New Zealand: Part 2

December 30, 2009

Woke up in Waitomo at The Waitomo Lodge Motel around 8:00 AM. Had a good night sleep. It was a bit hot in our rooms, but very comfortable beds. Were planning to leave around 9:00, but that’s just not possible when repacking the bags for 5, showering and eating breakfast. And, like Rob says, “We’re on vacation”.

Mark and Erin decided to take off while we finished getting everything together. While repacking we realized that we didn’t have Ella’s coat. So, we backtracked to Waitomo and Spellbound, playground, Curly’s Pub and swings, but never found the coat. Bummer!

The drive to Rotorua was beautiful with green pastures, rolling hills, cows, sheep and horses. It looked a bit as I would expect Ireland’s landscape would look. It was a 2¼-hour drive. The weather was perfect. Blue sky, 70s and big puffy clouds. We finally bought an IPod adapter for the car so that we could listen to music and it significantly changed the kids moods. Yahoo! They were all singing the different contemporary Christian songs and loving life.

As we arrived in Rotorua, we immediately came upon the Kiwi Encounters, which was exactly where we wanted to go. They gave us a bit of a deal on the tickets with the “Family” rate and having an Entertainment Book coupon. This was 45-minute tour explaining and showing the kiwi life cycle and the efforts to build up the kiwi population. The kiwi birds were pretty much becoming extinct as a result of predators so there are these organizations that take the eggs from the wild, hatch them and keep the birds until they are about 6 months old. Some interesting things about kiwis are that they are nocturnal, flightless, the size of a chicken, their egg is the size of an ostrich egg (15% their body weight) and they have a long, pointy beak with nostrils at the end of it. They have a big plump body with a tiny little head and they walk very funny.

After the tour, we went next door to the Skyline Ride. First we had lunch on the lawn under some trees and a glass/cup of wine. Then, we went up the mountain in a gondola. This was a much different experience than the last gondola ride that we had with Jeremy Anderson in Stowe Vermont, bundled up in snow gear and face masks in 0 degree weather. The view on the way up and at the top was beautiful. You could see Lake Rotorua and rolling green hills down below. When we got off the gondola we went over to these big bins and found helmets to fit each of us. I continue to be a bit hesitant to put much used helmets on our heads after the whole “incident” this summer, but we had no choice. Then… we got on our carts to go down the Luge!!! Ella went in her own cart, Amelie went with Rob and Pieter went with me. This was amazing! None of us had ever done this before and then to do with such an incredible view! We first HAD to go down the “scenic” route, which was a blast, and then hopped on a chairlift back to the top. On the way back up, Ella said she would only do the scenic route. Then I heard a small voice coming from the chairlift in front of me, “Fine! I’ll do the intermediate one.” So, next we went down the “intermediate” route. This was faster and steeper, but oh, so fun!!
Our plan was to meet Mark and Erin at Rydges Rotorua, our hotel, around 5:00. When we got there, they weren’t back from their stuff yet (thermals and massages) so the kids and Rob went swimming in the pool. The pool was connected to the hot tubs so the water was very warm. Pieter spent the whole time doing dives/belly flops into the pool. I bet he has a bit of a red belly right now.

Mark and Erin came to our room. They’d had a great day and looked very relaxed. We had a beer and played Bananagrams while Erin showered and then headed to The Amazing Thai Restaurant on Fenton Street around 7:00 PM. Amelie was kind of falling asleep on the bed before we left, but rallied to go and then Pieter fell asleep in the car during the 5-minute drive! When we got there, Pieter cried for about 10 minutes “I want to go to sleep!!” I felt like a bad parent, but knew we all needed some chow. Once Pieter got over it all, it was Amelie’s turn again and she cried the whole time their about how she wanted to go back to the hotel and go to sleep. We had an amazing dinner, none-the-less. I got green chicken curry (yum, yum), Rob got some amazing beef curry, Ella and Erin got tofu pad thai and Mark got some chili chicken dish that was so spicy I felt like I was burning my mouth with fire when I took one bite. It was too much for Mark, but Rob loved it. I left as soon as I was done with my 2 tired chickens who did actually fall right asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Poor kids getting dragged all over the place and are completely off their schedules!

