A Traveling We Will Go!

What a busy couple of weeks we have had! Grandma and Grandpa D have been staying with us and gave Matt and I a nice gift of letting us go out of town without the kids. We chose to go to Hong Kong because it is not too far, neither of us had been before, and it was a city we wanted to see. So, we spent three days sight seeing, resting, and enjoying each other's company. Hong Kong is a great city and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

View of the city:

A view from the other side:
At Aqua Bar, in One Peking building. Our backs are to the laser show that takes place every night, which was not impressive. The cold beer made up for the bad show :-)
We spent an afternoon in SOHO (which actually means "South of Hollywood St.") which is very hilly and full of restaurants, bars, shops, etc.
The scaffolding you see is bamboo. Yes, BAMBOO! We couldn't believe it, all over the city this stuff is used for scaffolding.


After Hong Kong, the whole family (all 7 of us) took off for Perth, Australia. Perth is in the state of Western Australia and since Matt and I hadn't been there before we were excited to see it. The best thing about Perth is that it is in the same time zone as Singapore (which means that the kids didn't have to adjust) and the flight is only 5 hours. It is winter in Australia right now, so the weather was a bit chilly, but for us it was a much-welcomed break from the heat. Overall it was a fabulous vacation. The rental house was nice, the city was good (we stayed in Fremantle, a beach town), the kids had a blast, and we really enjoyed time as a family. I had to fly to Sydney and Melbourne for work during the week (5 hour flight), but the week was still good.

Grandma D and Ainsley on the beach in Fremantle:

Me and Jack on the playground near the beach. There are so many GREAT playgrounds all over Fremantle and Perth.


How cute is this -- Jack and Kara fit in one swing and Ainsley pushed them:
One day we drove to a wildlife preserve area to see some native animals. Ainsley got to feed a kangaroo. She was so excited (as were we!!).

Matt and Ainsley rode a camel:
Jack had so much fun looking at the animals he needed a quick nap. He slept in this very uncomfortable position even with Kara pulling his hair and trying her best to disturb him.
Grandma D got to pet a koala bear:

Everyone at the end of the vacation. Great memories were made. Tonight we bid farewell to Grandma and Granpa D. We will miss them and hate that we are so far from home, but so happy we got to spend three weeks of quality time with them.
This week we are back to work and school. Ainsley has now been to Australia three times, Jack and Kara once; all the kids have been to Indonesia and Thailand. Where will we go next?????