Lucieville Farmstay

Ella and Buddy

Rob's 40th!

"Lucieville Farm is a holiday destination located on 340 acres of open paddocks and natural bush land. The farm is nestled in scenic hills, 8kms south of Bridgetown in Western Australia. This working farm runs a herd of around thirty breeding cows for the production of beef, a small flock of sheep for the production of wool and meat, and a small domestic orchard of mixed fruits. There is a large assortment of farm animals, including horses, chickens, guinea fowl, peacocks, turkeys, pigs, goats, geese, emus, ostrich, water buffalo, pet lambs and calves (as the seasons dictate) for the enjoyment of guests."

Since we arrived in Australia, our friends, the Tongas, have been going on about this farmstay called "Lucieville". 2 weeks after we arrived in Australia their family was heading down there, with several others, and invited us to join them. Unfortunately, it had been all booked-up at the time. This past weekend we finally got to go with the Tongas for 3 nights! Lucieville chalets are located 3 hours south in the town of Bridgetown which is inland and east of Margaret River. We all shared a cabin that sleeps 12 people very comfortably. We had arrived at night when we couldn't see anything except a roaming cow (which actually had scared me to death when I unexpectedly came face to face with it!). So, of course, the kids were up, dressed in their farm clothes and "gumboots" (rain boots) at the first glimpse of light. By 8 am they had been canoeing and seen all the animals mentioned above. They came back for a quick breakfast and left our garden gate open by accident. Pieter was at the kitchen window and said "Piggy Back (a sheep that likes to jump on you) is knocking at the front door". Next we heard a huge thump against the door from the sheep ramming into it! The kids all ran off screaming saying "run for your life!" We opened the door and sure enough, there was Piggy Back and there were 2 kangaroos in our yard! We got the sheep out of there, but had a great time petting the kangaroos.

At 9 am we met Farmer Michael (who I kept calling "Father Michael" by accident) to do animal and farm chores. The kids got to feed the pigs, goats, emus, kangaroos (who put their paws on your hands when you have a handful of food), chooks, sheep, and turkeys. There was also a farm cat, Fluffy, with no ears because he had had ear cancer, but we called him "What?" We all got to hold baby bunnies (soooo cute), chicks (Amelie's favorite was one she named "Snowball"), guinea pigs (Pieter named his "Ben". He names everyone Ben!), and we got to feel a baby joey in the Mama kangaroos pouch! The joey was unbelievable. The joey didn't have any fur yet and was probably the size of my fist. It was very warm in there and a bit slimy. His little paw went on my fingers and I could feel his long tail and body! It was absolutely amazing (and slightly gross, if you let yourself go there)! Apparently, it's very uncommon to be able to feel a joey in a pouch because most mamas won't let you touch their pouch. Next we all got a chance to milk "Rosie", the cow. This has been Ella's dream to be able to spend some time milking a cow. Some of us tried the milk (not me). Then we hopped on the back of the Ute and brought a big round hay bale over to the cows. The kids got to unroll it down a hill. They loved it. Then all the cows came over in a line, lowing away! Then we got back into the Ute and drove over to the paddock where the horses were and we rounded them (about 20) up using the Ute. It was a beautiful sight to see all the horses cantering, all in the same direction, over the rolling hills. I felt like I was in a western movie.

The rest of the day was spent running around, canoeing, holding the animals and returning the horses to the paddock. Ella and Samantha got to ride in the tractor with Farmer Michael! The kids just loved the incredible amount of independence that they could have on this nice safe farm.

That night we had a barbie and got ready to go spotlighting for nocturnal animals. A neighbor, Michael, would drive the Ute and Joe Tonga would do the spotlighting. We were all bundled up and started to walk down to the meeting point. On the way, Joe spotted some yabbies (fresh water shrimp) and frogs. We went to check them out and Pieter slipped on an exposed log, tried to break his fall with his hand but arm went right into a ditch that had a concrete block on the edge of it and broke his fall with the bone just above his eye instead! Yikes! It was really bleeding so we ran him up to the house as fast as possible. Thankfully, Pieter was VERY brave and it stopped bleeding very quickly. His cut may have warranted a stitch or 2, but seeing that the bleeding stopped so quickly and we were nowhere near a hospital, we decided that every boy needs a good facial scar and that forever he could tell how he got it in Australia when he was a boy. Needless to say, Pieter, Lindy and I stayed behind and didn't go spotlighting, but everyone else did. Pieter was fine and laughing to Alvin and the Chipmunks within 15 minutes. The spotlighters had a great time and saw an endangered red-tailed phascogale! This is one of the few Australian marsupials without a pouch. They only live in this particular part of Western Australia. It was an amazingly clear night so Rob and I checked out the stars once the kids were snuggled down in bed. They were incredible, though not quite as incredible as they had been in Exmouth.