Another totally awesome day in New Zealand!

Well, tomorrow is New Years Eve. We might have to make sure some naps take place so that our kids don’t fall apart again.

Christmas and New Zealand: Part 1

Coromandel

Pieter and Uncle Marky in Whangamata

Whangamata sunset

Our B&B hosts in Whangamata

Ella on swing over the ocean

Uncle Marky

Driving to Coromandel Peninsula.
Jackaranda flowers and Auckland skyline in background

Pieter on One Tree Hill with a Pahukakawa tree

Mark, totally petrified of the cow (pretending to pet it, might I add!).

New Zealand: December 25, 2009 – January 14, 2010.

Merry Christmas! It’s 5:00 AM , our flight lvs at 8:00 AM. We’re all happy and excited. Uneventful flight to Brisbane. Difficulty with customs there because of our Australian visas. Confusion over Rob’s work visa. Takes lots of time to sort out, but people are super nice and helpful. Kids are amazing on next flight, again. Land in Auckland 12:05 AM on12/26. Stand in line for a while to rent car. Drive ½ hour to Waldorf Apartments. Clean, modern, bright, cozy. Somewhere are Mark (my brother) and Erin (his girlfriend). When we will see them? I go to buy some food. Come up on elevator, door opens and there stands a couple. I weakly smile at them and then realize it’s Mark and Erin! Awesome to see them.

Go for a swim in crazy long skinny pool at hotel. Go out to see Auckland. Have lunch. Unsure what we should do. Auckland lacks heart. Walk towards needle. Come across market with great sketches. Wish I’d bought more. See people do a form of bungy jumping off needle. Plan to go up at night. Decide to drive up to “One Tree Hill”. See cow pasture which we can go in. Ella goes right up to a cow and pets it, not Mark. He’s having flashbacks of when the bull tried to impale him in the Azores…hilarious! Memorial at top of “Hill” with a great 360 view of Auckland. Pahukakawa trees all around (NZ’s “Christmas tree” – huge with amazing red blossoms). Mark, Rob and Ella climb one. Sheep and goats sprinkled on the hill. Fun to explore. Dinner at Portofino. Delicious. Kids run around outside restaurant and Pieter trips and smashed back of his head. Thankfully OK! Too late and too tired for night ride up needle.

12/26 Pick up M&E’s car. Start driving to Coromandel Peninsula – 3 hour drive. Scenic route out of Auckland. Beautiful Jakaranda trees, Pahuckakawa trees and Agapantha flowers everywhere. Lots of racy road signs warning you of various consequences of bad choices. Get in huge traffic jam for an hour. One way bridge that they don’t organize well. M&E start digging into the 6 packs of Tim Tams that we brought them. Once through, amazing curvy, cliff side drive along the water. Spectacular views. Pieter spills his yoghurt all over himself and carseat. Stop the car at rest area. Happens to have a swing that swings out over the water and a stream with tunnel under road. Spend almost an hour there having incredible swings. Lv the coast and head inland across to Wangamata. Amazing green mountains with steep cliffs, no guardrails. Around every corner is another breathtaking view. We start to realize that this is what New Zealand is all about. One breathtaking view after another and they are all different! Reach opposite coast – are now on East Coast. Drive to Bed and Breakfast. Randomly in neighborhood. The Bed(s): we have double bunk beds in ours with bottom bunk queen sized. Go down to harbour to playground. Have cheese, crackers and wine. Dinner across the street.

12/27 The Breakfast: toast and cereal. Hmm? We were thinking pancakes and French toast. Maybe not the kiwi way. Off to the hot water beach. Geothermals under the sand heat up the water to “wicked hot”. Tons of people down there digging holes/hot tubs. It was amazing. You needed to let some cold water in so you wouldn’t burn yourself. At first Pieter wanted nothing to do with it and didn’t even want his suit on. In the end he was all bathered up and was “swimming” in the tubs.

