We had a few days of amazing weather this week, so the boys and I packed a picnic lunch and hopped on a train and went back out to Brighton Beach to further explore the rocks, tide pools, and beach huts.
More photos here.
Thursday, August 04, 2011
Last outing with Maca/Jeremiah's Birthday
On Saturday we rented a van for our third and final drive. We ended up checking out Brighton Beach(more on that later) and Werribee Open Range Zoo. We'd never been to a zoo like this and it was great!
More photos here.
Royal Botanic Gardens
On Friday we spent the afternoon with Maca at the Royal Botanic Gardens exploring the areas that bloom in winter. Isaac really loved it there and was our official family photographer for the day with my phone.
More photos here.
Love Never Dies
On Thursday, Jeremiah and I took advantage of having a babysitter and went to see Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. It opened to very mixed reviews in London, shut down for re-writes, then reopened and the Broadway opening has been indefinitely put off. Suffice to say that our expectations were quite low, and perhaps that worked in our favor, but we really enjoyed it. The music was good, with little touches of familiar Phantom music throughout along with spectacular costumes and sets.
Back to the city
Even though we would have been happy to stay in the countryside, we headed back to the city Tuesday after these cockatoos posed so nicely for me.
On the way home we stopped by Yarra Valley Dairy for a cheese platter lunch which turned out to be completely incredible. We bought a few varieties to bring home and spent the next week trying to maintain a reasonable rate of consumption of our goods.
That night Anne and I headed out to Rock of Ages, a hilarious musical using music from 80's hair bands.
More photos here.
Healesville Sanctuary
We returned to Healesville Sanctuary and again took advantage of their Magic Moments program, which we had done on our last trip with kangaroos. This time we got time up close with the koalas and the dingoes. Both were really great experiences, but it was the koalas that really stole our hearts.
More photos here.
I think for Isaac the highlight of this entire trip might be the moment in the photo below. Our hosts had told us that the parrots would eat our of your hands and Isaac had gotten them to do so before we left for the animal sanctuary and was thrilled. That afternoon when we got back he spent a lot of time out on the porch near the bird feeder and became buddies with this parrot who eventually hopped right onto his hands to eat. Isaac could hardly contain his excitement!
Return to Healesville
You may recall that the weekend after we arrived in AUS we took the tram, train, then bus to get out to the Healesville Sanctuary to pet kangaroos for Isaac's birthday. On the bus we had driven through a beautiful area with lots of vineyards and rolling hills that we wanted to return to before we left. Anne's visit was the perfect time to go and we stayed at the most beautiful rental property, The White House. It was especially perfect for our family since it is a working farm and they welcomed the boys to help with chores and visit the animals. And animals there were! The day we arrived we saw kookaburras, cockatoos, parrots, kangaroos(finally!), horses, alpacas, goats, and miniature horses. It rained most of the weekend, and we got sooo muddy, but we were having so much that we hardly noticed.
More photos here.
Maca comes to Oz
Anne arrived on Thursday, July 21st, sans luggage which got delivered to the apartment the next day, to start a 10-day stay. It was so nice to see a familiar face and be able to introduce her to our adopted city here. It was also a great excuse for a couple more outings as we had our own departure in sight.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Collingwood Children's Farm
Jeremiah took the boys to Collingwood Children's Farm on Saturday. I've been wanting to take the boys there since we came here, but was too intimidated by the public transportation route to take them myself. Of course J has no such concerns, so on Saturday they took off for the farm while I was a bit under the weather. They had a great time and I'm very sorry to have missed it. Hoping it might work out to get back there again before we leave.
More photos here.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Great Ocean Road - Twelve Apostles
The big attraction in this area is the Twelve Apostles. They really are amazing, but there was a very specific viewing area and of course we arrived at the same time as about 4 charter buses full of people. We really only stayed long enough to walk and take the photos.
