The above picture doesn't fit here, but I wanted to start this next blog with one of my favorites from Brisbane. It was the day we spent at Wynnum Bay and visiting Grandma and Papa's house in Manly West. We only spent 3 days in Sydney and the rest of our trip was spent in Brisbane, which is where most of the family lives. We battled some illness the day we flew to Brisbane with Gregg, Katie and Ian... but thank goodness it was short lived and had a great time after that one travel day!
Had to include these two pictures as they were taken in and of the ginormous van the family rented to get all 14 of us around everywhere. Not only was it such an incredible thing for them to do, but it was the ONLY way for all of us to spend so much time together! So, we were super thankful for it! Gregg, myself, Kaylen and Leslie stayed with Gregg's cousin, Ben and his wife Dina, at their home just outside Brisbane! They were also such amazing hosts!! We consider ourselves so very lucky to have had all the extra time with them! Cherie, Katie and Ian all stayed with Dianne and Les in their home. We were also very grateful that Grandma and Papa decided to stay in Dianne's home as well so they could be that much closer and come on all our adventures!
Gregg was SUPER excited to tour the XXXX Brewery in downtown Brisbane!! Gregg had done quite a bit of research of all the things we were going to do in Australia. At first, I thought this was something that we would do to make him happy, but we all actually had a really great time! Gregg, myself, Jay and Uncle Les went on the tour.
It was pretty hardcore! We weren't able to bring in purses or take any pictures of any of the brewery! Just before and after! This picture is before we would meet, Matt the tour guide... ah, Matt. You'll have to ask Jay about Mr. Perfect... uh, I mean, Matt! ;-)
We were able to see pretty much every part of the process at the brewery. It was all actually very interesting! At the end, you get to sit in their bar and with the regular entry, you get a punch card with 4 beer samples. You can only have one of their dark beer, but you get to sample 4 of any of their beers! Gregg was the only one to get a dark. XXXX Gold is their most popular beer, but I fell in love with the XXXX Summer! It was their lighter, lo carb, beer they came out with during their previous Spring. It was yummy! Quite frankly, they all were! Uncle Les doesn't drink, but we were happy to hear that he really enjoyed himself on the tour!
While we went on the tour, the rest of the family went to a nearby park. We hear that Kaylen had a fabulous time! After we all met up, we headed to the Hyperdome (a big mall) to have lunch at the food court. Gregg and I had a great chance to chat with Grandma and Papa. This was the start our realization that Grandma and Kaylen had already formed an INCREDIBLE bond for which we are SO grateful!
Grandma and Papa at lunch at the Hyperdome
Couldn't help but post this one... SO cute!
The next day, we headed to Wynnum Bay which is really close to Grandma and Papa's house in Manly West. It was a beautiful day and we thoroughly enjoyed it with some fish and chips and ice cream outside in the park! We got a great group picture off the pier!
Daddy and his beautiful baby girl on the pier.
One of the many reasons for heading to Wynnum Bay was so that I could see where Grandma and Papa live. They have his great sun room in their home! I will take this moment to brag about what an amazing, talented woman Grandma is. She is a painter.... an AMAZING painter! And she has not been doing it all her life! She only took it up some years ago. And may I remind you that she is 93 AND an AMAZING painter! She gave Jay the painting she had recently done for her and gave Gregg and I two of the paintings she had finished. We are so grateful to have a piece of her and her talents now hanging on our walls at home.
Here is our little monkey chilling at Ben and Kate's house. Oh... haven't mentioned it yet... but we found out shortly before we visited that Ben and Kate are pregnant with their first child!! It is such an exciting time in their lives and we were happy to share it with them!
One of the things on our list of things we hoped to do, was to spend a little alone time in Surfer's Paradise... a beautiful tourist city along the Gold Coast. Originally, we were expecting to rent a car and drive down ourselves, but the family offered to drive us down and pick us up the next day as the next day we would be having lunch with Auntie Barb and her daughters along the Gold Coast. It was such a relief that they would drive us down because I was assuming we would get used to the whole... driving on the opposite side of the car AND opposite side of the road thing and never did! So, we were very grateful!
It was my first night away from Kaylen.... EVER. So, it was a bit of an adjustment/ struggle being without her at first, but I got over it and we had a GREAT time! We walked along the beach and ended up taking an Aquaduck tour on the river bay.
After our water tour, we headed back to the hotel and Gregg was bound and determined to get in the ocean! Unfortunately, we waited until late in the day when the temperature had cooled down, but he did it!! I was shivering just taking the picture, but he did it with a smile on his face! We quickly headed back to the hotel and spend a little time in the pool and hot tub.
One of the things on our list of things we hoped to do, was to spend a little alone time in Surfer's Paradise... a beautiful tourist city along the Gold Coast. Originally, we were expecting to rent a car and drive down ourselves, but the family offered to drive us down and pick us up the next day as the next day we would be having lunch with Auntie Barb and her daughters along the Gold Coast. It was such a relief that they would drive us down because I was assuming we would get used to the whole... driving on the opposite side of the car AND opposite side of the road thing and never did! So, we were very grateful!
It was a beautiful day in Surfer's Paradise the day we arrived! We booked our hotel online while we were in Sydney and weren't entirely sure what to expect, but we had a great room with a great balcony and an incredible view of the ocean! It was everything we could've wanted!
It was my first night away from Kaylen.... EVER. So, it was a bit of an adjustment/ struggle being without her at first, but I got over it and we had a GREAT time! We walked along the beach and ended up taking an Aquaduck tour on the river bay.
After our water tour, we headed back to the hotel and Gregg was bound and determined to get in the ocean! Unfortunately, we waited until late in the day when the temperature had cooled down, but he did it!! I was shivering just taking the picture, but he did it with a smile on his face! We quickly headed back to the hotel and spend a little time in the pool and hot tub.
We ended up choosing the seafood buffet at our hotel for dinner. Maybe not the best of all choices, but it was really great, fresh seafood... maybe a little too fresh, but we definitely had our fill and had a great time with each other.
The family picked us up and we headed down the Gold Coast to have lunch with Auntie Barb, Traci, Samantha and Bec and their families! Samantha had just gotten married to Shane the weekend before but was still the most wonderful host and had us all over for lunch! We had a great afternoon eating some incredibly delicious food and chatting out on their great patio!
Grandma and Kalyen at the family lunch on the Gold Coast
It's definitely times like these that make you feel just how hard it is to be so far away from amazing family. Australia really is one of the most amazing countries... and unfortunately it is also so very far away. We really wish after spending such great time with so much family, we lived so much closer to each other.
Gregg made sure to get some great pictures of the morning sunrise... which I watched from bed! :-)
The family picked us up and we headed down the Gold Coast to have lunch with Auntie Barb, Traci, Samantha and Bec and their families! Samantha had just gotten married to Shane the weekend before but was still the most wonderful host and had us all over for lunch! We had a great afternoon eating some incredibly delicious food and chatting out on their great patio!
Grandma and Kalyen at the family lunch on the Gold Coast
It's definitely times like these that make you feel just how hard it is to be so far away from amazing family. Australia really is one of the most amazing countries... and unfortunately it is also so very far away. We really wish after spending such great time with so much family, we lived so much closer to each other. We were in Brisbane for quite a while and did so many amazing things, I had to break this up into two parts... so the rest of our Brisbane stay can be found in the 2nd part!
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