Life changes!

Well, now that life has settled down a little bit I guess I better clue everyone in to what is happening here. Our plan was always to return to Kununurra after Eldon's study had finished and possibly work for a few more months until he could find another job. Well...that plan went down the tube 2 weeks ago when we found out we were being forceably removed from our house in Kununurra! We decided that instead of being upset, we would just be happy that the decision to leave Kununurra was being made for us, as we had been going back and forth between staying and going for months! My Dad was able to come over and help us pack up our stuff so last week Dad and I were in Kununurra clearing out our house. I am back in QLD now and Dad is back in the states....and I am still trying to get used to the fact that THIS is our home now! It wasn't easy leaving the friends in Kununurra, especially the way we did. Eldon wasn't able to come back with us, so he missed out on the good-byes. We are still living in a flat next to some of the friends and they are letting us stay on for as long as we need. Now that we are here not just on study/holiday, but semi-permanent, life certainly has seemed up in the air. Eldon's last exam is today and he has two more home-study exams to do in the next couple weeks. Then...who knows...we haven't decided yet!!! In the meantime we are trying to be patient. If anyone wants our new address, I can send it on email. Our old address is being redirected for three months.

As for Rhys...well he is just growing into a little boy and it is so fun to watch. He loves anything that moves including leaves and bugs. He likes to pull up grass and try to eat it. He would much rather play with the broom and mop than his toys. He loves getting dirty and hates putting on clothes. He loves to yell at the top of his lungs when we are in an echoy place like the bathroom. He crawls with careless abandon and has to be watched all the time now!! His new trick is standing up and he is getting really good at it! It's amazing how quickly they gain strength after trying a new trick. He isn't walking around the furniture yet but that won't be long. You can see the wheels turning as he tries to figure out how he can get whatever he's after. He'll be 9 months old on Sunday! Time is flying and he'll be one before we know it! I will try to post pictures soon.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Trip to QLD

Well, we are here! Our old Ford Falcon actually made it all the way to Queensland! We hit the road in a bit of a rush as we were dodging weather and closed roads.

Day 1: Kununurra, WA to Katherine, NT
We hit the road on Wednesday after we heard the Victoria River bridge was finally open after some many weeks of being closed for flooding. This was a relatively short driving day, but we knew we were going to have a long day the next day.

We got everything in, including Rhys!

The Victoria River bridge, which was closed the day before because of flooding...they are building a higher bridge next to it.

Trial mix yah!

Day 2: Katherine, NT to Mt Isa, QLD
This was by far our longest day. We did over 1200 kms with stops for lunch and for feeding Rhys etc. We left at 7am and pulled into Mt Isa about 9pm with one hour of night driving. Luckily, we didn't see one animal with the exception of birds. The terrain from 3 Ways, NT to Mt Isa is just flat as flat can be and boring!!

Cool cloud formation on the road to Camooweal

Rhys helping Eldon hold his ginger beer after a weary day in the car

Day 3: Mt Isa to Longreach
Average day...8 hours of driving or so. By the time we got to Longreach, we had hit about a million locusts and a couple hundred cane toads and you can imagine what our car looked like! We still had a day to go so we didn't bother cleaning it off. We must have hit a few lizards of all shapes and sizes but we missed a far bit as well. I remember running directly over the top of a blue-tongue lizard but luckily they are so slow that we didn't hit it. We did hit a huge snake...it was like going over a speed bump! Someone had already killed it and it was severed, but it still stretched all the way across our lane. Would have like to get a picture of it alive.

Helping Daddy drive! He learned how to turn the wipers on!

Changing Rhys in some outback Qld town where we had some lunch. We met a one-legged magpie with whom we shared our chicken bones

Day 4: Longreach to Tannum Sands
Finally to the beach! It was so nice to pull up to our friends' place and be able to rest for a few days. They live right near the beach and we were able to go twice while we were there. We stayed with our friends Robert and Rachel Bonney and they have a little boy, Saylor, who is only 2 days apart from Rhys. It was fun to see them interact. Saylor was crawling and pulling himself up already and Rhys was only sitting up at that point, but they did play together a little. We had Sunday morning meeting with them and stayed Monday as well. Tuesday we headed down to Nambour via Noosa Heads (a neat little place on the coast which we ARE going back to).

Great pals already...Saylor and Rhys

"Look, this is how you eat sand."

Cute baby on the beach

First time in the ocean!!

Family photo at Rob and Rachel's

The next four are us at Noosa Heads on the way to Nambour

The outlook from our flat in Nambour

At this rate I'll never catch up!!!

Hopefully you haven't completely given up on me yet! Eldon, Rhys and I are now settled temporarily in the Sunshine coast town of Nambour where we have a cozy little flat which belongs to some friends. It is in a beautiful location...right up a hill in the bush with a view down on Maroochydore and the beach! We are very lucky to have such a place! I am going to attempt to blog some of our pictures from the trip over here, but before I do that, I must say I have lots more photos of the USA and New Zealand trips which I won't be able to blog! I have uploaded these photos to our Picasa photo page (there is a link on the right hand side of this page) if you are interested in viewing them. I have been to NZ again since then and feel I really must move on if I'm ever to catch up!!!!

Eldon is now in the midst of lots of study...lucky him! It will be very good to have all these courses out of the way. I'm sure he'll be glad when he's done. Rhys and I have just returned from visiting Eldon's family in NZ and of course Rhys started crawling when we were there! Poor Eldon missed out on that one! Anyway, he is crawling up a storm now and I am learning all about child-proofing! No more sleeping on the bed with Mommy after he crawled off the side of the bed the other day! :( He is loving it!

Ok, catch up time...watch this space!

Auntie Shauna

We were so lucky to have time with Shauna on our holiday! She loves her nieces and nephew!

Speaking of Snow...

I just had to post these fun pictures of the snow we had...and of course Rhys, all rugged up!