Nature in Australia

I braved a beach trip with all 3 kids by myself on Wednesday (Ekka Day and holiday from school) and had a great time. We hit some traffic on the way to the Sunshine Coast. I wanted to check out the area of Caloundra, where we planned to go for a week in September for the beach and a surf camp for the boys. This is to follow through with a couple of promises to the boys that we made to them before we moved. Fortunately, we had warm weather (it got up to 80 deg) that day and the rain forecasted stayed away until it was time for us to drive back. We went to a patrolled beach, popular with the local surfers. We had a crash course in what the colored flags meant on the beach. Swimmers are only allowed to swim between the red and yellow flags to stay separate from the surfers and strong rip tides. Needless to stay, the boys loved the waves and wasted no time jumping in. It took them a little while to get used to the salt water (they ran back a few times to chug from their water bottles), but had no other complaints. I had to drag them away when it was time to leave. I also had a hard time keeping Zoe from running into the water. She loved standing and sitting in the water as the waves came in and went back out. She would smile every time the wave brought water splashing at her feet. She got a bit dizzy as she stared down as the water rushed back to the ocean and loved it. The boys have been to the beach when we lived in NC (Sunset Beach) but they have no memory of it. This was Zoe's first time. (This is not counting our trip to Lake Michigan; there were no waves there.)
We went from the beach to the mountains on Saturday. We went to Mt. Coot-Tha (or Kuta, an aboriginal word meaning "honey," for the honey that they used to come to get on the mountain from hives of stingless bees). We took a little hike (another first for the boys), which they loved, and we admired the views of all of Brisbane from the summit. We enjoyed the view as we snacked on some ice cream and some hot chips with tomato sauce (french fries w/ ketchup). We had to promise the boys that we would go back and let them hike all the way down the mountain. The weather was perfect and it was beautiful. We saw a huge white parrot fly out of a tree as we approached.
I think we finally found a parish that we feel comfortable at. Third time's a charm, I guess. We didn't have to sit next to a homeless person and there were other families with young children. The church is in Manly, same suburb as the kids' schools. We drove down the hill to the shore after mass to check out the Sunday open market there. The boys enjoyed a snow cone as they watched some miniature sailboats racing in the marina and then they played in the playground. I got to buy some fresh veggies and browsed some hand crafts. We had some errands to run, so we headed to the shopping center. Mike bought some dress pants (he didn't bring any in his luggage) for a dinner reception hosted by the office of the Prime Minister of Queensland (like state governor's office). I shopped for groceries and the kids shopped for their science project items. Lucas is making a model volcano and Jonah is making slime. We did all this shopping and had lunch in one mall.
We got home to relax and get some housework done. The boys decided to jump in the pool for the first time. They lasted maybe 20 minutes jumping in and out because it was so cold. We sat down to a nice dinner of pork chops and discussed what we wanted to do next weekend...

BTW, Skype is a great tool. Helen, it was great to see and talk to you in Korea! Kayla, it was great to catch up with you for the first time since I left. If you have skype, please look us up!