riding in style

Before we left I spent a lot of time thinking about what stroller to take. After almost buying a new (to me) expensive stroller that was "made for city life", we (with Caleb's pushing) decided to take one (actually two) of our strollers. I should be saying that's all we have, but that would be a lie. I have more than anyone needs. I think its 6. But no need to focus on that. We took our sit-n-stand, thinking it would work good in the airports and when its the kids and me in the city. We also packed our umbrella Maclaren in a big bag with the pack-n-play. We have used it a couple times. I thought it would be nice to have a small stroller some. That is what I use at home all the time and when we were in Miami. The big difference between here and Miami is that we had a car there and here we walk EVERYWHERE. So, we have mainly used the sit-n-stand. Aaron walks a little (maybe a block) but then is ready to jump on. He prefers to stand, but does sit on long walks. The big surprise is everyone LOVES our stroller. I have has more conversations with Australians about our stroller than anything else. Most people have never seen "a stroller like that" and ask "is that pram for 2?" On a side note, strollers here are called prams. We learned this the hard way when a lady at church told us we couldn't leave our pram in the parent room. We thought she was talking about the kids. Ends up, its the stroller. More on church later. Anyways, surprisingly I have been very happy with using this stroller. It is heavy and big but the only time we have had to fold it up is on the bus and Caleb has been with me. I can push it right onto the train, which is great. I do have a fear of riding the bus by myself and the kids. I really don't know if it is possible. For now, they will continue to ride in style and I will hopefully get in better shape (and loose the last 5 lbs of baby weight)pushing them through the city.

We found a playground!

One thing I am enjoying is the weekly cleaning service here. I try to keep the place picked up, but its nice that someone else comes in and vacuums, changes sheets and towels, and especially clean the bathrooms. They were coming this morning, so the kids and I headed out to a park I found online. It's nothing impressive, but a good way for the kids to burn some energy and we can walk to it. It reminds me of playgrounds we played on growing up. The favorite item, for both Aaron and Lydia was the motorcycle. They loved riding it. The coats were taken off shortly after we got there and we enjoyed the 60 degree weather. I honestly am not missing the 100 degree weather that everyone is experience at home. On a side note, we are missing our friends back home though.

Aaron putting on his helmet

"I think I am bigger than I am and I want to climb everything"

more Opera House photos

Enjoy all the pictures. We had a fun weekend. I will write descriptions and explanations soon. Aaron is wanting to watch "Lightening McQueen" and needs the computer.

Update: descriptions added to previous post.

"Oh my goodness. Its turning." with hand motions.

Aaron again loved watching all the ferries. He got so excited and these are two pictures of his giddiness watching.

Photos at The Opera House

Not sure why these are small, but click on them to see bigger pictures.

The Rocks

To answer questions about "The Rocks". Its an area next to the Harbour near the Sydney Bridge and Opera House. It is a historical area, with beautiful buildings and streets but it was hard to see all this when we went on Sunday due to the Aroma Festival that was happening. They had all sorts of sweets/coffees/teas to taste (I should say buy). It was really crowded but we had a fun time. They also have a market down there on the weekends. We want to go back because we found lots of stuff we like but just wanted to look around on Sunday. There also were a lot of art studios that we want to go to. We really want to get some cool art work to remember our time here.

One of the sweets we got was an over priced cupcake. It was good but not great. And not as good as Georgetown cupcakes that we go to with the Blackers in DC. The other sweet we got was this thing. Its a traditional Pavlova. There were a lot of people with them and a long line so we thought we would give it a try. I really don't know how to describe it. It was covered with chocolate flakes and a berry sauce. The white part, was mouse-ish, Caleb says its a mix of marshmallow and ice cream. It wasn't cold though. Whatever it was, it was good.

