Bramston Beach, south of Cairns, Australia

After surviving four screaming babies (all at once), three terrible movies (‘The Forgotten’ is two hours of your life you’ll never get back…), two dudes hurling (both conveniently located on either side of us)…and one lovely stop-over in Hong Kong…we made it safely into Cairns, Australia after a mere 24 hours of traveling time

Upon arriving, we discovered our accommodations were gorgeous! A three bedroom, 1500+ sq ft condo in the heart of Cairns (and directly across the street from the mall…much to Ruth’s delight!). Cairns is the home of one of the Seven Wonders of the World, ‘The Great Barrier Reef’. It’s also a tropical city, extremely hot and humid (bad for hair, great for skin!)…tropical being the out-of-nowhere, 10-minute torrential downpours (speaking of which…how’s Vancouver holding up? ) We visited the Great Barrier Reef on Monday and it is absolutely stunning! Colin, Ben and dad went scuba diving while Beck and Ruth joined their mom in her crusade to “find Nemo” (we kid you not.) The reef is huge and picturesque…full of vibrant colors and all sorts of marine life. A reminder of how awesome our creator is.…you see a reflection of him everywhere.

These past few days, we rented a minivan and have been giving ourselves a tour of the surrounding cities, visiting rainforests, fresh-water swimming holes, waterfalls and miles of beaches…and speaking of which, our wonderful driver (name withheld for protection of innocent…ahem. cough. colin. cough.) convinced us that driving on the beach would be a great idea and said it’d be much like driving on the road. WELL…a bit over an hour and two wonderful ozzies later…our minivan was finally towed out of the sand

We’ve been really enjoying our time here so far…and especially appreciate the family time. And for Chris’ reading pleasure, we’ve had tons of home-cooked lamb, chicken, steak, fresh veggies and even fresher tropical fruits! Tree-ripened mangoes, lychees, passionfruit, starfruit, jackfruit…! But food talk aside…we really do miss you all very much! We hear that in the next few days, you’ll likely to be ‘swimming’ to work Don’t hesitate to email us to fill us in on what’s been happening at home. We’re armed with two laptops complete with wi-fi and a VoIP phone that works. We’ll be leaving for Sydney on Friday (your Thursday) and will write to you again soon and post more pics!