Check us out over here...

I started a new blog if you want to continue to follow us. Our lives are not as full of adventure as they were when we were in Australia- but you can read about our meanderings.
http://momdadtwoboys.blogspot.com/

Thanks.
Rachael

Only two more days...

We have only two days left in Australia. When we got here in May the time seemed to stretch endlessly in front of us. Now we look back and wonder where the time went. The boys and I have been busy hitting our favorite spots these last few weeks. I know I said I would post pics of Sydney, but instead have decided to post a few last pics of Melbourne. I am not sure I will have time to do another post, we will be busy packing and fitting in some more fun in the next couple days. We leave early Wednesday morning, will spend a day in CA, and will be back in MA on Friday morning.
Pictures from St. Kilda. The boys and I spent a Sunday there while Rob participated in a sailboat race.

We went to Melbourne Zoo again. The boys put their Australia Zoo knowledge to work and jumped a croc.

We hit our favorite playground and met up with some friends. C and the oldest of their three boys really hit it off.

We went to the Melbourne Museum as well. We discovered a great playground behind the museum, so played there for a while, had a picnic, then went into the museum.

My favorite eucalyptus tree near the museum. It is just huge.

Inside the museum.

The fun things you learn in a museum, C is four wombats tall!

I got up early one morning and took some pictures of the city.

A picture of our building...

Flinders Street Train Station

The promenade at sunrise.

This weekend we went to the Docklands and played on another of our favorite playgrounds. We then went to Action Zone- a place with inflatables. Our kids did bungee trampolines and the high jump. They also had a trapeze and a tightrope.

That evening we went to a footy game at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. We had such a blast, the game is so fun to watch. The boys held up well, even though we didn't get back until 11:00.

Today we went to the Werribbee Open Range Zoo with some friends. C was so happy to have some kids to play with. Then the family took the boys for the evening so Rob and I could go out to dinner. It was so generous of them, and we had a great time dining without children.

We head home in two days and have so much packing to do!

Thanks for checking on us!

Sydney

After we went to the Australia Zoo we flew to Sydney for a few days. We got there on Saturday morning and left on Monday evening. We saw as much as we could in our short time there.

Of course we saw this... and took a lot of pictures of it.

The boys on Friday.

The view from our hotel room.




The view from the front, taken from the tour boat.

We also saw this, and took a boat tour around the harbor for better pictures. We had a cloudy day, but it was still beautiful.

More views from our boat tour.

A wild pelican in Sydney Harbor- just like in "Finding Nemo".
Luna Park, right on the harbor.
A sailing class, I was worried Rob might jump right off the tour boat to join them.
We also climbed to the top of the pylon on the bridge that day, and did a tour of the Opera House.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the theaters of the Opera House, just in the lobbies. I wish we could have, they were amazing.

More pics from Sydney in the next post.

Thanks for checking on us.

Australia Zoo

After Lady Elliot Island we rented a car and drove to the Australia Zoo. We stayed overnight nearby and spent two full days at the zoo. We honestly were not sure that we would be able to fill two days, but it ended up that we needed the two days to see everything.

C the Croc Hunter.

One of the signs at the zoo.

The boys driving the Croc Hunter jeep.

An echidna. C loves these and we have had a hard time seeing them at other zoos. They had at least five at this zoo in a huge enclosure. It was fun to watch them walk around- they are suprisingly cute.
We paid the extra money to allow C to go into the echidna enclosure and he got about fifteen minutes learning about the animals, feeding, and petting them.
They had a great koala forest, they marked the trees with koalas in them with signs. Then they had a koala down low that you could pet.
Their kangaroo area was huge. They had kangaroo feed to buy and you could walk around feeding and petting the kangaroos. There were several with joeys in their pouches too. We all really enjoyed interacting with the kangaroos.

C petting a kangaroo.
C riding on a pony. The rides were free and they walked them through a little wooded area.
R feeding an elephant.


C feeding an elephant.


The signs near the crocodile enclosures. They make it pretty clear that the crocs may try to eat you if you get too close.
Look closely behind C. This croc does look like it thinks C would make a good lunch. Thank goodness for the double fence.

The next day was Bindi Irwin's Masquerade Birthday Party. She gives free admission to all the kids on her birthday every year, so it was a bit more crowded. They had activities for the kids- face painting, mask decorating, trapeze lessons, cupcake decrorating, dance lessons, etc. The big thing though was the crocodile show. They had done a croc show the day before, but it was not nearly as exciting as the one they did for Bindi's birthday. Terri Irwin and Wes (Steve Irwin's good friend) did the show.

Bindi blowing out her candles with the media looking on.

Bindi, Robert, and Terri Irwin.



Terri and the crocodile.
Bindi feeding a crocodile (with Wes at her side).

Honestly, this was the nicest zoo we have ever been to. The enclosures were huge and very clean. There were walkways around many of the enclosures so you could easily see the animals, and there were many opportunities to interact with the different animals. Rob and I were impressed.

Thanks for checking on us!