Mom

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of my Mom. I hear it was taken by a newspaper, but for what I do not know. I love the look on her face, as well as my sister's face. The picture is badly damaged by time and the elements, but it does not matter. She looks so young and pretty to me here, full of life, with her beautiful baby in her arms. She looks happy.

Today is 2 years since Mom died. Two years have passed since I held her hand and said goodbye. I miss her more than I can say, and I had no idea that the time would not dull the grief. I look at my own hands and see hers, sometimes I catch myself in a picture or the mirror with a certain look that was totally her. And I miss her. So very much.

The day she died there was a huge rainbow in the sky. So big and so bright it was in the newspaper. It was very visable from her room that last day, as my Dad sat with her and held her hand and said goodbye. Last year on the anniversary of her death I was SO down, and on the way to work that morning saw a rainbow in the foothills beyond my work. It made me smile, and I felt that it was a "sign" or a reminder for me to help me get past the grief and remember that she was in such a better place. The last several days, with all of the rain we have been having and the patches of sun in between I have been scanning the skies and the hills looking for a rainbow. A friend posted one on Facebook this week, and I even responded that it was perhaps the one I had been looking for. And then today, on my way home from work, there it was. I was getting off the freeway, and right in front of me in the clouds was a very light rainbow. But it was there. As stupid as it may sound, I felt such a weight lifted off of me, and felt a big smile creep across my face. Thank you Mom.

I wish Mom could be here to see my girls grow. She would be so proud of them. I wish she was here to consult, when I am having difficult times and am struggling with my day to day life. She always had such common sense, good advice. I wish she was here to tickle my arm, or hold my hand, or give me a tight squeeze and whisper in my ear "I Love You, sweetie". I wish she could have dinner in my home, and enjoy my husband's amazing cooking. I guess I just feel so sad because I wish she could still be here to share my life with me, and vice versa. I did not have long enough with her.

I love you Mom. I hope I will preserve part of you with the lessons you taught me about being a Mom, and the way I raise my girls. You taught me so many lessons, and I feel so lucky to have had you in my life. I love you, and I miss you so very, very much. As much as I remind myself that you are in a better place, I still feel very sad today. Very, very, sad.

Lunch at Doyle's in Sydney Harbor

A quick clip from lunch in Sydney...

Australia...continued

Now that we are back home, and internet issues are not an issue, I wanted to finish the days we had "Down Under" in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It sounds so corny, but truly from the moment I arrived until the last sad second before departure I felt such a strong feeling that this was my soul's resting place...a place where I felt completely and totally at rest, at ease, for the first time in my life. Perhaps I was drunk with vacation fever...where the heady cocktail of no work and no responsibilities convinced my brain that this was "the place to be". I say that, but I don't really believe it. I can't wait to go back, and if there was a way for me to stay there, I would jump on it!

One of the highlights of our incredible journey was Rob and my trip to Sydney. Completely unplanned, it was Clive's way of making things happen that propelled us to take this trip. Can I just say how much I respect and love this Man. I always have, and I remember being so grateful that he honored us with an amazing song at our wedding reception. He is one of those people that you might be just lucky enough to meet once in a lifetime. His life has not been easy, but I believe God has lead his path. And God helps him to lead others. No Doubt. He suggested it, he pushed the point, and away we went. For two people that have had such amazing stress in our lives for the last few years, and so little (okay NO) time to ourselves, it was a much appreciated, and MUCH needed time for us. One we will never forget. Forgive me for the picture above, but I am smitten with awesome hotel bathrooms! You can see my little camera hand in the top of the picture, but as we checked in I was just blown away by the beauty of the room. We had a view of the clocktower, and a drawer full of wine glasses, but the "rainforest" shower head stole my heart! I won't creep you out with a picture of me enjoying the rainforest showerhead, but take my word for it...it was amazing!

This was the view from our room's window. I loved it. Okay...I'm shallow...

