Happy New Year!

Well, we've ended 2014 with a bang!
What better way to spend New Year's Eve, than surfing lessons?  Naturally!
Up and out the door this morning, we headed north toward Bangalee.  Just off the road, at our turn, we were so excited to see our first kangaroos in the wild!  Apparently very common, we were amazed.  We stopped the car, rolled down the window, and took pictures.  Luckily there were no locals around to see us, because they'd probably think we were nuts.

And further down the road, we parked and waited for Pat with Capricorn Coast Learn 2 Surf.
Loaded down with swimsuits, towels, extra sunscreen, water bottles, and the camera, we piled in his landcruiser.  From there he drove onto the beach, and a couple miles north we started seeing the waves get bigger.  There were a few other people out, surfers, dog-walkers, people with fishing poles, but we had no trouble finding a big open space for us beginners.
After unloading the boards, we had a lesson and practice session on the beach before heading into the water.  The waves were nice, the sun was bright (we're all a little pink), and we had a great time.  Pat, our teacher, was a really cool guy!  Patient, laid back, safety conscious, and he had great surfing stories.  I don't see how we could have learned without him.
Of course, Will picked it up pretty fast.  The girls all did great.  Me... not so much.  I thought for sure I'd be good, especially since I was a skateboarder in my younger days.  (That's something an old person says)  Maybe I need more practice.
Two hours later, and we were exhausted.  Another guy in the water said to me "This is why you never see a fat surfer."  What a workout!

Sunburned, tired, thirsty, covered in sand, wet, Pat took us back to our car.  He gave us all a certificate and Queensland Surfing bumper sticker.  Again, great guy and great time!
And we were off back to town.
Next stop... Ice Cream!

After showers, naps, and dinner, we were ready for more action.  We headed into town to sit by the beach and watch fireworks.  A little far away, but at least we saw fireworks.
Back home, we watched a movie and forced ourselves to stay up until midnight, so we could beat our American friends and family at saying "Happy New Year!"  I must say, if you've never watched the Sydney fireworks show, it is amazing.  I think that's making the list for next New Year's Eve!
Here's to a great 2014, and an even better 2015!
-Peter

Christmas day

We had a typical Christmas day.   Kinda.
The morning was very typical.  Wake early, take photos as the kids see what Santa has left, Tricia cooks too much food (NOT COMPLAINING), open presents.
It's the differences that made this day uncommon.
Santa left some Aussie gear!  The kids all got body boards and goggles.  Will got a cricket ball.  Tricia and I got beach chairs and an umbrella.
And our food was different.  We were able to find chips and make guacamole.  We even had little sausages in barbecue sauce, as well as fruit soup.  Instead of pumpkin pie, however, we had fruit mince pies and tim tam balls.  Instead of breakfast casserole we had sausage rolls.  And Tricia made a traditional pavlova.  Perfect!

Christmas food

Tim tam balls

And, of course, later in the day we had to try out our new beach gear.
So, off to the beach we went.

Merry Christmas!

After the beach, it was back home where we continued our Chrissie celebrations. 
We pulled bon bons, and the winner got the prize inside.  A party hat, joke, and toy.  What fun!

And finally, we opened the last presents of the day... traditional water guns.

The kids and I had an epic water gun fight, and we all ended up soaked.
All in all, a Merry Christmas!
-Peter

Greatest day ever!

Happy Christmas Eve!
I know I said my next post would be about my birthday.  I'll get to that, eventually.  But I have to write about our day today, because it was awesome!
It was a day to remember, for sure.
We took our time getting out the door this morning.  Left here about 10, and that's saying something since the sun comes up about 5 in the morning.
We loaded in the car (a Holden 4-door sedan, fits our family very well), and headed North.  I'm getting the hang of driving here quite well, and I have become a huge fan of roundabouts.  We passed through town and took the road toward Byfield, eventually turning West.  And arrived at our destination, the Cooberrie Park Wildlife Sanctuary.  Fifteen minute drive from town.  If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend you visit!
After we paid our entry, and passed through the main gate, we were immediately greeted by sounds of wildlife.  Mostly very loud birds.
And personally greeted by the wildlife!  Ducks, geese, peacocks, guinea fowl, chickens.
Oh yeah, kangaroos and emus!

We bought bags of animal food, which made us very popular, and as we wandered through the park looking at the animals in the pens, we were followed.  Mostly by the kangaroos, peacocks, and ducks.
We got to see foxes, dingos, crocodiles (both freshwater and saltwater), all kinds of snakes, lizards, cassowaries, bettongs, dragons, a wombat, sugar gliders, and many birds.  We saw rainbow lorikeets (which live wild in the trees near our apartment), kookaburras (one of these actually landed by the pool at our apartment while we were swimming the other day), parrots, and a tawny frogmouth.  And as we wandered around looking, we frequently stopped to stoop and feed whatever was near.  Except the emus.  They pecked hard at a handful of food, knocking it everywhere.

