Byron Bay

The beauty of living in Brisbane is that it's situated smack dab in the middle of the best part of Australia.  There is more to do within an hour or two than most people can get to in a lifetime.  We, as temporary residents, plan to cram in as much sight-seeing experiences as we possibly can, which means at least every other weekend we will be heading out of town to see something new.

A few weekends ago we headed to the best spot we've been to yet - Bohemia at it's finest - Byron Bay.  Just on the other side of the Queensland / New South Wales border lies this jewel of a beach town in all its laid back glory.  The town center is bumpin' with hip cafes, shops and pubs and not even a block's walk away is a drop dead gorgeous beach...and it's not the only one!  There are several separate beaches that are part of this area, including this one that we stopped at to play in the sand and have a picnic lunch.

It was still a little chilly on the water, but the kids loved running with the waves. We climbed on the rocks, picked up seashells watched the surfers, and got our toes nice and sandy.

After our time on the beach, we took a "beach-to-bush walk" to check out the surfers riding the Julian Rocks and Cape Byron breaks.  The cape is a special point on the Australia coast (the Easterly most point of the country) where the Coral Sea meets the Tasman Sea.  What this means is that it produces some of the most fantastic and varied sea life in all of Australia.  It is said that over 500 species have been identified there. It's a great place to dive and apparently a great place to surf. Even the dolphins were enjoying the waves while we were there.  Two pods were playing and clearly waiting for the best waves, which they rode along with the surfers.  It was so much fun to watch.

Notice the next series of shots...I'm trying to capture a picture of Cory with Marin and Hallie both looking at the camera.  Obviously in the first two shots Hallie doesn't want to look at me (should have been our first clue), but notice where the water is around the rock in the second photo.

Then look at the water in the next photo.  Classic.  The wave came in and drenched all three of them while mom was trying to have ~sigh~ yet another kodak moment.  Wish I had that part on camera!

Once Cory and the girls dried off a little and we took inventory of wallet, iphone, camera, etc. we continued walking towards the cape.  It was breathtaking looking up and down the Queensland and New South Wales coastlines.

We also went up to visit the famous lighthouse before we headed out of town.

By the time we were finished with all of the above, it was getting late and no-napped kiddos were down for the count.  So, we didn't get to spend any time in the little town that is Byron Bay...and I long to go back and see what all the little shops and cafes are about.  Ah, another adventure in our future.  

Condamine Gorge 4x4 Track

Our first official day trip out of Brisbane was taken on Saturday, July 31st with The Mitchells.  We headed Southwest of the city to an area called The Condamine, which is a river and gorge with a great 4x4 track.  As soon as we got to the area of Boonah, I knew we were in landscape photography heaven.  The rolling hills, mountains in the distance, cliffs, green and gold grasses, sunshine/cloud mixture and heavy dark clouds on the horizon made for some amazing scenery.

This was only the first of many "photo opp stops" that we made.  Luckily Melisa is as much of a shutter bug as I am, so it was par for the course.

No sooner than we were out in the middle of nowhere, civilization showed up in the form of 65+ motorcycles.  Turns out Harley Davidson is a big thing over here too.

The choppers didn't make it on the 4x4 track, so once again we were able to enjoy the peace and quiet.

The first of many "warning" signs we saw during our trip.  40Km/h = 25 mph.

We were in the middle of farmland and there were cows everywhere.  Several times during the day we had to stop and wait for them to clear off the road.  This one seems to wonder what in the heck we are doing on his turf.

After a fairly long drive getting to the start of the official 4x4 track, Cory was ready to go and the kids wanted to see some mud.  As you can tell, that was no problem!

And what else would you expect at your first crossing in the middle of nowhere? That's right a traffic jam.

The Mitchell's car heading through a crossing.

Another scenic shot of the Condamine River we went through 14 times.

Our navigators - Melisa and Jonathan.

One of our stops along the way was Browns Falls.  Unfortunately, the day got foggier and ranier, so the kids didn't get to venture out of the car to see this.  Later on, as we were talking about some of the waterfalls, Marin piped in and asked "what's a waterfall?"  Shoot.  Guess we'll have to go back to show her.  

