We got big news, the party boat is here...

I got some big exciting news tonight, but I can't share with the whole world until tomorrow. I'm going to have trouble sleeping but I have to wait until some key people hear before I can broadcast. (no it's not that)  Sufficed to say, this is a real game changer.  Stay tuned for news.

P.S. thanks to Abbey for sharing photos from Robin and Chris' wedding, and thanks to Kari for sending us those videos, it was the next best thing to being there.  We miss you all.

I mean, shit, I got nothin

Guys, I'm sorry I've been letting you down with this blog thing lately.  We've been just livin, ya know?

I have some stuff to write about but I can't let it out just yet.  Gotta wait until the time is right, so to speak.

We do however want to take a minute to ask you all to send your thoughts and prayers for Leah's grandpa.  He's been in the hospital for a few days and is fighting a hard fight.

Also, we want to say good luck and congratulations to Robin and Chris who are getting married this weekend in Madison.  We wish we could be there to party with you, but you know, the whole other side of the world thing and all.

Those of you who do read the posts here, thanks for reading.  Promise not to stop just yet, we've just both been pretty busy.

Quick Trip to Sydney

A couple of weeks ago, my coworkers and I went to Sydney for a business trip.  Actually, we had won a sales contest and the trip was our reward.  We had a really busy schedule that included tours of the "home office" and other pretty boring stuff, followed by an awesome climb to the top of the Sydney Harbour bridge followed by a dinner cruise on the harbour.  

Me, Jay (my boss), and Kevin on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  They make you dress up in those jump suits and the headphones are so we could hear our guides.  You're not allowed to take cameras up the bridge with you. They stop at four or five places and take your photo and charge you $25 to buy one.  We split the cost to get this one.  The climb costs about $250 each to do but the company we work for put us up for it.  It took about two hours to climb up and back with ample time to look around.  We got to watch the sunset from the top.  Two thumbs up.

Sydney from the plane.  The harbour is enormous. (Yes, they spell it with a "U")

On the ANZAC bridge.

Kev takes a moment to snap a couple at the docks

Yeah, that's about it.  I was only in Sydney for 24 hours and it was work related.  Most of the time I was on someone else's schedule and didn't drag the camera out.  What I can't show you is the huge yacht we were on for dinner and a cruise around the harbour.  We drank lots of free alcohol and played back jack on the boat. Kevin wound up winning the black jack tourney.  I woke up the next with a pretty massive headache.  I can't wait to go back and see the place properly.

Where did I leave off?

I had intended to continue with the recap of our trip to the Whitsundays, but our internet was slowed for the last few days of last week. (Leah was off for most of the month and was downloading lots of TV)

Since we've done that trip with Dave and Sarah, I've been to Sydney and Leah and I have been to two different rain forests.  If you want to see the whole mess of those photos, send me an e-mail and I'll send you a link to them.  Lets just call it trip of a lifetime and leave it at that.

This weekend Leah and I went down to Lamington National park and camped a couple of nights.  On Saturday we did a big 17.5k hike (about 11 miles).  It took us through subtropical rain forest, along a stream compete with tons of awesome waterfalls and up into the cold rain forest, where we saw some trees that are nearly 2000 years old.  It was misty, cloudy and a little bit rainy and I walked away with a few leech bites, but it was well worth it.  And the best part is it only takes about an hour by car to get there from home.

I'm too tired to write anything substantial, but I wanted to post a few pics tonight.  Forgive me if there is no rhyme or reason.

A little brekky in the mist, if you look closely (click photo to enlarge) you can see the little padmelons (tiny little kangaroo/wallaby thingos) in the background.   Thee were super cute and hung out most of the time we were at our tent.  

Hey little guy!

Large tree, little person

A rare open view, we were either deep in the forest or it was cloudy the whole day.  This was the only time we could see any distance.  Gorillas in the mist, yo.

Strangler fig on an angle looked pretty tempting for climbing.  

The first of about 40 waterfalls.

Some of them were more spectacular than others.

We had been told by a ranger to watch out for Lamington blue spiny crays.  A type of crayfish that lives in the creeks in the park.  We had seen a bunch of smaller ones in the water but Leah about jumped out of her boots when this guy showed up right in the middle of the path.  He was about 6 inches long and put up an impressive defensive show.  

