Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Day 47: Bye Bye Straddie, Hello Road Trip!

Our week of R&R has come to an end and today we started our way up to our final city.

Well, almost.

We have an appointment at the Brisbane Temple tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM to do baptisms—they’re only open Wed-Sat so we had to stick around for another day.  That suited us fine because we learned that Brisbane is home to one of the top ten zoo’s in the world!  It’s also the largest Koala Sanctuary in the world! 

We rocked up, on a whim, and boy were we glad that we did!  We spent almost an hour watching the koalas.  There were Mama’s with babies.  Single ladies, bachelors, old folks…they had a fun set up that let you know who was who. 

You could pay them $20 to hold one and get your photo taken.  We laughed.  I wonder what a “Marvin” experience would cost!

We got to see some sheep dogs round up the herd and bring them in, then we got to watch the cowboy sheer one.  The kids had a ball!  The animals are so used to people they just walked right up to us, they tolerated the kids touching, chasing and just enjoying them. 

We found these funky Chinese chickens!

Then there were the kangaroos!  Big ones little ones fat ones skinny ones Mama ones baby ones!  There were just so many of them!!  In the same enclosure were some Emu that let us pet them as well.  By far all of our favorite kanga was this Mama and her adorable little baby.

In the midst of enjoying the roo’s, it started to rain a little.  Then it started to rain a lot.  Then it started to hail…hard!  They had this fun little gazebo that we sought refuge under until the storm passed.  One smart roo joined us.  π had gone and gotten a bunch of ‘roo food’ from the shop and this little guy got to eat most of it while we waited out the storm.

π was the smartest of us all though.  As soon as the storm passed he walked away from the group so he was all alone and just stood with his hand out.  Soon, one timid roo approached and started eating.  Then he was joined by a few more, then a few more.  Within five minutes π was surrounded by around 20 roos all by himself. 

Other people started coming back since the rain had stopped but it was almost closing time for the Koala Sanctuary.  We made one final quick stop to see the Mama’s and babies again before we headed out. 

Since we’ve done so well with our budget we thought we’d splurge and take the kids out to dinner.  I’d done some research and found this amazing Hotel that does a kids eat free deal on Tuesdays.  They’re ranked the most family friendly restaurant in all of Australia with an amazing playground and a yummy menu.  I sold it as best as I could only to have the kids overrule my fabulous find and vote, instead, of all places, to go to McDonald’s!  I could have died.  But this trip is about them, not about me so π and I sucked it up and we all went to Macca’s. 
Okay, TMI alert! 

∞ wasn’t feeling well and had some pretty nasty gas on the way to Macca’s.  No worries, we’ve all had road trip intestinal issues from time to time.  By the time we got to Macca’s, however, it smelled really bad.  She headed straight to the bathroom only to find that it wasn’t just gas. 

Only once in my life have I seen a scene similar and that was at my Grandma’s house when my Granddad had just passed away.  Her clothes were unsalvageable (which wouldn’t be as big of an issue if she hadn’t been wearing a shirt her Mom had given her.  She was the first to say that she’d almost grown out of it and that it was okay, but I could tell she was pretty bummed.  There was just no help for it though. L)

 It took 40 minutes an entire package of wet wipes and probably an entire industrial sized box of serviettes (napkins) to get her entirely cleaned up.  She handled herself like a pro though.  She behaved way better than I would have that’s for sure!  What a trouper!  Man I love that kid!!  I walked straight up to the counter and ordered her a special treat for dealing with it so well.


I however, need chocolate.   

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