First Week In Brisbane

Well, The Heitzmanns are now residents of Brisbane, Australia...see map below.

Our family left the States on Friday, May 7th.  It was an exciting day as my kids boarded an airplane for the very first time.  Ok, so exciting might not be exactly how I felt.  Maybe anxious is a better word.  But any anxiety I was feeling quickly left the building when I saw how happy they were for the experience.  We started out with the best help as Uncle Brad helped us get checked in.  And, we lucked out with the kindest and most knowledgeable Continental rep that we have had yet.  The ease of check-in reminded me of the great power of prayer.  We felt completely covered by our praying friends and family as we set off on our crazy journey.  The overwhelming amount of text messages and phone calls from everyone the day of our trip will always stay with me. But, on to the trip...

Here's our clan making our way through IAH

Hallie loved looking out the window.  Here she is with her face glued.

Caden and Marin enjoyed the flight to LA, where they promptly crashed as soon as we met up with Grandma.  It was midnight Texas time when she met us in the terminal and it wasn't a minute too soon.

The V Australia leg was a little more difficult at boarding time because of the sleepy kids.  We had all of 5 minutes to board the plane before they called the masses, which made it all feel very hectic.  Waking the kids up to get on the plane at 2am their time was a mess too.  Needless to say I didn't get any photos after they were awake!  

We arrived in Brisbane early Sunday morning.  The city was covered in sunlight and we were all happy to get off the plane, stretch our legs and breath in some good Aussie air!  Driving into the city from the airport got all of us excited as we passed palm trees, cute Queenslander houses (more about that later) and the beautiful Brisbane river.  Here's a photo of the hotel apartments where we are staying...right across the street from Cory's new office.

Caden and Marin love looking out the windows from our 7th floor apartment.  Scary thing is these windows are not child friendly, they open by a latch with nothing to stop a kid from going overboard.  Here are a few pictures of them sitting on the window sills before we figured out how dangerous it was.  They haven't been up there since!

Our first day was spent mainly recovering from the long trip.  We staying in and tried not to nap during the day so that our jet lag wouldn't be terrible.  It didn't work.  We all crashed about 4pm that afternoon and the kids woke up around 3am.  This lasted for the first several days and is just now working itself out a week later.  A friend of mine told me that it usually takes about a day for every hour your body has to adjust to the time difference.  That would be 16 for us.  Yikes.  Cory, Marin and I did venture out for a brief walk that first afternoon to find the Brisbane River. This is Cory and Marin on the Victoria Bridge.

The view from the Victoria Bridge.

The next day we ventured out for a bit of a longer walk.  We saw City Hall, which is currently under reno (renovation), The Clock Tower, and King George Square.  The kids love looking at all the statues around the city.  We even saw our first kangaroos...even though they weren't real :)

The Clock Tower at City Hall

We kept walking towards the west side of town to the river and found the Wheel of Brisbane and some beautiful parklands.

On Tuesday we walked the opposite direction and got our first glimpse of the Story Bridge and the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. The kids were excited to see their first playground since arriving in the city.

Later in the week we were treated to a visit to Mt. Coot-tha (coo-tha) by Grandma Pat's friend Jeanette.  She has graciously been driving Cory and I around town to learn about the millions of beautiful suburbs they have here so that we can pick where we want to live.  On this afternoon, Caden wanted to join us, so he got to see the City from this unique perspective too.  The sights were so breathtaking that it immediately went to the top of my list of must-do trips for anyone who comes to visit (hint hint).

We decided to take it easy over the weekend and hang out with the kids.  While this post doesn't show it, the first week in Brisbane was mostly spent trying to figure things out.  Things like bank accounts, cell phones, new jobs, health insurance, etc.  It was all a lot of information to absorb at once, so we needed a breather.  We walked about 5 blocks to the north of our hotel to the Roma Street Park.  The kids enjoyed another playground and there we met a family of 6, the Fekete's, who we hope to be good friends with.  In addition to the playground, they had an amazing garden where we saw all kinds of plant life that we are used to in Houston - Crepe Myrtles, Magnolias, Split Leaf Philodendron, Crotons...the list goes on. 

On a side note, Hallie is learning to smile and I had to include a picture in here of her long "cheeeeeeeese".

One thing we don't see much in Houston are these huge lizards.  I wouldn't say they're everywhere, but we've seen at least five since we've been here walking around.  

They also have these beautifully weird trees here called Moreton Bay Fig Trees.  They have gorgeous root systems that are massive, some coming right down from the tree limbs themselves.  Here's a picture of one of the biggest I've seen so far in the Botanical Gardens.

Dreadfully long post, I know, but that's how our week has felt.  We have a lot to learn and a lot more to share, so more to come later.