After we checked in and got settled we decided to take off and see the city. After all, we were in the CBD, or Central Business District, and right in the heart of the city. We were so stoked..it was perfect for a few days of exploring the city on foot! A 10 minute walk in any direction would take us to the most incredible locations! We got packed up with camera's and comfy shoes and took off. First stop was somewhere for lunch, as it was 2:30 and we had not had much to eat all day. We decided to go to the much recommended Doyle's for lunch, and found out it was only a 10-15 minute walk away. Perfect!

We took off from the hotel toward's "Circular Quay" pronounced Circular "Key" to get lunch. The wonder's of the city awaited us...

Did we have fun? Well...

We've talked a lot about our trip, and what was our "favorite" thing...the highlight, the thing we liked the best. The one answer that always seems to come up is "EVERYTHING"! We have had the most fantastic trip, it is almost beyond description. I am sitting in Clive and Johanna's living room right now, by myself, just thinking about it all. It is shortly after midnight here (early Monday morning) and we will be leaving for a few hours to the airport. The house is dark and quiet, everyone is asleep. I am listening the the cozy sound of rain outside and just taking a minute to reflect. I guess I'm already a little down-in-the-dumps...not wanting to go to bed and wake up to our last few hours here.

We have had a trip where there have been no major mishaps. We have joked that the travel Gods have been smiling on us, as we have had one amazing experience after the next. Even a simple trip to the movies was a mindblower! And some of the most amazing things have been when we have just been having a lazy day at the house, watching the kids swim and play together, and just genuinely enjoy being together. Wonderful meals, both in and out of the house, wonderful conversations, and just generally awesome family time.

On top of all of that is the fact that we have seen and done some of the most amazing things. The Great Barrier Reef, the Rainforest, the kids being able to hold koalas and snakes and crocodiles...pet and feed kangaroos, visit glowworm caves...to name just a few! I was so determined to keep up with blogging, but a few Internet glitches and just having too much fun "living" the trip have made my postings few and far between. I guess that's a good thing, after all...what is more boring than someone else's vacation pictures anyway? I hope I can document more of it though...really for myself and my little family, to help us remember as time fades the memories.

I know my children will remember this wonderful trip their whole lives. What incredible experiences they have had, we have all had. We owe it all to Clive and Johanna, who made every aspect of this trip possible for us, and went so far above and beyond to open their beautiful home and their beautiful hearts to us, with generosity and spirit beyond compare. We love you guys so much and our hearts will be breaking as our little family gets back to our day to day life. We look forward to the next time we are all together, and know we will just have a blast! Until then, I will just keep in mind what seems to be the most common, and most wonderful mantra around here, "No Worries Mate!" Until next time...

Sydney Here We Come!

While it was not part of our original plan or itinerary, Clive and Johanna have convinced us we cannot come to Australia without visiting Sydney. They have also most generously offered to watch the kids for us so we can have a little romantic getaway...in one of the world's most beautiful cities! Be still my heart...I am SO EXCITED!! Add to that the fact that Rob and I have not had two nights away from the kids...in a beautiful hotel...in a romantic setting...FOR YEARS!

This was a very last minute decison, and we are going to be flying by the seat of our pants with very little pre-planning. So far so good, as we booked our hotel on a site Johanna recommended that allows you to stay at a "mystery" hotel for very steeply discounted rates. So we rolled the dice with the booking, and ended up with the 5 star Westin Sydney! Johanna and Clive have stayed there before and say it is amazing, very centerally locatated to most attractions we would want to visit on a short trip. I went online and looked at the rooms and they look absolutely beautiful. And the room rate was 1/3 of what you would pay if you booked it normally! I love it when a plan comes together...

So we leave tomorrow morning (December 29th for us) and will return the afternoon/early evening of December 31st...just in time to ring in the New Year with our family. I can't believe the trip is flying by so fast, and it is only one week from today that we will be headed home. :-( But for now I am just going to focus on our newest adventure, and live life in the moment.

