Author Archives: Katie

Early Friday morning we took a train 2 hours west into the Blue Mountains (I keep having to correct myself on it being west, not east, since I’m so used to living on the west coast where you always go east to get to mountains). Part of Australia’s Great Dividing Range, the Blue Mountains actually … Continue reading »

Last week Daniel had to get up reeeeeally early for an online business meeting (it started at 4 am. Yeah.) It was supposed to go for several hours, so once Naomi was awake and we’d eaten breakfast I got us out of the house. We walked to nearby Lavender Bay, which is two towns east … Continue reading »

Little peeks into what each of us has been up to lately: Naomi 1. Is coloring. We are finally to the point where the crayons are scribbling on the paper a bit more often than they are being pulled out of her mouth by a parent. Slow but sure. 2. Is the only member of … Continue reading »

So it turns out that Daniel scored big-time by coming to Australia for September. Not only did he get Father’s Day in June in the US, he’ll get a second Father’s Day this Sunday in Australia. And 3 days before that, September 1, is National Wattle Day. What? We’ve been looking into it online for … Continue reading »

The drawbacks of your toddler waking up for the day at 5 am are obvious. One benefit, however – at least this morning – was that we got to hear a kookaburra, belting out his song long and loud in the darkness. Pretty cool. Naomi stopped, mid-pear, and just listened, and then laughed – she … Continue reading »

So finally today, Naomi and I visited the zoo and it was a beautiful sunny day! A mom I’d met at church had invited us to meet her and her 2 year old daughter Audrey at the zoo this morning. I was a bit anxious the day before – we were going to have to … Continue reading »

We went to church this morning. It was great by the way: we were all able to go together (unlike last week when we kept Naomi home because she had a fever, so Daniel and I took turns going to different services). Naomi had fun at creche, and we even got to stay for longer … Continue reading »

So much for weather forecasts here – last week I planned to take Naomi to the zoo on the sunniest day of the week, but it turned out to be the wettest day of the week. Today it was supposed to be 70 and sunny, so we were planning to take a ferry ride along … Continue reading »

So I just accomplished one thing I wanted to do while here: I swam laps in the North Sydney Olympic Swimming Pool. I was so excited when I discovered that the closest swimming pool to our apartment was actually Sydney’s most iconic pool: I’ll be honest: initially (at home) I thought to myself, “Wow! This … Continue reading »

I’m very relieved to tell you about a cross-cultural experience we did NOT have to have a couple nights ago, and that is a trip to the emergency room. We decided to take dinner out onto the patio, where sits a fairly flimsy plastic table with 2 chairs – one broken, one not. We moved … Continue reading »