Blue Blue Blue

UNBELIEVABLE!!! The view from the airplane going over the Great Barrier Reef! The color of the ocean is so blue, it is so amazing. Just like all the pictures in the National Geographic. We flew north to Cairns from Brisbane and we are staying in the Sheraton in Port Douglas (about 1 hour north from Cairns) for 5 days. Totally different surroundings that the Sunshine Coast. Long stretches of beach, but green everywhere you look. We took a daytrip to the outer reef for some snorkling. We brought our own snorkles and Thijs had been practicing in the pool at home. We too a huge "Quicksilver" boat that holds about 400 people. We docked at a platform attached to the reef. On the platform there were changing rooms, showers, lunch buffet, a glass bottom boat for little 30 minute tours of the reef. We all got our wetsuits on in pursuit of Nemo! And we found him. We saw so many cool fish! The kids had a blast. We all would love to come back here for more snorkling and/or diving.

Our last day we took an old train from Cairns to Kuranda, The Kuranda Scenic Railway. 17 km through the oldest rainforest in the world. We spent some time in the village, and went to a Rainforeststation. They had this set up with different activities. An Aboriginal dance show, a lesson in Boomerang throwing (which the kids ended up doing much better than most adults), a duck tour, watching them play the Didgeridoo and some koala and kangaroo petting. At the end of our day we took a Skyrail back to Cairns. A 7 1/2 km cable car ride over the rainforest. Fantastic views but oh so scary when you are afraid of hights. I think I was frozen the first 3 km and than I felt a bit more relaxed.

The Kuranda Railway.

17 km thru the rainforest to a town called Kuranda

7 1/2 km of Skyrail back to Cairns

Wide Open Spaces

We made it to Mooloolaba. An hour north of Brisbane, Australia. WOW.... the space here is unreal. The skies go on forever. It is great to be able to drive and not get to the end of the island. Singapore does give us a cabin fever feeling sometimes. We are spending the first 6 days of our trip on the Sunshine Coast. We have a great little apartment on the beach. It gets light here at 4am!!! How weird it that? The kids have their boogieboards and spend most of the afternoon catching waves and playing in the sand. During the day it nice and warm but at night it cools down a bit. We found a Target (YES!) on the way to a great little market in Eumundi. We had to make a pitstop to find a few of our favorite things. We spent Christmas day on the beach. It did not feel like Christmas, but Santa did come to the apartment and dropped off a few little gifts. We took the kids to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. We saw has wife Terri! Its a very interactive zoo. There are zookeepers that walk around with all kids of different animals and the kids and touch or hold them, really cool! We saw Dingo's, Wombats, Crocs, Kangaroos, Koala's, Snakes, Tasmanian Devils. We all had a great time relaxing in this cute little beach town.

Merry Christmas!

Thijs catching a wave.

First Sleepover

Playing at Tanglin Mall SnowThijs had his best friend sleep over last week. Aidan is moving to Tokyo over Winter Break and this was their last little "party". We took the boys for ice cream after dinner and a place where they make fake snow. We got home around 8pm. They showered and put their pj's on and were in bed with the lights off at 845pm. We were not sure if this was going to work since it was the first sleepover for both of them, but they were so tired they fell asleep in only a few minutes. The next morning they were up at 6am playing. They had so much fun!