Best of several attempts to get the waterfall in the background.

This spot was so lovely that we had to stop for a bite to eat, then we noticed the leeches and got the hell out.  I got several bites during the hike.  Did you know that leech bites continue to bleed for a really long time after?  I do now.

We both agree that this is one of the most beautiful hikes we've ever done.

As we worked our way up the mountain from the waterfalls, the forest changed character from sub-tropical to cold rain forest.  Everything was covered in moss.

If it wasn't covered in moss it was covered in fungus.

The rocks were super slippery, and by the time the day was over we were covered in mud.  I'd do it again in a minute.  

Airlie Beach

Having friends come and visit was really exciting for Leah and me.  We are making friends here, but familiar faces are always nice to see.  We booked a trip for the four of us so Dave and Sarah could get to see a bit more of Australia than just Brisbane.

Airlie Beach is about an hour and a half by jet north of Brisbane.  It's the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and from there the Great Barrier Reef.

Hey awkward family photo...

Actually we're looking right at the plane while they unload our bags.  Proserpine airport is the smallest airport I've landed at in a very long time.

The first day was kind of cloudy...

So we found something to occupy our time!

Dave was pretty enthusiastic about trying as many local foods as possible and he put on a bit of an exhibition, that night we found a seafood restaurant and tucked into a big plate of Kilpatrick Oysters, prawns, fish and chips and lots of beer.

Is this picture blurry? or was it just us?

We spent our first night there in a really nice backpacker's hostel thingo.  And by really nice, I mean and absolute dump, not bad for college age students who don't mind sleeping on a plastic covered mattress and can abide the occasional bed bug bite.  We did manage to find a really ratty copy of trivial pursuit with Australian questions.  None of us being native, we passed on a lot of questions.

Check out the fancy digs, is that a bottle of Beam and a box o'wine? Stay classy kids!

Sarah got a little wild with the die rolling.

It was a relatively tame night, and we were all excited to get on the boat in the morning.  We had booked a three day and two night cruise on a catamaran that would take us out to the Whitsunday Islands, about 15 miles off the coast from Airlie Beach. 

100th Post!!

Greetings Dear Readers!

Welcome to the 100th post!  We know we've been away for a while but rest assured we have been busy.

In the past few weeks we have had visitors from home, gone on a sailing trip, hiked in the rain forest and I've been to Sydney to climb the Sydney harbor bridge.  We haven't forgotten about you, we've just been refilling the batteries so to speak.

All told between the four of us we took over 1300 photos of the week.  I'm still trying to get them organized.  Over the next few nights I'll post some of my favorites.

One of ten million photos of the four of us from the weekend

Sarah and Dave getting a taste of SCUBA

The wild Cockatoos at the hotel looking for handouts

Cheeto ate a swath across this country!

We went to the rain forest

We saw some wallabies, check this guy with the straw in his mouth.

Thomas is happy as can be between these two.

Thought it was gonna take me sunnies!

We did a little hiking

Someone tooted!

More to come tomorrow...

Happy Birfday America!

No fireworks for us this year, but we did go see Toy Story 3 this morning with Andrew, Melissa and the kids.

We're getting ready to have visitors from the states arrive.  Dave and Sarah hit the ground at 6:30 in the morning.  We've got big plans for their time here and probably won't be updating the blog this week.  Rest assured we'll come back with some good stuff to keep you all entertained.

One quick thing from this week. We had a little visitor that we weren't expecting, and perhaps little isn't quite the word to describe him.  We were sitting and watching tv when all of a sudden Leah's eyes bulge out of her head and she points at the wall, where I see this:

Now bear in mind, we are in the middle of winter here and really haven't been seeing many insects lately aside from the occasional ant.  So this grasshopper seemed to come from nowhere.  And look at the size of the thing.  It's like military grade or something. I couldn't resist grabbing it of course. I mean what was I supposed to do?

This is one seriously strong grasshopper, it really took some effort to wrangle it.  Then I chased Leah around the apartment with the grasshopper in one hand and the camera in the other.  Let me tell you I got some really hilarious photos of Leah being horrified by the thing, but I'm not going to post them here.  She'd kill me or worse, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

I let the thing go outside and it flew away I then spent the rest of the night scaring Leah by looking up at the ceiling and pretending to see another one.  Ah, it's the little pleasures...