Great Ocean Road - Loch Ard Gorge
This area was the real gem of our Great Ocean Road trip, I think Jeremiah would agree. It's called Loch Ard Gorge for the Loch Ard shipwreck in 1878 in which only 2 people survived. After looking at the photos, you might see why it's amazing to me that anyone survived. The water beats against the cliffs mercilessly all the way through the narrow channel onto the beach.
We first arrived here to admire the scenery and then returned later in the day to let the boys play in the sand. It was much too chilly to play in the water by any reasonable person's standards, but of course the boys didn't mind at all.
Great Ocean Road - Home Away From Home Away From Home
Our vacation rental was the guest house of a couple who lives on 5 acres. It seems somewhat common to have a guest house built onto or near homes in rural areas. We absolutely loved the property. Would recommend it to anyone if you're in the area. :)
Great Ocean Road - Apollo Bay
The second stop we made was in Apollo Bay. The Great Ocean Road was absolutely beautiful, but also full of lots of twists and turns along the cliff-side road. We stopped often to ease queesy tummies.
Great Ocean Road Trip - Bells Beach
We got out of the city this weekend! We rented a van and headed for the ocean. Specifically the Great Ocean Road. Jeremiah and I could've spent a week here looking at the sights and exploring the area, but we didn't have a week and the boys weren't as interested in the sights as we were. It was still an amazing trip though, I'll put up photos in groups so as not to be overwhelming.
The first stop we made as at Bells Beach, a huge name in the surfing world.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
May 21, 2011 - Isaac's Birthday Wish
When Isaac found out that we were going to be in Australia for his birthday, his wish was to pet a kangaroo for his birthday. Uh, no problem? As it turns out, it was possible, so on our first weekend here, we hopped on a train to go to Healesville Animal Sanctuary. A tram, train, and bus ride later, we were there. It was a beautiful drive through wine country. We plan to go back while we're here, next time in a rental car when we can take our time and enjoy the beautiful countryside.
We participated in the Magic Moments program where we got to go inside an exhibit and feed and pet the animals. We chose the kangaroos of course, next time we want to do the koalas, which we didn't get to see at all this trip. :(
Unfortunately, I forgot my good camera at home on the kitchen counter. Of all days to forget it! I was so upset with myself. I had to make due with our ailing point and shoot camera.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
May 18, 2011
The boys sitting in front our building. Our living room window is on the top floor to their right. A few more photos from our day here.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
How did we get here?
My friend Heidi asked me how we ended up in Oz, and when I started to reply I realized it was a good place to start blogging about Australia.
So 5.5 weeks ago on April 7th the boys and I were going about a very routine Thursday morning. We were sitting at the kitchen table doing school and Jeremiah i(stant) m(essage)'d me and asked if I'd be interested in going to Australia. The convo went like this:
Jeremiah Johnson: I don't know that they'd move a family but Tendril needs someone to move to Australia for 3 months
Jeremiah Johnson: may 16th
Jeremiah Johnson: want me to volunteer and see if they'll send us all
Jeremiah Johnson: ?
Shanelle Johnson: um, yes
Shanelle Johnson: absolutely
He went on to say that he had no expectations that they would really send all of us and that I should put it out of my mind, so I did. No really, I did. It was too overwhelming to think about it only for it to not pan out. Until the moment Jeremiah im'd me, I didn't even know until then that his company had anything to do with Australia at all. As it turned out, his company had a new contract here with Origin Energy and were looking for some people to go for 3 months to get things off the ground.
Five hours later, this was the im I received that made me all shaky and nearly hyperventilate:
Jeremiah Johnson: get your passport ready
Shanelle Johnson: seriously?!
Jeremiah Johnson: they want us to fly out Apr 29 to May 7th just us to visit and make sure we are really willing to do it
Jeremiah Johnson: that would mean leaving the kids in the US
Jeremiah Johnson: then we'd have to return on May 16th for the 3 month stay
Jeremiah Johnson: so we can work out the week-long part but we need to get passports ordered tomorrow for anyone that doesn't have them
Shanelle Johnson: right, ok
And that was that. We were going to Australia. Tendril wanted Jeremiah and I to go for a week to make sure we wanted to make the commitment to come for 3 months with the family, make housing arrangements, and for J to meet the team he'd be working with.
