Hols in Brisbane

We were very lucky to be able to spend Christmas with lots of extended family in Brisbane.  My parents and our family of four stayed with my cousin, her husband and their two girls. We got to spend lots of quality time together and had a really wonderful visit experiencing our first summertime Christmas.

There were lots of fun bits, including special morning walks - quite early as often the daily temperatures rose higher than 100 degrees. During our walks around the neighborhood we saw lots of birds and lots of plant life that we just don't have where we live. One of my favorites was the mimosa plant, that closes its leaves when you touch them. I also got to see sugar cane, banana trees, and pomegranates.

Our boys loved playing with their new cousins. They were in the pool almost every day. They played lots of games on their iPads together. By the end of our visit, they were organizing performances for all the adults. Yes, the quality of these performances was likely exactly what you might imagine it to have been. The grandparents loved them anyway.

Below, a few photos from our adventures down under, captioned by Jasper:

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This is a picture of the Gold Coast. We called it "Gold Coust" because my daddy had a hat with "Gold Coust" written on it. (It was a tourist hat)

This is my dad when he's just finished fishing. He left the house at 2 o'clock in the morning. He was not very happy. You know my dad likes to sleep in.

They caught an octopus. Here it is in what looks like a plastic nest. My uncle Fred took it home and ate it!

This is us feeding kangaroos. After we were done feeding, we had kangaroo saliva all over our hands. We are at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, but it's not all koalas.

They had photos on the wall of famous people who had visited.

This is a picture of a mama and joey kangaroo. This is the only one we could find that was holding a joey.

Here's a koala, in case you were wondering why it was called a koala sanctuary.

Here is my Uncle Fred holding his pizza with a bird on his shoulder hungrily staring at it. Eventually he had three birds. Some on his shoulder and some on his arms.

This is the very rickety bridge that my Popo did not want to go on, but she had to. You can see my cousin behind me. For me, it was not scary.