A Simply Amazing Night

A couple of weeks ago, we found out that our kids' school was going to put on a movie "under the stars" on the evening of 12DEC. Parents were encouraged to come, bring a pizza and a bottle of wine and enjoy a Christmas movie just after sunset on the "oval"...the ball field next to the school. As the day drew closer, the weather forecast called for the hottest weather we've seen yet: 100 degrees. Unlike New England meteorologists, these guys seem to get it right most of the time, and they were spot-on yesterday...100 degrees on a cloudless, mostly windless Perth summer day. We spent most of the day at a birthday party for our neighbor Samantha (9), swimming and jumping off the jetty, and "fishing" for anemenmenemenemonies.

As evening approached, the faithful "Fremantle Doctor" (a refreshing sea breeze that blows in most afternoons) cooled things down to about 85 or so, and we packed up our "beach rug" (blanket) and "esky" (cooler) and headed to the oval.

We were the first ones to arrive (one of my many, annoying habits is a pathological need to arrive early for everything), followed shortly by our friends the Duncan's. So we got prime seating, right in front. As the guys were setting up the screen (a blow-up, bounce-housey type contraption) and sound system, they played an old Simon and Garfunkel concert from the 70's and we listened to "Me and Julio" and "The Boxer" float up into the warm evening air....and it occurred to me just how simple and sublime this all was.

Imagine: With "only 12 shopping days left", a couple hundred people, relaxing under a brilliant, starry night, eating pizza, watching a movie together....I must say, even at 85 degrees, yesterday really felt like Christmas.

It's almost Christmas!

Hello again. We have had such a great time over the past few weeks. They definitely flew by way too fast. On Saturday, November 20th, Rob's family arrived in Perth after spending a few incredible days in Sydney. They also fell in love with Sydney. Our first official visitors consisted of Mia (my mother-in-law), Papa (you figure it out:) ), Auntie Emily and Uncle John Ross. We wish that Jen, Bruce and kids could have come, but it just didn't work out...this time.

It was so wonderful, and so normal, to have them all here with us! Right away Ella whisked Mia off on a "world tour" on bikes. She took her to The Oval, Richmond Primary School, our church, the Swan River and everywhere in between. Next, it was Emily's turn. As you can imagine, Ella slept very well that night! The weather was gorgeous so everyone swam in the pool and we could have dinner out on the deck. I don't think I've ever seen John Ross look so happy!

On Sunday, we walked to church. There was a baptism service that was to be followed by a baptism down at the ocean. The 2 girls (mid 20s) who were baptised gave their testimonies which were pretty amazing. One of them, Kaori, is a girl from Japan who came to Australia for a year to help out at a school. She's been attending our church for almost the whole year and became a believer about a month ago. She shared her story about depression, suicide, and despair and now her new hope. It was really incredible. She's leaving to go back to Japan today where no-one that she knows is a Christian. We had a little send off for her last night back at the beach and she looked both happy and afraid. It would be great for people to pray for her adjustment back into Japan and her continued hope.

After church, we went into Fremantle and had a delicious lunch at Mia's new favorite place - The Fremantle Bakehouse - and we went to the Fremantle Markets, which is always a treat. A great place to buy good quality souvenirs.

During the week my in-laws would walk the girls to school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. They (and I) loved it! I think that Mia and Papa would probably say that that was their favorite part of their trip here.

Pieter and I also took them to Caversham Wildlife Park (which I've mentioned before) to see all the native Australian wildlife and to pet koalas and kangaroos. We got to see a joey, the size of a cat, in his momma's pouch and then drop out. It was amazing. We couldn't believe that he could actually fit in their. At one point he tried to get back in but couldn't really find the opening. The momma just lay there all relaxed as she couldn't help because her arms were too long and don't bend that way. Hmmmm? Maybe kangaroos are onto something us human mommas aren't... Anyway, it wasn't hot at all (only like 93 degrees) and the flies definitely weren't annoying (right John Ross?)! There were also these hillarious emus that had their jaws hanging open and looked so excited to see us. That's what we believed anyway. We all agreed that it was very fun and totally wonderful time despite the heat and the flies.

One day, our friend Jenny Deeks took Mia and me to these amazing rose gardens. We had lunch there with a few of Jenny's friends. Jenny and a couple of her friends are also past and present submariner wives just like my mother-in-law. This was an incredible place with such beautiful and nice smelling flowers.

