Margret River (wine region) trip

Singapore trip is over and now Uncle Tim arrives! We were all so excited to see Uncle Tim arrive after his long 30 hour flight! We were very excited because we decided to take a trip down to Margret River, one of the wine regions of Western Australia. It was about a 3 hour drive southwest of Perth. We drove in and stopped in a town called Bussleton. Busselton is famous for the Busselton Jetty. Of course, the Busselton Jetty was closed due to being under construction. We were able to get some great pictures of the Jetty and on top of that there was a great park next to it!

After playing at the park and having a picnic lunch, we headed to Yallinup, Smith's Beach Resort. While Austin and I settled into the place and took a nap Aaron and his Uncle continued to head south to a town called Augusta. They visited the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse and this is where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean.


After enjoying the amazing site, they continued back up north and arrived at there second stop Mammoth Cave. There are many different caves down in this region and Mammoth Cave is known as one of the best to visit.


While Aaron and his Uncle finished up site seeing for the day, Austin and I hit the beach for a little while. It was still pretty chilly or I could say windy so we did a lot of playing at the beach!
The next day we started out the day with a whale watching trip! We got to see many whales and we even saw one breech! Aaron, had his camera on auto focus so did not actually capture the breech but did get the big splash! He was not a happy camper! I was super excited because I actually got to see it while sitting inside the boat with a little one passed out on my lap! The scenery was gorgeous all around!



After our exciting morning, Aaron and his Uncle headed north to another light house,Cape Naturaliste, they enjoyed getting some great pictures!
We ended the day with hitting the beach for a little bit, very windy, and playing outside of our resort!
The next day we headed to The Canals Rocks. This was a beautiful site and was amazing to see the waves hit the rocks! As Austin stated, "BIG waves!"

From there we ventured over to a place called Country Life Farm! This place was so neat! It had everything you could think of that kids loved to do. We feed all sorts of animals, jumped in the bouncy castle, played in the indoor play area and the outdoor play area! Austin had a blast and we enjoyed watching him have so much fun!




Our last stop in Margret River was the beautiful winery Laurance Cellars. Once again, beautiful and it had a playground! We enjoyed a nice lunch, beautiful scenery, and watching Austin play on the playground!

Singapore

Sorry blog readers, I am a little behind in my postings! I have so much to update! Let's start with my great trip to Singapore. After my parents visit to Perth, Australia, I was surprised with a trip to Singapore by husband! Singapore is about 5 hours away from Perth so it was not a long flight at all.

The first day my mom and I went out shopping and sightseeing while my dad was working. Mom and I went to the Orchard Ion shopping center in Singapore which has lots of great shopping stores and many of the same ones back in the States. It was nice to see familiar shops! We then took a boat cruise which allowed us to see many of the great Singapore sights. We were able to see Boat Quay, Clark Quay, The Fullerton hotel, the Merlion, and the brand new "Sans Hotel". After a great day out on the town we then went to a great restaurant "Our Village" which was an Indian restaurant that overlooked Boat Quay.

The next day we went to the beautiful Botanical Gardens,where I have memories of when I was a little kid! The flowers were absolutely beautiful! We walked all over the gardens and even went by the exact spot where I fell into the duck pond as a kid! After, the botanical gardens we then headed over to where we use to live in Singapore. It was so neat to see our old house and even better the people living there allowed us to come in. It is exactly what I remember!
After an exciting day we then went and had the famous chili crab and black pepper crab at Long Beach restaurant. The crab was delicious and very messy! That night we went "back in time" and went to see Matthew Tan who is a Singaporean who sings Country music. My mom and dad spent many weekends when we lived there listening to Matthew with all there American friends! He is famous for the song "Singapore cowboy"! He still remembers mom and dad and all there friends!
A few more things we were able to experience while visiting were "Chimes" which is a place that has all sorts of restaurants, the Raffles hotel which is famous for their drink "Singapore sling",and Chinatown!
We had an amazing trip while we there and it was great to take a walk down memory lane! I will have to say Singapore has grown tons since we lived there and it is a very neat place to visit!

Pops arrives to Perth

Pops arrives to Perth! Pops is still working so he did not get to come for six weeks but the week he was here we had a great time! Pops got to enjoy many things while here! Reading books to Austin at nap time and bed time were enjoyed! He got to see Austin run around all the different parks!

We took pops and granny to Cottesloe beach and to one of our favorite resturants the Indiana. We enjoyed sitting on the beach enjoying a few beverages and looking at the Indian Ocean! It was a great evening spent with the family and watching the beautiful sun set!




Pops got to enjoy one of our favorite places here in Perth and that is the city of Fremantle! We enjoyed walking around the city, playing at the park, and eating lunch at a brewery on the water!

Our last big outting in Perth was taking Pops and Granny to the Cavershams wildlife park. This is a very neat place! You get to feed the kangaroos, pet all sorts of different animals!





All said and done having Granny and Pops in Perth was excellent! It made us feel like a little piece of Houston was with us! Granny and Pops were headed to Singapore after Perth and my wonderful husband surprised me with a plane ticket to Singapore with them! More to come on "Living the Greene Life"!!

Granny Arrives from Texas!

Granny arrived August 15th and we were on the move all the way to September 23!
Granny arrived and Austin was super excited for her to arrive! Austin held her hand all the to car and then gave her hugs and kisses the whole ride home! While Granny adjusted from jet lag that first week, she also helped prepare for Austin's 2nd birthday party! Austin was super excited she was able to attend his birthday party! The next day we took Granny to Perth Zoo where Austin showed her all the Australian animals. He really enjoyed showing her the kangaroos! Granny and Austin enjoyed some of there afternoons sitting on the back porch talking about all the different kind of birds flying around, jumping on the trampoline and even exploring on down to the river. Austin loved throwing sea shells and rocks into the river with Granny! We took Granny to the famous Kings Park and walked all through the park and looked at the beautiful scenery! We also got to go to the aquarium which was very interesting! We saw all types fish, sea creatures, and Austin's favorite the sharks! We got to travel around on a converyer belt that took us in a circle and the sharks and string rays swam above us! We made a trip down South to a city called Mandrauh where we enjoyed a lovely park on the water and took a boat cruise. We even got to see a dolphin swimming around! Granny and I even got to have a few days and evenings to ourselves and enjoyed some nice dinners, cafes with yummy coffee,shopping, tour of the fremantle prision and a fabulous wine cruise through swan valley! Granny also enjoyed watching Austin go to his gymnastics classes, swimming lessons, kindermusik classes and his playgroups on Wednesday and Friday. She got to meet all our wonderful friends here in Perth and many of them are already asking when she is going to return! Many smiles and laughs were had through out her whole visit and for the last week of her stay Pops arrived!