Busselton and Margaret River

We just enjoyed a wonderful 4-day weekend. It was Matt's Friday off and Monday was a Western Australia public holiday, so we met up with the Carl family in Margaret River for some good, relaxing fun. On the drive down, we stopped in Busselton at the newly re-opened jetty, the longest in the southern hemisphere at 1.8km. It was pretty cool to be over a mile out at sea at the end.

Thank goodness we didn't have to walk the entire length! This cute little train did all the work for us and the boys loved it.

All aboard!

Kind of interesting riding a train straight out into the ocean.

At the end, we got to see the main event - the underwater observatory that went about 30 feet below the surface.

The kids were pretty thrilled for about 5 minutes, then spent the rest of the hour running around like crazy. Sometimes it's hard to impress these two.

Matt and I were pretty enthralled with the views and the number and variety of fish swimming past the viewing windows.



Even saw a few interesting jellyfish floating around.

What a great experience!

After catching the train back to the coast, we got back on the road towards Margaret River and the big farmhouse called Breakaway that we'd rented for the weekend.

It was a lovely place with 5 bedrooms on 25 acres so it was more than enough for 4 adults and 4 kids.

We loved all the stone work and architecture. We could only guess at the age of the house but it had to be many decades old with lots of character.

Sunrise on Saturday morning was beautiful and peaceful, with lots of birds in the trees and kids in the yard.

The boys couldn't wait to try out the tire swing.

Alex was working hard to hold on...

...so he quickly decided this was an easier option.

Ben and Brynn were inseparable the entire weekend. It had to be some kind of record because he barely said two sentences to me over 3 days since he and Brynn were talking nonstop. They are such a cute pair.

Alex and Ansley were also great buddies, but more because of a common passion for TV and Elmo in particular. That's what made the weekend such a success - the kids all played so well together that they were almost always entertained and didn't fight at all. Even Ben and Alex were too distracted to bother annoying one another.

We adults found the best place in the house to be the back porch, watching all kinds of wildlife and relaxing in the warm sunshine. The weather was fantastic (warm days, chilly nights) and a welcomed change from our still un-airconditioned house in Perth.

We spotted kangaroos, emus, kookaburras, parrots, owls, blue wrens, and lots of these black cockatoos.

Of course we ventured out to enjoy all that Margaret River had to offer, including the Berry Farm, where we tasted lots of jellies and dips. Surprisingly enough, Ben chose to write his name on the chalkboard instead of tasting!

And I love this picture. A little background - Ben obviously runs faster than Alex but suddenly Alex is determined to catch up and throws an absolute fit when he loses. Which is all the time. So that's why he's crying and Ben is enjoying the pretty purple flowers.

The adults took turns enjoying a few hours without kids and Matt and I chose to have lunch at Leeuwin Estate. Hard to beat a tasting flight at a nice winery!


On Sunday morning we all went for a little walk hoping to see some more kangaroos. Instead, I saw two sweet kids holding hands way down the road :)

Alex spotted a brilliant rainbow.

It was a perfect double rainbow all the way to the ground. And since it was so brilliant, obviously the shower was pretty close and we got a little wet but it was totally worth it.

We also took all the kids to an outdoor maze, which was a lot more fun than I would have thought. It was just challenging enough to keep the big kids guessing and short enough that the little ones still enjoyed it.

They had several other types of mazes and puzzles and we all had a great time working them out. This was a step stone maze.

Ben and Brynn finished!

These two are so adorable. Ben absolutely loves Brynn and she's such a doll. It's a sweet and innocent first love.

The funny kids all lined up their chairs and then sat patiently while the paparazzi got pictures.

The boys gave the girls goodbye hugs when we all had to go our separate ways back to Perth. We actually only live a couple of miles apart but it was great spending an entire weekend together with such a wonderful family.

Now that we're back the fun is really beginning - we're on our way to Houston tomorrow! We got most of the trip worked out on Matt's blackberry in the car on the way down south so this has come together extremely fast. It was a sudden opportunity to head home for a few weeks and we jumped on it. Can't wait to spend some time in Texas with our loved ones and catch up with old friends. Now if only we could fast forward the 30 hours of flying and 14 hours of jetlag!

Hot, Hot, Hot

This song says it all...

(and thanks, Grammy and Grumpy, for the valentines cards! the dance continues...)