Sunday morning started similarly to the day before with us all participating in the farm chores and running around the farm. It was hard to peel Amelie away from her love, Snowball. At 2:30 we hopped in Farmer Michael's Ute to round up the horses so that the kids could go horseback riding. Then we brushed them and saddled them up. We were heading across the farm and road to where they have a fire pit. Ella rode on Buddy, Natasha rode Boss, Samantha rode Danny Boy and Chantelle (Michael's 4 year old granddaughter) rode her Shetland, Inka. I led Ella and she did a bit of trotting. She would say every once in a while, "Let's just walk to give Buddy a break" and I would say, "You mean, to give ME a break." "Oh yeah." When we arrived to our destination Kristy (daughter-in-law) and the rest had started the fire. Then the kids got to make "damper" which is a mixture of flour, salt and water that they mixed together with their hands and rolled into little balls. Then, once the fire was in good shape, we molded the damper around the end of a long stick and roasted them over the fire! We ate the roasted bread with butter and jam and drank "billy tea". This was a total Australian Outback bush experience! It was so fun. I got to ride Buddy back to the farm. Fun to be up on a horse again.

The Tongas had to head back to Fremantle on Sunday night because Joe had to be back to work Monday morning. The Tongas treated us to an amazing 40th birthday dinner for Rob in Bridgetown before they left! We had a delicious and fun meal. The kids were a bit sleepy (which isn't always a bad thing) and unfortunately Natasha had a really bad headache. The waitress brought Rob a piece of cake with a sparkler in it and we sang happy birthday.

The next morning, May 17th, was Rob's 40th! I had decorated the cabin in balloons and streamers the night before (and killed a massive fly with a towel). We had our traditional rusks and strawberries and Rob had a fun time opening all his presents and cards. His most unique gift was 4 weeks of didgeridoo lessons which he will start next week! He can't wait and Pieter is going to join him for the first lesson. Then, while I packed and cleaned up, Rob went to do the farm chores with the kids one last time. The kids were devastated when it was time to leave! Ella said that if we could live on that farm then she would want to live in Australia for the rest of her life. Just to help you understand how much kids love Lucieville, Samantha started crying happy tears when they drove into Bridgetown on Friday and our friends, the Leemings, were in Switzerland last year and their girls said that they would much rather be in Lucieville. It's an incredible place (and completely affordable!)!

We drove home, stopping at the enormous Donnybrook playground on the way. I told Rob that we had dinner reservations and needed to leave our house by 5:10 when in all actuality I had a few families coming over for pizza and cake at 5:00pm. We got home at 3:45 and eventually banished Rob to the bedroom to read emails so that we could set up. I told him that he could just relax and I'd get the kids showered and ready, but he couldn't come out. The kids were almost too good at keeping this secret:) When the Duncans arrived and we let Rob out he was so surprised! The Duncans, Leemings and Vandersteens came over (with their 9 kids in total) and we had a great time. Janelle made Rob a really cool cake with the outline of Australia and some key landmarks and types of foods made out of icing.

Now it's the next day and I have about 6 loads of farm laundry to do and gumboots to clean, but it's all worth it!

Posted by Marileen

End March, beginning April

Bicton Polo Pool where Ella's 6:45 am swimming training took place (note river in background!).

Richmond Primary Swimming Carnival - Ella diving in (at #6)

Ella and her friends: Olivia, Samantha, Ella E., Tia and Natasha

First place freestyle!

On Newman's boat with Perth in background

Ella, Pieter, Rory, Amelie and Maddie

Rob and Mike Deeks at Dockers game

The Dockers

rainbow and sky following lightening storm

birthday morning with my 3 little blessings

birthday breakfast with the girls

ewww!

Abby Leeming, Ella, and Abby Duncan on Easter

We had the most amazing lightening and hail storm here in the end of March. It only lasted a couple of hours. The golf-sized hail came down for only 5 minutes, but it did millions of dollars worth of damage in cars, wiping out car dealers' entire stock and the flooding shut down many businesses! The lightening was all around us and so incredible. We had to go pick Ella up at gymnastics during the height of the storm. The road was all flooded, it was incredibly windy and the lightening was insane. Amelie started crying saying "I don't want to die!!" Well, we all survived. Ironically, the RI flooding and storms came exactly a week after ours where there was even more damage, from what I've seen by the pictures. Our basement in RI, which holds ALL our belongings, was flooded and some unimportant stuff was ruined, but thanks to our property manager, Bevin, Sean Greene, Seth Rambikur, my father-in-law, Bill Ashworth, Kristin Riley, Brendan Reardon and Water Out, everything turned out OK in the end. Hard to deal with natural disasters on the other side of the world.

