New old house

We made the big move last weekend! We had a lot of helpers move things from our old place to the new one. Luckily we moved only 10ks (approx 6 miles) from the old house.

We've got a lot of unpacking and things to do, but we're deliriously happy with our new house. See some pictures below of the first day that we got our keys to the house. At the moment is very messy with boxes and things everywhere and we're still trying to figure out where to put our furniture. We'll be ready for guests soon!

look at the funky wallpaper at the end of the hallway. One of our first projects is to remove it

our bathroom looks like a hotel bathroom

baby's room!

guest room + office

Master bedroom green wall. This will be painted soon

giant diamonds for door handles!

The Gibbons are on the Move!

In only 4.5 short weeks we'll be moving in our first (owned) house! We're beyond thrilled and can't wait to put some paint on the walls and hang our photos. Even though we've been renting for the last three years, it still feels like we've been living out of suitcases, and this is definitely feeling more settled. There's a good reason for the move, we're expecting more out of town visitors next year after the arrival of our first baby! So much excitement in our lives at the moment. We get the keys to our new digs on January 20th, which is the day we find out the gender of the baby, AND its' our 5 year wedding anniversary! It can't get any bigger than that!!

We'll be posting more about the house soon, but until then here's a photo

Hurra for Syttende Mai - Norwegian National Day celebrations

Last weekend we went up to Warburton to take part in their Nordic Festival. I made up a thermos of hot chocolate and made some "pepperkaker" or gingerbread cookies and we braved the cold weather. I wore mitten made by my grandmother knitted in Norway. They had a Viking village, market, art gallery (we purchased a painting by a Finnish artist of Birch trees in winter), and stinkin' cute shops. A fun time was had by all!

A couple weekends ago Cam and I skipped down to the Swedish Church where there was a special Church service in Norwegian followed by a parade around the neighborhood in Toorak, and concluded with Norwegian food and fun. Many people wore their national costumes to celebrate Norwegian National Day.

Mt. Beauty

More photos of our Easter weekend up at Mt. Beauty. It's Autumn here in Australia so the colours of the trees were electric.

and YES those are Sock Monkey mittens, courtesy of my dear niece Laurel.

Easter Weekend

Cam and I went up to Mt. Beauty, Vic for the Easter weekend. The weather couldn't have been nicer! Cam even got to fly his kite in the high-country.

Cam's Kite

We went back to the States for a few weeks for my parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary. I know, it was a big deal! It was also Cam's birthday while we were over there and I decided to get him his very own stunt kite, since he bought a little worthless kite here and he takes it with him everywhere and it doesn't get 2 feet off the ground. We went down to Barwon Heads, VIC Australia yesterday with Cam's brother Michael and Cam finally got to take his kite for its inaugural flight. It was so much fun... until he crashed it into me!

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!)