Christmas 2010

We really enjoyed our Aussie Christmas this year.  On Christmas eve, Santa rode through town on his motor cycle.  The kids didn't get to talk to him but enjoyed waving at him.

Later that night, Reef and Jonas left their traditional lamingtons and milk for Santa.  They were careful to leave just 2, so they could have one the next day!

Christmas morning was a little chaotic with 3 guys to open presents.  After a breakfast of fruit loops, they were itching to see what was in Santa's sack.  This is by far Reef's favorite present.  It's a game and lego rolled into one.  He played with it forever before even worrying about his other stuff.

 Lachlan wasn't sure about it all but did like opening his presents with Oma.

For some reason, there aren't any good pictures of Jonas.  HIs favorite present was a new train, Rhenaus.
After present opening and a short nap for Lachlan, we all headed down to the beach.  I loved it and thought it was a great way to spend Christmas, but the boys were anxious to cut the trip short and get home to play with their new stuff.  Oh well...
That afternoon/evening, we headed to Tanya's for a big family gathering.  It was fun for the boys to be with their cousins and also to see the grown-up cousins that we haven't seen for a while.  The food was different from American Christmas food, but still really good.  I don't think I'll ever be a fan of the Christmas pudding though...

Parks

We spent a lot of our time at the area parks during our trip.  Australia doesn't seem as concerned about being sued for playground injuries so a lot of their equipment was cooler than what we have in the states.

This park was about a mile walk down the waterfront from Troy's parents house, so we were able to walk instead of loading up the car.

While at the park the first time, we saw some people cutting up their catch of the day.  The pelicans were interested too.  The big boys even got to feed them the fish heads!  Look how huge that bird is, it looks like it could eat Lachlan!

This park required a drive but was brand new; they had the grand opening while we were there.  The first visit was in the afternoon but we quickly learned that the morning would mean less crowds.  Since Lachlan was waking up so early, there was plenty of time for a quick trip to the park before his morning nap.  I'd say we visited it at least 5 times, with Reef asking everyday if we could go to the space net park.

  There was so much to do!  Lachlan and Jonas preferred the preschool section with sandboxes, swings, and pirate ship.  They also enjoyed the music section, rock climbing wall, trails, and bumpy bike bridge.

This is a space net, in case you were wondering.  That tiny red spot in the middle is Reef.  He LOVED climbing on this thing.  There were trampoline sections throughout and a tall slide on one end.  We need these things in American parks!  This one is the largest in Australia.

On his way up to the slide.  I even got Jonas to try climbing up there, but he only did that once.  It was hard work.



This park also had grown up exercise equipment around it so that adults could work out while their children played.  Jonas didn't care that it was for adults.  He liked this one and one that he likes to call the "bum smacker".

Reef even tried out this zip line and loved it.  He's usually a little scared of trying new/scary things like this, so we were really proud he gave it a try.  And he loved it!

Sorry about the formatting this time.  Blogger has an upgrade that I'm not thrilled with and don't know how to fix it like I want...A few more Australia posts to come later...

Zoo days

We visited 2 different zoos on our trip.  The first one was a local wildlife park that we visit almost every time we're in Oz.  The boys enjoyed checking out all the animals.  Jonas especially liked wathcing this emu take a bath.

 Most of the kangaroos were hanging out in the "off limits" area but this one came out for a little attention.  They were so excited to get this close!

 And, of course, the highlight of the zoo was the playground.  Why do we pay for zoos when we could go to the park for free???

 The next week, we visited Taronga Zoo, the big one in Sydney, with Auntie Tanya, Etienne, Philippe, and Oma.  The boys did great during the 2 hour trip there but were definitely ready to see some animals.  Just like at home, we had to get a picture on the komodo dragon.
It was really hot this day.  I was impressed that my boys willingly wore their hats the whole day!

 A group shot at the gorillas.  Jonas was really excited to see the real guys too.

 Another group shot, this one without the bunny ears.  By the way, age 6-7 is the time that they go through that phase.

 Look how cute that baby elephant is!

 The highlight of the trip for my big guys was definitely the sky rail.  They asked about it ALL morning!  They lucked out and got to ride it twice!

The ride home was LONG, but the day was so worth it.  We topped off a great day with dinner at McDonald's.  By the way, the play places at McD's in Australia are way nicer and more fun.

Beaches

Obviously, one of the highlights of going to Australia in their summer time is going to the beach.  There were a lot of days when it was just too cool or cloudy to go, but we definitely went as much as possible.  We could only stay about 45 minutes at a time before Lachlan said he had enough, but that was just long enough to wear everyone out for a good nap!
Lachlan enjoyed running around the beach and loved a good hole to play in.  He was not a fan of the water, especially at the beaches with waves.  He really enjoyed the rock pool at Auntie Tanya's beach because there were no waves.




