Saturday, July 17

Coolest Picture Ever!

So we have some happy news, we are pregnant! We discovered our little blessing a week after we got home from Australia. Our little “Roo” is a world traveler. We are thankful everything has been normal and good so far in the pregnancy. I am hoping the nausea will go away soon, not enjoying throwing up or feeling like I have to every night :)

Our due date is Jan 17th.

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Friday, July 16

Flying Home

It took approximately 32.5hrs to travel home. Although the flight was long it was well worth the 15 days we had in Australia. It was such a great trip! Other than running out of gas in the middle of nowhere and being helped by a stranger, we had no problems or delays. We met some wonderful people and experienced some amazing adventures. The Lord kept us safe as he gave Todd & I this opportunity to get away and just enjoy each others company. Thanks for sharing in our adventures by reading this blog!

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In case you missed any posts or want to look again, here are the links for each one.

Waterfalls

After Granite Gorge we kept driving through the Atherton Tablelands which changed back into a lush landscape. We stopped at Mt. Hypipamee National Park to see its crater. The crater was very deep and a very long drop from the viewing platform. We saw several lovely waterfalls in the park as well. There were signs to beware of Cassowaries but the only evidence we saw were its droppings (sorry, there is a picture) :)

We kept driving to see a few more waterfalls even though it started raining on us. For lunch we stopped in Millaa Millaa and found a cute little cafe. Todd ordered a hamburger with beetroot and I ordered a pie, a meat pie that is.

The Cathedral Fig Tree was our last stop. It was huge! You can see Todd as comparison.

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Thursday, July 15

Granite Gorge

Our last day of touring we woke up early and watched the sunrise from our balcony. It was gorgeous! We then decided to head west about an hour into the Atherton Tablelands. Our first of many stops was Granite Gorge, an area that almost began to look like the outback. It was very dry with giant termite hills scattering the countryside.

We made it to Granite Gorge Nature Park and were pleasantly surprised to find friendly little rock wallabies. I have to say of the all the animals we had seen, I wanted to take of these little guys home. They were adorable, especially the mama with the baby!

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Wednesday, July 14

Daintree

We only have 2 days left of touring, Sunday and Monday. Sunday we decided to meet the Smythe family again for their church service. It was wonderful to fellowship with other believers a third around the world. We all praise the same  awesome God!

After the service we said our goodbyes and headed north along the coast to the Daintree region. I believe that area has the highest population of crocodiles, we didn’t see any though. Along the way we stopped at Mossman Gorge which reminded us a lot of Washington.

The picture that shows the sand design is actually tiny little sand balls created by tiny little crabs. They must roll the sand up as they dig out their burrows. It was pretty cool.

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Tuesday, July 13

GBR: Outer Reef

Our second and last stop was at the outer reef. There we found the most colorful and diverse shapes of coral and fish.

After our boat adventure we met the Smythe family for a BBQ near the water. Todd had previously met Campbell at a Logos seminar and kept in touch through email. We were happy it worked out to meet the whole family. We had a nice visit and even got to try kangaroo steak which was really good.

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GBR: Michaelmas Cay

We were excited to finally see the Great Barrier Reef. Our boat tour held a maximum of 30 people so we got to the reefs faster and had more time in the water. We first stopped at Michaelmas Cay, a white coral sand island home to thousands of birds.

We both snorkeled and Todd scuba dived in the gorgeous reefs. Lots of beautiful fish and coral. We rented an underwater camera and Todd took over to get some cool shots of a clown fish and some other creatures on his dive. He got to touch the giant clam too.

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