G'day Mate!

At DIA with a lot of luggage! Believe it or not, we packed light!

Greetings from down under! For my first post from Australia, I thought you all would like to see some pictures of our temporary house and hear some first impressions. But first, our long flight... We flew from Denver to LAX and then on to Sydney. The first flight was only 2 1/2 hours and passed fairly quickly. Although, we left at 6 pm so the babies were pretty tired and grumpy. We got off the plane to discover our stroller was missing a few wheels. Not a good sign of things to come - or at least this seemed to be on par with the way this relocation has been going. Nothing has happened with out issue this move. Fortunately it was the center wheels on the double stroller so we were able to make it work okay to get through the airport. Unfortunately for us, United Airline's policy is the following - "United does not assume liability for normal wear and tear to baggage which includes damage to or loss of protruding baggage parts, such as WHEELS." We still plan to follow up but I think the outlook is grim on this one!

So, it was on to our long 14.5 hour flight. We did not have seats together but after some begging, we were able to get some people to move so that we had 6 seats together. Little W fell asleep before take off and slept for a good 6 hours before waking up. C and M fell asleep fairly quickly while the big boy could not wait to start watching movies. He watched a few and about 3 am Denver time, he fell asleep and slept for a very long time! It was about 3 am Sydney time when we all started to stir on the plane. C was bored and got a little wild - we had to go to the potty at least 10 times an hour but fortunately we were seated right next to it! And also fortunate that the flight attendants thought she was cute and did not get too annoyed. After we deplaned, we made it through immigration and customs with no issues and basically no wait time. Our only loss was the one small ziploc of trail mix -no nuts are allowed in for fear of some disease. All our baggage arrived with no problem and our ride was there as well. We got to see a little of the city on our drive to our new rental house and even got to cross the amazing Harbor Bridge.

Sleeping soundly on the flight to Sydney.

Our rental house is an old victorian in a great area. We have beautiful views of the Harbor bridge, the Opera House, the CBD (central business district) and of course the water around Sydney. What a fabulous spot. We have a pool in the yard that we were able to try out yesterday. Looks like it is going to to be a fun final few weeks of summer here in Sydney.

Last night we all slept great. The kids were all asleep by about 7 and I was asleep by about 8:30. The babies woke up about 5:30am and the big kids followed a little while after. Not too shabby for an 18 hour time change! Today, we are headed to the kids school where A has an interview with the principal. Then I think we will go in search of some necessary items like a blow dryer, Australian approved car seats, two new cars, and many other things. Of course we will not achieve all this in one day but hopefully we can make a start. I am sure I will have many stories as we start trying to make our way around Sydney and get settled! Stay tuned...