Look who showed up!

 After waiting and waiting, Amelia Rose was born on Father's Day. She was 21 inches long and weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. She slept so well that night that we were the last of the three families at the birth center to wake up and leave despite her being born first.

Coming home and meeting everyone...

 Here she is at 7 weeks.

This week (at nine weeks) we went to the doctor and she weighted 10 lbs. 1 oz. The doctor isn't very optimistic that she'll double her birth weight at four months but she's just dainty and petite. She is by far the best baby I've ever had; I tell everyone that God decided to take pity on me with the fifth one! She sleeps like a champ, so much so that on some days it feels like we hardly see her. When she does wake up she's happy and content. If I need her to wait before I feed her she doesn't mind. She can sit in her chair or lay on the floor and just look around forever. When someone comes into view (especially Mom or Dad) she just lights up. She feels no need to suck on anything, be it pacifier or fingers or anything else, and she never lingers over feedings. I absolutely love all of her long, dark hair and her dark blue eyes (I think they're not going to change). She is just the most peaceful, content baby ever!

The End of Australia

On Tuesday in Cairns we drove to Babinda Boulders. It was another lovely rain forest walk with beautiful granite rock formations in Babinda Creek. It reminded us a lot of Johnson's Shut-Ins in Missouri, only bigger, deeper, faster, and more deadly. A lot of people drown there each year when they ignore all the guard rails and signs and go into the water just to be pulled under by the current.

 There was a wide, shallow, slow moving swimming hole upstream from the boulders. We swam with a lovely woman who was a doctor on holiday. There were also a couple of men who were snorkeling up the creek and we couldn't figure out how they were doing it with the water so cold. I think this may have been the night that we got back to town early and went to see Monument Men at the movie theater. Yes, we go half way around the world to go to the movies without kids.

 On our last day in Cairns I was really ready to put the rain forest behind me and try something new. Neil agreed to try the crocodile farm and low and behold he loved it! We stayed the ENTIRE day. I was exhausted but I couldn't drag him away!

First was a boat ride around the river to see the crocs and nests. The driver told awful jokes and tempted the crocs with chicken. After that we watched a demonstration and feeding.

 Here is Neil with his chicken head which he fed to the fresh water crocs. They're really small and pretty harmless.

 This croc was born with no tail. It's a pretty common birth defect but they don't survive in the wild. We saw this on a tour of the farm.

 We went to a croc show and a snake show where Neil took a ton of pics of both. Why, I have no idea. (Because the snake below is an inland Taipan, one of the most venomous snakes in the world and I thought Bret would get a kick out of it.)

 And again with the fuzzy marsupials. I was trying to go home and kept having to stop on the path to wait for Neil because he would find yet another animal that he needed to feed or pet.

The next day we returned our car and flew home. Interestingly, security in Australia is way more lax than in the US. The Malaysian flight disappeared the day we arrived in Australia so I was worried security might be more of a problem. But we flew to Cairns and then back to Sydney without anyone ever checking our ID. At the gate to get on our flight to LA they had a special security screening for just that flight. Every time you went to get a drink or go to the bathroom you had to show your ID again to get into the US flight gate area.
And that's it! We loved it and would love to go back but we probably won't as there are so many other awesome places we want to go to. I did figure out that two weeks away while pregnant and with little ones at home was more than I wanted but by the time we go away for two weeks again they'll all be big!

Almost the end of Australia...

Saturday in Cairns we joined a chartered boat and headed out to the Great Barrier Reef. The last time I went snorkeling there it was stormy, the water was rough, and I wasn't feeling well so I didn't enjoy it at all. This time was much more pleasant. The weather was perfect and the water as calm as could be. The company we chose is the only family-run reef charter in Cairns and they were awesome! We went to two different sites and we were out there longer than any other boats. There was plenty of time to get your fill of snorkeling. They also offered scuba diving but since I couldn't dive while pregnant Neil opted not to. Although in hindsight, we were out there so long and the longer I snorkeled the harder it was to breath that Neil actually spent a lot of time in the water by himself and he could have gone diving too. But as a consolation, diving is really unnecessary at the reef. Snorkeling really is the best way to see it since the water is so shallow.

I had already abandoned the water when Neil found a sea turtle. I had to get back in just so I could come back and tell Sadie that I had seen one. She did a report on them once and is very knowledgeable.

Neil was out there so long that he completely burned the back of his legs. Five months later and he still has an awesome tan line.

 Sunday we went to church and then went to walk up Crystal Cascades. Of course the first path Neil took us on wasn't the "real" path and went up a different fork of the creek with over grown paths and cobwebs. But it was pretty at the top.

There's a foot path that paralells the creek. Occasionally there are ladders and steps that go down the cliff to swimming holes. There were lots of families out that afternoon. At the top are lots of boulders and falls.

