Where have we been?!

I send condolences on behalf the three of us since no one has been blogging. We have been keeping extremely busy and enjoying every minute.

About a week and a half ago, we attended a wine event at Artwine Winery. Lizzie and Mike knew the owners so we got our own special table and enjoyed tons of wine and gourmet food for the day. There was a great band playing, good views and great friends surrounding. Grace and I even got our photos taken to be in an ad for SA Life magazine.. We'll be famous in Australia in no time 

On Friday, Sarah's mom Maureen arrived. We have absolutely love her being here! She seems to be extremely happy while she's here and is shocked how much we have become "locals". We plan on showing Mama J all of our favorite things to do in South Australia while she's here. 

Sunday was Asutralia day which is like the equvilent to our 4th of July! Grace and Sarah attended a party by the river with Lizzie, Maureen, Mike and all of our local friends. Sarah was nominated to partake in a pie eating contest (she lost but I heard it was a great show), there was tug a war, a band, waterskiing and sounded like they had a really great time. On my first Australia Day, I attended a cricket game in Adelaide with a new great guy, Ryan that I've met recently. We played England and just when we thought there was no hope of winning, Aussie pulled through and won the game for Australia Day! It was an awesome game to attend. After the game we went to the casino which was right outside of the oval (the cricket stadium). It was a really great day and I enjoyed myself a lot. 

This week, we are having a girls weekend on the houseboat. We are driving up the river, relaxing and enjoying one another's company. We are towing the ski boat along with us as well so we can stop and ski, board or tube at anytime. Since there is 8 of us girls a board and 4 nights we'll be on the boat, we all partnered up and created a cooking competition for best dinner. Last night was our first night and grace and I were the first to cook. We received raving reviews as we made mango chicken burgers topped with guacamole, stuffed mushrooms, baked feta, and a carmalized onion, apple, and spinach salad. We will be a tough act to follow ;)  I'm sure there will be amazing pictures from our week to follow :) 

Canberra

Canberra is the capital of Australia. And just like our capital, there is a lot of cool things to see. Despite from having an amazing time at Judy's, we spent Wednesday touring the city.

We heard from multiple people (including online reviews) that the Memorial Museum is a must see. Sarah, the history bluff that she is was very excited to go. We spent the morning walking around the museum looking at exhibits and reading about World War 1 and 2. Grace and I appreciated the museum for the architectural side of it. It was beautifully built with gorgeous detail throughout. Grace and I also brought Victor around to show him a good time at the museum.. try to spot him in some photos.

Grace in front of the vet memorial

Sarah and I checking out an airforce exhibit

Victor hanging with the statue

well.. we always make our own fun...

Past and present news

Exhibit that looks so real we took a triple take

helicopter with lights and noises for the real effect

After the museum, we drove up the road a bit and went to the lookout. People can either drive or hike up the outlook and due to the exhausting temps, we drove. There was views that looked over all of the beautiful city of Canberra. We saw the airport, parliament offices, army/navy bases (Judy's in the Navy!), and much more! Absolutely gorgeous.

Of course the boys are more interested in the remote control flying helicopter..

Grace on the lookout tower

awesome view of Canberra

labels of what the view shows

We started to get hungry (shocker..) so we decided to grab some lunch and bring it to the Botanical Garden for a picnic. The garden had so many things to look at it was crazy. I liked it a lot, but it's something my dad would enjoy (I remember one time at Disney, he made me name every single plant Magic Kingdom had.... and that's a lot of friggin plants) At the botanical Garden we saw some waterfalls, native plants, flowers and HUGEEEE lizards. We were kind of creeped out by how large and gross looking they were. Gotta love Australia's wildlife.

While getting lunch we saw the paper stand that we were on... sold out!

waterfalls

On the way back to Judy's, we stopped at the bar to cool off. We played some pool (I've gotten much better thank god) and relaxed for a bit. When we got home, we made Judy a big dinner as a "thank you" for letting us stay with her. She was soo happy! We will definitely be heading back to Canberra again when we drive up the coast :)

Bop-it!! we have missed you since we were 7

dinner we made for Judy!

The Cricket

After a very long 14 hour drive, we finally made it to Canberra. Grace, Sarah and I hit the road with our good friends, Brad and Grant. We stayed with their sister Judy, we've met before and absolutely adore. Her apartment was in walking distance to The Oval, where the cricket game was held. The game we attended was Australia vs. England. The boys tried to explain cricket to us several times so we were excited to go to a game and watch it.

We dressed up to match the other Aussies- big hats, face paint and beer in hand. Although it was extremely hot that day, we had a blast. Since all 6 of us had matching hats and seemed to be "the fun crowd" everyone was asking to take our picture. We even ended up making the front page of the Canberra Times the next day! Unfortunately, Australia lost to England but the day was we really enjoyed the new experience.

The fun crowd

grace, Judy and I

Sarah and I in our Aussie face paint; so hard to wash it off the next day

Front page of the paper!!

"Highway to Hell"- Victor

"We're not going to hell.. We're actually very excited for the trip. But this songs currently on so it seems fitting. I'm on the first road trip with the girls and it's the longest I've ever been in the car. We are going to Canberra with the Schmit boys (Brad and Grant) to go see their sister Judy and the cricket game. We have been driving from Tinty heading to Canberra for 6 hours now. We have about 5 more hours to go. Sarah is doing a good job driving (her first time driving standard on a long journey), Grace & Trey seem to know the words to every song - they're talking about creating a "girl power" singing group, and the boys are starting to smell. We have seen lots of cows, emmus and Roos on the way. Here's to the next 5 hours in the sweaty ute... Bloody O." - Victor