Emu and peacock

Grace had a follower

Wombat

And the highlight was the animal show.  The staff talked about, and then let us hold two kinds of skinks, a spiny dragon, and a carpet python "Cutie Pie".


Carpet python



The star of the show, however, was the koala.  A 7 year old sweet female.  We all got a turn holding her.  And we learned that koalas smell great!  Like eucalyptus.  And they're incredibly soft!

As for me, I am now a lover of kangaroos.  I found that they like to be rubbed under their neck.

Altogether, a wonderful experience!
After that, back home to rest and clean up, with a stop along the way at the market.

For dinner, we called Thai Takeaway.  We picked up our order of pad thai, fried rice, and sweet/sour chicken, and headed across the street to the beach where we ate and watched the waves.  Beautiful!

Selfie stick.  Thanks Amy!

We left the beach, drove to church, and enjoyed a quiet little Christmas Eve service.
Back home, Tricia is cooking (think she got the oven figured out... I hope), Maggie working a jigsaw puzzle, and I made a great discovery...
Yesterday's Tonight Show comes on at 8:15, with no commercials!

The kids are tracking Santa, have put out reindeer food, and are in their Christmas pajamas.  Soon we'll read the Texas Night Before Christmas, and then The Night Before Christmas as my parents did every year, and they'll be off to bed.

Here's to a great Christmas Eve in our new home, great adventures, and wishing all who read this a Merry Christmas.  We'll beat the Americans to it by a few hours!
Good night-
Peter

Minor issues in the kitchen

I realize I have already posted once today, but I couldn't help but mention this.

Funny thing...this evening, I went to turn on the oven so I could cook dinner.  Well I have a problem.  I have no idea how to work the oven.  You would think it would be easy, set to the correct celsius temperature and bake.  Wrong.  The settings are not quite the same.  As luck would have it, the lady from the reception area called about the time I was needing help.  

She tried to explain all the steps: 

1.  Turn on the outlet at the wall.

2.  Turn the power on the stovetop.

                                                 3.  Make sure both the temperature and cooking knobs are turned to the correct settings.

Yikes, that is where I get stuck.  Not sure what setting I should be using.  And what is on that screen?!? After some attempt at explaining, she laughed and said that housekeeping will tutor me tomorrow.  I guess that means we will be having take away for dinner tonight.  

Feeling a bit inadequate,

Tricia

2 Sleeps until Christmas

Wow!  I can't believe it's only 2 sleeps until Christmas.  That's how Aussies describe it.  This Advent Season has been far different than those in the past.  Instead of decorating our house, we undecorated it and packed it up.  Instead of having numerous activities, we spent time at home preparing to move.  Instead of going completely overboard in gift buying, we didn't purchase any gifts because we lacked cargo space.  As we sat in our apartment on Sunday after church, we decided that we had to do something to make it feel more like the holiday season.  Monday morning, Peter and I drove to "Rockie" (Rockhampton for you non-native folks) and spent the day amongst the Christmas madness-yes there are lots of crowds and last minute shoppers here too.  We bought a small tree, a strand of lights, some Christmas gifts for the kids, and enjoyed the craziness of trying to figure out how things operate.

Notice the tree has no lights.  Christmas lights are a little different here, and we thought we purchased a strand of lights, but we bought an extension kit.  We needed a starter kit.  SOLD OUT.  No starter kits left, so we will save our extender kit for next year's tree and shop early for the starter kit.

Yay!  It now feels a little more like Christmas at the Reed house... well except the nice, sunny weather and the beautiful, warm beach.

2 sleeps until Christmas,
Tricia

Cargo and carry-ons.

So how do you condense a the possessions of five people living in a four bedroom house, into bags and boxes, to travel around the world?  Sounds like a riddle, I know, but there's no punch line.
We did it.  And here's how...

Start with 3 large suitcases, purchase 10 rolling duffel bags at Wal-Mart, number them, fill them, weigh them (limited to 50 pounds each), and record every item within.  Checked bags.  Check!


Packing in our bedroom.  Organized chaos.

Giant cart loaded down, DFW.

But, of course, that can't possibly hold all of our necessities.  So, start filling 10 medium U-Haul boxes.  Record every item, stack them in the trailer, and make a trip to the post office.
The postal workers in Graham were super nice and helpful!  That's good, because it took us 3 hours to complete all of the labeling, customs forms, and paperwork required to ship those boxes to ourselves.  Check.

And then there's carry-ons.  Two each, stuffed, but empty enough to fit into the overhead bins.  Check.

There you have it!  That's how to get everything a family needs to Australia.  But the most important ingredient, bar none, is Tricia.  Every family needs a Tricia!  The very picture of diligence, organization, and logistics, she made all of this work!