And, of course, we had Thanksgiving! We sent the girls to school anyway, but Rob took the day off. Ella had made a diorama of an American Thanksgiving feast to bring to school. She also wrote a little blurb along with it explaining what Thanksgiving was all about. It was really cool and all self initiated. We (mostly my mother-in-law) spent the day cooking and preparing for our Thanksgiving meal for 16 people. The day before Mia and Papa went to the grocery store to get the ingredients and discovered that there is no such thing as a unfrozen turkey. They decided to get a small turkey that would be sure to thaw out AND a leg of lamb (lamb is huge here). A great opportunity to let our two worlds/cultures collide. It was a very fun night with lots of food and our Aussie guests were excited to have experienced an "American Thanksgiving."

We rented a beautiful perfect house in Margaret River (3 hours south of here) for a weekend. We were told that there were resident kangaroos living there! That truly sealed the deal for us. Once we made our reservations on-line we were given the property manager's bank account # and asked to deposit a large amount of money into it! Being the cautious, slightly suspicious Americans that we are, we all hesitated and thought "Wait a minute! This could be a scam!" Well, we wanted it too much and decided to trust that this was all legit. and it truly was amazing! There were actually resident kangaroos which wassooooo cool and a frog pond. We spent the weekend playing Monopoly, Bananagrams, hunting for kangaroos (and frogs) on our long walk, going to The Mammoth Caves and seeing incredible stalactites and stalagmites, walking through a magical forest which really did have fairies (Amelie), going to a couple of vineyards, seeing tons of wild kangaroo along the roadside and spending an afternoon at the most beautiful beach with pristine water. The weekend could not have been nicer. Auntie Emily was the life saver by keeping Amelie entertained with hangman and "Miss Mary Mack" the whole way home!

We also went to The Shipwreck and Maritime Museums in Fremantle. I'm very excited to take my Dad to the Shipwreck Museum (if he ever makes his reservation :) ) as it's mostly about the Dutch settlers here and how Australia used to be called "New Holland"! Mia, Papa, John Ross, Pieter and I had the most peaceful and beautiful lunch at "The View" which is named that for the _ _ _ _ of the Indian Ocean. Wow! The next day we were going to go back to the Maritime Museum so that I could finally realize my dream of touring a submarine with my father-in-law, the submariner, AND because he/Papa had also never been on this type of submarine, but the museum was closed. It was a disappointment, but Papa told us all about the outside of the sub and another man came along and joined in on the conversation. This man's father had been on

some sort of surface ships (from Germany) during the time of Hitler. He said that at this time Hitler would not allow them to listen to certain types of music. So the ships would go out to sea and blare swing music and they would all dance!

We sadly had to say goodbye to our family on 12/3. They truly spoiled us with their love, generosity and service! They were off to New Zealand and we were back to being 5. It was so nice to finally have had the opportunity share our Australian life with family from home.

I'm going to try to do this last bit in a bit more summarized fashion or else I'll never get it done. The past 2 weeks have continued to be fun and busy preparing for the last day of school (12/18) and for Christmas. We've been to the East Fremantle Festival, made/decorated a gingerbread house at Jenny Deeks' house, been to parks with friends, heaps of swimming in the pool, birthday parties, swimming down by the River and jumping off the peir, and the outside movie that Rob already blogged about.

Some things to expand on were the Family Christmas Day at the Showgrounds. They opened it up to businesses who could then invite friends to come ride on the rides all day. We went with about 15 other friends from Rob's work. It was a super hot day, but the Fremantle Doctor saved us once more. Ella got to hold a gigantic boah, the kids road on ponies and camels, saw a circus and went on lots of bouncy houses. Ella and I went on a super spinning ride and I wound up extremely dizzy and extremely sick. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom and lying on our "rug" outside. Very pathetic :) Needless to say, we really did have a great time.

Pieter's class put on the most amazing Christmas Concert. Again, another beautiful day. We all brought picnic "tea" (dinner) and watched his class sing lots of songs, act out the Nativity Story, sing an Italian Song with sign language and do an aboriginal dance with didgeridoos. All 24 kids participated without tears and without shyness. It was so fun. This all happened outside on the lawn. The amazing thing about Western Australia is that you can totally depend on the weather. It just doesn't rain in the summer, especially if there is no forecast calling for it.

