Happy Spring!

September 1st marks the 1st day of Spring in Australia. So all of our time is spent outside now with this abundant sunshine! Off to the Flower and Fruit markets in Subi ... 

 

If You Give a Dog a Bone ...

You'll have a HAPPY HOUSE!

Ricky and I went to the Farmers Market in Subiaco this Saturday. We try to go every week for the freshest fruit and veg. A new vendor opened this week and they sell healthy lean beef straight from the farm! We found Fred Flintstone bones for the dogs. So fun to watch them devour the marrow off these bones! It made for a great, relaxing Saturday!

Happy Spring in Perth! (which officially starts Sept 1)

5 Oceans of the World

When Adele was visiting, we took walks along the east and west coast of Australia. She was in Perth, Western Australia for one week, then we went to Sydney, New South Wales (which is on the east coast). We noticed that every beach had a park with an installed set of workout equipment. Have you seen those before? And if you're wondering, no we aren't that obsessed with working out. We were just messing around and partly making fun of people who pretend like they are working out!

We started a little contest to see who can do the most pull ups. Obviously Adele one for a few reasons... she's jacked, competitive, super athletic and 18. She'll kill me for posting these pics, by the way! We also made it our mission to do pull ups in on every ocean of the world. On this trip we banged out Indian Ocean (Perth's Cottesloe Beach) and the Pacific Ocean (Sydney's Bondi Beach). So now we have Atlantic, Arctic and Southern Ocean. Atlantic will be easy since she's going to NYU this year. Arctic will be a challenge (surprisingly Ricky has already been to Greenland & Iceland for work). Southern will be easy. We already know of a place we want to return... Kangaroo Island! The resort we stayed out, Southern Ocean Lodge, hence the name, faces the Southern Ocean!

So here are our fun pics thus far! Hopefully I'll be able to add the other ocean's pull up photos by this time next year!

Adele - Perth - Indian Ocean - Cottesloe Beach

Adele in competitive mode

Adele's winning ...

Our view while doing pull ups

Me losing to Adele...

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Round 2. Adele - Sydney - Pacific Ocean - Bondi Beach

I'm getting better

Ahh look at my view! Those colors are incredible!

Yea Adele won again.

Bondi Beach, Sydney

City 2 Surf

The weather has been ideal for running outdoors! I'm normally a treadmill runner (gasp). But when Adele came to visit in July, she encouraged me to hit the pavement! She pushed me to run faster and longer. I was definitely stuck in a yogging rut and this half-marathoner got me out!

Since she left, I've only run on the treadmill twice. (It was pouring rain/lightening and I was miserably watching every minute that ticked by.)

Everyday I pick a new route to run and push myself to go farther and faster each time. I'm never bored by the gorgeous scenery here (the beautiful Kings Park, the beach trail or along the Swan River). And the weather is perfect ... 60s and sunny!

I signed up for Perth's City to Surf run. It starts downtown Perth and ends on the beautiful beaches of City Beach. I've been running about 5-7 miles most days so I opted for the 12km (7.5 mi) not the half marathon. Not slacking I promise! The half marathon is a rigorous climb literally...Massive hills ... one helluva struggle so I've heard. And the race is in 2 weeks. Not quite enough training time to jump from running 7 to 13!

Wish me luck on August 28!!!

(oh and Ricky is still working 12+ hr days .....)

Dream Vacation Booked!

Ricky and I are headed to Maldives in October! It's booked! Beach House here we come!

Source: google.com via Valerie on Pinterest

Bubbly in Margaret River

My lil sista, Adele and me in Margaret River, Western Australia. One of my favorite places on Earth. From Left: our favorite breakfast cafe; Top: sipping bubbly in our private hot tub; Bottom: Canoeing down the River; Right: beautiful Adele at the beach!

Part 3 Kangaroo Island

God did done good with Kangaroo Island! The beauty is unbelievable!  I have hundreds more photos but here's a few sparkles.

Disclaimer - - I did not alter these photographs in any way!  TRULY AMAZING!

Part 2 Kangaroo Island: The Galapagos of Australia

It has been a few months since March when we visited Kangaroo Island. But as promised, here are some more photos of our AMAZING experience. The wildlife is incredible! On this 4-day trip, we were up close and personal with sea lions, koalas, kangaroos, exotic birds, dolphins & iguanas!

Sealions bathing in the sun, Sealions swimming the frigid Southern Ocean, colorful birds flying, iguanas hiding in brush.

Snoozin koala, sleepy koala, climbin koala! We caught this one in action! They sleep 23 hours a day! Lazzzzy

Seals sleep when they are on land...exhausted from fishing expeditions. Here we see some cuddling among the birds, a baby seal after getting a meal from momma, and a Big Papa seal stretching from a big nap!

