Shepherd's Outback Adventure

January 28th

We are finally back in Sydney Australia, more specifically Tamarama, and are getting happily settled into our new place. We so enjoyed our 5 weeks of travels, but it felt sooo good to get our clothes out of our suitcases and hang them up!

Well, we enjoyed our last two days in Kho Lanta. We did one more day of snorkeling, which was wonderful and even better than the first snorkel trip. The girls really enjoyed this and saw a lot more amazing marine life. Our crazy monkey friends continued to frequent our villa and even were courageous enough to enter our slider doors, and steal bananas and cookies from our room. We did keep our distance as they sometimes would hiss at us and were not so cute. We left Koh Lanta on January 20th and made our journey back to Sydney.

We spent most of last week unpacking and buying items needed to help us get more organized. I also had Chris arrange for an exterminator to come spray, as the roaches and spiders are quite large everywhere here! We also discovered that our air conditioner was broke, which was fine during the day because we could open all the doors and windows, but at night we needed to shut them because of no screens, so we were quite toasty. Our view from our apartment is wonderful. We have a beautiful view of the ocean and Bronte Beach and Bondi Beach. We made it to several beaches last week, Bronte, Bondi and Coogee. The girls love spending their time jumping the waves and body surfing. Each time I brought magazines and books to read thinking I would read and relax, but I have always been too on edge keeping my eyes on them, as they play in the big waves:) I think I will need to sneak away one day by myself in order to truly relax at the beach!

Yesterday, the 27th, we celebrated Kendall's 8th birthday. We had a great day of eating and hanging out. We also made our way to Bondi Public School to purchase uniforms. The girls, especially Skylar and Kylie, were so happy to discover that they could wear black skorts with a white shirt. Prior to this we only thought they all had to wear tunics (pictured on Danika below). Sky and Ky were not at all looking forward to this. So they were very quick to decide they would be wearing skorts and not the tunic! We ended the evening with a wonderful dinner at Trattoria, followed by birthday ice cream at Ben and Jerrie's. The special at Trattoria's was whole Snapper fish. The chef agreed to take the head off mine, but the girls convinced Chris to keep it on his. Yuk! Kendall claims it was her best birthday ever, but she does say that every year:)

This morning we woke early to get ready for the first day of school! Everyone here walks to school, which takes about 15-20 minutes. The girls were excited but a bit nervous. Their school day is 9-3. We arrived in the office and school staff showed us to each of the girls rooms. They all seemed to have wonderful teachers. I cannot wait to hear about their day! After dropping them off, Chris and I checked out a gym near by and then came home to silence:) He started working and I started blogging. I think we will adapt just fine!

That is all for now. Hope everyone is doing great!