Celebration

We had a wonderful evening at the Glen Hotel honoring Daniel and Elizabeth.  It was hard for me to believe that Daniel was old enough to get married.  In my mind he is still a little boy running around playing in the dirt and climbing anything he could hold onto.

Here is the happy couple, Daniel and Elizabeth

Here is my Aunt Elaine and Daniel

Parents of the groom, Ross & Elaine

I am sure I have mentioned that my cousin Caroline has three girls.  Emmaline was so happy to have constant playmates.  Elise is 6 and is in Grade 1 (or what we call First Grade).  She is the spitting image of Caroline when she was little.  I had so much fun with her, it was like watching Caroline grow up all over again.

Sophia is 4 and will be 5 in just a couple of months.  She is a little spitfire, a take charge kinda girl.  You never knew what antics she was planning in her cute little head. I just know she taught Emmaline all sorts of things :-)

Abbey is three and just as cute and sweet as can be.  She has to stay alert at all times to keep up with Soph.  It was funny to hear her mimic how Emma talked.  After a couple of weeks she was trying to speak American instead of Aussie.  I loved it!

And Emmaline....bless her heart.  She was soooo tired by the time we got to the dinner.  We ordered food for all the kiddos, but she really just wanted to cuddle.  After only being there for a day or so, she became very attached to Caroline.  She would run and hug her and love on her whenever she saw her.  It was super sweet.  Here are my two favorite "lines" in the world! 

And remember that I mentioned how tired Emma was.....

Well, she ate about two bites of her dinner, climbed into my lap and promptly fell asleep.  Nathan, Caroline's husband, went out to get their stroller and that is where Emma spent the rest of the evening.

The kids meals came with dessert.  It was cute....an Aussie Snowman.

It was a wonderful evening.  I spent some time talking with the preacher and his wife.  I have known them for years.  It was good to meet new people and catch up with old friends and just spend time with family. 

The plan for the next day was to go to the Australia Zoo up north on the Sunshine Coast.  The forcast called for sun, so we were hopeful.....no such luck though.  It was sunny in Brisbane when we left and started raining on us on the way north.  We got to the parking lot and it was still raining.  Checked the forcast.....clear in Brisbane.....rain for the Sunshine Coast.  Grrrr.......   But I can say that the Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre has some really nice shops :-)  And I did pick up a couple of new sweaters at Target.

Since it rained the temps dropped rapidly.  Caroline had a couple of "jumpers" in the car for the girls.  I think Emmaline looks pretty funny!  It is also amazing how at home I have to fight with her to get her to wear a sweater, but for Caroline she wore it with no arguement.  Hmmmmm.....

After some shopping we had to stop for some coffee and afternoon tea.  I just love how every shopping center has at least a half dozen places to sit and get coffee.  I also loved that Caroline was as into coffee as we were.  It worked out perfectly :-)

So even though it rained a lot and I was sick with a nasty cold at this point, I still was having a lot of fun.  But I really, really wanted some sunshine!

A Very Fun, Very Full Day

We woke up Wednesday and it wasn't raining!!!!  We ate some breakfast (I had toast with fresh avocado - Yum!) and started to get ready for the day.  Emma went outside for a few minutes and came back and declared that she wanted to go swimming.  Now I had already been out there and had stuck my foot into the pool.  I'm sure that the week before it had felt all nice and cool, but after all the rain, it was getting a little too cool.  I told her no, but her Daddy said yes. Off they went and I think they were both a little surprised at how cool it was. Emma never actually got all the way in, but she sure did have fun spashing her Daddy.  That is until it started raining.....again!

About lunchtime it stopped raining and the sun started trying to peak out.  We very quickly loaded up in the car and headed out to Wellington Point, which looks out over Moroton Bay for some lunch and to go to the beach for a little bit. It ended up taking longer for lunch than we thought it would, so by the time we were headed down to the water the wind had picked up and the clouds were moving in.

Emmaline was so happy to finally see the beach.  She, of course, had no idea that this wasn't the beach beach yet.  We were just on the bay, but she was still happy.  She ended up calling this the little beach with the sea shells.

My parents enjoying watching Emmaline have so much fun

Emmaline found a beautiful shell. 

And yes, we did bring it home :-)

We had noticed these two guys on the beach with some gear.  Turns out they were kiteboarders.  We stuck around to watch them.  The clouds got thicker and the wind got stronger.

In this one, the guy with the blue kite was doing a flip and ended up going right over the other guy.  It was amazing to watch and even more amazing that they didn't get their lines tangled up.

After this we headed over to the cafe and got some ice cream.  Vanilla for Emmaline and Passion Fruit for me.  We ended up eating in the car because the rain started up again.  It was time to head back to the house and get cleaned up for dinner.  We were having the wedding dinner to honor the happy couple.  I was just hoping I would be able to stay awake for the entire thing!

Getting Settled....

When we first landed in Sydney it was cloudy and raining.  I honestly didn't think much about it because it of course rains sometimes, but we were going up to Brisbane, Queensland which is known as the "Sunshine State".  I, of course, had been before and I knew that it lived up to it's name.  So when we got to Brisbane and it was cloudy, I still didn't think much about it.  I was incredibly tired, I was incredibly happy and I was ready to enjoy my family, my surroundings and hopefully take a nap. 

