Australia 2010

Bondi Beach- Parker served here (Bondi Junction) for 6 months out of his 2 year church mission.

Right outside the Opera House.

The next several photos were taken on a city tour bus. It was a "hop on hop off" tour and we took advantage. We spent about 5 hours on this tour. It was pretty awesome, minus the rain.



Everywhere we went, Jack was the star of the show. He had a smile for everyone and waved at anyone who would glance his direction.



Jack fell asleep on Boompa again (who he started calling "Gaga," as in "Lady" jk) on the city tour. He did this in Seattle as well. Boompa must be comfy!


It is spring in Australia and everything was in full bloom. It's hard to see the brilliance in this picture, but these purple trees were beautiful.

This is a mall in downtown Sydney called Queen Victoria Building (QVB... or QVC, as Rick called it). The architecture is beautiful and it has some great shopping!


After spending a few days in Sydney, we rented a car and headed down south (on the wrong side of the road) to Canberra, the capital and another place where (for one night), and on to the beach and a town called Ulladulla.

On the way we HAD to stop to see the world's largest ram. Don't you feel complete now?

The next few pictures are from Pebbly Beach about 1/2 hour from Ulladulla.

All of these animals are wild. (The birds are REALLY wild.)




Jack's not too sure, but I thought this was AWESOME!

Lazy kangaroos

This is our condo at Mollymook Beach. Rick and Parker eating one of Parker's favorite mission meals: Meat Pie Sandwich. (Sick)

Parker is still in contact with some people from Ulladulla, the Camerons. They are some of the warmest and friendliest people I've met. We spent every evening at their house. They threw Parker a birthday party and invited everyone from their church (a small branch). There were still families there that Parker knew. We had a GREAT time with them.

This is their property.

Jack loved their animals. And he loved their kids. He had the time of his life hanging out with all of the big kids. And they didn't mind him either!

Mollymook Beach

I'm pretty sure Jack would have been fine if we stayed there forever.

It wasn't warm, but it wasn't bad. The day we were leaving, the rain finally stopped and the sun came out. We HAD to jump in the ocean. (Although, Parker and I took a dip the day before in the rain. We weren't leaving Australia without swimming in the ocean, and didn't know if that would be our last chance.)

We're officially counting Jack's first steps on the beaches of Mollymook. He started to say a few more words while overseas as well: Nana, Gaga, hot and hi.


The Camerons (minus two kids)

Ulladulla

They have lots of yummy bakeries and we chose to participate in several of those.

After Ulladulla, we headed back up to Sydney and finished our trip there. We had 6 days left. This is what we did.

View from our balcony.





There was a botanical garden a few blocks from our hotel. These are (huge) bats.

This is a life-like statue we found in the gardens.

The have the most amazing wild birds.



The view from the park at the gardens.


Parker's birthday dinner- kidless.

Water taxi tour

Posh homes on the other side of the harbor.


Everything was so lush.

Cuties, Boompa and Nana.


Jack did so well on this trip. I was so relieved. I kept waiting for him to break down and he never did. He flew like a champ. (Although there were a couple of moments that I thought "this can't be worth it." It was.) On the way there, we had a full flight, but on the way home we were so lucky to sit in a row of three by ourselves. Jack slept in the seat between us... such a relief to not have to hold him for 15 hours. During the trip, he was up for anything, slept a bit in his stroller, and was a great participant in the feasting. He loved being out and about and seeing all of the people, soaking up all of the attention he was given.


Thank you, Rick and Melodie. What a great trip. We will treasure these memories forever.