Woo Hoo...can't wait to see Sydney!

Merry Christmas (just a few days late) 2009

Saying we had a wonderful Christmas seems like such an understatement. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve, and beautiful dinner. We then got the kids to bed early (they were ready...could not wait for Santa to arrive), and got to work being Santa's little Elves. Hours of wrapping, and assembling, and wrapping and more assembling and we got to bed around 1AM. Clive and Rob spent over 3 1/2 hours just assembling this awesome foozball table. Total troopers.

When we were done the tree was ready to go, and we were pooped. Excited knocks on the door at 5AM had us up, even though we were feeling quite a bit like zombies. The children's excitement soon rubbed off and with paper flying and "Woo Hoo's and WHOA's" filling the air it seemed Santa hit the nail on the head. All of the wished for gifts seemed to have arrived, along with a few they had not wished for, but were thrilled to get. It was a very blessed Christmas morning. There was even a bright red Radio Flyer tricycle under the tree for Paige, and I think that brought back memories of Christmases Past for all of us.

After the gifts were opened and the paper cleaned up we got dressed and attended Clive and Johanna's church. Beautiful music and a wonderful message brought the focus back to what the day is really about, our Lord's birth. We had a wonderful service, and then returned back home for a huge "American" breakfast, with eggs and bacon, pancakes and delicious fruit. With a super full tummy and a previous night of 4 hours sleep I fell asleep on their outside couch. Just add the tropical temps, a cool breeze, and some classical music on the iPod (thanks again for the headphone loaners Sharon!), I was out like a light for a loooooong winter's nap!

That evening we were treated to a beautiful and traditional Aussie/New Zealand Christmas dinner. Huge oysters, prawns (shrimp) as big as your hand, and tender, delicous lamb chops were on the menu...along with potatos and veggies. Yum!

So Merry Christmas from the Warren family from Australia. It is surely a Christmas we will all remember the rest of our lives!

And meanwhile...back in Orange...

Three week trips to Australia would never be possible if it were not for our dear friends Debbie and Dan watching our furry son, Cisco. They have graciously been our official "dog-sitters" since day one for Cisco, and we are so very blessed to have them.

This one she called "Who Needs Reindeers?" Tee Hee

Knowing how much we miss him, Debbie has started a tradition of emailing pictures to us on our trips. This time she sent us a bunch of awesome pics...but as our internet is spotty I will only post a few.

Luckily Aunt Deb does not let Cisco develop those extra Holiday love-handles. He loves to go for bike rides with his harness on. I have a feeling when we get home he will sleep for several days straight!

Thanks Dan and Deb for taking such good care of the Dude, and especially for sending us the pictures. It put a smile on all of our faces!

Aboriginal Art

The first night we were in Port Douglas we walked around the quaint little town and visited some shops. The most interesting one we saw was a shop that carried all kinds of Aboriginal Art. The things here were so beautiful, and have become quite sought after so they consequently are quite expensive.

Everything in this shop/gallery was hand carved and/or hand painted. The patterns and colors are just beautiful.



We learned here there is one kind of boomerang for decoration, and another type for used for hunting. The proprietor of the shop told us if the boomerang comes back to you it's not considered a good throw, as it should have hit the animal you were after while hunting and stayed right there.



Several people in our party gave a go at trying to make music with the beautiful Didgeridoo, but with little luck. This is a much more difficult instrument to play then it first appears. The girl running the shop played it for us, and the sound it made was beautiful and haunting.

The colors and shapes, the beautiful patterns were amazing...some appearing very primitive, but on closer examination the work seemed very complex. Absolutely gorgeous.

Just some of the man-made wonders we have seen so far!