As we got off the track and started to make our way back to the real world, we were greeted by a beautiful rainbow.  What a great way to end a great day!

The Pioneer Woman

I have a girl crush.  Well, it's not really a girl crush as much as a blog crush.  I've been blog-stalking The Pioneer Woman lately and I can't get enough!  Many of you who are old school blog followers know her well, I'm sure.  She's Ree Drummond and she is a goddess in blog world.  I'm still spending several spare minutes a day trying to figure out how she does what she does, but that's beside the point.  If you like to cook or do photography or even if you homeschool your kids, she's an amazing inspiration and a great source for recipes and photo tips.  She also has a collection of FREE Photoshop actions that will change your life.  Click here to learn more if you're a photoshop junkie like me!

Here are a few of the highlights that I've been reading lately from her blog.
The Hip Trick

Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks

A Glimpse into Hyacinth’s Future

hyacinth4 by Holly Mathis Interiors on Polyvore.com

Wounded Warrior

On Friday, July 23rd I had my first ruthlessly true test of how I would react, as a mommy, in the case of a major emergency.  My middle child, or "Monkey Marin", as I lovingly called her because she climbs so much, fell out of a tree at a park while we were playing with friends. She landed with full brunt force on her forehead, which split wide open all the way down to her skull. It was a gruesome laceration and she needed emergency attention right away.

They say you either go into shock/panic mode or shoot straight into supermom mode when something like this happens to one of your babies, and I can assure you, there was no supermom here. It was nothing but

100%. Pure. Panic.

We made it to the ER by the grace of God and the shockingly good-samaritanism (forgive the made up term) of an innocent bystander who graciously carried Marin to the car and drove us to the hospital. Cory met us there just as they took us back to triage. There we waited for the plastic surgeon for what seemed like days, but was more like 6 hours. Luckily we had an amazing doctor, "Doctor Katie", who took care of us from start to finish in the ER.  She was brilliant, and knew exactly how to handle Marin, speak to her, wait for her to get comfortable with an idea before pushing it on her, and helped mommy stay calm too.  It was such a God-send to have this woman be our caretaker at such a scary time.  Very reassuring.

Here we are shortly after our first bandage was applied, and only one dose of pain meds administered. Can you believe we even got a smile out of her here? She was so brave.  Such a trooper.

When the surgeon finally rolled in, he assured us that it was not wise to try to put such a laceration back together on a toddler (much less the face of a girl) under "twilight" anesthesia, and that we would need to wait until the following day for full anesthesia surgery.  So they got her as cleaned up as possible and sent us home for the night. 

Here she is with an ice block, her third (or maybe fourth) bandage, and three doses of pain meds administered.  Sweet thing, she really did seem perfectly normal by this point...it was mommy and daddy that were still completely shaken to our core.

We had to pick Caden and Hallie up from The Purnell's house.  My friend Clare, who had been at the park with us and her three kids, took Caden and Hallie home with her, fed them, put them in PJ's and cared for them until almost midnight.  She even sent dinner home with us.  What an incredible angel she was! 

The following day we had to come back in the morning to check in for a mid-day surgery.  Sidenote, they call it "theatre" here. She was in good spirits and enjoyed playing with the toys at the children's' hospital while she was waiting for theatre. 

Playing away.

Once again we were assigned a fantastic nurse, nurse Libby, who seemed to take special interest in us and actually became an amazing advocate for me, arguing with the theatre staff in order for me to escort Marin all the way into the operating room and hold her hand as they put her under.  AMAZING!  This would never happen in The States!

Mom getting ready for surgery entry.

She came through the quick 35-minute surgery with flying colors, and awoke cranky, but fell back asleep for three hours and then awoke again cheerful and seemingly fine. The anesthesiologist had been given her history of rough transition from anesthesia after her ear tubes surgery and gave her something additional as he administered the anesthesia, which he said helped "ease her out of it."

Her first food of choice? Chocolate chip cookies and chocolate milk.  Atta girl!

With daddy (and her chocolate milk).

