Crocodiles and Fish

Here's more pics from the rest of our trip ... Brisbane and the Australia Zoo (of Steve Irwin fame) .....

This is the BIG billboard welcoming us to the Australia Zoo. You can see Steve, Bindi, and Terri close to the yellow sign.

If you look closely at this family picture, we're all looking at Kevin and laughing when we really just wanted to hang him up by his hair! It was about at this point of the trip that he decided "no more pictures". You know, kind of like a 4 year old! ;)

I've got more pictures of the Zoo and Bindi and Terri - yes we saw them there too, but my computer is hiding them from me and refuses to let me find the special shots I took. When I happen across them, I'll share them with you. We were in Brisbane just for one day (2 overnights), so the Zoo was really all we did there.

Now on to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef ...

This is my very special man at about 10:00pm New Years' Eve. For those of you who know us well, this snoozing picture won't surprise you!

Here's my special girls walking out in the park with me and enjoying the fireworks. Did any of you figure out what Fairy Floss is? I enjoyed my special treat New Year's Eve. In the US we know it as Cotton Candy.

On another day we trekked on the Kuranda Scenic Railway up through a rain forest to a cool town, where the girls in this family invested in some Australian Opal jewelry. Our return trip was by Sky Rail (a cable car) which is shown in the picture on the right. We were up above all the trees and it was quite awesome and scary. I'm not sure I'd want to do it again, but it was great to ride it once in my lifetime.

Here's Abbi and Kevin, we all know how well they get along ...

.... wait, was that right??? Yup, it sure is them! And they really did get along pretty well on the trip, but this is a"staged" picture. The real problem relationship was Kevin and Mitch. They were stuck rooming together with Austin for most of the trip, and sure enough, Kevin did his share of being a pest. One night they actually "hog tied" him, but I happened to be in the room and rescued him. The next day I found out that after I went back to my room, they tied Kevin to the bed for a little while. I think maybe he learned his lesson that night! :)

Here's a couple of pictures of Kevin and Mitch learning to throw a boomerang from an Aboriginal. We went to Tjapukai Aboroginal Cultural Park and learned some history of Australia. Not too fun for the kids, but I enjoyed it because it wasn't so commercialized. Alli and Derald ended up being the best Boomerang-ers. Good Job!


In the evening we went to a zoo for a night tour and an Outback Cookout/Show. Since this was one of the last nights of our trip, everyone was anxious to leave for home, and had a hard time really enjoying the evening. But I think we will still have memories that we can laugh about for years to come. Especially the memory of sweet innocent Kevin using some bad words in reference to his big brother. That one gave Ashley the giggles, and made me wonder if I should go get the soap or just laugh along with everyone else.

Ahhhh..... cute koala, and Mitch is pretty cute too.

Kangaroo Time!!!!

The Princess enjoying a fancy drink by the pool!

Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef .... where are the pictures? See explanation above! GRRRR

And here's our Welcome Home Hero! He came to see one special person but made us all smile!


Home Sweet Home!