Australia!!

Wow, what can we say but the last few months have been CRAZY!  There has been sooooo much that has happened since April -- which is when we got the final orders that we were in fact moving to Australia!  They packed out our household goods beginning the 26th of April and it has been a whirlwind since then.  There are so many pictures that we could post but we thought we would share a little bit of our adventure to Australia and what is going on currently.

Here are Marc and Isabella on our flight from Hawaii to Canberra, Australia (with a short layover in Sydney) on June 25th.  This flight was a crazy one for us because since we hadn't booked the tickets (the military travel agent scheduled this leg of the trip) we had no idea what type of airline we were flying on.  It ended up being a "budget" flight meaning there were NO drinks or food served unless you pre-ordered before the flight.  Once again, we didn't book the flight so we had no idea...shocker was when the drink and food cart passed by our aisle without giving us anything!!  It was a long 9 hour flight and I was thankful I had some snacks for us all. (They had tap water in the back that you could serve yourself!)  

After arriving in Sydney hungry....our first stop was McDonalds (or Macca's as they call it).

You get really tired and will lay down anywhere after a long day of travel!

So you have to remember that we had just come from Hawaii and this picture is right outside the cabin we stayed in (hence, the PJs) so this was the day before and then this is the next day....

We are now in winter in the coldest big city in Australia...Canberra.  The coffee shop had a heater and we were standing underneath it.  The next few days were tough as the kids came down with horrible colds.

This is us after we flew into Melbourne.  We were only in Canberra 2 days for some in-processing.  This was a first car trip on the other side of the road. :)

Our hotel was right across from a monument called The Shrine of Remembrance.  This is us on top of it with Melbourne in the background.  It was a really windy and cold day.  Actually, the winters are fairly mild here (it doesn't snow) but coming from summer made it feel especially cold.

The first few days were all about exploring...we found this little amusement park and it's the kids' favorite thing so far.  Isaac wants to go again this weekend!

They have TONS of restaurants and we have already found a few favorites.  Italian is always a winner!

We have found a house!!!  It's tucked away in the background.  It's very un-assuming from the street but it really is something special (more pics to come).  Isabella was the only one up for a pic at this point! 

We have tried to do a couple of adventures in the midst of figuring out the city and finding a place to live.  One of the adventures was to a place called Sovereign Hill.  It is an old mining town where the Australians experienced their "Gold Rush" and they have an event called "Christmas in July." It was a fun day trip on the train.

Our first stop was to get a snack and get warmed up...it was cold!!

Isaac was so excited to pan for gold!

They had shows, tons of fun activities and some great mine tours.

Isaac was the only one who wanted a picture with Santa.  The girls were NOT interested!

Another big event has been getting the kids into school.  We had heard the schools in the area were good so we just went to the local public school to check it out and we liked it.  It is walking distance to our house and all schools here wear uniforms.  We have been impressed with the variety that they offer.  The kids are all taking Mandarin Chinese, art, music, drama, PE and the girls have swimming right now and Isaac has chess....of course they have the typical course work too...reading, math, etc...

Ava has told me numerous times that she "loves school!".  She even has a BFF. :)

Isabella loves school too!  The girls really wanted to be in different classes and they are.  They are enjoying making their own friends.

Yay!  You made it to the end!
More adventures to come...hopefully, our car will be here soon!