Twenty-five outer layer stitches, and 5 inner layer stitches, and we had our little girl all put back together again.  Praise the Lord!

Just this past week, we went back to see our plastic surgeon to get a check up and make sure everything was healing well.  She got two thumbs up!  

Here she is with Dr. Broadhurst, who Cory and I joked looks more like Vin Diesel than the surgeon we were expecting :)  He did a great job, and I couldn't have been more comfortable with my daughter being in his care.  Sidenote - we also joked that only in Oz would you have a surgeon who looks like Vin Diesel, and leaves directly after surgery to go surfing in Indonesia! (seriously)

It's Easy Being Green!

One of the most unexpected effects of our move to Australia was the overwhelming feeling that our actions were creating nothing but waste, waste, waste.  It was almost sickening at times when we were surrounded with boxes, paper, styrofoam, plastic bubble wrap, etc., all of which we wanted out of our house as quickly as possible to reduce the mess and chaos.  Luckily, our relocation company, Crown Relocations, was quick to inform us that they recycle as many of the packing materials as possible, and the team spent a considerable amount of time breaking down cardboard boxes, rolling up packing paper, and separating plastic materials.

I guess it's appropriate that we moved to an extremely environmentally conscious country, where we immediately were given "baptism-by-fire" lessons in being more aware of our usage.  While I can reasonably say that Australia (or at least Brisbane) is at least a decade or more behind the States in several areas such as store hours (grocery stores close at 6pm on Sunday folks!) and internet speeds (most homes and even offices are still on internet access that is gained through a phone line, not ethernet or cable), they are decades ahead of the States in being green.  Many stores charge you extra for bags, homeowners are installing solar power like it's going out of style, they promote 4 minute showers to save on water, cloth diapers (or "nappies") are popular,  the list goes on and on. "Being green" is obviously high on the national agenda and the government is doing a lot to raise awareness and increase consciousness.

Here's a list of some of the EASY things we've changed to make our carbon footprint a little smaller these days.

• We reuse our "green" grocery bags instead of bagging the plastic ones.
• We only own one car, Cory takes public transportation to work each day.
• We are recycling all glass, plastic, paper, aluminum.
• We do more walking, less driving.
• We use the new "green" CFL light bulbs instead of old incandescent bulbs.
• We are not buying bottled water anymore, we refill a pitcher and put it in the fridge.
• We put our clothes out on a clothesline to dry when it's sunny instead of drying them in the dryer.
• We no longer use disposable plates or cups.
• We have chosen paperless billing for our utilities to save on paper.
• We turn off the water while we are brushing our teeth.
• We donate all gently used household items instead of throwing them away.

Now before you go running off saying that the Heitzmanns have become "tree hugging hippies" (which isn't such a bad thing by the way), there are still a lot of areas where we could use a green makeover...a lot of which have to do with being a large family.  Some things just aren't easy to part with like my comfy SUV that fits three kids and a weekend's worth of luggage, disposable diapers, ziploc baggies.  And while a lot of the things on my list are not new or brilliantly original, they are big steps for us, and the more of the population that gets on board with being green, the better off our world will be for our little ones.

Okay, I'm done.  But, before you go, enjoy a little Jason Mraz in this video about nature conservancy...it just happens to be one of my kids favorite songs!

Toy Story 3

Several weeks ago I took Caden and Marin for a treat.  We went to see Toy Story 3, and ended up seeing it in 3D.  That wasn't our intent, but after learning that they even do movies differently here (people buy reserved seats for the theatre online), it was our only option short of sitting on row two (no thanks!).  Almost $100 later and we were sitting pretty, in our reserved seats, with our popcorn, $10 M&M's and sodas.

I was worried that the 3D part would freak Marin out since this was her first theatre experience, but she did about as well as any almost-three-year-old would do at their first movie.  None of us enjoyed wearing the glasses, and overall I think we all would have been just as happy with the regular old movie experience.

Riding the escalator to the theatre.

Posing with who else, Woody & Buzz.

Who's ready to see a movie? We are!

Caden was so excited about the movie, he came home and picked this to color for his evening art project that day.

Until the next Benjamin worthy movie...