Hello Friends,

We have just gotten back from Down Under.  We were so blessed to have the best weather and wonderful experiences in Australia.  We had been dreaming of going there and it did not disappoint us.  Below are some of our pictures, we hope you will enjoy them.

This is the view from our condo window.  We were able to hear the surf at night as we were able to leave our windows open.  That was such a treat after being in Singapore and having to live in air con or sweat.

If you haven't guessed by now, we love sunsets this is the sun setting over Noosa Beach.  We had gone looking for wild koala bears at the park.  Unsuccessful hunt but we were able to catch this wonderful sunset and be entertained by some great surfers catching the last few waves before it got to dark.

This is us on Noosa Beach at an outcropping.  Just enjoying God's incredible creation and some very quiet time together as a family.

A trip to Australia for us would not be complete without a trip to the world famous Australia Zoo.  We were able to watch Bindi the jungle girl live, see Teri feeding the crocs at the croc show and of course see all the famous crocs.  Megan actually stopped counting the lizards on the walk because there were too many.  Beautiful weather and absolutely a wonderful place to enjoy animals.  We were very impressed.  This is a picture Hannah had us take because of her many friends that love Llamas.

At the entrance of the zoo was this enormous croc.  We couldn't pass by without taking this picture.  The girls had so much fun this day.

We were finally able to see a koala bear.  We have decided that they are the cutest creatures that God ever created.  You can not help but smile when you see them.  The girls said that they were very soft to the touch.  They also got to touch kangeroos.   They were also very soft.

Here the girls are posing on top of one of the mountains that we went to on the second day.  They are known as the Glass House Mountains.  From the top, you can see all the way to the ocean.  The views were spectacular.

This is another outlook on the Mountains.  

The girls love to beachcomb.  This is us walking on the lava from ancient volcanoes.  The girls love to find rocks and shells.  The lava glittered in the sun.  This is Moobooloola beach.  It was the beach our condo overlooked.

Along with beachcombing, the girls had fun with making sand cities.  They could just spend hours and hours digging in the sand.  Fortunately, we had great sunscreen and didn't get burnt even though the sun is extremely intense in Australia.  

We hated to leave Australia, but we can not wait to get back to all our family and friends.  Take Care and see you soon.  Date of arrival in States is April 30!!!

Hi-lah Friends,

Well we have been very bad at sharing our adventures with you, but life has been very busy.  We have been very lucky to meet people from all over the world during our stay and have had some very fun outings.  We have met the West's from Australia, who think we have a very neat accent, Natasha is 10 and became fast friends with Katie.  We have also become good friends with Lorie, Enis, Lorie, Jr., and Anna-Sophia from Finland/Brazil.  Absolutely amazing combination of cultures.

We went to Phuket, Thailand on March 1st.  Had a wonderful time.  We got to see James Bond Island, snorkel, and go to PhiPhi Island (pronounced PEE_PEE).  Some incredible sunsets and of course the ever present lizards.  Our stay was short(only three days) but we were able to get the girls hair braided and Deb was able to get a massage on the beach.  So all in all it was heaven.  The people of Thailand are wonderful and always have a smile on their face.  Smiles that are very welcome after some sour faces in Singapore.

We hope all of you are well and we look forward to seeing you very soon.

This is Mike and Katie in foreground at the first beach at PhiPhi Island.  Look at how beautiful the water is.

Katie on the speed boat doing her best super model pose.  She actually wanted to rub in the beautiful weather  in Thailand especially to Jeff.

Megan getting her hair braided.  It took us more than an hour to undo the work a week later.

This was our first sunset in Phuket.  As I said just beautiful.

I forgot to mention that Megan's birthday was on Feb. 28 and she chose getting pedicures and manicures at a nail salon.  They had a wonderful time being pampered.