What One does when One waits for the Queen of England

Monday, 24 October, 2011: The kids ditch school and we stake out the Queen.

8:30 AM - Arrive at the Kangaroo Point Cliffs to reserve our spot to see the Queen float down the river.
9:00 AM  - Take pictures of our selves waiting for the Queen.

 

 9:14 AM - Play two games of Sequence waiting for the Queen

10:02 AM - Kids go for a walk looking for the bubbler (a.k.a. drinking fountain)
10: 04 AM - Kids are back with confirmation that a bubbler has been located.
10:05 AM - Wait for the Queen
10:32 AM - Watch more police issued jet skis and motor boats go up and down the river. They are also waiting for the Queen.

10:50 AM - Talk to a friendly Australian Bloke about his travels around the world.
11:00 AM - Moan and whine about how hot it is (30 degrees Celsius) and why is the Queen taking so long.......
11:09 AM - The kids spot the Missionaries coming down the stairs and run to see them. They are not waiting for the queen, but heading to the train station. 
11:30 AM - Fight off some English ladies that have taken our spot while we talked to the Missionaries.
11:31 AM - Angielee is PISSED and very politely lets them know that they will have to move.
12:04 PM - Here comes the Queen!!  Here comes the Queen!!

 

12:04 PM - Her Majesty finally graces us with her backside. All that waiting and she decides she needs a break from her royal wave. She's not even facing us!  We are seriously put out, but have decided to chalk it up to a once in a lifetime experience.

Sometime after the fact PM - the Queen visits the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  The same sanctuary we have a yearly pass to.  We have decided that we should have waited 4 hours there and played with the kangaroos while waiting.

(Photo courtesy of Courier Mail)

This is Madison posting...I have taken over!

Girls Camp!!

We went to Barney Mt. and camped there for 3 days. It was a stake girls camp and there were at least 60 people!!!The camp had a river/creek!!! We had to use a porta-potties (ewwww!). Some boys/girls  from other camps would come to use to porta-potties which made them even grosser!! When we arrived at the camp, it was pouring rain. We were lucky that when we started putting up or tent it lightened up. The stake decided that we sould all go to a certain area when we heard the song "We Believe". We would grab our chairs and start walking. When we got there we did some activities and then they told us that after dinner we are going to have a Master Chef competition. Me and one of the beehives from our ward cooked the meal, Our ward won the "Best Flipped Out" meal. We chopped up celery leaves and put them in the soup. After that we had smores and went to bed. We woke up in the morning early because we were going on a 5 hour hike!! It hurt but the hike was all about endurance. After the hike me and a lot of the other girls from the camp went to the river so we could get on the ROPE SWINGS!! The water was freezing cold but i got used to it. On the 3rd day we went home. I got the nicest welcoming home from Mom..."Get off the furniture and go take a shower!"

This is our YW President, Gemma Bricknell

Random Pictures

Our church house is right next to the Brisbane Temple, so after class we went and took some pictures.

My mom let me dye my hair!!  It's just a 28 day rinse.

Riverfire

Brisbane felt like celebrating. We're not exactly sure what they were having this special party for, but the fireworks are for the opening night. The celebration actually goes on for 3 weeks. They had fireworks on top of buildings, bridges, on barges in the middle of the river. Huge spotlights and lasers added to the show.

The Story Bridge on the tip of Kangaroo Point. This is the bridge that we lived next to in our apartment when we first got to Australia.

Multiple firework spots all along the river.

This is Victoria Bridge raining fireworks.

  Another shot of the river on fire.  These large, personally owned boats had to get special permits to view the show from this prime spot.

 An F-18 Super Hornet did a fly by. Actually, it did 8 fly by's including tricks.

Blackhawk helicopters

                                                                   

The mirror ball is part of a laser show that went on every night for the duration of the festival. For more great pics of the laser show and the mirror ball click here.

Things that make you go "Hmmmmmm"

Skink 

This is a new one for us.  Apparently the snakes living under our porch have legs and are not snakes at all but skinks.  Ewww just the same.  I, however, am going to let them hang around because they eat spiders and ants, both of which we have an abundance of.

Killer Birds

Magpies are not a nice bird. At least 4 people each year lose an eye from a magpie during nesting season.  It is now nesting season and we are getting "swooped" left and right. Not cool.  Though you are only casually strolling down the street, riding your bike, etc., the bird actually believes you are about to climb the tree and take it's precious eggs.  Therefor, it swoops you.  Last year a little boy ran into the street while being swooped and was hit by a car and killed.  A four-year-old boy this week is loosing his eye because of one.

