Church #44

Girls' Weekend

Alexis and I recently got back from spending a few days in Brisbane with our friends the Hanns and the Atkinsons.  Rebecca, Steph and I became friends when we were all living in Townsville, but sadly they have both moved to Brisbane.  And since they've moved, Rebecca has had her first baby (Gabby), Steph had her second (Noah), and I had Alexis.  I was desperate to see them both and the babies.  I was lucky to find some cheap plane tickets, so Alexis and I headed off.  It was so fun to watch the babies interact with each other and for me to be able to relax and visit with old friends. 

Rebecca and I taking the babies downtown.

We saw the Valentino exhibit at the Gallery of Modern Art.  It was amazing to see so many vintage Valentino dresses.  Beautiful!

Alexis and Gabriella.

 

It was so cute to see these two girls together.  They didn't quite know what to make of each other.  It was Alexis' first attempt at sharing toys and I must admit that she didn't do so well.  She kept grabbing everything Gabby tried to play with.

Alexis with Eliana and Noah.

Alexis absolutely loved Eliana.  And Ellie was very nice about sharing her toys and playing with Alexis.  Noah is just so adorable; he has the most kissable little baby cheeks I've ever seen!

We took the kids to a local park by Seth and Steph's house.  The girls had fun swinging and feeding the ducks, eels (!), and goldfish.

 

Our trip went by so fast.  Next time I will definitely plan a longer visit.  We miss our friends already.

Church #43

Try number one:

Try number two:

Try number three:

Woes of diaper rash

Alexis has her first really bad diaper rash (or 'nappy rash' as they call it in Australia). It was really, really bad last week. It got a lot better over the weekend and now it's getting bad again. I think it is from all of the beans she eats. She absolutely loves beans, so I usually give her some for lunch. But now I don't know. If she keeps getting a sore bottom, then I might have to help her find a new favourite food.  When it was at its worst last week, we let her wander around a bit without a diaper on.  Her little bum is just so cute, I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Church #42

Alexis was so serious this morning while we were taking her pictures. John was standing behind me the whole time dancing, singing and making funny faces; we could not get her to crack a smile!

Looking at the pictures now, John and I can't believe how big Alexis looks, and how grown up. Alexis is now taller than the back of the chair!  This is the first picture of Alexis standing up in the chair (taken 11 April 2010).  What a difference six month makes!

P.S. Happy Birthday Pops!

P.P.S. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa

for the new dress . . . it finally fits!

More visitors!

We love having visitors and this past week we were lucky to have Trevor and Jeremy visiting from Seattle.  For those of you who don't know, Trevor is one of my best childhood friends (we met in 6th grade at the International School).  It was so nice to be able to spend some time together and to get to know Jeremy.  

It was a busy few days as we tried to cram in as much sightseeing as possible.  Our first stop was Magnetic Island.  This is Alexis and me on the ferry over to the island (that's Townsville and Castle Hill in the background).

Our next stop was Billabong Sanctuary.  Trevor and Jeremy loved all of the native animals.  Here's Jeremy feeding one of the resident kangaroos.

Day number three was a trip to Charters Towers.  T & J wanted an "outback" experience and Charters Towers is only an hour drive from Townsville, so off we went.  It was fun to learn about the town's gold mining history and meet some colourful locals.  Unfortunately, Alexis never really warmed up to T & J (I think it was just because they are boys, though she did let Trevor read her a story a few times), but I really wanted a picture of them with her, so here it is (this is the lookout on top of Towers Hill in Charters Towers):

That night we had dinner out at one of our favourite restaurants, Osmans.  I called ahead to book us one of their pillow lounges (it's a Turkish restaurant).  It was nice to be able to let Alexis crawl around a bit on the pillows and actually be able to have some adult conversation.

Our last day together, we drove up to Castle Hill to enjoy the views . . .

 . . . and then spent the morning at Reef HQ, the local aquarium.

Thanks Trevor and Jeremy for making the long trip to Australia.  We were so happy to have you here for the week.

(Looking back over the post, I realised that there are no pictures of John.  Unfortunately John didn't get to do any of the day trips with us, as he's working very hard on this thesis.  He did come to dinner at Osmans, but he was the one taking the picture.  Thanks for working so hard Daddy, we love you!)

Church #41

Before church:

After church:

A big thank you to Trevor and Jeremy for Alexis' adorable dress and John's cool tie!  (And for my purse too, which is not pictured.)