Kristen turns 28 in Australia!!

Kristen and Mikey, I'm in my new bday shirt!!

Well another event to share with you on the blog. My 28th Birthday!!! And of course I had about a million things on my list that I wanted to do. I think I wore Mikey and the new roomies out with trying to fit everything in. It was a great day just being in Australia. I went to work at the Pilates studio which reminded me what a wonderful experience all this has been and how lucky I was to find such a wonderful work environment. We then had reservations at Mexicana the new mexican restaurant that opened up down the street from us at North Narrabeen. It looked pretty good and we have yet to have good mexican in Australia so we thought we would give it a try on my bday! We invited the people we had Christmas dinner with and their daughter and of course the 2 new roommates, Mikey, and I. Katie and D(new roommates) gave me a bouquet of beautiful flowers and 2 "real" wine glasses for my birthday. So sweet. Mikey got him and I tickets to see Sydney Dance Company perform on April 9th. I can't wait!! i have still been taking class there every Tuesday with Sydney Dance Company's rehearsal director. She teaches a professional contemporary class which is awesome!! Keeping me on my toes. We then had some guacamole that I made as an appetizer for everyone to eat and unwind before heading off to dinner. We then went to the restaurant at 8 pm and I ordered the 3 tacos and we had some chips and salsa. We had a great time and overall the food was pretty good. Definitely not American mexican and not El Sombrero to my Gainesville folk!! The next day we went kayaking and paddle boarding on Narrabeen Lake. The weather wasn't great but Mikey had taken off work to do this and we were in the spirit so we made the best of it. Before venturing down to the lake, Katie, other roommate had also gotten me a Narrabeen Lagoon informational DVD(sort of like a gag gift) to watch before we kayaked the lake to learn more about how it was formed. So we all gathered around and watched this video. It was pretty informative and we all had a good laugh that she had gotten this and we were preparing for our days adventure very astutely!! We started the day with fish sandwiches and fries on the bbq by the lake. Then we rented the equipment and set out on our adventure!! It was soooooo much fun. Pretty big lake too and right in the middle of a city suburb so it was really special place. We all took turns in the kayak and on the stand up paddle boards. We then decided that pizza and a movie was the perfect way to end this eventful day. And of course the next day was beautiful and I was surprisingly a little sore from the kayaking and paddle boarding! So me and the girls hit the beach while mikey watched the Quiksilver pro contest online that is going on on the Gold Coast. Later in the day Mikey and I went for our favorite walk around here up to North Narrabeen onto Narrabeen headland and then over Turimatta head. The day ended perfectly with Cheescake made by our english roomate D. A birthday candle, fresh raspberries on top, and even the happy birthday song. They all assured me that after the cheesecake my birthday was over!!!!! :) hey we all got to do some fun things that we had been wanting to do anyways and my birthday just gave us the excuse.

Flowers and Wine glasses from Roomates

Bouquet of flowers from rommates and my present to myself, new bathing suit!!

The Dummets and the Sully's at Mexicana

Everyone at Mexicana

Kristen, Mikey, Katie, and D

BBQ at lake

Kristen and D on Paddle Boards

Mikey kayaking on Narrabeen Lake

Kristen and Mikey in Narrabeen Lake

Mikey on a stand up paddle

Let's just say I went flying off into the water after this picture!!

D and Mikey in the Kayak!

The Cheesecake!!

Love Always,

Kristen

Taronga Zoo, Sydney Aquarium, 1 year Wedding Anniversary, and Stand up Paddle!

Kristen, Mikey, and Nathan at Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo

I cannot believe it is February 22. We have been in Australia now for 7 months and will be home in 4. Where has the time gone! So much has happened since my last blog which has kept me busy and away from the computer. Nathan has gone back to France. He left February 12. In the last two weeks of his time here there were things he had to do before leaving the country. He had not seen a kangaroo or a koala so to start we took him to Taronga Zoo. MIkey and I are always excited for an activity and especially one that involved animals. This zoo really surprised me. It was beautifully set up on the hill in Mosman right north of the city with a view of Sydney harbour, Sydney city, Harbour Bridge, and Opera House around every corner. It also got a nice breeze since it was elevated which was awesome since we picked about the hottest day to go to the zoo. We saw so many cool animals including Australia's specialities, a baby gorilla that had just recently been born, a baby elephant though not nearly as tiny as the gorilla, penguins, seals, lions and tigers, chimpanzees, and so much more. There were animals I had never even heard of!! We had a great day together and these pictures will tell you everything you need to know so enjoy!!