There is even a "Magpie Map" on the internet where you can warn others where a particually vicious bird is nesting.  The comments from these are hilarious. Check it out...Magpie Map

Oops, I forgot my pants

This is actually an epic fail on Brandon's part.  He has been riding his bike into work.  There are trails all over and even a program called "Backyard to Bay".  They want you to be able to get around the city easily on these trails. It is way faster for Brandon to ride his bike then drive or take the bus.  There is a shower in his office building so he has to pack toiletries, clothes, etc. for once he's there.  I got the call early in the mornng.  "Ang, can you bring me some pants?"  When I got to his office, he was waiting outside for me in his dress shirt, socks and dress shoes, hair done, but his running shorts on.  Haha....HAHAHAHAHA!!

Oh Crap!



We made the startling discovery that little boy Zach plays with everyday after school is actually a girl.  Not a bad thing, unless you've spent weeks calling her dude, buddy, the boys. 

She is a lovely girl - quite a tomboy - and we love having her at our home.

How do you Rugby?

There are 3 ways to celebrate rugby in Oz.

You have the Australia Wallabies. They are in the Rugby Union.

Got that? Union.

Union is what Americans usually think of when we hear rugby. The film "Invictus" (with Matt Damon) followed Union Rugby. They have very physical scrums. That is where they interlock their arms and heads and try to force the ball to the outside of the circle. This is a very important part of the game to see who will get possession of the ball. They will also lift a player into the air when the ball is tossed in from the sidelines. The higher you get means you usually get the ball. Their colors are green and yellow.

There is the Rugby League. Here we follow the Brisbane Broncos. The Bronco's have scrums, but they really don't do anything. They just have pretend scrums. You get to carry the ball toward your goal and can run it until there have been 5 tackles. Once your team has been tackled 5 times, you must kick. You only get 5 substitutions for the whole game, so you pretty much play the whole time unless you are seriously hurt. Broncos are Maroon and yellow. Brandon and Angielee were actually in the airport sitting next to the whole Bronco team in the Sydney airport and on the same plane in April of 2011, but didn't know that we needed to get a picture for cool-factor.

The Brisbane Lions play AFL or Aussie Rules. Aussie rules is CrAzY! There is a lot of kicking going on. The players mostly kick the ball instead of pass it to each other. They have amazing accuracy with their kicks being that the ball is odd shaped. If you catch a ball that has been kicked, then no one can tackle you for 15 or so seconds. You also don't have to pass the ball only backwards (like the other two). The ball can really go anywhere it wants, but not out of bounds. The ball also has to touch the ground every 15 meters. They can bounce it, but if it's raining, it is better to just bend down and touch it to the grass so it doesn't bounce off in different direction. Brandon and Angielee went to a Lions game with friends who had season tickets and it was a blast, even if the ref's were idiots! Lions colors are blue, maroon, and yellow.



So there you have it. 3 ways to Rugby.

Learning the Australian alphabet

Zach told us a funny story that happened to him at school. He didn't think it was that funny, actually. Aussie's say a couple of letters different: H is said Haaach - like hate, but with a "ch" on the end. Also Z is pronounced zed - like Ned.

Zach's teacher was asking the kids to write something (spelling words or something) and told them to write Z. So Zach did. Z E D. "No no" she said, "Z". So Zach did. Z E D. "No" she said again. "Why do you keep doing that?" Zach explained that he told her to write Zed - like Ned. Ohhhhhh. Light comes on and she remembers that we call it a Zeeeee. He was embarrassed.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

We bought an annual family pass to this sanctuary so we can go whenever we want. It makes for a fun afternoon and the kids love it. This is the largest and oldest koala sanctuary in the world, so of course it's way more awesome then others...maybe. But it is definitely cool.

There is actually a lot more to see then just koalas. These dogs LOVED herding these sheep. And the trainer actually said: "That'll do"

The lorikeets are wild but are fed at the same time everyday. They all know when to fly in.

Madison's turn

Lucy feeding a Roo (that is actually a wallaby)

We don't need to come to a park to see kookaburra's. Just sit on our patio.

Zach's new pal.

Mum and baby. Koala's are literally everywhere. There are different sections for the bachelors, teenagers, mum's and babies, retired, etc.

Lucy fed this mum, but were told to not try to feed the babies. Mum gets mad.

Monkey-Chickens

This bird has been affectionately named "The Damn Monkey-Chicken" at our home. It has an incredibly crazy "laugh" that we thought were demented chickens welcoming the morning at 5:00. We thought they were chickens because they are like clockwork every morning. Much like a rooster is. However, this chicken screeches and cackles like a monkey on a sugar high.

