Tjapukai

My kids were amazing on the plane over - much better than I expected. The part that was harder than I expected was having them adjust to Australian time. I had 10 days there without Rick or Rebekah to see my friends and do some shopping, and all the things they would have found boring. However, I spent a lot of that time just trying to survive the sleep deprivation inflicted by my little one's adjusting.

In my planning I had imagined popping them into bed at 7pm, and spending the evenings hanging out with my sisters, knitting and scrap booking. In reality, I went to bed about 10 minutes after they did each night! They were exhausted during the day, and woke up at 3am for several nights telling me they were starving, and wanting to play. I crept around the house getting them food, and trying desperately not to wake up Liesa, Andrew or their kids.

It took 6 days to have them fully adjust!

After Rick & Rebekah arrived, we flew to Cairns for a stay in Port Douglas. I have never been to Far North Queensland before, and it was great. It reminded Rick and I a lot of Hawaii - that thick tropical air, the beaches and the lush mountainous landscape. It was raining the day we arrived, but the weather the rest of our stay couldn't have been better.

We visited Tjapukai, an Aboriginal cultural center.
Jane really enjoyed the dancing, and clapped along the whole time. See her aboriginal painting T-shirt? That's because she had a GIANT blow-out as we arrived. Of course, I didn't have a spare outfit in the diaper bag ...

Then we learned how to throw boomerangs.

I was able to impress my family, but it was kind of cheating, since I've done it so much before.Jacob's didn't go very far, but he sure threw it with gusto, and was really proud of himself for the effort. We brought a few home to practice throwing in the park (the one with the big open field, and only when no-one else is there!)
Rick was awesome at the spear throwing.

I have confidence we wouldn't have starved if we were aboriginal. Jacob had the time of his life during some of the less-interactive demonstrations catching baby cane toads. I don't think you'll be able to tell, but there were lots of the tiny little babies all over the place, and lots of rocks to dig in - a little boys dreams come true!