Richmond Primary School had their school swimming carnival for years 4-7. Ella decided a couple weeks before hand that she would, in fact, participate. She had missed the try outs so they put her in division 2 (out of 3 divisions). She went to morning swimming training at Bicton Polo Pool (on the river) from 6:45-7:45 two times a week for 3 weeks. I thought after the first session of swimming 200 meters immediately upon getting in the pool she'd be over it, but she loved it! She wound up swimming freestyle, back and breast at the carnival and getting 1 first place and 2 second place ribbons. It was so much fun.

Rob also got to go to a Fremantle Dockers Australian rules football game with our friend Mike Deeks and the Dockers won! People here mostly either root for the Dockers of the West Coast Eagles. The Dockers have not done well in years so most people laugh at you if you are a Dockers fan, but this year they having a winning record! Aussie footy is much different than American football. It's almost like a combo of soccer, football, basketball, and wrestling. They run non-stop, are in phenomenal shape, and throw each other all over the place! They don't wear any pads at all. We're hoping to get to a game as a family one of these days. So much to do and running out of time.

The kids had yet another school holiday from April 2nd to April 18th! On April 1st we were invited to go out on our friends', The Newmans, boat. Maddie Newman is in Amelie's class and a good friend and her brother Rory is Pieter's age and a friend of his. So, Susie and Greg invited us out on their big incredible boat! It was a beautiful day and they took us up to Perth and then anchored somewhere along the river so the kids could swim. We felt so fortunate and spoiled to be able to experience such extravagance! Afterward, they all came over for a barbie. We just had such a nice day!

Then...the next day...I turned 40!! I woke up to lots of homemade cards, tea and rusks with strawberries. Rob gave me an incredible Nikon camera with changeable lenses, which I love! It takes amazing photos. Then I went out to breakfast at The Blue Duck, in Cottesloe, with 9 of my closest friends here. We actually stayed in the restaurant, overlooking the ocean, for 2 1/2 hours, which is pretty unheard of on a Saturday morning. It was so nice. The bought me a gift certificate to a spa so Pia and I are going on Monday to get the "Indulgence Package". Can't wait! When I came home I was instructed to watch the camera DVD so that I would know how to use it. Afterward we went into Fremantle to check out the Fremantle Street Performers Festival. The first show we went to I was suddenly chosen, out of a crowd of at least 100 people, to participate! Not my favorite thing to do!! I must have had that "It's my birthday" glow to me. Anyway, the show ended with the guys asking Rob permission if I could kiss his cheek. Rob said "YES"! Thanks a lot! In the end, the guy turned his face as I reluctantly leaned over to kiss him and he kiss me on the lips...YUCK! The night ended with going out to dinner with Rob and the kids at the view intending to take pix of the sunset with my new camera, but it had run out of battery. Oh well. It was really a great day!

The next day was Easter. We went to church and then went over to the Duncans house for lunch, together with her family and the Leemings. It was another beautiful and relaxing day. However, we did miss having all our relatives who usually come to Easter at our house back in RI.

posted by Marileen

Fitness In Australia Episode 5: Crabbing!

Attack of the killer blue swimmers

Hey Mate, why so white?

Bec Nelson

Willy, Bec and Lachlan ("fainting goats") Nelson, Andrew and Michelle Nelson,
JJ Cupples, Rob and the Indian Ocean sunrise.

This is months overdue, but here goes:

Giant-Australian-Outdoorsman-who-looks-like-a-cross-between-Paul-Hogan-and-Sean-Connery (His real name is Willy Nelson....no kidding) - "Hey mate, in for a little crabbing tomorrow morning?

Snorkel Boy - "Pardon?"

Willy- I say, you wanna come hunt some blue swimmer crabs with us tomorrow...great fun, very dangerous.

SB - I've been crabbing before, what's so dangerous about a crab pot?

Willy - Not a pot, mate, you use your hands. Just swim around and when you see one, grab it! Season just opened after a three-year ban. C'mon, it'll be fun.

SB - (After a change of undies) Um, how big are these blue-swimmers?

