Our First Aussie Christmas

Things are starting to heat up down here and we're gearing up for a great first Christmas in Australia. We've got Cam's family coming here for Christmas dinner and we're even roasting turkey on the bbq!! The sun is shining and the palm trees are in their peak and to me (Sonja) it doesn't seem real at all! I'm really enjoying it though. We've been to a 'Carols by Candlelight' performance and we've driven around and looked at a lot of houses with Christmas light displays.

Guy on Didgeridoo in Melbourne

we found this street performer in Melbourne. His music was awesome.

Twelve Apostles

While Sally was here we drove down the coast to see some of the natural wonders of Australia. We stopped here at the Twelve Apostles.

I'm an Aussie resident!!

Here's me in front of the building that houses the Australian consulate in Auckland, New Zealand. In my passport is the infamous residency visa that has been in the making for the last 11 months! Now the hard part begins with all the paperwork I get to do here to become a legal resident - bring it on!!
It was VERY blustery in Auckland when we were there. But I LOVED it!!

New Zealand - Sonja's Visa trip

I (Sonja) LOVED New Zealand. I want to move there. Scratch the idea of moving long term to Australia, I want to move to New Zealand! But alas we'll be here in Australia for a while. Here are some pics from out adventures on the north island of NZ.

Fun at Healesville Sanctuary - July 31 2009

For Sonja's birthday we went up to a wildlife Sanctuary to see some Australian flora and fauna. We saw all kinds of unique animals and we got to pet kangaroos. Check out the video of the rarely seen Lyrebird. It imitates all different bird sounds to fend off its enemies.

Visa Update!!

Just got an email this morning saying that my visa processing is completed in Russia, now they'll send the application on to the next Australian embassy for the final decision on my residency visa for Australia!

I am very excited about this because I have been waiting for 10 months already. Hopefully I won't have to wait too much longer to live long-term in this beautiful country. I'm feeling a little patriotic for my new found home Australia so I'll leave you with the national Coat of Arms for Australia. Don't let it bother you that we sometimes have part of the emblem for dinner, Kangaroo and Emu taste yummy!

Sonja's back!

Sorry for the long pause in blogging lately. Cam has lost interest in updating the blog with his daily news, and I've been away and I haven't been keeping up at it. But now I'm back in Australia! I had an awesome time in the States and was thrilled to be there for my nieces high school graduation festivities. Yesterday Cam took me down the peninsula near Melbourne. We had a great time. Here are some pictures.

Sonja's going for a while

My tourist visa has run out here in Australia and I have to leave for a little while. I'm going back to the States for about 5 weeks and then coming back to Melbourne. I'm still waiting on my residency visa (grrr). Cam will stay here and work while I'm away - he's currently looking for a cleaner.

I'm looking forward to spending time with family and friends and enjoying the sunny weather (hopefully) in Seattle.

Here's what I'm looking forward to:

Mt. Rainier, a dormant volcano

Pike Place Market in Seattle

Going shopping with my sister

And being silly with my niece (who's graduating, can't believe it!)

Easter at Mt. Beauty

Over the Easter weekend we were up at the holiday house at Mt. Beauty. We had amazingly beautiful weather during the day and really exciting lightning storms at night. Here are some pictures of our weekend.

The holiday house and our new car

our noisy neighbors, the cockatoos

With all the bushfires lately the fire department is desperate for some new recruits - seen here on their first outing.

Gold Detecting - Eureka we haven't found anything!

We spent a weekend away with Cam's parents in a little town called Lanacoorie looking for gold. Cam's dad bought a gold detector (with our inheritance) and he's set on finding the "big one". Cam got his miner's right license and went to work with John. They detected, dug, sifted, and in the end didn't find anything. I spent a lot of time with Cam's mom sitting and reading.

Getting geared up

cheap labor...

I found lots of quartz

an old camp from the late 1800s

Careful Trish! Don't fall down there...

hopefully these are kangaroo bones

the lake near our cabin - ahh the serenity

Camping on the Buffalo

We went camping on Mount Buffalo, a national park in Victoria Australia, for the long weekend. A group from Cam's parents' town get together each year for a camping trip. We stayed in tents by the lake and did little walks to different look-outs. It was gorgeous!

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An unwanted house guest

A few weeks ago we got some much awaited rain and then some little creatures decided to take cover in our house. A huge huntsman spider, non-poisonous and part of the tarantula family, took refuge in the corner of our kitchen - until we swooshed it outside into the garden.

Because I don't know what's poisonous here and what's harmless I was a little frightened at first. I need an encyclopedia of arachnids around the house to tell me what's what.

We're Moving... Again!

On Feb 10th we'll be boarding yet another plane and heading to Australia. We're really excited for the move and equally as excited just to unpack our bags for a while. We're packing like crazy at the moment. Please keep in contact with us and join us on our adventures in Australia!! We'll miss our friends and family in the U.S., but please don't hesitate to come down under and visit us - we have a guest room for you.

Seattle Daze

On Jan 20 there wasn't only a big party in Washington D.C. but here in Washington as well. Cam and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. We spent a couple days up in Seattle just milling around and doing very "touristy" things. We went to the Seattle Aquarium and saw lots of fish and some very cute river otters - and we had dinner at a great place called Wild Ginger (to commemorate our honeymoon in Indonesia). The next day we went into Benaroya Hall, where the Seattle Symphony plays and took some cool pictures of Dale Chihuly's glass artwork.





We're going to miss Seattle!