Taken from our  room at Southern Ocean Lodge. These dolphins were having a great time swimming early in the morning!

How cute are they!!!

This is "seal bay" on Kangaroo Island. There are hundreds of seals sleeping. They swim out in the ocean for days then return to eat and sleep. They picked a great place to setup camp!

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Fighting as all mammals do. If you've seen my dogs, Gus and Fred play, it's the exact same thing! haha

Ash Cloud Chaos

In June, a volcano erupted in Chile, South America. A few days later, the ash cloud from this volcano planted itself in the beautiful skies of Australia. Pretty neat huh? Wrong! Air travel was suspended until it cleared and this happened the day we were supposed to leave for USA! Crazy! So we were delayed leaving Perth by two days.

We altered our flight path to get to Sydney as soon as possible (Majority of international flights to the US leave from the east coast.) The good thing is that Ricky and I got to spend a day touring Sydney. It was our first time there and the weather was gorgeous! Everything happens for a reason!

Just an Ordinary Week

It was a pretty ordinary week for Ricky and me. He was working really hard...12+ hrs at the office every day! I was running and cooking every day, which are my favorite things to do! But I felt a bit lonely and far away from home. Skype chats with Leslie, Fal and Adele really helped though! I'm definitely missing my peeps! (Countdown for trip 2 to the states is underway. 5 weeks to go!)

I took a Spanish seafood cooking class on Sunday, which was a birthday gift from Ricky. I learned how to make sauteed calamari, traditional fish stew and churrrros! Churros are fried, sugary and delicious! They remind me of sopapillas, which nobody in the class had heard of . I almost died! Love me some Casa Laredo ... ha ... My next class is Moroccan. I'll snap some pics to share my experience. Should be interesting and challenging!

On a whim, I ran down to the beach for sunset on Thursday, which was my mom and dad's 32nd anniversary. My mom *LOVES* sunsets (probably an understatement). The minute I arrived at the beach and saw the beautiful Indian Ocean, I was instantly comforted! 

We're also in the middle of planning a vacation for October. The Queen's birthday is at the end of the month so of course there's a public holiday. We are taking advantage of Ricky's time off and will jet set it to some remote island.... Maldives is probably the destination!

We are very close to booking at the Waldorf Astoria Beach House!

Although I was a lil lonely during the week, we were off and running once the weekend came! Pizza and wine Friday night with the hubs is always a treat! Then off to brunch at the Naked Fig (my fav) with our friends Ashley and Bill. And Saturday night we scooted down to The Village Bar (another fav) with our newlywed friends Paul and Yanna.  Too much champagne......

I'm thankful to live this charmed life in Perth! The *ONLY* thing it's missing is *YOU*!

Summer in the States

Home sweet home!

We made our first trip back home since we moved to Perth last October. We scheduled the journey around the perfect time ... summer in Tulsa & 4th of July (my fav)!

We stayed in Tulsa for the majority of the time, made two trips up to Grand Lake and spent a wonderfully hot, few days in Dallas.

In Tulsa, we relaxed in the Beasleys pool, barbequed with Ricky's fam and spent as much time eating/drinking with close friends and fam. It was really hard to juggle the time...definitely need longer than 2 weeks to not only see everyone we love, but spend enough quality time with each person! So if you're reading this and thinking, damn I didn't get to see them. Don't you fret, there's a Qantas ticket with your name on it. Haha. Please do come! But also...we will be back in Sept - Oct for a couple weddings!

Here are a bunch of fun pics from our trip.

First I'll show you Grand Lake, then some Tulsa and Dallas/Ft Worth.

Disgustingly massive American portions. We were shocked!

Happy 4th! Cruisin on boat with my sister-in-law, Karrie

Great times with my cousin Connie and her hubs, Matt

Happy 4th! (I have firecracker shorts on!)

Ricky with his bf, Roberts

Floating in Dripping Springs @Grand Lake with sister-in-law, Karrie!

A lil Jello shot on 4th of July will never hurt anybody!

Sunset cruise with Connie and Karrie

Another sunset cruise with our good friends, Lauren and Tyler

Love my sista Karrie to pieces!!

Floatin on a mega raft to beat the heat. I'm extremely jet lagged in this one!

Wind blown after big fireworks show in Duck Creek @Grand Lake

My beautiful mom watering her flowers 

My sister Claire and dad John

Adele, Dad and Claire

The fam minus Ricky

The fam at STONEHORSE, one of my fav Tulsa restaurants

At Texas Rangers baseball game

Kim and Mark treated us to a fun night out at the ball park!

BUSTED! 

Ricky and his momma at the Ft Worth stockyards

Cowgirl at heart? I'm not foolin anyone! I'm a city gal!

Getting our Tex Mex fix in Dallas with Mark and Kim

Best Mother-in-law ever!