Willy- Aw the biggest are maybe a meter, tip-to-tip.

SB- What if they get ahold of your fingers?

Willy- Shouldn't let that happen, mate, they'll take it right off. But don't sweat it, as long as you grab 'em on the carapice, you'll be right.

SB- (Paralyzed with fear) Cara-which? What time do you head out?

Willy- Be on the beach by sun-up (0545).

SB- (mentally adding the 45 minute commute)(blood draining from face) - I'll be there.

So, as is becoming my habit, more out of fear of mercilous ridicule than being pinched to death by a giant crustacean, I dutifully set my alarm for 4am the next day.

Its important to pause here, and fill you in on a couple of other important details. Number one, all Australian men are tough. Even the clothing models. I think its just part of their DNA, or maybe because they start eating red meat at 18 months old. So when you meet a real "dyed-in-the-wool" outdoorsman, its best just to do what he says...arguing or showing any form of weakness can get you killed. Willy is one of those guys. I think he splits wood for fitness, and eats giant insects and kangaroo intestines. Certainly not the kind of guy whom you would walk up to and start humming "On the Road Again" just to see what he'd do.

Furthermore, when a genuine Australian "bloke" invites you to explore God's creation with him, its more of a statement of fact, than an invitation. That is, its not "Hey fella, would you like to come and have some fun fishing for crabs with us?", its more like, "We're going to go crabbing tomorrow morning at an unholy hour, and you'll be coming along, because real men, hunt, kill, and devour...then drink 6 gallons of beer."

So I went.

And, I have to say, it was absolutely superb.

We got to the beach, and Willy, his brother Andrew, a friend called JJ, and the biggest surprise of all: Andrew's wife Michelle, and Willy's two kids, Beck (11) and Lauglin (13), were all standing on the beach waiting for me. (For the record, I was vomiting in the woods, and needed a little time to compose myself).

Thank God for the women and children, for I now had someone to hide behind or cling onto.

Then, to my surprise, Willy threw me a pair of elbow length welding gloves...."in case you're too slow and one gets ahold of you!" (For the record, everyone wore gloves, so there!)

We swam out about 150 meters off the beach (still in waist deep water) and after convincing myself that surely a big shark would rather eat one of the girls or maybe JJ, I settled down and and began to take in my marine surroundings..the sun had just begun to angle down into the eel-grass above which we were swimming, and then the most amazing thing happened: The crabs just started to materialize out of nowhere! Everywhere you looked, they were swimming up for a morning tan, just above the grass! (According to Willy, they actually do come up and catch the sun for health reasons). It was fantastic!

Apparently, its at that point, while they're still a little groggy, that you want to grab them. But, as I quickly found out, they are far more aggressive than you would think. Once you try to grab one, and miss, they will frequently swim after you, snapping those 50psi claws at you the whole time.

When you do eventually manage to get ahold of one, they go down fighting! Snapping and dropping claws and wriggling around until you get them out of the water. Then they grab ahold of your welding glove until you finally shake them loose over the bag or box used to collect them.

After about 45 minutes we had caught close to our limit (10 apiece, or in my case, 3 to Willy's 17....even Beck, Willy's 11-year-old daughter caught more than me!)

Afterward, we enjoyed a traditional Australian "brekky"... fried eggs, toast and cheese, all grilled on the barby. Classic! Beck and Laughlin took thousands of pictures of me admiring my 3 crabs, then kindly donated another 3 so that the Mushen's could have a feed. And, let me tell you, it was the sweetest, most tender crabmeat I've ever eaten...delicious

One things for sure, I won't soon forget this marvelous introduction to Western Australian marine sports.

The question that lingers in my mind, is: In a fair fight, who would go down first, Willy, or a 6 foot blue crab.

I'm afraid if I blink it might be over...

Opa reading Charlie and The Chocolate Factory to Amelie outside on our front porch.

Nana and Opa at Leighton Beach, Fremantle.

Pieter and Nana at Hamelin Bay where we saw the huge manta ray.

3 generations in hats at Busselton

Ella reading up in a tree at our rented house in Margaret River.

One of Opa Hans' creative, delicious recipes: Chicken Under a Brick (Margaret River)

Where the oceans converge.

Opa Allan teaching Amelie's class circus skills.

Mom and I playing tennis at East Fremantle Tennis Club with Swan River in background.

The first and only wild poisonous snake we've seen so far. Under a rock at the beach on Rottnest!

