Random Brissy pictures

This "BrisVegas" sign was outside the GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art). 

We could see it all lit up at night from the top of our apartment building. 

These are some books that the kids bought to donate to the SCA library from their Australia trip.
Derek bought Bear Gryllis and How to Train your Dragon. Rylie bought Ella and Olivia. I LOVE that the kids love books and reading!!!

In Australia McDonalds is called Macca's. They have a McCafe with their own baristas who make cappuccino and other specialty drinks, no drip coffee. It is pretty neat and strange to see people order fancy coffee at McDonalds. We were so amazed.

Date Night

Matt's PhD student, Kristina, offered to watch our kids so we could go on a date night. The kids LOVE her and couldn't wait for her to babysit. Rylie wrote out a schedule of what they wanted to do with Kristina for when she watched them. We felt so blessed to be able to have a date night in a foreign country and leave our kids with someone we trusted!

We made reservations at JellyFish, an amazing seafood restaurant right by the Story Bridge. 

We took a City Cat to get there. It was a great night!!

Here is our view of the Story Bridge from our table!

There were so many delicious items on the menu so we asked the server to recommend something. He suggested the Baramundi fish. I love Baramundi, but had only had a fillet. So when my meal came out with an entire fish on my plate my mouth dropped! But it was delicious and I'm so glad I got it for my meal.

It was so nice to have a date towards the end of our trip. It was nice to chat and reflect on the things we had learned about ourselves and our marriage and raising kids from being on sabbatical. It was amazing to see how we had grown and changed. God is so good to have given us great perspective at this point in our lives and Matt's career. We are so grateful for this time in our lives.

We walked home through the Botanic Gardens and over the Goodwill Bridge, past South Bank. 

We stopped at Messina for dessert before walking home. 

When we got home the kids were still awake, they were reading in bed,

and I found this sweet note from Rylie.

One-in-One Dates with the Kids

In Melbourne, Rylie went on a date with me when Matt took Derek to a cricket match (with David and Angus) so in Brisbane we decided to switch it up. This time Matt took Rylie on a date and I took Derek on a date. It is so much fun to spend time with the kids 1-on-1. We let the kids plan out the dates.

Rylie got all dressed up and went out to dinner and then ice cream with Matt.

Messina for dessert

Derek and I rented bikes and biked for a while before stopping for dinner. Derek had the whole date planned out from the biking route to what he wanted for dinner to getting dessert. He wanted salmon so we ate at South Bank at River Quay. I got Baramundi, which was delicious while Derek ate salmon. We had a beautiful view of South Bank while we were biking. The moon was pretty bright and we were also able to see the International Space Station (ISS) was passing by. So the bright white spot to the right of the moon is the ISS.

Sharing a Bed

The apartment in Brisbane only had 1 queen bed for the kids. For the first part of the trip we bought a single air mattress that they took turns sleeping on. It wasn't their favorite when it was their turn to sleep on the air mattress. 2 weeks before we left the air mattress got a hole in it so we got rid of it. We got creative and the kids shared a bed. They did a good job of not complaining and making it work. 

So sweet!!

A Week of Sickness for Me

 The day after Mother's Day I ended up getting a cold. I really didn't get off the couch for a couple of days. It was pretty yucky and I was so tired. I was sad that one of our last weeks I spent sick. Thankfully the kids didn't get it too bad, so that was good. Praise God this was the only time we got sick during our entire 5 months in Australia. God protected us immensely. Guess it proves that the kids pick up most germs from other kids at school.

During one of our first days out I took the kids on a short walk while they did some scooting. 

I just needed to get out of the apartment and get some fresh air.

Silly kids doing silly things!

One of the days Rylie decided to have a "National Kids Day!" She wrote up a schedule 

of events and we participated. It was so creative and very fun!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day or Mum's Day, as Rylie likes to call it was a great family day. I felt so loved and we had a great time together. Matt went and got me coffee. I got to take a shower and crawl back in bed with my coffee. Then the kids made me breakfast in bed. I got the works, pancakes, eggs, toast and fruit. In the weeks leading up to Mother's Day the kids had each picked out special cards for me during our trips to Coles. It was so cute to watch them look at the cards and read the words and pick just the right one for me. I loved seeing their independence and pure joy at picking out my card. They wrote their own words all on their own - they are speaking my love language.

 

Matt and the kids ate breakfast on the patio, while I ate in my bed. I felt like a queen.

Then we went to church at Hillsong in the heart of Brisbane CBD. 

After church we drove to the top of Mt. Coot-tha and went to a fancy restaurant with a 

Mother's Day brunch. It was so yummy and they had amazing GF options. This was my first experience trying Barramundi fish. We left feeling very full.

 

There was a magician who went around to all the tables doing magic tricks and 

then made the kids a dog and sword out of balloons.

 Pictures of the amazing view after lunch.

 It was super bright!

The evening of Mother's Day Paul invited us along with Ing-Mari and Kristina over to his house for dinner. It was very lovely and fun. We even got to try an Australian dessert called Pavlova. It had passion fruit on top. It was delicious.

Rhoan also made creme brule.