On the last day of school for the girls the entire school (400 kids) met out on the quadrangle to do the final countdown. Mr. Keady, the very cool music teacher, hooked up his acoustic guitar to an amplifier and the whole school sang the school song that he wrote: "We are Richmond Primary School. Where the teachers and the kids are oh so cool. Monday through to Friday we get out of bed. Can't wait to get there...yeah, yeah, yeah..." It was so neat. It got me all choked up, which of course isn't all that hard. Then at the end they rang the outdoor bell and summer vacation began!

Our huge news is that we are moving...again! Our current lease doesn't end until the end of February. The original plan was that Narelle and her family (our landlords) were coming back mid January so that their girls (6 and 8) could start up the school year here in February and they would just live with her parents until our lease was up. Well, our mutual friend, Kate, just moved into a new house and has had her house on the market for a while and it hasn't sold. She approached me a couple of weeks ago to propose us renting her house. Her house is in East Fremantle, is partly furnished and has a pool. It's a gorgeous house. This house is available now, so we decided we might as well move out so that Narelle and family could get back into their own house. We leave for NZ on Friday so we'll move a couple of days after we get back and then my mom, Allan, brother Nick and wife Ann will come visit a couple of days after that. It's not quite the peaceful week leading up to Christmas that I was so looking forward to as we have to pack up this house and get everything set for the new house, but we feel really and truly blessed that this has literally fallen into our laps. Our main sadness is that we will really miss the proximity to our neighbors, the Tongas. Ella hangs out with Sam and Natashia all the time riding bikes, catching tadpoles or swimming in our pool and we really enjoy hanging out with their parents.

Speaking of the Tongas, Joe Tonga, the dad, does a lot of research and work with bats and bat boxes. He also has a business that involves him taking people on night walks to see the nocturnal life here in Australia. A couple of nights ago we finally got to go with just our 2 families. He took us to this gated bush area where he has a lot of bat boxes. Unfortunately, a lot of the bats weren't around, but we saw lots of "eye shine" from wolf spiders and frogs. The kids got to hold lots of frogs, which they totally loved. Just before we got there Joe had seen a tiger snake, 2nd most poisonous in Australia. We never saw it. Part of us wanted to see it just to see it, but the other part of us was very happy to have missed it. We did see a few bats flying overhead using Joe's bat detector. Our kids were in their glory as they are such nature kids.

The last cool thing that I'll mention is on Sunday night about 300 people went down to the Fremantle Art Center lawn for Christmas caroling. We all arrived early and brought picnic dinner. They had a large stage set-up with a singing group. At 7:00 pm we all started singing lots of Christmas songs. It was a beautiful evening, with an incredible sunset and the moon right over the stage. When we sang "Silent Night" it sounded like angels singing. So beautiful.

We're off to see Mark and Erin in New Zealand in 2 days. Can't wait!! We'll be back in Australia January 16th.

Well, we wish you all a blessed and wonderful Christmas. We've been thinking and talking a lot about the wonder of Christmas. There is a lot to think about. The kids really have enjoyed this and gotten into it. I pray that you will each experience the wonder of Christmas this year. Much love! Merry Christmas and Happy 2010!!!

More pix

After a long and fun day!

Amelie, Jessica Duncan, and Pieter with painted faces at the Fete.

Rob and Andrew Duncan, our pastor, working the sausage sizzle at the Fete.

(Above) The things we do for love... (below) A nightly visitor on our window

Sticking close to "home"

Amelie, with John and Darla Barber (USA), lost another tooth!

Amelie, Ella and Angus with their blow fish at the Swan River

Halloween 2009 in our front yard

Halloween 2009

Wow, I can't believe how much time has gone by since the last post. Sorry about that!

So, what have we been doing for the last 3 1/2 weeks? We haven't gone anywhere exotic or gone on any excursions, we've just been enjoying day to day life in Western Australia. We've continued to get together with friends for tea, lunch, dinner, and play dates.