We've been without air-conditioning for a week and a half now, naturally during the middle of the hottest summer on record in Perth. We saw higher temperatures temporarily last year (again, when our air-conditioner was broken) but we've had hot, humid weather with no respite for weeks now. It feels like a Houston summer. The house averages 85 degrees and that's with a rented evaporative unit upstairs which is mercifully keeping it tolerable in the kitchen and living room. But we were fortunate to get an appointment to have it fixed next week IF the parts arrive from Sydney in time. The company doesn't stock parts here. And they don't work overtime. And they're scheduling service up to 4 weeks out now so if we miss our chance it may be a loooong time until we stop sweating. So let's pray those parts get here next week and we can get back to normal life! All the day-to-day duties sap my energy and it's all I can do to get the laundry done and food on the table. Then I have to sit under the fan for a while and recover. Thus, I've taken 4 entire pictures to share this week.

Nothing like a little body art to start the day...


Ben's school is going really well and he's happy to go each morning. This is why we tend to be late more often that not....two boys who take half an hour to get dressed.

(and of course one mom that wastes even more time getting pictures of the silliness)

Luckily, we're planning a long weekend in Margaret River with some friends so we'll hopefully be escaping the heat for several days. I'll definitely get more pictures there!

Bali Getaway

I had talked to Matt about taking another trip to Bali while we're on this side of the world and he wasn't interested in taking the entire family so he encouraged me to make it a girls' weekend with some friends. Little did he know that I would take him up on that offer! Didn't take me long to talk a few friends from Singapore into meeting me there for a wonderful long weekend. I got in late Thursday night, slept in Friday morning, and we all lounged by the pool and caught up since I hadn't seen them in nearly a year. By mid-afternoon, we'd finally mustered the energy to get dressed and do some shopping. We stopped in a few places in Seminyak then made our way to Ku De Ta, a beachside bar and restaurant, to catch the sunset.

Anne was enjoying the bliss!

Laura, Kim, and Anne. We're all American, have been overseas for 3-4 years, and had our youngest children in Singapore. These two girls made great travel companions because they're so much fun and so easy-going. Anne was our tour guide so she did a fantastic job of organizing our excursions and Kim was our official photographer so all these pictures are from her. I just showed up with wine and Tim Tams...what a slacker!

We didn't even have to leave the comfort of our table to haggle with some hawkers over cheap dresses.

Our sunset dinner was perfect and even more enjoyable because we got to eat at our leisure without yelling at kids to eat, breaking up fights, getting more milk, yada yada yada...


Bintang tattoos! The best kind to get.

On Saturday we slept in again (more bliss!) and then headed straight to Ubud for lunch at Casa Luna.

A little more street shopping...

...then a couple of hours at the spa! The best thing about traveling in Southeast Asia is cheap massages. We got 1 1/2 massages and body scrubs for about US $15.

Indonesia is predominantly muslim but the island of Bali is buddhist. Buddha is all over the place and he's always decorated.

Next stop was Tanah Lot, a centuries-old temple built on a rock on the water. At high tide it is a small island.

Gotta love the long-arm self portraits!


It was a great place to catch another sunset.

Anne braved the waves for a little yoga!

I think this wave caught her by surprise!

Finally, we headed to Jimbaran on Saturday night for a seafood feast by the water. This place was a total surprise to me because our driver dropped us off at the restaurant, we walked through the building, and then out on the sand they had all the tables set up by the crashing waves. It was an amazing experience.

Cracking into some crab.

We even got serenaded by this roving band. They had some US top-40 in the repertoire and sounded great, but their English was hilarious. It would be like me learning the syllables to a Japanese song off the radio then trying to sing it back when the words meant nothing to me. Like when they were singing "Stand By Me" it went something like "whenever you're in bubbles won't you stand by me".

We didn't fly out until Sunday afternoon so we got to enjoy a nice brunch at the St. Regis. Rooms start at about $500/night so we could only pretend this is where we stayed!

The grounds were absolutely gorgeous.

We didn't exactly leave right after breakfast because it was too fabulous!

Good thing we had flights to catch or else I may have still been sitting right here:

Bali will probably always be one of my favorite places!

Thanks, Matt, for holding down the fort at home and letting me go play for a few days! It was refreshing and relaxing and so great to see old friends who are traveling a similar path to me.