If you don't know what something is there is no better place to look than wikipedia. Here is want a Pavlova is:

Pavlova is a meringue-based dessert named after the Russian ballet dancer Ánna Pávlova. (Russian: А́нна Па́влова).^[1] Colloquially referred to as "pav", it is a cake similar to meringue with a crispy crust and soft, light inner.^[2] The name is pronounced /pævˈloʊvə/ or /pɑːvˈloʊvə/, unlike the name of the dancer, which was /ˈpɑːvləvə/ or /ˈpævləvə/.^[3][4][5]

The dessert is believed to have been created to honour the dancer during or after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. Where it was created and the nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two nations for many years, but research indicates New Zealand as the source.^[2]

The dessert is a popular dish and an important part of the national cuisine of both countries, and is frequently served during celebratory or holiday meals such as Christmas lunch.

Bondi Beach

Saturday after naps we took our first train ride out to Bondi Beach. Aaron was so excited to finally get to ride the trains. He is obsessed with watching them out our window. The train ride went really well. We just rolled the stroller right in and it was a quick 10 minutes ride. We got to Bondi Junction, which has a huge nice mall, and walked around a little while. We then decided to go ahead and catch the bus to the beach before it got dark. I wasn't prepared for it to get dark at 5:30 here. I guess I forgot it is winter and with that comes short days. Anyways, the bus ride wasn't too bad. It is hard trying to get Lydia to sit still, but she found some people to talk with. We got there just as the sun was setting but were able to see the beautiful beach and cliffs (and get some pictures).

It was cold out and I can't imagine how cold the water is but there were lots of suffers out in their bodysuits. Aaron was really bummed we couldn't get in the water, but hopefully soon enough it will be warm enough to play at the beach.

We walked to find this restaurant we wanted to eat at. It is really popular and fully booked all weekend. We have learned that "bookings" aka reservations are more common here. We do want to go back though. It was on a cliff, overlooking the ocean. On the bottom floor there was a pool where the waves crashed into it. It was beautiful and the picture doesn't do it justice.
We ended up eating at Bondi Pizza and then got some yummy Italian ice cream. It was a fun evening out with two tired kids at the end.

Hyde Park

There is a park a couple of blocks away that the kids and I went to the other day so they could run around. It doesn't have anything to play on, but they were happy just running. it is sooooo cute watching Lydia trying to keep up with Aaron. I'm guessing that will be the story for the rest of her life.

not sure why the color is off in this picture

The tall building in the middle is ours. Our apt is in the middle at the top of the black windows. 70th floor. You can see the park beautifully from our place.

LOVE THEM!

Shopping in Sydney

First off I have a confession, I know that I'm not going to be the best at keeping up with this. I have so many ideas of things to write about, but am struggling to get it written. I'm going to reward myself with a nap today. A few things for you guys to look forward to hearing about are jet lag, TV in Australia, and our life in general here. But first, about shopping. As a mentioned earlier there is a grocery store, named Cole's, right beside us. We have been to it at least once a day. Which is not good for a budget. We are trying to get some of the basics along with stuff to eat which can get pricey. Most foods are more expensive here, but not too bad. At first it seems real expensive until we realized that a kg is more than that 2 lbs. The hardest thing is not being able to shop by deals. But today I found Paddy's market. It's a market that has a lot of touristy nic-naks and stuff, but it also has a fresh food market. It is located in China town and it was me and a bunch of elderly Chinese people. The fruits and veggies look great and were cheaper than the store. Banana's (which we eat a ton of) were 1/2 the price. They also have a butcher and fish market that I can't wait to try. I felt more like a local today (even though I wasn't Chinese and old). They also had a spice stand where I got 100g of spices for $3. It's more spices than we will need, but a ton cheaper than the store and they seemed fresh. I don't know what makes spices seem fresh, I guess that they were very fragrant. I really love things like this. I can't wait to go again, show it to Caleb and get some pictures. As you can tell, there are lots of things that I need to get pictures of. I just don't want to carry the camera everyday. But we will be going back there plenty.

more apt pics

The kids room. They love the floor to ceiling pictures.

The kids playing in their favorite room.

Lydia was very tired the first few days and spent 5-10 minutes like this. Which is very rare for her.

