December 30th, 2014

Hello all, we are back at a place with wi-fi so I am going to try and recap our last week.  We left the beautiful Blue Mountains on Dec 26th and headed south to an area called Jervis Bay, which is a holiday destination for many Australians living in southeastern Australia.  The drive to the area was very scenic as we passed through an area called Kangaroo Valley. After arriving in Jervis Bay, and much to the dismay of the cramped passengers, we had to drive an additional 25 minutes on a winding, secluded dirt road to arrive at our accommodations, Bay of Plenty Lodges in Booredee National Park. The park is operated by the aboriginal people and Booredee means "bay of plenty" which is where the name of our place was derived. The property had 15 separate 2 to 3 bedroom cabins, in the middle of nowhere, but in the backyard of one of the prettiest beaches which stretched for 4.5 miles with very few people around.  This was a perfect place to relax, following our first week full of sightseeing and hiking.  All four girls had their first surf lessons on the second day.  They did great.  Skylar and Kylie loved it so much that they went back for lessons again the next day.  We spend a lot of time walking the beach, and playing Euchre, which the girls had learned in the Blue Mountains.  We also enjoyed spotting a lot of wild kangaroos.  They were often found exploring the property at night.

On our second night there we went sat around a campfire to listen to Julie, an Aboriginal storyteller. They refer to these as "campfire yawns". She told many stories that have been passed down through aboriginal history in regards to the evolution of the land and its animals. This was very fun and interesting!

We left Jervis Bay on the 30th, made our way back up to Sydney and flew to Perth.  Once in Perth, we rented a van (luckily it was a bit larger than our first van) and headed to our friends home in a oceanside area called Margaret River, three hours south of Perth. That was a long day of travel.   Our friends, Sean and Milena Lennon,  have a wonderful home here that they are letting us use for the next several days.  We were able to catch up with them last night before they headed back to Perth today.

Today is New Year's Eve, unfortunately my dad has some stomach bug, so he has been under the weather, hopefully that passes quickly!.

Happy New Years to all our friends and family! Love and miss you all!  

 Campfire Yawn with Julie

random bright blue jellyfish?

 4.5 miles of beach to ourselves

 This was at Hyams Beach - known to have the whitest sand in the world.

 Nana introducing some Australians to the game of SPUD

 Traveling to Perth - for the most part segregating the four kids to the middle seats worked well....

 Euchre games at the cabins

 Kangaroos at dusk - right outside our cabin

Kylie and Skylar working hard with the surfboards while the kangaroos watch.