Halloween came and went without much hype. We actually weren't really sure if we were going to do anything at all because Australia, for the most part, does NOT do Halloween. It was impossible to find any decorations. On the morning of, my friend Amanda called and said "What are you doing tonight?" and I said "No plans, but feel we should do a little something". Next thing you know we had 25 people over for pizza and all went out trick or treating. I said "Amelie, you are going to be a cheetah (turned princess) and Pieter, you will be Batman". They were very compliant though somehow Amelie turned into a princess and we completely forgot that she was to be a cheetah. Ella was a phantom. At trick or treat time, we divided into 2 groups, older kids and younger kids, and went in 2 directions. We went from house to house. Most people had no idea it was Halloween and a lot of people weren't even home (or pretended not to be). Every 5th house we'd get someone who actually had some "lollies" (that's what they call candy here). I also carried around a bag of candy that I'd give the kids a piece of when they struck out too many houses in a row. The kids probably each got about 7 pieces of candy in total, but they didn't care (Rob and I were a bit disappointed, however :-) ). It was very fun.

The girls started "In Term swimming" on November 2. This is when for 2 weeks everyone in the school has a swimming lesson every day. Every primary school in the country does this. Each grade has a time slot when they go and a bus transports them. They wear their "bathers" to school and when it's time to go they strip down to their bathers, grab their towel and goggles and head to the bus. They change back into their clothes once they return to school. The first day of swimming the kids get assessed as to which swimming level they are in. Well, I always thought my girls were good, strong swimmers. Not according to Australian standards! Amelie was in level 2/9 and Ella was in level 4/9! The kids in Australia are fantastic swimmers with amazing swimming strokes. I cannot believe how much the girls improved in 2 weeks. I'm a bit annoyed at the YMCA back home and how disorganized they are. We've put a lot of time and money towards swimming lessons and I realize now that they never taught any technique. Here it is all very structures and well thought out how exactly to get the kids to eventually get it right.

Pieter is also loving his swimming lessons and swims like a fish. He's been working on his own form of freestyle which is pretty cool. Ella continues to LOVE her guitar lessons. She is picking it up very quickly and spends a lot of time practicing. Her guitar teacher is impressed with how well she is doing.

Tuesday, November 3rd, was Melbourne Cup Day which is basically when all of Australia stops for 3 minutes for a horse race in Melbourne. The girls were at school, but Amanda, her daughter Tara, Pieter and I watched it at our house and I rooted for "Newport". He got in 10th. Oh well.

I'm still running with Janelle once a week. I'm finally able to run up the hills at the end of our run, but it's tough. I don't know if I previously mentioned that I saw a dolphin in the river during one of our runs. Unfortunately, Pieter missed it and the dolphin dove down not to be seen again. There are also pelicans standing on wooden posts in the water. So cool!! I'm absolutely loving my tennis lessons! I've been going to play on Wednesday nights as well where you get put into doubles teams. Usually with all girls first and then mixed doubles. The first week I went I was horrendous! I spent my whole night apologizing. But, I noticed that I had improved when I went for my next lesson, so I humbled myself and gave it another shot and have done much better since. I can understand now why people get addicted to playing tennis.

We went down to the Swan River with our friends, the Grants, one afternoon to do a little fishing. The kids and dads stood out on the pier with rods and caught all these little blow fish (blowies). They had a blast! Then we hiked along a trail through the bush and came out to these lookouts that were overlooking 30 foot high limestone cliffs. It was amazing. Apparently there is really good snorkeling down below so Ella has made us promise that we will return with snorkeling gear next time.

Amelie has been losing teeth like crazy! She has lost 3 in the past month and has 3 more slightly wiggly ones. Now we're trying to gently encourage her to stop sucking her thumb. Hard to break those old habits. To make matters worse Pieter has picked up thumb sucking since we moved here! He'd never sucked his thumb before. Why not do it if his roommate Amelie is, right?