Biking on Rottnest Island, February

Rob hypnotizing a bold quokka at a cafe on Rottnest

Ella, Amelie and Pieter's first day of school Feb 1, 2010.

Pieter with Uncle Nick and Pba Ann at Australia Day fireworks down at the "North Mall" with beautiful ship in background.

Opa Allan going for a ride with Steve Irwin at Caversham Wildlife Park

Ella playing cricket on Rottnest

Dad and Maureen walking the kids to school with Perth skyline in background

Communion service at the beach at Busselton church retreat

Amelie and Charlie on the croc. at their 7th birthday party

Our pool with Mom, Allan, Nick and Ann.

February and March Highlights:

Once again, the time is going by way too fast. I'm waking up each night feeling like I HAVE to update the blog before I forget everything so hopefully I can do a good job at recapping the past months. These past 2 months have involved 1. us moving, 2. my mom, Allan, step-bro Nick, and sister-in-law Ann (visiting from Thailand) visiting for 6 days, 3. kids starting up with new year at school (including Pieter - kindergarten!), 4. Mom and Al returning for a week, and 5. my Dad and Maureen coming to stay for 2 weeks.

It was great to finally meet Ann, my sister-in-law from Thailand. What a sweet and wonderful person she is. The kids absolutely loved her! Nick has been teaching English as a second language over there and loves his job! While they were here, with Mom and Al, it was very hot! Thankfully we had the pool and the beach. Actually, as I write this, I'm remembering that Ann was actually cold at times because it cooled down a bit at night and it's very hot in Thailand 9 months out of the year! We took them all to Caversham (the wildlife park) and they got to hang out with all the native animal, went to King's Park in Perth, went shopping in Perth, swam in the river, had an amazing Thai meal cooked for us, watched (way too much) Australian Open tennis, learned again to play Cribbage (Nick LOVES cribbage), had a wonderful dinner at Sardellos, and just hung out. It was a really great time and fun for all of us to meet up in Australia of all places! At the end of the 6 days, Nick and Ann went back to Thailand and Mom and Allan went to visit Uncle Frits and Aunt Els in Bali.

The kids started school on February 1st. Ella is now finally in 4th grade and has Mrs. Weston again :/. We were a bit disappointed by this because we thought it would be nice for Ella to have a different teacher. Also, she got separated from her great friends Samantha, Olivia and Millie. She's still in Tia and Tara's class, though. I went and talked to Mrs. Weston and said that she really needs to challenge and engage Ella because she loves to learn. Now Ella and 2 other girls go out of the class to do 5th grade math and Ella has asked for a report topic because the pace in the class is a bit slow. Not quite what I meant when I spoke to Mrs. Weston (having the girls teach themselves), but better than utter boredom in the classroom. Thankfully Ella is super self motivated and did her report(on Christopher Columbus), does Mathletics on-line and does a workbook daily. She never ever has homework that comes from school. When we return to the USA this summer Ella will be starting 5th grade so we really need her to know what she's doing.

Ella is really enjoying gymnastics, guitar, tennis, soccer and swim training. I don't know what happened but all of a sudden she's involved in all these things and loves every minute of them. Swimming is 2 days a week before school down by the river at Bicton Polo Pool (ending next week) and Tennis is 1 day a week before school (at the school). The swim training was for the school Swim Carnival, which was today (I'll talk about it later). Ella originally didn't want to do the swimming and now she's suddenly addicted. She wants to go again tomorrow morning (at 6:45) even though the carnival is over and she doesn't need to train for the Inter-school Carnival because she's not in it. Gymnastics is almost over and Soccer just started. They are just overlapping for a couple of weeks.

Amelie is in 2nd grade (!) and has Mrs. Maloney and Mrs. Button (whom she has called Buttmon for the 1st month because it said she was the teacher "Button - Mon and Tues" and she put them together thinking her name was Buttmon!!). The are both fabulous teachers. She was placed into a class with a wonderful group of girls who are much more like Amelie than the girls last year (here in Australia). They like to play pretend, do ballet, play with stuffed animals and dolls, and like the color pink! She's been having tons of play dates and hasn't mentioned home in a long time. Amelie is continuing to play catch-up in respect to school, as you can well imagine, and she's trying really hard. When Maureen/Nana was here (a retired elementary school teacher after 45 years of teaching), she worked each day with Amelie on math and really helped her and taught her in a much more patient way than I am capable of. She does a couple of pages of a math workbook every afternoon and also goes on Mathletics. Amelie is also taking swimming lessons and loves it. She's a great swimmer.