I had wondered how Emmaline was going to get along with my cousin's three girls.  I didn't need to worry at all!!!  Our plane came end at the far end of the terminal and by the time we arrived in baggage claim, Emmaline and Sophia were holding hands and had pronounced that they were going to be "Best Friends Forever!".  I didn't get a picture of them holding hands, but I did manage to snap this one of them while we were waiting for our bags with my cell phone.

I really wish I had thought to have my camera out when we first got to the airport.  I expected my Aunt Elaine to be there, I expected my cousin Caroline to be there.  I didn't expect to be greeted by two of her girls, Abbey and Sophia and I certainly didn't expect my cousin Daniel to be there with his fiance Elizabeth.  It was wonderful to see everyone!!!  We sent Emmaline with Elaine, Caroline and the girls....Steven and I along with our bags rode with Daniel and Elizabeth and my parents went to pick up the rental car.  I remembered Daniel's driving from the last time we were there.  I sure am glad he has grown up and slowed down :-)

We got to my aunts house, unpacked and settled in.  Finally, Emmaline just couldn't take it anymore and had to take a little nap.....I took it with her.  We got up, ate some dinner with the entire family and we all crashed!  That is until Emma decided to get up at 3:30 in the morning.  But it was all good!!!  We were in Austrailia and we were on vacation.

We got up the next morning.........and it was raining......and forcasted to rain all day.  C'est la vie!!  We finally got ourselves motivated and out of the house.  I love to shop, Caroline loves to shop, so we headed over to a local shopping center to eat some lunch and of course....do some shopping.  I started off with a beautiful iced coffee.....

and then we headed off to do some exploring and find some lunch.  They did have a "Macca's" (Aussie for McDonald's), so Emmaline was happy.  Steven and I had  mixed grill Kebab...YUM!!

Caroline introduced me to The Pumkin Patch.  I loved it!!!  We got Emmaline and Sophia coordinating outfits to wear to church on Sunday.  We don't have a store near us, but I will definately be ordering online :-) Of course, since their seasons are opposite ours, the US website doesn't have the same things that the OZ store has.

Here is Emma and Sophie in their cute outfits.

This is Daniel and Elizabeth.  They look pretty calm and relaxed for two people about to get married in a few days, don't they?  Trust me, it was an illusion :-)

The girls spent a lot of time playing games indoors.  Since it rained so much our first few days, along with some of us getting sick with the "Crud", we spent a lot of time inside.  This gave us a chance to visit and the girls really got close.  Elise (on the right of Emmaline) had to go to school each day, but she looked forward to coming and getting into plenty of mischief with the rest of them each afternoon.

Stay tuned....there is more to come.....

We got there!

Getting ready for a large trip is a LOT of work.  I started months ago gathering new summer clothes for Emmaline and trying to figure out what to take for her to keep her occupied on the plane. I tried to stay organized....but I didn't always succeed.  By the night before I realized that I was going to need more time.  My solution - stay up all night.  I thought it would help me get my "clock" reset for when we got there.  WRONG!!!

Emmaline was soooo excited.  She eagerly got up, got dressed, and got in the car.  She couldn't wait to get on the plane.  She told everyone that she was going on four planes and we were going to the other side of the world.  We did however have a bit of drama before we got on the first plane.  We went through security, where you have to do everything but completely disrobe and somehow in the midst of us putting everything back together again and trying to keep our eye on Emma, our Passports and Boarding Passes didn't make it with us.  So I ended up having my first meltdown before we even got to the gate for our first flight.  Luckily a very nice TSA agent found them sitting on the floor by the bench and returned them to us.  Whew!!!!

It still amazes me after all these years......He can sleep anywhere in any position.  We hadn't been on the plane but for about 20 minutes and he was OUT!  If you are friends with me on FB than you have seen a picture of him sleeping in the waiting area waiting for our next flight in Washington DC.

Emmaline's bag of "Things to keep her Happy and Occupied".  I kept that thing close at ALL times!!!

She took her first nap during the layover in DC.  Luckily, while she slept, Steven and I were able to enjoy a very yummy lunch in a very nice restaurant at the airport.  She woke up just as we were finishing so we were able to just stop and get her some chicken nuggets from Wendy's.

After our first layover, I quit taking any pictures.  I was so exhausted already from having stayed up the night before and I hadn't got to sleep at all yet.

Emmaline is amazingly well on the trip.  I was so impressed with her!  My parents met up with us in DC and from there we traveled together.  Every once in a while they would come and get Emmaline and take her to sit with them to give me a bit of a break.  It was great!

We flew in to Sydney and we had to collect our bags and go through customs before we checked our bags back in to Brisbane.  In Australia, they let you use a cart for your bags with out charging you two fingers and 1/2 your arm. 

My parents DID not want me to take a picture of them!  I personally thought they looked pretty good.  Oh well!!

We were waiting in the Quantas Lounge for our next flight and it overlooks a bunch of hangers.  This plane pulled out of one of them and I just thought it was neat! 

This neat sign was on the back of the luggage carts.  Took a picture of it cause I just liked it :-)

Here is My sweet Emmaline.  We were able to take showers once we got to Sydney while we were waiting for our last flight up to Brisbane.  Talk about refreshing!!!!  She was still happy even after being cooped up all that time.  Of course at this point I was happy too.....I was showered, I wasn't sitting on an airplane, I had just eaten a crumpet, and I knew in another couple of hours it was going to be over!!!

I will have plenty more pictures!!!!