We saw another Aborigine on the streets of Sydney trying to make an extra buck. 
We visited Hyde Park in Sydney.
Sawyer scratched his belly pretty bad trying to climb a palm tree.
We also visited the Sydney Aquarium for the second time. The first time was over a year ago when we visited with another Peabody family. Sawyer enjoyed it!
We flew to Sydney today. Sydney is 10 hours South of Brisbane and it is an hour and 15 minute flight. As soon as we arrived we rented a car and drove 1 1/2 hours to the Blue Mountains, where we saw the famous 3 Sisters Rocks. Most of the drive was through the mountains to get to the top. It was really beautiful. 
We got to hear a native Aborigine play his Didgeridoo. Note: He is wearing more clothes today than normal because it is winter and cool.
We also visited a park in the Blue Mountains with a nice lake. Sawyer loved playing there. 
Sawyer is so big..... he took this picture of us! 
After we checked into our hotel on Darling Harbor in Sydney we went to the biggest IMAX theater in Australia. Sawyer kept reaching for the fish and sharks because he thought they were really swimming in front of his face.
Afterwards they had fireworks over the harbor. They were the best and biggest fireworks we have ever seen!
Today we finally got our patio furniture delivered. We now have a place to eat all of our meals together. I love it.
We rented a car for the weekend again. We are driving much better now. We took a day trip to Gold Coast which is about an hour south of here. It is a beautiful beach with clear blue water and white sand. Sawyer liked playing in the sand and water. The water was so cold we only rolled up our jeans and stood in the very shallow parts. Sawyer got to play at the best park ever! It had everything from cars to petal around a track to a Tarzan rope. It was pretty cool! We also tried another church in Bulimba. It seemed to be a good church. I don’t think anyone attends that is younger than 60, except there is a 3 year old that comes regularly. If we land at this church at least Sawyer will have a playmate. They don’t really have anything to get involved with. No choir, Sunday School, etc. There might be about 20 people who attend on Sunday mornings.
We rented a car for the weekend to practice driving. Jonathan and I both drove and had a lot of fun. We were both glad that we had the other in the car with us because two heads are better than one when you’re driving totally opposite than normal. We found that we need to concentrate on every little turn. Although we could not have went anywhere without the GPS system Mom and Dad got me for my birthday. We have used that thing like crazy since we have been here. It has really been a life saver. Thanks Mom and Dad! We tried out our first church in Bulimba. It was not our cup of tea. 1 hour of singing songs we did not recognize and 6 minutes of preaching.
This was our view from the Marriott Hotel in Brisbane. Sawyer loved to watch the boats go up and down the river. Our first week here was difficult. I was starting to get sick again during the day and then mainly in the evenings. Sawyer wanted to go to bed for the night at 3:00pm every day. The first day we got here we all went to sleep around 3 or 4:00pm and slept the whole night just to attempt to get ahead of the jet lag. But, with Sawyer it was almost impossible to do. It took him a good 7 days to get back on a normal schedule. I really dread jet lag when we go home for Christmas (with Sawyer especially). Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Janet, our re-location consultant, or our ‘Australian Mom’ took Sawyer and I out to shop for appliances, rental furniture, and groceries. As you know we had to purchase all new appliances because AUS runs on a higher electrical voltage and the plugs are shaped differently. All our shopping was finished in 3 days and everything was delivered the next day on Thursday. Our air shipment was also delivered. Mostly everything was delivered in the same condition it was packed in except Sawyers highchair. It arrived in 3 pieces. They are going to reimburse us for it later though.
We had no problems flying American Airlines and arriving in Los Angeles at about 11:00pm, then boarding our Qantas flight to arrive in Australia 15 hours later (which is Sunday morning). Thanks for all the prayers, because I was not sick at all on either of the flights. God does answer prayer! Sawyer did pretty well on the flight. I don’t think he ever cried for longer than 50 seconds at any given time. He slept for only 5 hours of the trip. It was difficult keeping him quiet in 1st class in the nose of the plane where only 18 passengers are. It is very quiet up there! He got several compliments after the flight about how good and well behaved he was. Jonathan and I could not be happier. After we arrived we tried to get an early check-in at the Marriott Hotel in Brisbane, but our room was not ready. So, we all got on the City Cat (a public transportation speed boat) and took Sawyer to the park. After being cooped up in the plane for 15 hours, he deserved some time to run and yell if he wanted. Daddy and Sawyer had so much fun running around chasing the tropical birds.
This is what April (best friend from home) looks like now at 22 weeks (Aug. 24th, 2008). I can't believe she's big enough to have twins in there. April and Jason have known for a while that they are having twins. I know, can you even imagine? Well, today they found out they are both boys. We are all very excited. Although she isn't due until the 31st of December she is having the babies end of November or first part of Dec. Twins usually come a month early. That's right around the corner, April. Are ya'll ready!