Pieter started Pre-primary, which is equivalent to Kindergarten! He can go to school 5 days a week from 8:45-3:00! It's non-compulsory so each week varies as to how many days he actually goes all day. He's totally thriving there and it will be difficult to recognize him when he gets back to the USA. He started off trying to be very brave, but just broke down each morning when it was time for me to leave and at lunchtime (because he missed ME...so cute). Now I've completely lost my status as "Mommy is the best" and it's all about Daddy! The teachers have been really wonderful to him understanding that a lot has been going on such as moving across the world, moving to a new house 1 week before the start of school, being the baby of the class, having a lot of visitors, etc... He made some really good friends: Matty, Joey, and Lucas D. who would seek him out and try to draw him in so he wouldn't be sad. NOW, he is loving school and every once in a while needs the teacher's aide or roster mom to sit with when I leave. He's actually become a real boy and has become a bit wild at times with all his new buddies. Then, other times I see hints of my sweet little boy who used to mostly had girls for friends. He did initially become friends with a little girl Bonnie and he said to me "Now I don't know who I'm going to marry, Julia or Bonnie?". Then 2 weeks ago he came home saying that he's realized who he is going to marry and "it starts with an L". "Elizabeth" is his new love and she is a beautiful sweet girl. Too funny that he even thinks about this at all. Pieter has been loving doing his math books and has been sounding out 3 letter words. He loves to learn! He's also an amazing little swimmer and can do a beautiful freestyle and backstroke!

2 days after school started, Mom and Allan returned from their 5 day trip to Bali. We had lots of fun going to play tennis several times (as the kids were all at school now), going to AQWA (an amazing aquarium up north), going on a Fremantle Prison tour (now a historical museum (stopped having prisoners only 15 years ago)- which I had to leave because I got a call from Pieter's school that he was inconsolable), going out to lunch, buying souvenirs and going to Rottnest Island.

Amelie's 7th birthday was on February 5th so we decided to go to Rottnest Island for the night. This is 17 km off the coast of Fremantle. We took the kids out of school at 11:00 to catch the 11:30 ferry (Rob was arriving on the 7:30 ferry). When we got to the parking lot I could not find a spot anywhere and we were running out of time! In the end, I had to park the car in a random lot, didn't even have the chance to pay for any kind of parking ticket because I'd run out of time, left the door unlocked with the key under the mat and ran as fast as I could to get on the ferry. I just made it! Now what?? I called my friend and saviour, Janelle, and she drove down to the lot, moved my car, fought over a parking spot and found and paid for an ideal spot! Thank God for mobile phone and amazing and willing friends!!

To get there we took the highspeed ferry which got us there in 45 minutes. This is an amazingly beautiful, tropical and extremely expensive place. The 7 of us rented a "Villa" for the night in Longreach Bay. We took the bus to Longreach, the only free thing on the island, got off and immediately saw some wild quokkas. Quokkas are little marsupials, the size of a rabbit, which are very cute and very tame. We pet them until we read the signs that said "Don't touch or feed the quokkas". Amelie got her greatly desired camera from Oma and us and took many pictures of the cute little guys. We then walked to "The Basin" (about 1 km from our place). This was a bay that had all kinds of limestone in the water that you could snorkel in and cool limestone formations along the shore that Ella read in and under. It was spectacular. The water was so clear and an aqua color. I couldn't believe that we could be experiencing such beauty and snorkeling so close to home and in February!!

We were going to eat dinner at the local cafe and then decided last minute to take the bus to Thompson Bay where we had first arrived. I looked at the bus schedule and realized it was leaving NOW and then not again for another hour. I told Ella to run out there and hold the bus (half joking, but deeperate). Mom and Al were half dressed and struggling to hurry up. The bus actually listened to Ella and waited! By the time we all got on, which felt like an eternity but was probably 3 minutes, everyone clapped and was laughing. Apparently, the bus had picked everyone up at the stop and was leaving when Ella came along and said "WAIT!" and then took off again to tell us the bus was waiting. Came back with most of us and the bus went to leave again and she said "No, there's more". Anyway, this is such a perfect example of Aussies for you: they are so laid back and have a great sense of humor. We thanked them profusely and the of course said "No worries" and thought the whole thing was hilarious!

Anyway, we had a nice bday dinner once Rob arrived, with quokkas wondering around our feet. The little kids and I took the bus back and the rest walked under the beautiful moon. The next day we all rented bikes (Piet and Amelie in a bike trailer), except Oma who wasn't feeling great, and had a blast exploring this beautiful and hilly (!) island. We stopped at this one bay and did some amazing snorkeling and finally saw our first real venomous snake in the wild. It was hiding under a rock on the beach. It wasn't little at all! When Ella and I snorkeled out along the rope we got a bit freaked out and had to swim back. I am WAY too terrified of sharks.