Kangaroo, you know this one well!

Kangaroo sleeping under tree

Elephants and the baby!

Seal that kept swimming close to us

Tasmanian Devel

Chimpanzees!!

Eastern Long Neck Turtle, really long neck!

Sydney Harbour view from Zoo

Al Pacha, big bird that cannot fly

Penguin

Silver Back Gorilla

Can't remember the name but cute!!

Spotted Deer

Hippopotamus

Giraffe with Harbour Bridge

Zebra

Giraffe with City

Sydney Aquarium

February 6, 2011 was Mikey and I's 1 year wedding anniversary! I can't believe that a year ago we were in Captiva Island Florida getting married and one year later we live in Australia. I know I say this often but I am still reminding myself that this is not a dream! We had to do something special and it is Nathan's last Sunday so we decided to take him to the Sydney Aquarium. Mikey and I have been wanting to do this as we have heard great things about it. We made our way into the city and got some lunch at Darling Harbour where the aquarium is located. We then headed inside for some marine life! It was a perfect day to be inside since Sydney had its longest and hottest heat wave ever and today was the peak. The only thing is I think everyone had the same idea as the aquarium was pretty crowded. But again awesome! We saw a platypus, lots and lots of fish, an awesome shark exhibit with all the different kinds of sharks swimming above you as you walked through a glass tube, Dugong, huge rock lobster, lion fish, rock fish, lots of cute varieties of sea horses, a barrier reef exhibit and more. They even had this shark monitor system and screen set up where they track the sharks that live along the NSW coast. Scary to see how often they are right out front in the ocean and so close to shore! They even name them. Another great start to the day and final memories with Nathan. Enjoy the photos!

1 Year Wedding Anniversary

After the aquarium Nathan got on a bus back home to do some packing and Mikey and I made our way to the Sydney harbor to celebrate our 1 year. We had dinner and drinks at the Sydney Opera House Bar which was a neat spot. It is sort of tucked under the Sydney Opera House but you can see the House and have a perfect isolated view of the Harbour Bridge, Sydney harbor, and Sydney city. Live music accompanied us as well as the first cold front in a week which brought a little rain. The opera house brews its own beer which is fun so we had the Sydney Opera House Organic Pale Ale which was really good!! After this we took the Manly ferry across the harbor to Manly where we hung out the the Wharf for a little bit and then took a bus home since we had to work the next day. It was a perfect day. His gift to me earlier that day was an original photograph of Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge at Dusk as he knew that that was where we would be at dusk on our anniversary. Not to mention that is my favorite time of day:) I got him a personalized puzzle with a picture of us from Lennox Head. I picked this picture because it represented Australia perfect, a headland on the ocean. Well this headland was a lot of grass!! So this 300 piece puzzle ended up being quite difficult. Let's just say there were some "Shoves". But the gifts were both paper and when I asked MIkey if he knew he was supposed to do paper for tradition he said no. Lucky guess!

Stand Up Paddle Boarding

Also for our 1 year wedding anniversary Mikey brought home a stand up paddle board from his work. This is something that is quite popular over here and I have been wanting to try! So we walked down to Narrabeen Lagoon and all tried our hand at this stand up paddle boarding. I realized right away that It is much harder than it seems. I really enjoyed it and found it very relaxing to glide on the water. I look forward to trying it again!

As you know Nathan is gone:( We miss him very much but are excited to have our new roommates, Katie and D. Katie is from melbourne, Florida thought we did not know each other when we lived there and D is from London and has been traveling since last April.

Love Always,

Kristen

surfing late july thru nov