Of course Neil had to get as far out over the water as possible.

Monday in Cairns was one of our busiest and favorite days. First up was Mossman Gorge. It's a National Park and may be the only rain forest spot that we had to pay to get in to, but it was well worth it.

 There are several paths through the forest. I was kind of tired and suggested going aways and then turning around but Neil really wanted to walk the whole thing. It was only supposed to be a couple of kilometers but it sure took forever to get through. It satisfied our craving of damp dirt tracks and rock covered stream beds though.

At the end of our hike there was a nice swimming hole. Of course the water was freezing but eventually I made it in.

After swimming we ate at the visitor center where Neil got to try barbecued kangaroo. He thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the ice cream we ate on the way back to the car!
Cairns proper doesn't have swimming beaches so we stopped at Port Douglas on our way home from Mossman Gorge to find a beach. They have netted areas for swimming so that you don't get bothered by jelly fish and such. The water was so warm and clean it felt like being in a bathtub. We walked out as far as we could and just floated forever. So much fun.

 This is Ellis Beach - one more little beach spot we stopped at on the way home. There was a little creek (behind us here) flowing down into the ocean and it made for good exploring.

The End of Sydney and on to Cairns!

Tuesday was day four in Sydney. We took all morning on the trains and buses but we finally made it to the Sydney Temple. The workers there were so nice and determined to find a way for us to make it into the temple even though they were short on workers. After that we spent the afternoon at the beach where we took no pictures because, well, we were at the beach!

We started at Bronte Beach and did the Walk up to Bondi Beach. We tried out the water at Bronte and it was freezing so I stayed on the beach for the most part. But Neil ventured in and completely forgot that his wallet was in his pocket. Yay for plastic money in Australia! The walk along the coast was gorgeous and Neil gave me several heart attacks as he ventured out to the edge of the cliffs. Bondi Beach was lovely but very crowded. We ended the day with gelato from Gelato Messina. So yummy.

Wednesday was our last day in Sydney. We breakfasted at Pancakes-on-the-Rocks at Darling Harbour and then walked through town. 

We found this amazing playground in Tumbalong Park. I think this was the only time that Neil wished the kids could have been with us so that he could play without everyone looking at him weird. Here Neil is trying out the Archimedes Screw.

It had amazing water features, a huge zipline, ropes course, crazy swings... This park would never show up in the US because it's just too much fun (ie dangerous). You should look at the awesome pictures here and here.

Thursday was spent flying to Cairns. We rented a car for this part of the trip and we were happy to find that driving around Cairns was easier than we expected. And after the teeny little hotel room we had in Sydney, our poolside studio room felt very luxurious. We stocked up on groceries that first night and cooked a lot of our meals that last week.
On Friday we headed to Kuranda. We walked through the rain forest, saw the Barron River, and shopped at the markets. It was so lovely to be surrounded by so much green when we're used to desert brown.

And look! They actually have water in their rivers! Our river has dirt, brush, and cactus growing in it.

The markets were pretty typical of a tourist town but Neil found some lovely leather Akubra hats that were on clearance so he and Madoc both got one. And we met a really nice lady who we talked with in her shop while it rained outside. We were comparing water - what she got living in the rain forest as opposed to us living in the desert. Made me want to move to Australia just so I could drink rain water from a cistern!

Australia, cont.

(I've had this post sitting as a draft in my account for months. I figure it was time to hit publish and get back to blogging.)

On Monday we took a tour to the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney. It was a perfect and fun day. Neil had really been looking forward to this, as he likes the outside adventure stuff more than the touristy walk through the city stuff. We went to the Jamison Valley to walk through the rainforest at the site of an abandoned mine. We rode a cable car and the steepest railroad in the world to get down to the floor. The views were stunning with mountains, rainforest, and waterfalls. You can see the Three Sisters from this valley and another lookout that we went to later on.

The Three Sisters

Here's the cable car going back up the mountain. You can see the Three Sisters in the background.

 We went to an aboriginal cultural center and saw a brief performance of dance and music. The men all participated in the kangaroo dance. Neil was way better than anyone else up there.

The not-on-the-official-tour lookout that our guide took us to anyway. No guardrails equals way better views.

The tour guide took everyone's picture at this spot. He looked like he was going to fall off the mountain as he sandwiched himself between a few rocks and leaned out over the edge to get the good shots.

And we stopped at a nature center where there were fuzzy marsupials which is all Neil ever wanted anyway.

A wallaby with her joey

And me with a koala!

If you ever go to Australia, I'd highly recommend this tour. It's the only one we took because we're not really tour group kind of people but it was really great. Thanks Melissa for recommending!