When we were waiting for ferry at the end of the day, Rob, Al and Ella were sitting on a ledge watching some guys play cricket. The ball flew in Rob's direction and he caught it so they were all invited to join in on the game. It was so fun! When we entered the Swan River on the way home we saw a few dolphins in the river. So incredible.

In the 2 1/2 weeks after Mom and Al left and before Dad and Maureen arrived we had BBQs with friends, lots of plays with friends and lots of swimming in our pool, made dinner for the teens at church and ate with them, had all Pieter's new buddies and moms over after school for swim, and had Amelie's birthday party. For Amelie's 7th birthday we had a joint party with her friend Charlie as their birthdays are just 1 week apart. We had it outside at the Fremantle Leisure Centre pool with 30 kids. This will probably be Amelie's only outside summer February birthday party as a kid. There was a huge blow-up crocodile that the kids climb on, over and slide down. It was a perfect day and the kids had a blast and got way too many presents!

We also went to Bussleton (3 hours south of Perth) for a 3 day weekend family church camp. I can't even begin to describe how amazing this was in all ways. First of all, the government gave all these religious organizations a plot of land, right on the ocean and a 100 year lease. They call this area "the Holy Mile" because it's just church camp after church camp for about a mile. At our camp there were several dorms with individual rooms with bunks for families or friends and 4 self-contained cottages for families with very young children. There was a large female and large male bathroom facility, dining area and kitchen, great room with ping pong and tennis courts. Best of all, we were right on the beach!!! Soft white sand and super clear water. The theme of the weekend was "The Amazing Race" and Rob and I were responsible for 6 different challenges to help people earn points. This was just amazing weekend with our fabulous new friends, beautiful surroundings, gorgeous weather, and great challenges and Bible Studies from Andrew.

This is what I shared with a couple of friends after the weekend about what I'd learned: "We've been studying Habbakuk. This weekend we studied Habbakuk 3 and praising God in spite of your circumstances. That when we get discouraged we should think about the fact that our names are written in Heaven and that that is real approval! We need to remember and keep repeating the great truths of God over and over until they penetrate our souls and minds. We need to remember who God is always and then rejoice and trust in His divinity and His plan. Reading the Bible and all the tough things that people went through makes you realize that in the end God's plan was always achieved and always the best. Then we went to 1 Peter 1 and that in order to be a Christian, we must be born again; a new birth into a living hope. That Jesus should become our joy and delight and that He should be the one who makes us full. Then our pastor talked about idols that we have right now that we think will make us full: house, job, electronics, etc... and I realized that I have made my kids my idols. That it is through them that I feel "full" or "empty". When they behave well, I am so full, when they don't... You get the picture."

The day after the retreat Dad and Maureen arrived for 2 weeks. We had a great time seeing the sites, going to The Shipwreck Museum (Dad's favorite), galleries, The Round House, Art Museum in Perth, souvenir shopping, the Fremantle Markets (searching for pink peppercorns), Dad cooking amazing meals, a real Aussie barbie at the park with friends using the public grilles, and the beach. We also went to Margaret River (down South) and rented a great little house for the weekend. We went down to Augusta where the Indian Ocean and Southern/Antarctic Ocean converge! That was really cool. Went to Hamelin Bay and immediately saw a HUGE manta ray swimming along the shore. On Sunday we went to a vineyard called Knee Deep, saw wild kangaroos and had fish 'n chips in Busselton. During their time here, Maureen was a fabulous help with laundry and doing math with Amelie. She was much more affective and patient with Ams than I ever am! Dad, as I mentioned before, made some delicious meals for us and also shared a lot of family history, which I loved! He even emailed me a few of the stories so that now I can have them forever seeing that my puny memory is not so good. Dad also read to Pieter and Amelie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at night. I remember him reading this to us as kids and my brother, Pieter, saying he wanted 5 Oompa-Loompas for his birthday.

Now I'll go on to the next entry: Turning 40 and going to EXMOUTH!

posted by Marileen

What an incredible month!

Christmas Caroling and picnic dinner at the Fremantle Art Centre.

Night walk with "Bat Man", Joe Tonga looking for bats and eye shine.

Pieter, The Star of Bethlehem, at his Christmas Nativity concert.

