Where I Live

Where I live is beautiful, and now homey.  We were able to get everything together for an office party for Brian's team last Sunday.  We worked hard to get everything together, but I think we pulled it off.

Bri bought my favorite flowers

My aunt Elaine got us a subscription for Kentucky magazine - lovely to have a touch of the Bluegrass state in Oz.  Beneath that is a beautiful book of photos of Kentucky given to us from family friends, the Conrads. I grew up with their daughters and then have been friends with my parents for forever. I think all of our guests looked through the book and commented how beautiful our home state is.

Grammy's Favorite Cake and Derby Pie

What Kentucky party is complete without Derby (or in Aussie, Darby) Pie?  And since our family found the recipe for this Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Pie, this has become a staple as well.  Both were well eaten.

The kids had a great time playing together in the pool.  All of the kids are in the same age group and Nathan is now in love with one of the girls.  He knows she lives in the area and wants to see her again. 

It doesn't show up super well in this picture, but to the right is a beautiful photo of the Ohio River at sunset that our lovely Chancel Choir gave us as a going away present.  It's so lovely to have all of these touches of Kentucky in our house and to be reminded of family and friends when we look at them.

Where we live we can decide to go to the beach at a moments notice, which is what we did this past Friday evening.  We were told that Little Beach was the place to watch the sunset.  The way the bay curves, it gives the appearance of the sun setting over the water.  It's a lovely calm beach that opened up into a surprise as we walked - boulders everywhere.

Yaccaba Head is in the background

Nath loved the rocks

Amazing sunset

While waiting for the sun to set, we saw dolphins maybe 10 feet from the shore.  I'm not sure how well you can see them in the picture, but it was amazing.

It's in the middle of this photo

Where I live the kids are playing in the water in November.  My children have learned to truly swim and love the water in Australia.

Splashin' Around

Will blowing bubbles in the bay

Where I live you can climb Tomaree Head for the most spectacular views.

About halfway up the climb

Fingal Spit in the distance

Islands in the distance

It's amazing how clear the water is.  We are going to take a boat trip to the small islands soon.  They are home to penguins and seals.

Where we live is wonderful, although I could do without some of the fauna.  Here is what we found outside our patio door the other day.

Huntsman Spider

I googled New South Wales spiders and determined it was a Huntsman.  The tag was, I promise, "barely poisonous."  Good to know!  Of course, our theory is that if it lives in Australia, it's probably poisonous.

And that doesn't show the Redback we found.  I was trying to show the boys a huge snail climbing our fence when I looked over to see the Redback spider.  We immediately went inside and got Brian to kill it.  I did assist by handing him the bug spray.

Where I live has become home.  To quote Jack Johnson (hey, my family loves his music) "home is wherever we are, if there's love there too."  And there is, because where I live is also where my three favorite guys live:

Nath is getting better at taking pictures

Brotherly love

And that's a whole lot of love.