Apartment pictures

The view from our "winter garden" what we think of as a sunroom.

The kitchen

The dining room and living room

The winter garden. There is a glass wall you can close with curtains. This will be a great place for our visitors!!! This is also the kids favorite room. There is a ledge that they play on and Lydia loves sitting in those chairs looking out the windows. Yesterday she was sitting there watching the sunrise. Which was beautiful (another thing I need to get a picture of).

Our place

We love our apartment here. It is in a great location. It is within 2 blocks of Caleb's office and we can walk to tons of places within 15-20 minutes. We have a grocery store right beside us and tons of restaurants and cafes (I mean more than we could ever imagine going to). There is also tons of shopping. I went today to the Queen Victorian Building. It's basically a mall/shopping center but it is in a breath-taking beautiful building that was built (well completed in 1898). It supposedly took a long time to build. I will have to get some pictures. But back to our place. It reminds us of our place in Miami but nicer. We have a gorgeous view and can see a lot of the city and harbour. We are now completely unpacked and continue to make a mess of it. One thing that I learning to like quickly is the gas stove. It cooks fast and I haven't burnt anything yet!

Pictures in next post.

LA to Sydney

To pick up where I left off. After thinking real hard, I finally can remember the flight to LA. It really wasn't too bad. It was about 4 hrs (or something like that). Lydia fought sleep real hard. We had a few rough moments, but it was bearable. Once in LA we got dinner...the most expensive personal pizza you have seen then strolled Lydia around to get her asleep. She snoozed for an hour or 2 in the airport and was ready to sleep once we got on the plane.

Then here comes the 15 hr trip. As soon as people from Delta got to the gate, we asked for buck head seats where we could hook up a bassinet for Lydia. We were told over and over that buck head seats could not be given out except at the gate for that flight. We were one of the first people to talk to them and all buck head seats were gone. They were given out in Atl. We were furious. That was probably the worst few minutes of the day. We really were so mad. We were banking on the extra space and bed for Lydia. After a few minutes Caleb reminded me how God had provided us with the patience we needed so far and he would continue to provide for us, even if it wasn't through buck head seats. This helped our attitude tremendously and I am so glad he reminded me. There were a lot of families so we assumed they got them. Well, as we get on the plane we see the first set of buck head seats were taken by regular Joe's, with no kids. I was not happy. Then we get towards our seats and I was talking to the flight attendant about the seats and I noticed it was 2 little girls in buck head. WHAT?? The flight attendant told me there mom was in the back of the plane. So, the girls who were cute and sweet showed me their mom and I asked her if she would mind if we traded seats with her girls. She was very nice and said of course that they did not need those seats. Thank you Lord. As Aaron, Lydia and I were getting settled in those 2 seats the other lady offers to switch with Caleb. She previous refused but I guess realized not sitting next to us would probably be better. So by God's grace and nothing else, we were able to get buck head seats and have access the the bassinet!!! We sat on the plane for about 45 min before pulling away (something about some luggage...who knows). Both kids fell asleep real quick while we were sitting at the gate. After getting up in the air, the flight attendants set up the bassinet and I transferred Lydia. That was great as my arm was already fast asleep and hurting. Amazingly, they both slept for the first 4-5 hours!!!! It was great. We didn't even use Benadryl yet! The next 4-5 hours went pretty well too. Between food, toys, and movies they did well. We walked the plane a few times as well. Towards the end of that time we did give them some Benadryl and they both napped for an hour or 2. Then we get to the last 4 hours. They were so much longer than the first 11. We were all ready to get off. Again by God's grace we made it through with out too many glares. The last hour was by far the roughest, but at least there was an end in sight. So, finally at 7:30 AM on Friday we arrived in Sydney! 28.5 hours after getting on the plane in GBO. We are so excited to be here and really do praise God for giving us patience and being gracious to us by keep everything under control with the flights.

The trip...

