We Love Visitors!

Why? Because we get to take them to the Brighton Beach Houses. It is always one of the first places we visit, we love to pick our favourite bath houses to take pictures of.

Thank you Dianna for coming to Australia so that we can show off Melbourne. We had a brilliant time!

Jared

~He refers to Toucans as Canatoos (which is influenced by all of the Cockatoos found in Australia) and is quick to correct people that say it wrong, just ask Dianna!

~He asks to eat constantly and when I say constantly, I mean it. When we went on the Great Ocean Road with our friends Deena and Christian he said every few minutes, "I want something to eat." Deena was trying to distract him and asked him what he was thinking about and he said, "I'm THINKING that I WANT something to EAT!" He has a one track mind.
~He knows every AFL (Australian Rules Football) team, by colour and jersey and knows that we want either St. Kilda or Wisconsin to win.
~He loves to dance and has sweet moves like his dad.
~He calls his blanket "dankie."
~He refers to an elevator as an "elagator."

The Great Ocean Road #7

John's sister Dianna came to visit the week before we came home and it was fabulous. She brought along her friend Margaret and we had a great time showing them around Melbourne and savoring every minute of our time together. Yes, even the Great Ocean Road.

The Twelve Apostles

The Grotto

Loch Ard Gorge

Triplett Falls


Lower Falls

Upper Falls

The animals are amazing.

A Holiday in the Country

The Meltons are some of our favourite people and we love traveling with them. In May we went to Sovereign Hill a suburb of Ballarat, which is an outdoor museum set during the 19th century Gold Rush. We stayed at a cabin in Daylesford and enjoyed a relaxing visit with our dear friends.

Wombat Hill Lookout Tower, Daylesford

Enjoying afternoon tea in the club house with Bella, Madi, Colin, Ingrid, Jared, Brooklyn and Astrid.

Sovereign Hill

Panning for gold.

We watched gold, worth over $100,000, get melted down and then formed into a gold bar.

Madi was able to hold it. She is so lucky!

The kids were able to dip candles as well.

Mornington Peninsula

We spent a few of our last weekends in Melbourne down on the Mornington Peninsula. It is a wonderful place to spend the day and gorgeous as well. We spent time in Franklin at a park and then walked around these sand sculptures.

No trip is complete without making our way to the ocean side of the bay (a.k.a. The Bass Strait) and enjoying the scenery and views.


Sorrento is lovely and the children enjoyed rolling down hills and playing hide and seek tiggy (tag).

And finally, ending the day with a brilliant sunset.

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

It was awesome to wake up with four packages of chocolate from the top Chocolatiers in Australia: Koko Black, Chokolait, Max Brenner and Haighs Chocolate. For those of you who know Jenny, nothing says love like Chocolate! Well done John, Colin, Brooklyn, Bella and Jared!

A Fun Surprise

John was able to surprise his parents and sister Dianna in Madison, Wisconsin two weeks ago. He had meetings scheduled in the States for work and made a connection through Chicago where Sid, his brother, picked him up. None of John's family lives in Wisconsin anymore, but a lot of his family happened to be meeting there to participate in the Crazylegs Classic run. John was able to spend just under 24 hours with his family before heading back to Chicago and onto Miami. Because John's parents and sister didn't know that he was coming, it was quite a surprise when he walked up to his mom at Brennan's, a family favourite cheese and produce market. The reunion caused a lot of excitement and by the time they left most everyone in the shop had heard the story about John showing up for a visit all the way from Australia.

From L to R: John, Sharon, Dianna, Ben, Adam, Paul, Hannah, Traci and Sid.

Seriously Cool

We had the best views in Australia.