Esperance

Esperance is a small coastal town (population 15,000ish) about 8 hours drive southeast of Perth. It's a popular vacation spot so we thought we'd check it out. I called around months ago for accommodation but apparently it's so popular that places book out a year in advance. We're glad we were able to at least find somewhere to stay.

At the Rotary Lookout Point- great views. We took the 1.3 km walk to take in the scenery.




A train ride by Taylor Jetty...what is it about train rides that get kids so excited?!

Twilight Beach- top rated for being family friendly. The kids had a blast here. And see that big, ginormous boulder (right above Kaiya's head)? Brian and Kaiya swam out to it and climbed to the top.


We found a baby lizard and Kaiya had a fun time chasing it around.

A good overall view of Twilight Beach. It was pretty empty when we arrived that morning but there was quite a crowd by the time we left (as you can tell with all the people).

Lucky Bay. Located in Cape Le Grand Nat'l Park about 45 km outside of Esperance. The kids weren't too thrilled about driving here- they wanted to find a playground instead. But Brian reminded us that this trip would be our only trip to Esperance so we made the decision to go. So glad we did...isn't this beach postcard worthy?!

Kangaroos are known to hang out at Lucky Bay. We were lucky to see one (pun fully intended)!

Brian and the kids. I loved that this beach was virtually deserted- we basically had this place to ourselves!

The kids had so much fun dancing barefoot & squishing their toes into the sand. I've never seen such powder-fine, white sand that crunches when you walk on it. We ended up bottling some sand to take home with us. It was that impressive...no wonder Esperance is famous for their sandy beaches!

The only place we've been so far in Australia that will let you drive straight on to the beach!

Our "luxury" accommodations for our 3 nights in Esperance...a cabin in a caravan park. This pic was taken from the double bed Brian and I shared (shared meaning I got 6 inches and Brian got the rest).

On the long drive back home we stopped for ice cream...thought you might appreciate this very unattractive picture of Mina's chocolate goatee.

And that's our trip! Hope you all were able to do something fun during your Christmas break!

Wave Rock

On our way to Esperance we stopped in Hyden to see the Wave Rock. It's named Wave Rock for obvious reasons...see pics below. The kids loved exploring and climbing.





I'm pointing at Mina here b/c she randomly started to do some booty shakin' dance...it was funny...well, you had to be there I guess.

We stayed the night at the Wave Rock Motel (the only motel in town). We ate dinner at the motel restaurant, the Bush Bistro (the only restaurant in town). We ordered our food (snapper for me, steak for Brian, sausages for the kids)...and after being handed the raw meat realized there was a grill in the corner of the restaurant so we could cook the food. Geez, I thought the purpose for eating out was NOT to cook. Oh well. We were just grateful that the rooms were clean and had A/C.

A Very Merry Post

We hope everyone had a great Christmas. We had the missionaries over for Christmas Eve- we made gingerbread houses and and ate Mexican food. After they left we ventured off to our neighborhood beach (where there were shark sightings earlier that day) to watch the sunset. We didn't get in the water...

Christmas Day we opened presents! The girls wore their new Christmas dresses (and of course I couldn't get one decent picture taken) to church. Then we had a beach BBQ with some friends from church for our Christmas dinner. We feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful country but we're still not used to Christmas summers yet!






Thanks everyone for your Christmas cards. We sure do love hearing from our family/friends near and far!

Merry Christmas!

I sent out 2 different cards this year...I liked the black/white better but Brian liked the colored picture. So we randomly sent out both. And let me tell you, postage from Australia to America is pricey, 2.35 per stamp! So next year we'll probably re-think sending out cards. Anyways, I'm putting both on the blog so you can see which one you didn't receive...or maybe you didn't receive any b/c I got lazy/cheap.

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends near and far (mostly far, obviously)! We wish you a holiday full of joy and happiness- and wish we were closer so we could celebrate with you!

Medical Leave

I'm playing the role of single mom right now. Brian is on medical leave in Utah right now for dental surgery. It seems weird to travel all that way but after pricing it all out it ends up saving us a few thousand bucks to do it in the states (as opposed to here in Perth)...even with travel fees.

He's only gone 1 week but 2 days are spent traveling each way. So he's basically only there 3 full days. 1 day to recover from jet lag (which doesn't really happen in 1 day), 1 day for surgery, and 1 day to recover from surgery and ensure there's no complications.

Sorry if you didn't get to visit with him but it's obviously a whirlwind trip. I am glad he got to squeeze in a dinner with his siblings and my family...and I'm thankful the surgery went well. We are missing him here and can't wait to see him on Sunday night.

Random Christmas Thoughts

1) Are we the only family left in the world that doesn't do the Elf on a Shelf?

2) My kids have been abnormally good this year...I've not had to threaten them once about calling Santa.

3) Our Christmas break is 5 weeks long so I've been looking for ways to keep the kids from dying of boredom. I signed them up for several holiday programs in the community. So far they've gone to a kids cooking class and made candy cane cookies, muffins, fruit mince tarts, lemon tarts, and a Christmas cake. Kaiya went with a friend and painted pottery earlier this week. Next week they are attending a holiday gym program (gymnastics mixed with art/craft activities) and a kid's art class. In January it's swimming lessons in the ocean. I'm really grateful that Perth has so many wonderful programs for kids during the school holidays.

4) My kids haven't asked for a single thing for Christmas. Don't get me wrong- they are excited about Christmas. They are just abnormal I tell you.

5) I have zero Christmas spirit this year. It's the blasted sunny weather...messes with your head. I took the kids to IKEA b/c they advertised having a snow machine. It was a fake snow machine (bubbles disguised to look like snow). It was lame.

6) I will end on a positive note. Brian's parents are serving mission in Bolivia. Every year we do Sub for Santa and decided this year to donate funds to help out the church members in Bolivia. See the link HERE.

Mother-Daughter Weekend

Last December Brian took Kaiya shark cage diving in South Australia. So it was only fair that this year me and Emiko take a fun trip of our own. We decided to fly to Gold Coast (1 hr south of Brisbane) to check out the theme parks.

We took a red-eye flight out of Perth (leaving at 12:30 am) and arrived in Gold Coast 8:00 am Friday morning. Here's Emiko waiting for the airport shuttle. She looks more excited than tired!

I had planned to check into the hotel and sleep the rest of Friday morning away (b/c I knew we wouldn't get much sleep on the plane)...but Emiko was so excited that she couldn't nap. So off to Sea World we went! (BTW, no Shamu at Sea World Australia- how lame is that?!)

Proof that I was on the trip. Emiko quite liked taking pictures with the camera but this was her best picture (most others were of random strangers, random buildings, and her feet).

After sleeping 15 hrs straight, Emiko was ready to see Movie World for the 2nd day of our trip. Movie World is the Warner Bros theme park. She actually enjoyed it more here b/c of all of the kid rides so we spent day #3 here too.

The view from our hotel room.

It sure was nice to sleep in every morning (Emiko is always the last to wake up in our family) and since the theme parks are much smaller (and were virtually empty)...it was very relaxing and enjoyable. We had a fun time together looking at the animals, riding the rides, eating at restaurants, and souvenir shopping. But it was also fun to come home- we missed daddy, Kaiya, and Mina.