Australia- Sydney

SUCH a long time coming! When you have ONE Amazing trip to AUSTRALIA plus 1300 pictures... it's a little daunting to sit down at a computer and try to face the blog! BUT I'm here and am finally getting it recorded! We went to Australia... yep, WE, the whole fam, July 30- August 14! When we first started planning our trip, it was going to be without Kaylen, but after she was born... we just couldn't go without her! SO, originally, it was going to be Gregg, myself, Kaylen and Leslie, but Cherie, Katie and Ian jumped in along the way. Warren wasn't able to make it due to leave from work, etc. We had quite the crew! And it's impossible to go into too much detail, but with Australia and all the amazing things we had the chance to do... it's hard not to! Pretty much all of Cherie's family still lives there, so we were able to stay with family the entire time which not only allowed us a ton of extra time with them but saved us money along the way!



Our flight out of Los Angeles was close to midnight, so we all (including Kaylen) flew well there. We all tried to get some sleep. The service on that flight wasn't so great so the 14 hour flight definitely felt like 14 hours! But we made it to Sydney and were happy to have arrived! We stayed with Gregg's cousin, Aaron, and his wife Dina while in Sydney and they were there to pick us up!

It's hard to explain just how amazing the family was both in Sydney and is Brisbane were to us. Everyone was so welcoming and hospitable. We are so grateful for all the time, energy and money that went into having us there. Aaron and Dina live in Kogarah, a suburb of Sydney. Below is a picture we took at the train station that was just a 4 block walk from their house.

The below picture of "kanga bangas" is out of order for whatever reason, but one of the nights we were in Sydney, Aaron and Dina bbq'd us a FEAST! They bought kanga bangas and kangaroo fillets for us to try. Try we did... but I don't know that I would try them again! But like I said, they made a feast, so not only did we have the kangaroo in our options, but they made delicious steaks, chicken AND shrimp, so we were plump full by the end of the meal!

The first day we arrived in Sydney, we headed down to Cronulla Beach and had fish and chips. The beach there is BEAUTIFUL and there were a TON of people out enjoying the beautiful day! I had many favorite days, but this was one of them! It was just so beautiful and relaxing! After getting fish and chips at this amazing fresh fish shop, we took our food down to the beach.

The beach was beautiful, the scenery was beautiful... everything was perfect! Just off the coastline, there were these rock pools. They basically formed little pools off the shoreline to break the waves so that people could swim. Our whole trip was during Australia's winter, so it wasn't warm enough for people to be enjoying the water, but it definitely looked like a lot of fun!

Below is a picture of the fish and chips we got that first day... by far the BEST fish and chips we had the entire time we were there!

Cronulla

Aaron, Dina, and Kaylen at Cronulla

This was the feast as mentioned above

Aaron and Dina's house in Kogarah

One of the great things about where they lived was the super easy access to the public transportation! This is the train station.

We only spent two days in Sydney, so the 2nd day, we did downtown Sydney. We were able to see Sydney Harbour, the Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, and take a ferry ride.

There were two aboriginal groups that day playing didgeridoos. This group invited people to come take pictures with them as well!

Group picture

It was great to get up close to the Sydney Opera House!

My two loves in one amazing city

One CUTE rump!

Another didgeridoo player. This guy played to music though, which was pretty cool to hear.

This was in a little area close to the Harbour called The Rocks.

We soon found out that some of the best pictures of the Sydney Opera House were from the other side of the water! This was one of our favorite pictures!

Us with Dina

The Harbour Bridge

A GREAT picture from our ferry ride!

We took a great ferry ride in the Harbour to Darling Harbour. It was so great to see everything from the ferry! It gave us a whole other view! It was beautiful! There was the Sydney Aquarium at Darling Harbour that we were originally going to do, but we must have had such a good time that by the time we got there, we had just kind of run out of time!

The next day, both Aaron and Dina had to work, so we ventured to Bondi Beach by ourselves. Cherie and Katie actually stayed home with Kaylen as the weather wasn't so great at the start of the day (but cleared up later!) and Kaylen really needed a nap! So, it was just Gregg, myself, Jay and Ian! And we handled the public transportation like rock stars!

Jay and Ian at Bondi

Aww... US at Bondi

Rugby is HUGE in Australia. And Aaron, being the gent that he is... renewed his membership at the St. George (Grandma's favorite team!) Leagues Club so Gregg could see all the memorabilia and we could have a yummy dinner!

Aaron and Dina at the St. George Leagues Club

Aaron and Dina have cute, TINY pet turtles! I got to hold this one!

I have no idea how to sum up our time in Sydney other than... it was AMAZING and wish so much that we could've spent more time there and had more time with Aaron and Dina. Just before we took our trip to Australia, they took this incredible world-tour trip and one of their stops was to visit Gregg's family in Star Valley. We got to see them very briefly that time, but neither time was long enough! We missed them the day we left and still do today! THANK YOU to such a wonderful time!!