Australian Christmas Day 3

Our third day in Australia was mainly a travel day. We got up and got packed, and drove an hour to the Brisbane Airport. After parking our car at an offsite carpark and getting a bus to shuttle us to the airport we checked in with Jet Star Airlines (a domestic Australian airlines) and had a nice lunch at the airport before flying to Cairns. The flight was about 2 hours, and the 10 of us made it there very uneventfully.

We were picked up in Cairns and driven via shuttle to Port Douglas, about 45 minutes from Cairns. The drive was just beautiful, very scenic winding roads through where the rainforest literally meets the ocean.



This is Sebastian looking so grown up to his old Auntie...on the drive from the airport to Port Douglas.

The beaches here are just beautiful, but there is pretty much no one on them as it is "stinger" season and the water hides beautiful but deadly jellyfish. There are small areas of ocean that are basically netted off and available for swimming, or you can wear a stinger suit in the ocean that is made of nylon rash guard type material. We all had to wear these when we were on the Great Barrier Reef.

The quick driver and the winding coastal roads took some getting used to, as we were on the "wrong" side of the road! I kept feeling like we were going to have a head-on collision.

Clive and Johanna had arranged for us to have a 4 bedroom apartment type hotel room. Complete with kitchen, a beautiful balcony that became a wonderful breakfast spot and even a clothes washer, this worked out to be the perfect accomodations for our two families...all 10 of us! Besides the apartment being great, "Club Tropical" also had a wonderful waterfall pool that the kids loved.



One of my favorite things about the hotel was the fishpond/courtyard. There was a beautiful large fishpond in the middle of the buildings, with large concrete stepping stones scattered across the length of it. This was really the best way to get to your room, so you would step across the stepping stones, surrounded by lily pads, large koi fish and beautiful flowers. Every time I crossed it I felt a little like being in a fairy tale!





We ended the evening walking around Port Douglas, visiting the shops and having a wonderful dinner. We even met George..."the Groper". More on that next!

Just a quickie

What do these 4 pictures have in common? They were all things we did (and just a few of the things we did) this last weekend in Cairns and Port Douglas. I have literally hundreds of pictures to go through, and stories to tell. We just got back to Hope Island last night (Monday) around 7PM, and besides the fact that we were all completely exhausted we had no internet coverage, so I could not go online. The internet problem has been resolved, and we are now going to be "home" for several days, so look for some posts from me in the upcoming days.

Johanna has a crowd of children and "Mums" coming over this afternoon for a Christmas play and swim in their backyard, so this post will be brief. Just wanted to give a quick update on some of what we had been doing.

If you want to see a VERY HAPPY 10-year old, just come to the Rainforest Habitat in Cairns, where you can not only see the most amazing local creatures, but hold them or pet them as well! Clive is good friends with the owner Michael, and we had a beautiful "breakfast with the lorikeets" before touring the facility. The topper of course was the kids getting to hold a koala to have their pictures taken. She was SO sweet and very soft, and I think we would have stayed there all day if we could. They also got to feed and pet kangaroos, and several other "local" animals. The birds in this facility were amazing...in every color and variety.

Yes, this is me, snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Easily in the top 10 of most amazing experiences of my life, the beautiful fish and coral were a sight to behold! Rob got adventurous with Clive's encouragement and actually went scuba diving here, the first time in his life he had gone scuba diving. Many, many more pictures to come on this!

We took the Skyrail through the rainforest with a few stops to walk around and hear about the area from rangers stationed there. Trees that are hundreds of years old, amazing plant and bird and wildlife, and spectacular views. I know I've said AMAZING about a hundred times...but God's beauty in these locations is almost beyond description.

We took the train from Kuranda back down out of the rainforest, back to Cairns. This train was actually built over 130 years ago, and is quite an AMAZING engineering feat. Travelled right next to a waterfall, and heard the history of this train. Just beautiful.

We also had some incredible meals, went to a butterfly sanctuary, and more...all in really 2 days! I'll update again later today and go into a little more detail...as the pictures literally are worth 1000 words.

Till then...Good Day Mates!