I guess there is no better place to start than the beginning. For a little background, a few days before we were leaving we saw that our flights were changed. So instead of leaving at 4 PM we were going to be leaving at 7 AM with an 11hr layover in LA. I had the same thoughts you are having now, that is not cool. After a few not successful attempts to contacting Delta (and me freaking out even more) Caleb spent and hour or more on the phone with a surprisingly nice and helpful lady. We got our flights fixed and were planning to leave Greensboro at 1:49 PM on Wednesday July 14th. Packing and getting ready to leave went pretty smooth. Mainly because Caleb's parents had the kids for a few days. That was a huge help and I know they loved every minute of it too. Wednesday morning came and went and we headed to the airport around 11:30 with both sets of grandparents. We had the back of Caleb's dads truck packed full. Wish we had a picture. I do wish we had a picture of all our stuff. I thought about it, but digging out our camera did not sound like fun. Our complete count of stuff for Sydney was 2 adults, 2 kids, 7 checked bags,5 carry-ons, and our double stroller. It was a lot of stuff. I have to say real quick that all of our big bags but one were 47-50 lbs execpt the one Caleb packed. We moved a few things around and our 6 big bags were all 49 and 50 lbs. I was pretty impressed by that. Anyways, when we got to the airport to check in we had a little trouble with Caleb's visa. When they looked him up it said "do not let board". Which honestly was a little bit funny and stressful at the same time. After a lot of phone calls (2 agents on 3 phones at one point) all was straightened out and we were put on a plane that was to leave at 1:00 for Atlanta, instead of our 1:45 flight. Going through security and getting on the plane went extremely well. The kids were doing great! We waited about 5 minutes then started getting on the plane. A few minutes after pulling away from the gate we were told that ATL would not let us leave for another 20-30 minutes. Why didn't they tell us that before we got on the plane??? So, we sat on the runway for a while then had a smooth flight to LA. It was a small plane so Aaron and Caleb were in one row and I was behind them. Caleb had Lydia in his lap for most of the flight too. I got to sit by myself and read some. Something that didn't happen again but I did enjoy and really appreciate Caleb handling the kids. They did great on that flight. I was a little worried about ears since it was a small plane (but not too much since they did so good going to Miami) but we had no problems with that. But once we got to ATL we sat on the the runway for another 15-2o minutes waiting to pull up to the gate. I don't know what is up with ATL airport, but it really does stink. And of course, while we are waiting to pull up to the gate, Lydia has a huge stinker. Thanks lady. So, we get off and get Lydia cleaned up, into outfit #2 and enjoy a nice little layover (about 2 hrs I think). Lydia fell asleep in the stroller after a little ride and we enjoyed a nice Chick-fil-a dinner before the flight. I'm glad we had some time in the airports though. Our flight was late leaving ATL for LA but it was no big deal to us because we had another longer (4 hr) layover scheduled for LA. The flight to LA went well. Honestly at this point I can't even remember that one much. I know Lydia didn't sleep any, but they did real well.

So, I'm going to end here for now. We are going to wake the kids up from their naps so they will sleep more tonight. I'll finish soon.

We're here mate!

Good day Mate! This is the beginning of what I hope to be a lot of blogging. Not that I want to spend a ton of time here at the computer or think what I have to say and what we are doing is really that interesting but I think I'm going to use it as a way to save stories and memories of our trip. Maybe even make it into a book. But this blog is also for you guys (especially grandparents!!!). Knowing them, they will be some of the only to comment (which is fine but I do love comments) and will probably check it a few times a day. Maybe I should introduce them to google reader. Anyways, I'm starting this on our old (but strangely current) blog until we decide on a cool name for a new one. Suggestions welcome. Nothing with our last name though. It's slightly too uncommon. Don't want weirdos to come find us. Once we get a new one set up I will move everything over there. That one will be public so whoever wants to read can (hopefully no weirdos though). Knowing me, I know I need to start this soon or we will be a week or weeks in before we start. So much has happened already that I don't want to forget and people have asked about so here we go. Enjoy!