So now there's customs.  Stand in line for about an hour after a 14 hour flight, pass the customs agent, pick up all 13 of your checked bags loaded onto three rolling carts, and the next customs official might take pity on you and your bedraggled family.  We were sent on through and out the door.  From there, we hailed a Maxi Taxi, which is a kind way to say big, like the plus-sized iPhone.  Off to the hotel for the night.
The next day, it's another Maxi back to the airport to re-check all of our bags.  And once again, a nice dose of pity.  The Virgin Australia agent thought it inhumane to make us pay again for all of our checked bags, and we made a new friend.  Back on the plane to our next stop, where we arrived with all of our bags.  Not one lost!
It took two full vehicles to get us from the Rockhampton airport to our apartment, with the kind assistance of Jason from Vanguard Health.  He even helped us carry bags up to our room!  (Not likely in his job description)
So here we are, with all of our bags.  Now we wait for those boxes we mailed. 
That's where my flip-flops are!
Next blog, my 40th birthday.
-Peter


We've made it down under.

Rosslyn bay.  Our apartment is across the bay, about 1/3 from the left border.

Whew!  Deep breath!
When we last posted, it was regarding going away/Christmas parties.  So much has happened since then, it will be a challenge to condense my writing.  So I think I'll just hit the highlights, and save some of the stories for another time.
Long story short - we packed up our house of 10 years, said goodbye to our family and friends, and left cold wintry Texas.  And now, less than one week later, I'm sitting in shorts and a t-shirt, on our patio at our apartment in Australia, looking out at the palm trees and water of the Coral Sea.  In the summer.  In Tricia's words, "It's surreal."

View from our patio.  The beach starts just past the trees.

I know the first question you might be having.  What's it like there?  Okay, I'll indulge you.  I mean, really I'd like to write a long story about how hard it was to pack up our house, how sad it was saying goodbye to family and friends, how we got all of our possessions to the other side of the world, etc.  But, no, that's not why you are reading this.  You want to know what Australia's like, don't you?
So here it is... It's not that different!
Not what you expected?  Well, I know we've only been here a few days, and I'm no expert on Australia yet, but it really is very familiar.
In fact, occasionally we are lulled into thinking we're in the states.  That is, until something major smacks us in the face.  We wake in the morning, make coffee, the kids are up watching the Disney channel, eat a little cereal with milk, no problem.  Need to go to the grocery store, so we walk out to the car, and walk to the left side to find no steering wheel.  Ah!  Australia!
Start the car, pull out, drive up to the stop sign, start to turn on the left blinker and the windshield wipers come on.  Ah!  Australia!  Shopping in the grocery store, buying tortilla chips, cheese, avocados, apricots (in December!), ground beef, and what's this?  Kangaroo meat!  Ah!  Australia!
But this place is great!
The people are so very welcoming and friendly!
The weather is beautiful!  Rain a little yesterday, sun today, ocean breezes.
The community feels very clean and safe!
The apartment is comfortable and fits our family well, and the location couldn't be better!
My only negative so far?  In my tennis shoes at the grocery store today, I felt like my feet were overdressed.  Gotta find my flip-flops!
Next post, maybe we'll discuss the plane ride(s). 
-Peter

The boats at Keppel Bay Marina, this morning.

My Christmas Party / Going Away Party

   Yesterday 12 of my friends and I met at the square ready to get on the party bus. Once everybody and everything was loaded, we left and started traveling to Wichita Falls. On the hour and a half bus ride we put in a movie and watched it until the end. When the movie was over there was still a little time to go, so we turned on the music and just partied.
     After a few minutes of partying we went and got pizza. While eating pizza we drove around looking at Christmas lights. We passed Midwestern State University and they had the coolest lights ever. There were tons of little scenes from different movies. We saw Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on a merry go round, Scrooge & Marley's shop, The Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, the train with misfit toys, Toy Story 2, Peter Pan, the Christmas nativity (my favorite), and so much more. The driver stopped and we all picked a partner to go look at the lights at MSU. It was very cold, but so much fun. When we got back on the bus we looked at a few more lights and then headed back.
      On our way back I hooked my iPad up to the stereo and we all started jamming out to really loud music. A few times my parents told us to turn it down.  We had so much fun eating popcorn, candy, and drinking cokes. We took a picture before we left and then a bunch while on the bus, as well as some videos. When we got to the square, I handed everyone a letter and some hot chocolate mix as a thanks for coming gift. This was the best Christmas present and going away party. I just love Christmas! As leaving time gets closer, I get sadder. Its really hard leaving all your friends. I am just glad that we are going for 1 year. My friends all signed a picture frame that I am getting to take with me. :)  -Maggie

On the bus, ready to go

Party time!

 

 

  And as my dad says: Days till departure= 13  

-Maggie