We had some neighbors over and asked them who owned the chickens. They thought really hard and couldn't come up with anyone. We insisted that there must be some because we hear them every morning and they sound like monkeys. That was when we were politely educated about the kookaburra bird. I'm politely waiting for Zach's air soft pistols to arrive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0ZbykXlg6Q


Happy 7th Birthday Lucy

This Saturday was also Lucy's 7th birthday. It was a pretty uneventful day for her. We must admit that the ball was dropped when it comes to being prepared for her day. It snuck up on us. Alas, Lucy was able to go to Toy's R Us and pick anything she wanted. She choose a collection of Squinkies (don't ask) and then got to go grocery shopping. FUN!

She was a good sport for her big day so we made her a cake. When we needed to go ask the neighbors (whom we haven't meet yet) to borrow a screwdriver, we asked them to come over for birthday cake later in the evening. They agreed and even brought a wrapped chocolate bar with a card. Her only present she actually unwrapped all day. I do have a picture of the two neighbor boys and my kids playing outside for her "birthday party", but it won't download now.

Speaking of the neighbors...now we have met them. To our left is Ken and Caroline. Ken is Irish and Caroline is English. They have three boys; Daniel (17) who goes to Uni, Patrick (12) and Robert (9). Our kids are very loud jumping on the trampoline every night and occasionally we see little eyes peeking out the window next door. While jumping on the tramp at Lucy's party, Robert exclaimed "You look different from my window" :)

Graham is our neighbor to the right. He is a delightful widower who has even offered to sit in the car while Angielee practices driving on the left hand side of the road.

First Week of School

The kids enjoyed their first week of school. Madison rode the city bus to "Garden City" Friday after school with some friends. That is a mall in Mt. Gravatt that had a lot of fun at. She said they tried on a lot of clothes. Madison is the one who told us there was a Toy's R Us there, so she saved the day Saturday.

Zach went on excursion (a field trip) to a Synagogue and a Buddhist Temple on Thursday. He said the Synagogue wasn't that fun because you had to just sit there and be really quiet. But the Buddhist Temple was like being in China. They even practiced meditation.

Lucy went to the railway museum Friday, but didn't really have anything to report. She is, however, very excited that she was put in the "Challenging Reading" group at school. She has turned into a great little reader.

Brandon is enjoying his job, but will be happy when the moved to a new office building is finished. Then he will be able to concentrate more on clients and projects.

Angielee spends her day doing laundry and reading. She's very happy to finally have a car, but still hasn't driven yet.

and.....They go to school

No pics now because the laptop is acting up again.

Everyone is in school now! Madison is actually in High School. Holland Park High School to be exact. It is a small school, only about 540 students (8th - 12th grade). She really liked her first day of school and made a lot of friends being the new "American Girl". They actually made lists of words for her to say; pickle, water, etc.

Madison takes the city bus to school. This is my first time to walk a child to a bus stop that I think, but are not certain, is the right place to be. Leave them to get on a bus that I can't check for creepers. Hope they get on the correct bus and actually make it to school. Then do it again to make it home. As a mother, my spidey-scenes were in overdrive!

Zach is the new ladies man in the 6th grade. All the girls like him and the boy's want to know if he has a girlfriend yet. His answer: "No, because I'm eleven". He said everyone was really nice but crazy.

Lucy has a new very bestest friend for the week (as this changes all the time). There is another Lucy in her class, so the students call her Lucy Bleu. She is most excited to start playing soccer and we know she will tear it up on the field.

Zach and Lucy were put in the Koala house for sport. (They say sport, not sports) Zach was excited because the color they wear is green; his favorite.

Oh! How I wish I could post pictures right now! I've got some dooseies to share!

Two down....One to go

http://wellhillss.eq.edu.au/wcmss/

Zach and Lucy are super excited about their new school.
Actually.... not so much.

They are really not excited about the uniforms. My kids have been lucky so far in the sense of not having a school with uniforms. Zach is appalled by the shorts. Lucy is crazy upset that the shorts she wears are the same as Zach's - meaning they are "boy shorts".

This school prides it's self in the Music Program they provide. The kids can start playing in an orchastra in the 3rd grade. They also have house teams much like Harry Potter. You will either be an Emu, Kangaroo, Platypus, or Koala.

There is a swimming pool on site and is part of the Phys Ed program. Every kid participates and learns different strokes, dives, etc according to their age.

Getting to Australia

Waiting to check in

Lucy let us know when a plane was coming
Brandon had to sit behind Zach

Put your Gizmo's away. They are not allowed on the plane.

Madison said this was like Harry Potter looking for platform 9 3/4