Nine Years Old

This morning Thomas awoke and dawdled out of his room... after a big Birthday hug, the first words out of his mouth were said with a hint of disappointment, "Mommy, my voice has not changed...".  I guess he thought he would become a bit more manly today, after all, he is officially 9 years old.  I told him he needed to wait a few more years...

A Birthday Pancake!

A Birthday Cake... and good friends to share it with.

Opening gifts with the Grandma Linda and Pop Pop Jake via Skype chat... 

A wonderful way to keep close while we are so far away...

A Very Happy Birthday! 

Back in Sydney

We are back home in Sydney!

We finished up our trip by taking the coastal route...south out of  Surfer's Paradise... through Byron Bay... the eastern most corner of Australia...down to Coffs Harbor.  It was a very rainy day, but we still found snippets of calm in the midst of the storm....

 Byron Bay out on the Cape

 We saw lots of banana plantations as we drove...

Coffs Harbor is where we found the "Big Banana"...quiet an interesting sight!  

 Apparently, this area along the coast is a large banana producing region. 

 
Our final day of driving we headed a bit more inland with a straight shot to Sydney!  Very beautiful countryside... filled with farms and lush green coastal forests.



Home is always sweet when you have been away for a while... and we are certainly thankful for all the opportunities we have enjoyed over the past few days!

4th of July in Surfer's Paradise

Brisbane is an hour away... we never made it there... the kids and I.  Hubby has gone into Brisbane every day this week to work...there was no room anywhere in Brisbane to stay as there was a huge Rugby game going on this week.  (Australians love their sport.) So, we decided to stay a bit further out...and although hubby spent a majority of his time commuting and working...we three just could not pull ourselves away from the beach.

 We have spent every morning and evening walking the beach... 

 

 Thomas warming up after a swim in the ocean!

 The Rising Full Moon...

 

 

The Moon has been brilliantly full the past few nights...

 Tomorrow we head back toward Sydney.

Driving in the Outback

We have been driving a lot of hours on our trip... many of which have not been spent on highways.  Highways are only near large cities in Australia... the "Outback" is filled with two lane roads.

 Somewhere in Central North New South Wales...

The winding back roads of the "Outback" have taken us through fields and fields of sheep and cattle...farm after farm... small sleepy town after small sleepy town.  The mountains and hills are filled with lush vegetation and Eucalyptus trees and the valleys are dry, grassy and windswept.

What has been so surprising to us is the lack of people out in the bush.

 It seems absolutely wild and lonely.

 Yet, if you look closely, you see the bush is filled with life...

 

 Wallabies munching on a farmer's fresh green grass...

 Emus curious why we stopped to photo them... 

Onward to Brisbane!

Dubbo, A Day at the Zoo

This weekend, we made our way North out of  Melbourne through the State of Victoria toward Dubbo.  Dubbo is a town located right in the middle of the State of New South Wales.

The Countryside Surrounding Dubbo

It is a farming and ranching town.  It reminded us a lot of Idaho...  We decided to stop here for a day to enjoy the Taranga Western Plains Zoo.

It is a rather large zoo that allows you to drive through a six kilometer circuit... with lots of walking trails and paths to explore the happy animals living there.  We really liked this particular Zoo because the animals seemed content and had lots of natural like habitat to live in.

The Lion was so considerate to smile for my photo!

A Dingo... I sure do miss my Lucky Boy...

An Azure Kingfisher "Kookaburra"

Sarah has Wallabies eating out of her hand now!

Superb Fairy Wren 

One of our favorite exhibits was the Siamangs, a type of Gibbon... they were quite a spectacle with their athletic swinging and climbing... they also were busy taking care of their new born baby... which you could see dangling from mum's chest.

Look closely on Mum's chest... 
there is a sweet two week old Siamang holding on tightly.

When feeding time came, they put on a loud display of territorial yelling of sorts... it was fascinating to see their throats puff up like balloons...amplifying the noise coming out.

Siamangs defending their territory... their song can be heard up to 4 Kilometers away!

Crested Pigeon

 

Another highlight for the children was the Giraffe Feeding.

The giraffe wraps it tongue around the carrot to take it inside it's mouth...

The Zoo was a day well spent... we really enjoyed our time, learned heaps about all the different animals, and enjoyed a day spent in the great out doors!