Lance Armstrong's Ride Raises $125k for Queensland Flood Victims

Kiera, Sawyer, and Kaitlin...just hanging out before the race.

Cheeky Kathleen! I love this shot

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We waited, and waited and then came the sea of cyclists!

Above: Lance Armstrong at the Oxford St. Roundabout

Kathleen's husband, Ryan, is an avid biker and he rode in the race with Lance...how cool!

...and then there was this guy. I love all his matching gear!

It was very touching to see all who were cycling for a very much needed cause. Click here to see the Brisbane Flood before and after pictures. Click and drag the slider to see the difference.

Maccas(McDonalds) with Our Best Buddies

Here's cheeky Kiera...what's she up to?

Look, Sawyer and Kaitlin in their first house...ha, ha!

Did you get it all, Kiera?

Awe! Look at her precious face! She's gorgeous!

Coloundra North Beaches

There is one of the Glass House Mountains!

Awe, Sawyer & Kaitlin

If you look closely you can see that he has his arm around her. They are such great mates!

Lets play pirates!

Brisbane Floods, Day 4 Clean-up

The Brisbane City Council collected all the sand bags.

The streets were left unsanitary with nasty sludge and sewage, etc.

Jonathan and Sawyer helped with all the sand bags.

This picture was taken from the top of the cliffs at Kangaroo Point. It overlooks the city and the botanic gardens, which you can't see because it was underwater.

Channel 9 News Online Article from today

Brisbane Floods, Day 3

We actually got out of the house today and walked up Oxford Street. These are all pictures taken within a couple of blocks from our house. This first picture is darling. Of course the store wasn't open, but the kids were looking in with wondering eyes!

Above is another comparable picture to the ones in the Day 2 flood post.

There were roads taped off in many places in Bulimba.

It isn't too often I have my camera in hand while just taking a walk up town, so I took a few photos of the main street going through town. This is the children's park on Oxford St. Sawyer loves to climb these trees. We love our Aussie trees. They will definitely be missed!

We didn't get in the water unless we had too (like getting in and out of our building, etc). Some people were out playing in it. All I had to hear was that the brown snakes (very aggressive snakes) were heading our way in the water. That was enough to keep me out of it!

Like I said...we TRIED to stay out of the water, but unless you could fly there was no way around it in a few places!

Thigh high = No thanks

You can see Jonathan, Sawyer and Daisy on our balcony at the top, wearing as few clothes as possible. It's summer and it's hot!

This is our car park garage. It is the kind that you drive down into from the ground floor to automatically raise the secure gate and park in the basement. Everyone got their cars out in time, except one car. It didn't make it! The owners must have been out of town or something. We parked our car up on one of the big hills in Bulimba and it was safe. Jonathan helped to pump out the water through the night. It took a few days to see the bottom again.

Brisbane Floods, Day 2

Okay, so day 2 begins after being miserably hot and getting ate up by mosquitos all night. Nearly all the houses in Queensland don't have screens in the windows and doors. Ours were open wide all day and all night to let in a breeze as well as any insects or critters. Having no screens has never been an issue before since we don't have bugs that are attracted to light like we have in the States. I also want to say that compared to the massive devastation and loss of life that this flood has taken...our experience doesn't even compare. I in no way want to be complaining about our misquito bites. I merely want to document our experience and realize that we only saw a minor drop of this horrendous flood. I have included this first picture to show you what it normally looks like between our building and the one next door...this was taken just as the water started to rise.

If you look real close you will see part of a City Cat Ferry terminal. Remember just click the pictures and it should make them larger for you to see details better.

This is a boat on its dry dock making its way out to the ocean.

Jonathan and Sawyer went over to help our property manager sandbag, etc.

This was a pontoon restaurant that was highly regarded in Brisbane. It is now totally destroyed!

Here is a comparison photo to the first one on this post. The water is really starting to come up now.

Concrete sidewalk with park benches going down the river.

Our park across the street

This is the river walk that Jonathan takes to the City Cat Ferry everyday. The water has taken it over, too!

I think this is part of the concrete river walk (sidewalk) equipped with street lights making its way out to sea.

Some more debris swiftly floating down the river.

People we getting desperate for sand bags and just decided to make their own using sand from our park across the street.

Cul de sac behind our house. I am not sure what those 2 guys are doing...just hanging out, I guess.

This is a massive drainage ditch that is serving its purpose well. I wonder if the water will eventually rise above it?

Here is another comparison photo...the water has almost completely covered the grass area between our building and the one next door. It has almost engulfed our car park, too.

This is an intersection a block away from our house.

Here the water has started to cover our back steps.

This is the cul de sac on the street directly behind our apartment.

This is the street right in front of our apartment.

This was the moment we got a little uneasy about our decision to ride out the flood in our apartment. This is our property manager escorting the police officer into our building. The police officer wanted to make sure we understood that our building would probably have water all around it and we may not be able to get out for a while. He took a head count of all who were staying (less than a 1/4 of the people in our building stayed) and had us to sign the dotted line or evacuate. At this point we had been without electricity for only 18 hours and no hot water. We of course signed...we don't mind roughing it, and besides we live on the top floor of our 3 story apartment. We have one of the best river views around!