Tennis Lessons

When we were in Melbourne we put the kids in swim lessons as a weekly after school activity. Now being in Brisbane we wanted to have them try a different activity, so we put them in tennis. They LOVE it. Another benefit is that we can walk to the tennis courts (over the Go-Between-Bridge GBB) and there is an amazing playground right next to the courts. Its nice to have the kids be involved in the same activity. These pictures were taken after their first lesson. I am looking forward to watching them improve over the next 8 weeks. It is VERY humid in Brisbane, a lot like Florida. We are not used to the humidity, coming from Phoenix, so the kids were very hot after their lessons and I bought them an icy pull (what they call Popsicle in Australia) for the walk home.

Playground at Street's Beach

One of the best playgrounds in Brisbane is within 10 minutes walking distance to our apartment. It is right next to Street's beach and right on the Brisbane River. It is so unique with multiple in air climbing structures and slides. It even has a hamster wheel for the kids to run in.

The Wheel of Brisbane & World Science Fair

Before checking out the Science Fair we road the Wheel of Brisbane. It was fun to get an overview of our new city. We loved getting "stuck" at the top of the feris wheel while passengers got off the wheel.

Our first weekend in Brisbane the World Science Fair was happening. It was so fun to walk to the Science Fair and explore the different exhibits. There were a bunch of kid activities. It got pretty busy so we just did one activity, but it was about being an engineer for the day. The kids got to design something and then create it. We were so impressed with the materials that were provided and the volunteers that helped run the activity.

Riding the Brisbane City Cat

The city of Brisbane follows along the Brisbane River. One of the ways you can travel the city is taking the City Catamaran. It is basically a water taxi and takes our GO cards just like the bus does. Our first time taking the City Cat was super fun. We stayed on it for a good way in each direction so we could get a good view of the city. Loved the kids faces as the boat got going fast!

Queensland Museum: Mummy Exhibit & Turtle Hatchery

We were so excited to find out that the Queensland Museum had an exhibit on Egyptian Mummies. Derek has been doing a lot of reading about mummies since we have arrived in Australia so we were very excited to see the exhibit. The exhibit had just opened and is on loan from the British Museum.  We learned about the lives of 6 people who lived in Egypt between 3,000 and 1,800 years ago. The latest CT scanning technology was amazing! It allowed us to see under the cloth wrappings to see the bones of the mummies. 

Canopic jars where the organs were kept once they were removed from the bodies.

A model of Ancient Egypt beer making process. We were excited to take this picture for Matt to show him how beer was made in Ancient Egypt.

2 bracelets that Rylie liked that were worn on one of the women in Egypt

The kids were excited to receive these headpieces after going through the exhibit! Rylie bought a Queen Nephertti pen and Derek bought a small bust of King Tut.

After checking out the Mummy exhibit we went exploring the rest of the museum, which is completely free!! We happen to get in line to see the Loggerhead turtle hatchery. It was only at the museum for 3 days so we were pretty lucky to be able to see it. After an explanation of the turtles we got to see some babies that had just hatched out of the eggs. They were minutes old and so tiny and cute. 

We were really impressed with the Queensland Museum. The kids got to touch a turtle and a 5 year old crocodile. There were some great exhibits about the diversity of animals in the state of Queensland. We will definitely be back to explore more of the museum. It is great that it is within walking distance to our apartment.

There was a hands on exhibit with a collection of ocean items gathered from the Great Barrier Reef. It was neat to see all sorts of coral and sea stars etc. Rylie loved this big sea star.