule. I love seeing the kids waddling around in their snowsuits, esp. Austin. Something so cute about them when all you can see is a chubby little face peeking out from all those layers of clothes.

It’s Going On The Wall, Folks!

This past Saturday, Randy shot a 9-point buck on a quota hunt down in Kentucky. So, we now have a buck good enough to put on the wall. Should be interesting how the kids react to it in the living room. He had only been in the woods for an hour when it came across his path.

 

Last night, we headed over to the in-laws house to process the deer meat. Lexus worked on her grinding skills, Randy sharpened his cutting skills, and I perfected my penmanship wrapping/labeling the packages of meat. Austin is suffering from a little cold; his poor little nose could give Rudolph a run for his money. Kimberly watched "Alice In Wonderland" with Megan.