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!

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are at our last stop! Let's just say we're all exhausted and a bit on edge ... too much togetherness. :) It's really not that bad, just kind of feels like a horse that's getting close to home. We just can't get there fast enough.

We're in tropical Cairns, and I do mean tropical. What do you get when you plunk yourself down in the middle of a rainforest? Sweat, droopy hair, and warmth. Ahhh ... the warmth! (we heard it's a mild 23 at home) It's in the 90's here. I think ... you know they go by celsius, and my brain has become too tired to figure out the exact Farenheit.


Our trip here from Brisbane was filled with more airport excitement. Let's just say Qantas owes us big time! :) When we got to Brisbane Airport, we once again were not booked on the flight that we were supposed to be on, but Derald's were. So they went on without us, while Dave made his way to ticketing to "work things out". We ended up on a flight 4 hours later, but .... they put us in Business Class, and we enjoyed the Business class lounge at the airport for those long 4 hours. So yesterday was a very long travel day once again!


This morning (December 31) we woke up nice and early - our clock was set one hour early, and we didn't figure it out until we were ready for breakfast and we tried to wake the girls next door and they growled at us! So finally at the right time, we headed north one hour to Port Douglas to take Quick Silver out to the Great Barrier Reef. Dave, Mitch, and Kevin all went on a 1 hour scuba dive, and the rest of us enjoyed snorkeling. It was awesome! Abbi absolutely loved it!


Tonight our family enjoyed a meal together eating normal American cuisine, hamburgers. YUM! We are very tired of Italian and Asian food! Kevin was refusing to go eat with us, but I told him that he owed it to his Mom to make sure all the family is together for our New Years' Eve Dinner, and sure enough when we were all seated Dad had to do the "six count". For those of you unaware of this spectacle ... whenever we're all seated at a table together, Dave has to count to six, and all the kids groan! It is just such a rare occurence!


After dinner we went out to the "esplanade" (do you like all my new words), and enjoyed a 9:00 mini firework show. And I enjoyed my favorite carnival treat of "fairy floss"! I guess at Midnight is the big one! duh.... But Alli and I think we would just as soon be in our rooms and watch the show that is happening in Sydney Harbor, since we were just there, and actually saw some of the preparations for the fireworks.

It is now 10:00pm here and only 7:00am Tuesday morning in good old Middlebury, so I guess we will welcome the New Year in for all of our friends and family, so that you don't have to stay up to do it. Go to bed early tonight and dream of good things to come in 2008!

And you'll never believe this but Dave and Abbi are already sleeping! :) I'm going next door now to use Alli's computer to make another post of all pictures. She has them downloaded on her computer. So for you picture lovers, check out the post titled Digitized Down Under!