Everything happened at incredible speed after that. And far beyond our ability to control it, everything fell into place with such ease it was obvious we were meant to do this. Our friends who had kept our dog Zoe while we'd gone to the midwest were willing to keep her for the duration. Our neighbor Jen was at the end of her lease at her house and was looking for a place to move into. We initially assumed we'd need to sell the chickens and let the snake go, but we ended up reconnecting with some old friends, the Horns, who live on a farm and were willing to let the chickens board there while we were gone and our friends the Mackeys were willing to keep the snake for us. Almost without trying, we had accommodations for all the animals and someone to stay in our house while we were away.
When J first mentioned us going over first for a week, I wondered how that could possibly work out. A year ago, it was a big deal for us to leave the boys for the first time for 2 nights to have a get-away. 10 days is a long time! A few calls to IL told me that Aaron and Judy had no travel plans and my mom had a light work week and all would be thrilled to have the boys while we went.
So 15 days after the im's above, we were leaving our house for 4 months and heading to IL. Of course we came and loved the city. J and I were terribly spoiled by completely uneventful travels, so we were a little put out when our very first flight with the boys out of the regional airport to get to Ohare was cancelled and our flights all had to be changed to the next day. It worked out fine though, and we've arrived safe and sound in Melbourne. The boys traveled amazingly well and I didn't even have to get out many of the activity books that I'd bought for entertainment. We're getting settled into our place and are currently working on getting home internet set up and getting the fridge and cupboards stocked.
More to come.....
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Homeschool Connection Projects
Homeschool Connection teachers were so kind as to help the boys finish up some projects on short notice before we head out of town. Today was their last day and these are some of the things Isaac came home with.
This is Isaac's wolf that he saved for and bought from the Nature and Science Museum gift shop, he named it Snow. In his sewing class, he made this bag to carry snow in on our trip.
The next two are project from his Pottery 3 class.
I just have put something next to this for perspective. It's quite large and very heavy! The class worked long and hard on their canopic jars. I really love how it turned out.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Face in Space
Isaac and Spencer watching their faces take off into space through the NASA Face in Space program. The space suits that Anne made the boys for cmas have badges for the specific Discovery shuttle mission that their faces are going to space in, so cool!!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Visit from Great Grandpa & Grandma
This past week my grandparents were on the way back to IL from AZ and stopped in Denver for a couple of days for a visit. It was great to get to see them. The last time they were in Denver they came along with us while we were getting the inspection done to buy our house(10yrs ago), so it's been a little while.
We decided to make our first ever trip to the Museum of Nature & Science. We ended up buying a family membership and it's a good thing we did as we never did made it out of the Space exhibit. Before we left, we watched Hubble 3D at the imax, it was so incredible! We have tons of exploring yet to do at the museum, including a new exhibit opening in a couple of weeks: Pirates!
Here Samuel is shaping the surface of Mars.....in his own unique way.
In science class at home, we did a crater experiment with flour and rocks. This was a high-tech version of that with steel balls and sand and cameras where you could make the crater and then watch the recording of it being made in slow motion in both forward and reverse.
The tot area had dress-up gear and the cockpit of a shuttle to pilot. Asher is focused on picking up space rocks here.
So glad it worked out for them to come through town!
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Isaac's Igloo!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Silly Samuel
Isaac got a Flip-like video camera for Christmas and we're enjoying it. Video overload here a bit, sorry about that. This is just Samuel in a fit of giggles, had us all cracking up.
Spencer's Intro to Drama
Today was the end of semester open house at Homeschool Connection. Each of the 3 boys who attend were part of the performance portion. Spencer's is first up. His class's performance is 10 mins long, the others are much shorter.
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