Home Sweet Home

The rental market in Sydney is intense! There are way more people looking for apartments than there are apartments. I viewed around 20 houses and at each of the open houses there were at least 20 other people there viewing the house as well. Our price range is pretty high but to get in good neighborhoods it is only enough to either get a nice apartment that lacks character or a run down house with heaps of character.

Thankfully we found this gem!

Isn't it cute?! Not only is the house adorable but it is in such an amazing location as well! We are about half a kilometer from Coogee beach (which is beautiful by the way) and same distance to the village shops. It is about a 20 minute commute for Bridger (which is great for Sydney) plus across the street is a park and green space plus a gym is right around the corner.

In this picture is the front door, dinning room and kitchen islandthe kitchen is brand new and beautiful!This is the living room, it looks small but it actually really large, the picture doesn't do it justice.the balcony off the living roomthis will be the kids room plus there is a sun room off it which will be a perfect play area since i will be able to lock the doors when the kids are in bed. this is the main bath (its huge) around the corner is the washer and dryer, utility sink, and the largest shower ever!the master bedroom is also really large but is hard to tell in the picture.

and last but not least the master bath.

yay! I am so excited about this place and can't wait to move in this weekend!

I will post pictures in about a month when our stuff arrives and we are all moved in.

Temporary housing

Right now we are living in our temporary place in Sydney. Our apartment is beautiful and has breath taking views of the city (it helps that we are on the 53rd floor). It has been so fun living in a hotel in the city. We have enjoyed exploring sydney, swimming in the pool and it's pretty sweet having house keeping come everyday and make beds, load the dish washer and vacuum!
Anyways, I am going to attach some pictures of our apartment and since I am using the iPad and can't add comments bellow pictures, I am going to explain the pictures first and then have all the pictures bellow that you can refer to. P.s. Blogger decided to scramble the pictures so the order doesn't quite make sense.
1. Master bath. There are 2 baths but i only have the one picture, which isn't so great, sorry.
2. Family room
3. Balcony
4. Dinning room- note to self: never ever ever buy fabric covered dinning room chairs- not so fun to clean.
5. Our eastern view of Sydney
6. Master bedroom
7. Our south east view of Bridger's office (see the Ernst and young sign?)
8. Laundry. I wish I was a few inches taller so I could reach more items out of the dryer.
9. Kitchen
10. Boys room. It is so cute seeing little Forest sleeping in a gigantic king bed.

First day of work

Today is Bridger's first day of work here in Australia. I am so proud of him and I hope today goes really well! We already miss him here at home.

Mmmmmm

Since arriving here in Sydney I have not really loved any of the food we have eaten but I am happy to announce that tonight we had the best dinner, it was finger licking good- I say that honestly since I did lick my fingers more than once (I had ribs).
I also want to note that tonight was a first for Bridger, Forest and myself we all had our first taste of kangaroo, which was actually quite delicious! (fyi kangaroo meat is on the fork in the picture of Bridger)

The flight

I have had a hard time deciding what first to post about here in Australia. We have already had some fun adventures but those posts will have to wait until my computer arrives in another couple weeks. Until then all my blogs will be limited to only pictures taken by the iPad.
Last Monday the moving company arrived and packed up our house. Everything was divided into either storage, air, or sea. It is so nice to have a moving company pack all of your boxes. I am not sure I can go back to moving by myself. It seriously was wonderful! The moving company finished up moving everything out on tuesday. We had two more days at our place before heading out. We are fortunate to have such generous friends who offered us places to stay, pillows, air mattresses, blankets, and meals. I feel so blessed to have so many great friends in Oregon.
Thursday at 6:30pm we got on a small plane and flew an hour up to Vancouver, Canada where we waited for our 11:40pm flight to Sydney, Australia. The Vancouver airport is beautiful, one of the nicest airports I have ever been to. We all had a fun time exploring and playing at the children play areas while we waited for our flight. We finally boarded the flight with our bazillion carry-ons and car-seats. I am pretty sure that boarding the flight was the most stressful part of the whole flight. By the time we reached our seats I was sweaty and ready for bed, thankfully so was Westly. Forest and Bridger sat more then 20 seats behind Westly and me which actually made the flight easier for all of us- no fighting over toys or attention. Both kids slept for the first 7 hours and then took another 3 to 4 hour nap a little later on the flight. The flight went more smoothly than I could ever imagine with two kids.
That is it for this post. Next post will be about our temporary housing, which is amazing, so keep checking back in.

Portland Bridge Pedal

Last weekend Bridger participated in the Portland Bridge Pedal where he, and thousands of other Portland-ites, were able to enjoy the beauty of Portland by bike. In the picture bellow is only a small part of the line ready for the ride to begin.In the picture bellow the bikers are actually biking on a major freeway that goes through Portland.This is I-405 or the Freemont Bridge (the prettiest bridge in Portland in my opinion)On two of the major bridges there were refreshmentsand live music.Bridger loved loved loved the Bridge Pedal and said it was one of the most amazing events he has participated in here in Portland. We have come to really love Portland the last three years and are really going to miss this amazing and very unique city.

Splish Splash!

There is nothing better than swimming with your adorable kids and husband on a hot Oregon summer day. Just kidding! There is something that is better, it is: swimming with your adorable kids and husband on a hot Oregon summer day with an underwater camera.

Enjoy!

woops should have wiped off my makeup!
I took this awesome photo! I think it's pretty cool. I am not as cool as Bridger with the underwater photos. This is my 3rd or 4th try and it is way better than all the others. I can't help but squint my eyes.

So for about a half hour Bridger kept trying to use the self timer to get a good photo of himself diving in the pool but was unable to time it just right. So he settled for a video of him diving. It's pretty awesome.