For the past few weeks at school all anyone could talk about or think about was "The Fete". This takes place every 4 years and is the huge fundraiser for the school. It's put on by the P&C (PTO) and takes place on The Oval (school yard). The moms and art teacher have been working non-stop creating things to sell at the fete. Almost all of the money earned the day of is profit as most everything is donated. I helped my friend Pia decorate fairy wands and provided our freezer to store all kinds of bottles of concentrated lemon cordial to make lemonade. The Fete was on Nov. 14th and it was a gorgeous sunny, warm day. Ella spent all her money and all her time on the pony rides. She was in her glory. Amelie and Pieter did some activities and got their faces painted. I worked at the Crazy Nail stall and painted nails with designs (I know, I never knew I could either) and Rob and I both worked at the Sausage Sizzle with Janelle and Andrew. The P&C earned $50,000! Unlike the USA (and rest of the world), Western Australia is having a bit of an economic boom. Just a little side note, sausage sizzles are huge here! Everyone has them for parties and fund raisers. It's just a sausage (and onion) in a roll. Not my thing, but I'm told they're good.

Andrew has been doing a series on the "I am" statements in the gospel of John. They have been blowing me away and really convicting me. "I am the vine" and his last "I am" were particularly amazing. You can down load his podcasts if you want to. Google "East Fremantle Baptist Church in East Fremantle" to get the website.

Sunday was the Fremantle Festival Parade. It was another beautiful day and held in downtown Fremantle. This was a very bohemian and eccentric parade with all kinds of people and funny things. For example, there was a man lying down in a motorized rolling bathtub and another man sitting in a motorized rolling big cushy chair. It was hilarious. We ran into a bunch of guys from Rob's work in the USA down there and hung out for a drink with them afterwards.

Monday Rob surprised the girls by picking them up from school and bringing them shopping. This wasn't typical "girls" shopping. Rob had been promising Ella a terrarium for collecting critters and he wanted to follow through with that. In the end, Amelie came home with a crazy crab named "Racer", I mean "Sparks", oh no it's "Stars" and for now it's "Fasty". I think the poor thing is going through an identity crisis. And, Ella came home with a little aquarium that is now housing 5 tiny tadpoles from her friend Samantha's pond. So much for the "No pets in Australia" rule. They are taking very good care of these beloved pets. Thankfully they don't stink (Daffy), yet, and we don't have to feed them crickets (Taco).

Last but not least, we had another BBQ last night with 16 GUYS from Rob's work. They were mostly US guys here to do a certification and a few Aussies from the East. We had a great night and Ella was a star and put Amelie and Pieter to bed. Hallelujah for our mature and willing 9 year old daughter!

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of my in-laws, Auntie Emily and Uncle John Ross! They landed in Sydney this morning and will arrive in Perth Saturday. They will be with us until 12/3. We can't wait!!

Well, that's it. We are continually blessed in this beautiful, amazing place. We also continue to keep you in our thoughts and prayers! God bless!

Fitness in Australia Episode 4: "KiteSurfing"

Pastor Andrew: "Hey Rob, how ya going with the fitness?"
Captain Courage: "I'm a rock star...I can swim all the way to the end of the pool AND back, without crying and grabbing onto that slinky thingy between the lanes...oh ya!
Andrew: Fantastic, lets go for a kite!
CC: Sweet, tri and bicep workout! I'll stop at the toy store.
Andrew: Not kite-flying, Beave, kite-surfing.
CC: Uh, does this involve being in the actual ocean, with the sharks
Andrew: Not at first, we'll start in the river...
CC: Is it connected to the ocean?
Andrew: Meet me there at 3pm. We'll begin with "body-dragging"
CC: Perfect...

For those of you without a death wish (like El Capitan here) kite surfing is essentially connecting oneself via a very robust and uncomfortable harness (think chastity belt fabricated by Eastern Mountain Sports) to a 12 meter parafoil kite. The kite has an inflatable leading edge and four very powerful lines which virtually guarantee that if you don't have some rudimentary sailing experience you will end up in the Canary Islands before it decides to come down. Also, since the kite is designed for 30 knot winds and guys up to 250 lbs, you can imagine what it will do with a guy who weighs roughly as much as a 9th grade cheerleader.

So far, I have only mastered yanking my entire body around in very shallow water and scraping my knees...which really hurt and I needed neosporin. But I have to say that even that part was awesome...

I'm hoping that my next lesson will involve the board....you know, so I have something shiny to drag underwater and attract sharks.

More next time....and yes, my instructor really is the Pastor of our church...hopefully the shepherd will come after the lost sheep, especially if I wind up in Antarctica.