Adelaide

Our new good friend, Shanay brought us into the city of Adelaide! Adelaide is the capital of South Australia and there is a ton to do. We got there in the early afternoon yesterday, checked into our hotel (its about an hour or so from where we're staying so we thought getting a hotel would be a fun thing to do). We were surprised how big our hotel room was- 2 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, bathroom, washer/drier, balcony.. really cute! After we settled in, we walked around the city a bit. The strip that we went to reminded us of Vegas a little the way the bars and shops were lined up. We walked in and out of a few shops and enjoyed the new scenery.

Shanay bought this cutie for us (offical name- Wally)

Balcony fun! (welcome for the backrub Grace)

Loving the hotel



Getting the strip décor drunk

 

When it got to be around 6, we went back to our hotel to get ready for the night. It was the first night that we were going out since we got here- so we were very excited. It felt good to get dressed up and go out with our new friends. We went to a few of the bars that were on the strip walking distance from out hotel and had a really great time! Our favorite bar was The Woolshed. It had 5 dance floors throughout 3 floors with a variety of different music, an outside balcony (that felt amazing after dancing), and a mechanical bull. We definitely want to go back soon.

Sarah's bar tending experience comes in handy

Ready for the night

part of the strip

Sarah looks really into our dance ...

riding the mechanical bull

wicked fun

Me, Shanay and Wally

This morning, we woke up early and got ready to spend the day in Adelaide. Shanay brought us to Glenelg which is a beautiful beach that is lined with a ton of shops and restaurants. It has a really good young vibe which we enjoyed. We grabbed breakfast at a little café and ate on the beach. We had amazing iced coffee with ice cream in it- why have we never thought of that before..? It was a very relaxing morning laying in the sun, swimming in the ocean and getting a tan. Afterwards, we walked around the cute shops that we're on the beach- they were a bit busy since it was Sunday but its exciting to see new things. Thank you Nay for taking us out, we'll have to go again soon!

Glenelg

iced coffee with ice cream <3

brekky on the beach

bathrooms that were like space ships

everything was hands free in the bathroom

 

All I want for Christmas... is a real good tan

This was my very first not white Christmas, and I loved it. Although we all missed our family and friends back home for the holiday, Mike and Liz made the day very special for us. We were surrounded by good friends, food and fun for the day! In the morning, Grace, Sarah and I made a big American brunch for Mike and Liz. We then squeezed into our bathing suits and spent the whole day by the river under the gumtree.

Christmas brunch

 

I'm overly proud that I made these

 

Lizzie had invited a few of the neighbors to join us when they liked throughout the day. It ended up being a great turnout which made the day really fun and exciting. There were two ski boats so we were able to wakeboard, ski and tube all day.... we are feeling it now (love finding those muscles we haven't used in a while) but it felt good for us to be representing our lovely skills from Lake Winnipesaukee. We taught a new friend how to waterski as well, which was a ton of fun.



Christmas by the gumtree

When the weather cooled off we enjoyed games of botchie and even learned how to play cricket. Cricket seemed similar to baseball to us but after playing you can see there really is a lot of differences. Although, while playing, Sarah's instincts took the best of her- sliding into the pole like it was a base, and dropping the bat when you weren't supposed too- but that's ok, she learned and it was a good laugh ;)

Learning how to play Cricket

Botchie!

For dinner, we ate chicken that was roasting on the barbie all day. (we're trying to use more Aussie slang to fit in- can you tell?) We watched a gorgeous sunset go down over the river as we ate our Christmas meal. Then as soon as it was dark, we were chased out by mosquitos (we promise we will never complain about how bad that mosquitos are in the US after being here....)

All in all, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable Christmas day!

Yesterday, we survived our first boxing day. We looked up online where the holiday originated from and according to Wikipedia, it was the day employers used to give employees boxes of gifts for Christmas. After talking to Liz, we realize its just a public holiday now. However, it was another great day full of food, drinks and fun!


Boxing Day lunch

 

Why is this happening?

The moment a 24 year old body doesn't quite bounce back the same as a 23 year old body.

There was a time, a time before tequila, when good life choices were made and everybody was happy. But now it flows freely from margarita machines all over Australia.  As you can probably tell, margarita Monday strikes again.

the reason for todays agony

As I've gotten older, I have tried a variety of methods to take on this day: salted rim, sugar rim, frozen, on the rocks, pomegranate, the famous bucket of margaritas… the list goes on. Alas, all my efforts have been in vain. I just keep getting hit by the tequila bus, reversed over, and hit again. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I've learned nothing.

To all of the beautiful people that came to celebrate, thank you for a wonderful evening. If you keep being so nice you won't be able to get rid of us. Next time, maybe don't bring me so many margaritas ;)

birthday snack feast

two birthday cakes (thanks Lizzie and Mike)

thank you girls for tucking me in

not so "good morning"

birthday success

The hangover.

Today was a rough day for us. We wanted to have an early night last night but... We didn't. We had two bottles of wine with Lizzie and then after she went to bed we kept going. 4 bottles later we stayed up until 1 to celebrate graces birthday at midnight! It was the first time in a while it was just the 3 of us drinking together... So it all of the wine was well deserved. Also:: happppyyyy birthday Gracie pooooo <3 

This morning we woke up and felt like death. We had to get up early to get things done around the house. We were laughing at our craziness from the night before and full of excitement for Grace's birthday. After we did our chores around the house, Lizzie brought us to Kia Marina where we were planned to start cleaning boat houses on the 27th. However, when we showed up to fill out paperwork, they said they needed us to work today. Looking like hot messes and on the verge of puking from our hungoverness, we all looked at each other with misery. We prayed to The Lord we wouldn't have to work today....

Sure enough... We cleaned boat houses in the heat for 4 hours. We some how mustered through our hangover and made the best of it. Our new co-workers think we're crazy. We couldn't stop singing and dancing while we cleaned and we were probably sweating out booze intensely. There were some parts of cleaning that made us think we were going to legit toss our cookies over the edge of the boat- but thank god we all kept it together. They invited us back to work again on Friday so.. We couldn't have been that bad. 

After cleaning, we went to open a new bank account here (big girl moves). Then, we went grocery shopping for tonight's continuous birthday festivities. On the way out we noticed that there was a grocery cart escalator looking thing that brought you down to the parking lot. It was really cool but I couldn't figure out how to get off... My cart got stuck but luckily Sarah was behind me to push me off :) 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACEEEEE!!! WE LOVE YOU <3

Let the birthday festivities continue.... ;)

It's my birthday. Send presents. 

I kid. Happy to be spending it with great friends in an amazing place :)

Lights and Roo's!

Last night, Lizzie and Mike brought us girls to Lobethal. In Lobethal, the whole town decorates their house with festive lights for the holidays (it reminded us of Christmas with the Kranks). In the center of town, there was a Nativity set that the locals participated in. There was also a ton of vendors- almost like a Christmas fair. We tried the best hot donuts ever.. so delicious! The town was fun of beautiful lights, festivities and Christmas cheer!

Yummy hot donuts!

Nativity set

Today, Liz brought us to her neighbor Wink's. Wink is a sweet lady who takes in injured and/or sick wild animals. Right now she has a 8 kangaroos, an emmu and a few birds. We were given the chance to feed and cuddle the kangaroos! Our favorite kangaroo was named Blue. He was very interactive and soooo cute! The other kangaroos we're a little bit more shy, but still fun to see. The emmu was also a bit shy but we've never seen one before so it was still amazing.