Pieter and Marileen on a camel ride, Family Day at Perth Showgrounds.

Ella with some friends. Last day of school.

Christmas concert at the Leemings. Ella on guitar, Abby on flute and Jess on piano.

Christmas at Port Beach, Fremantle.

Christmas Eve dinner at our house with the Duncans

Amelie as an angel for the Christmas school assembly.

Happy 2010. Wow! It's been so long since I have sat down to write on this blog. It truly has been a full and incredible month. I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Since I've last written the kids finished up their school year and they each finished well. Pieter's class put on an amazing Christmas concert which included acting out the Nativity story. Can you imagine that they actually allow public schools to retell the birth story of Jesus?! Pieter was the star of Bethlehem and led the wise men onto "the stage". They also sang in Italian and used sign language, and did an Aboriginal dance. His concert was held outside and everyone brought picnic dinner and just had a beautiful night. The girls each had Christmas parties at school and each class read lots of Christmas stories. So refreshing!

We celebrated Christmas a day early because we left for New Zealand on Christmas morning. The kids had their pictures taken with "Father Christmas", while wearing tank tops and shorts, and we asked him if he'd be willing to come a day early. He was very kind and said that would be no problem. We had our friends, the Duncans, come over for Christmas Eve dinner (12/23) with us. We had a BBQ, which is the Aussie way, and we had a really nice night which ended with us singing Christmas carols to Ella and Janelle playing their guitars. The next morning we woke up and had the best Christmas that I can remember. Everyone was in such a good way and we just took our time enjoying each moment. Rob and I had decided not to get each other anything and it was really nice to not have to ooh and ahh over my own presents. Ella got her own acoustic guitar (which she loves!), Amelie got lots of littlest pet shops (which she continues to love!), and Pieter got an "electric" (battery operated) guitar, microphone and speaker from Mia and Papa (which he loves!) and spent the morning singing "Our God is an Awesome God".

Then, we went to the beach. That's what Australian's do on Christmas. The beach was beautiful and we all made sure to have a swim. Early evening we went to our friends from church, the Leemings, who have 3 girls all one year older than each of our kids. Their girls put on a Christmas concert for their neighbors each year and invited our kids to join in with them this year. They had so much fun preparing for this in the days leading up to the concert. They did a wonderful show with songs, poems, dances and musical instruments. It was completely put together by the kids without any influence of the adults. There were probably 20 people in the audience to watch.

Next we went to church for the Christmas Eve service. The kids from church had written a sort of Nativity Story rap song. All the kids from church dressed up (Ella and Amelie were angels and Pieter was the star) and sang this song. Then we sang a bunch of Christmas songs in a very lively way. There was this overwhelming energy of excitement at church that night. It was really fun and really felt like a celebration.

The next morning we left for New Zealand! I need to back up, though, and explain what happened leading up to Christmas. In the beginning of December, my friend Kate stopped me one day to say that they may have an offer for us to rent their house the second part of our year in Australia. Our current lease did not end until end February, but Kate and her family were moving into a new home, trying to sell their house without success, and knew we would be needing a new place. Also, our landlords of our current house were returning mid-January and would love to move back into their house, if possible, and not stay with their parents for 1 1/2 months. So the weeks leading up to Christmas also included going back and forth to Kate's house, figuring out furniture rental (as the house was minimally furnished), signing a lease and PACKING! Here I had been looking forward to having a calm and peaceful Christmas time and instead it was a bit chaotic. However, we knew that this was such a blessing and that we (I) should just be so thankful. So to fast forward a bit, we returned from New Zealand on Jan 16th (Deena's 40th!), finished packing on the 17th, moved on the 18th and 19th (in 105 degree weather with no A/c!!), and received my Mom, step-dad, step-brother and sister-in-law on the 21st! Thank God for the pool.

Our house is gorgeous and a little slice of paradise! It's bigger than our old house, it's also in East Fremantle, it is a closer, albeit all uphill, walk to the kids' school, closer to the river and has a fabulous pool! I also need to mention that Kate (our landlady) was the first person I ever had contact with in Australia before we moved here. She helped in the uniform shop and made sure that we had uniforms for the girls waiting on our front porch when we arrived here back in August. She is also a good friend of Janelle's and Narelle's (our old landlady) and I've been running with her quite a bit. God works in wonderful ways.

I will sit down and write highlights of New Zealand soon. That will take a while and as it's 4:00 AM, I think I should probably try to get back to sleep. Otherwise, I'm not going to be a very nice Mommy in the morning. Night night.

posted by Marileen