These boys weren't sure about the waves the first couple of times out, but quickly warmed to the idea once they saw the cousins enjoying them.  They loved jumping over the waves with Daddy and Opa.  They also loved making giant piles of sea weed.

Jonas LOVED to chase the sea gulls.  This beach had a huge flock of them just waiting to be chased.

Do I love this picture?  Absolutely NOT!  But I thought Troy would like it to be included.  I do love my new swim suit, though, and can't wait to have nice abs to wear it with.

Reef really liked cathcing marine life.  I found this crab while we were digging a hole for Lachlan.  We also found a lot of disc-shaped jellyfish.  Lachlan and Reef really liked squeezing the jelly out of those.













A little beach dance.

Gotta love a boy in a hole at the beach.  He refused to get in the water but loved rolling around in the sand.  My dirt-o-phobe friends would not have been able to handle the mess!



I can't wait until this summer when we can go back to the beach!



Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

I've been trying to figure out how I will blog about our great adventure. I've looked through the TONS of pictures and think I'll just break it down into smaller segments instead of one long one.

While on our trip, we travelled by plane, train, and car. The boys were troopers through it all.

I didn't actually ake pictures on the planes, as we were a little busy with other things, but here are the boys at the first airport. They were sooo excited!

Getting to Oz wasn't easy, but we made it all in one piece. Both flights went smoothly. We are not impressed with the new international terminal in LAX, there's nothing to do past security! Good thing we were prepared with new toys! Reef didn't sleep at all the first flight, so he actually crashed for a good chunk of that 8 hour layover. Troy was great and dealt with Lachlan for most of the long flight, and our worries over his motion sickness proved to be in vain.

The trip back was a different story. While the flight was shorter (yes!) and the layover was shorter (yes!), other things did not go our way. Lachlan slept most of that flight, except meal times. He threw up twice...on my lap...I did not bring extra clothes or benadryl since they weren't needed the first time and we were cutting down our junk for the trip back. Bad idea. So I spent the whole 13 hours smelling like vomit, leading to me wanting to vomit. The other boys did great, but I think Jonas was a little bothered by the turbulence too. Give Reef a movie or a video game and he takes care of himself. They both loved to iphone games we had downloaded. LAX still did not impress us on the way back. The customs line was long. They couldn't find our e-tickets home. The security line was long and outside! Troy and the stroller tested positive for explosives, leaving me with 3 hungry, screaming children while the gave Troy the cavity search and searched his bag with the food, money, diapers, and clothes that did not have vomit on them. But we made it home eventually, and the boys rewarded me by sleeping until it was literally time to leave for preschool the next day.

One day during out trip, we decided to take the boys on a train ride. I knew Jonas would love this since he's still very into trains. They loved counting all the tunnels.

Lachlan and I were not such fans since he needed a nap and I needed to throw up.

We spent a few hours at the mall with a playplace and let them pick out a cookie for a snack before catching the train back.

We obviously spent a lot of time in the car that Tanya show graciously loaned us. The boys actually tolerated all the car time very well and loved being able to hold hands all the time.

I know Lachlan doesn't look happy here, but I promise that he was!

More to come tomorrow...

Breakfast with Santa

The morning that we left for Australia was our church's Pancakes with Santa. Our flight didn't leave until late, so we figured it would be good to get the kids out and let them see their friends one last time.
They loved the pancakes and all the junk there was to go on them. And they loved the crafts.
I love this picture of Reef and Ethan. They have become such good friends, and Ethan was one of only a few people that Reef mentioned missing while we were away.

This boy does love his food.

No one was a huge fan of Santa this year, and Troy doesn't let me do the crying pictures anymore. Actually Reef likes Santa. Jonas only liked the candy cane he was offering. Lachlan liked petting his beard but definitely did not want to sit with him. Maybe next year, we won't have to be in the picture...

3 boys and a.....

GIRL!!!
I know that I have a lot of other blogging to catch up on but wanted to get this posted right away. We are super excited about a girl in the Gibbins family. Reef was more excited than I expected, but Jonas said, "But I wanted a boy!" The boy standing next to them at preschool wanted to know what kind of animal that was in the picture, "a snake?" Haha.
Everything looked good on the ultrasound, and she was moving like crazy. I've never seen such an active baby before. I could be in for trouble! Dr. Askew is worried about her size though, since she's already measuring 10 days ahead. I am doing the gestational diabetes test early (tomorrow, yuck) just to make sure, and then we'll just keep an eye on her and make a plan closer to time.
So excited to shop and work on a name!