Great Barrier Reef and Ayers Rock

Zip lining through the rain forest

family dive on the great barrier



RT enjoying the ride on zip line (sorry pic is out of order)

Cas posing by creek

RT and kids debating whether or not to jump into the freezing creek.

They eventually made it in for about 5 minutes

Kids warming in the sun after chilly swim

The boys went exotic fruit shopping and brought back some for a tasting.

We had black sopote, mangosteen, durien, passionfruit, etc.

Cheese tasting at a dairy in Northern Queensland

There are 5 beautiful waterfalls and 2 volcanic lakes within about 10 miles of each other. After visiting them all, we stopped at a sweet tea house and had yummy sandwiches made with homemade bread.

one of the waterfalls

We kept seeing the sign for the fig tree while visiting the waterfalls. We did not think that we needed to stoop so low as a tourist to look at a fig tree, at the last minute we drove the 2 kilometers out of the way and we saw this magnificent tree. Being a tourist isn't so bad after all.

Ayers Rock (Uluru). O.K. I have to admit I was not overly anxious to travel long distances to see a rock. Once again, my underestimation of a tourist sight proved me wrong. This is one big rock. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to walk around it at a fast pace. It was interesting to hear the aboriginal stories that went with the markings on the rock.

This was on the top of my list of things that I wanted to do in Australia. We took a camel ride out to see the sun setting over the rock. Abbie and I rode "trevor". He was a 6 year old camel that had recently came from the wild

The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) are about 20 miles from Uluru. They are not a monolith but just - if not more- impressive. We went on an 8 kilometer walk through them. If you look closely at this, RT is in the bottom center of the picture.

another pic of us hiking in the Olgas. Hats off to our kids. This was rated as a difficult hike. They hiked it with minimal complaining.

Wild camels in AU!! Yes, many people probably do not know that there are over 1,000,000 camels living in the outback. AU now exports camels to Saudi Arabia.

We had a wonderful 10 days exploring the Daintree rainforest, great barrier reef, and the Ayers Rock region with our good friends from the states. We were completely overwhelmed with our mighty God's creative ability. The rainforest possessed every color of green imaginable, the great barrier surprised us with the coolest fish and colorful coral, the rock was so mammoth and was such a stark contrast to the flat outback that we had to sit back and wonder why God put it in such a place. Even our kids asked why God put Ayers Rock there. While at Ayers Rock we had an astronomer (who gave credit to God for creating the sky) who explained to us the different constellations which we observed through a telescope. WHAT AN AMAZING GOD WE SERVE!!

The night before the run


carb loading at an Italian restuarant the night before the run. Pictured are RT, Me and my running friend Alexia


The morning of the run (4:30 a.m.) I am wearing my "proud to be an American" in honor of the Fourth of July



I was able to get showered after I ran 21k and before RT finished. This is RT about 30 minutes after he finished running 42K.

Sorry about the sideways pics. I do not have the time to figure out how to turn them. Wanted to get them posted

Wintertime activity

beautiful scenery. Just can't pass it up

country road

MaryAnne co-owns the vineyard with her husband

Captains Paddock

Cas enjoying the view

off-roading in the mud

starting the bike ride

RT had the day off so we decided to take a family bike ride to our favorite hang out place-the vineyard. We started by doing some mtn. biking; which turned out to be a bit muddy, but alot of fun. We enjoyed a nice lunch and then we came home a different route-a dirt country road. This is the kind of winter that I could get used to-cold mornings and evenings and warm during the day.

Strawberries in the Winter???

We recently found out that our strawberry season has just started. It will last throughout the winter months. I love this place. Mangoes and watermelon in the summer, oranges in last summer-early fall, now strawberries. It is a never ending fruit salad.

I put the poinsettia picture in there just to prove that it is winter. Maybe we should have Christmas.

home?

I have started this blog on several different days and it has always ended in being erased. I hate to say that I am running out of things to blog about, but I think that it is all becoming familiar and feeling a bit like home. Hence, we are not experiencing "new" things all the time. We really are feeling like life is almost normal. We have friends. Grocery shopping is not such a chore any more. We are established in church and taking on the responsibilities of a church-goer. RT's job is encompassing more responsibilities and with that comes more stress. The "r" at the end of our "er" words are sounding a bit more vowel like (ie. "never" sounds like nevah). We are getting used to ignoring the stares of people who are shocked to hear an American accent. etc etc.

My parents left today to return to the states and I can honestly say that I am not ready to come home. We still have a couple of big trips and some smaller trips to take before we leave on Oct.6th. We are looking forward to seeing more of this beautiful country and the land of New Zealand. We also have the best friends here. I still ask "why" when it comes to our friendships. I did not expect to have any friends (I know, I was being blonde) much less to establish a close friendship with anyone. The Voigts have become dear to our hearts (Kirsty- you are just going to have to get used to sharing your sis :-). We feel quite young again as this last week we got together a couple of evenings to play cards. Unfortunately, we know that the end of this quality time together is coming to an end, which saddens my heart to think about.
So, all this to say....life is good....we are feeling blessed beyond words.....and YES, we ARE coming home in October.

Sailing

We had a very good trip sailing in the Coral Seas. We brought along our good friends Brad, Megan and Andie Voigt.
We sailed off on Friday May 1, and sailed for about 5 hours before we dropped anchor in a cove. The next day we explored the island and viewed some cave paintings before we sailed for about 5 1/2 hours and dropped anchor in another cove where we explored another island and took in some spectacular scenery. Abbie, the brave one in the family, took a taste of some ants which are known to taste like lime. The third day we motored around to Whitehaven beach, a 3.5km stretch of beautiful white beach only accessible by boat. We played there for a while before setting sail for another several hours. We spent this night in Sid Harbour, a natural harbor famous for sheltering the US fleet during a storm before the Battle of the Coral Sea. The fourth day, we sailed to Hamilton Island where we enjoyed using our land legs. Cas and RT took a trip to dive on one of the inner reefs of the Great Barrier Reef while the rest of us visited the resort and explored the harbor.
The next day we left the island and sailed for about 4 hours north to another cove. We had to leave the protection of the islands. The seas were about 6-8 feet. My friend and I sat at the front of the boat. I found that if I screamed on the way up the wave that I could catch my breath on the way down.
The next day,we spent crossing the passageway. This was a very rough day on the high seas. We spent the next two nights staying in resorts with just a little bit of motoring in between.



Cas intently steering the boat while Brad looks on


the kids watched DVD's and played around on the bed (dining room table) while we sailed

On Hamilton Island, overlooking some of the other islands

rainy day sailing

A 3 km beach where we had the only footprints

another look at the beach. We were able to swim with some stingrays. Awesome experience

overlooking our boat in a cove

A cute picture of Abbie, but she is actually waiting for the benedryl to set in

RT in his favorite place

the whole crew. Our family and Brad, Megan and Andie

Back from the High Seas

We had a great trip out on our boat. We had rain every day and some high seas, but it did not hinder our ability to enjoy amazing friends and God's indescribable creation. RT is at a medical conference for the next couple of days. When we get home, we will write more about our adventures and post some pictures.
Please pray with us for our friends in Pomona, Missouri who lost their home in a tornado/straight line winds.