Not 30 Anymore Just In My Thirties

Today I turn 31.

I was convinced 30 was going down as the worst year of my life.  The miscarriage and the death of my grandmother left an awful taste in my mouth even as we welcomed the news of a second pregnancy on the heels of the first. 

I was elated about the pregnancy but upset about being pregnant for ANOTHER birthday, which just served as a reminder of what we had lost and WHY I was still pregnant a full year later.  

And I really wanted to have a baby while I was still 30.

I never considered the fact that Baby Jett would come early.  Unless he was showing up today, on my birthday, I honestly believed he wouldn't be here until the end of August.

But he's been with us for 10 days already.  

And Baby Jett's early arrival turned 30 from the worst year of my life into the something much different.

I can't claim 30 was the best year of my life as there was still just so much sadness, but Jett is the light at the end of that dark dark tunnel and I am grateful that he made his debut when he did.

So Goodbye 30 and Hello 31.

Husband Turns 40

My husband officially became an old man today.

He turned the BIG 4-0.

We had every intention of making him a father before he reached this milestone.

We'll be about 6 weeks late...so close!

We celebrated yesterday with friends, beer, BBQ and good ol' San Francisco summer weather...yes, fog.

Happy Birthday Husband!

The Babies Are Coming!

Remember back in March when I finally decided to get rid of my TTC Timeline and added a Fellow Pregnant IFers tab along the side of my blog?

It was my attempt to embrace pregnancy, let go of the fear of losing the pregnancy and celebrate the fact that so many IFers were getting their BFPs right alongside me.

When I wrote that post there was roughly 30 of us all of who struggled through infertility and all pregnant.   Since that time the number has climbed to roughly 50 and the miscarriages were oh so few, and for once this group of women who seem to always be on the wrong side of statistics were BEATING the statistics.

The due dates were (and are) June through October and with the added BFPs that have sprung up in the last few weeks they've extended out to December/January.  ALL DRAGON BABIES!!!

But a few of the little dragons have decided to make an early appearance.

AND THE BABIES HAVE STARTED COMING!!!

Rebecca's twin boys arrived a few weeks ago at 31w3d.

Lindsey also had her baby a few weeks ago delivered early at 38 weeks due to pre-e.

Brittany had her baby about a week ago at 35w4d due to complications.

Jessica twin girls arrived a few days ago at 25w4d.

and Lulu who is supposed to be delivering her baby today at 37 weeks due to restricted growth.

As you can see most of these ladies were well ahead of me in their pregnancies and due late May or early June and their babies were purposely delivered early for one reason or another.

But poor Jessica was BEHIND me in her pregnancy and honestly that sort of freaks me the fuck out.  Yes she was on bed rest for a few weeks and it was a twin pregnancy but STILL!!!  Those early babies are doing nothing to squash my fear of preterm labor!

But in honor of the new little dragons that have started to make an appearance I've added a new tab over on the right called IFer's Who Made it to Motherhood!

And in other news today is MAY 15 and my due date is AUGUST 15.  Just 3 months to go!!!

The Birthdays

Everyone take this post in the lighthearted, jovial manner in which it is intended because I'm sure you're all aware I will take this kid GLADLY whatever day it arrived on and that this is not an ACTUAL concern of mine, just mildly entertaining for me.


Also, take all the astrology talk with a grain of salt.  Lighthearted and fun people, lighthearted and fun.

Without further ado I present to you.....

The Great Astrological Conundrum of 2012

At least in this household.

This baby is due 2 days after my own birthday.

My birthday is August 13th.

If you don't know your astrology, that makes me a Leo.

Leo means I LOVE my birthday, in fact I love any celebration centered around ME.

The month of August has always been MY birthday month as I do not share August with any member of my family.

Unsurprisingly August is my favorite month.

August was mine.

I love August.

I'm ALSO a middle child.

Leo, middle child, I got a double dose of attention whore in me.

But the middle child part notwithstanding, if baby comes anywhere near his/her due date, baby will be an attention whore too.

AND NEITHER OF US WILL WANT TO SHARE BIRTHDAY TIME.

I realize as the mother that I should give up my own selfish needs and wants and concentrate on celebrating my kid.  Give the kid the birthday month of August and GIVE IT UP WOMAN.

But the Leo in me is screaming in protest.

The only true solution to this is the kid needs to be born a week, week and a half LATE, so that it will be a VIRGO and not a Leo.

Virgo's are not nearly so obsessed with their birthdays.  They won't mind sharing August because they won't be a Leo.   And me, well I will share August if I don't have to share being a Leo.

A 2 Leo household?  I shudder at the thought.

There is a reason I don't have any Leo friends.  Leos work best in any situation when they are the only one.  Otherwise the competition for attention can just get out of hand.

It's not pretty.

Especially when you add my husband the Cancer.

Cancers and Leos work surprisingly well together, even though they are both headstrong, stubborn and a bit attention seeking.  It's an odd mix in the astrological world that no one understands, but it seems the Cancer can somehow reign in the Leo.  I wouldn't actually believe this (who can reign in a free spirited Leo?) but it happened...so 1 point for astrology books everywhere.

But throwing in ANOTHER Leo spells disaster.

Three stubborn, headstrong attention whores all living together under one roof?  The horror of watching your own worst qualities come out in your child and realizing what an ass you probably were to your parents.

The teenage years sound like hell.

Good news is baby was measuring 3 days behind at the anatomy scan, Aug 18 puts us VERY close to Virgo territory guys, very close.

Anyone want to take bets that this kid will not only be a Leo, but will arrive on my birthday?

Anyone else given any thought to their baby's due date and it's astrological significance?

NYC Bound

Today I am off for a much delayed, much anticipated birthday trip to NYC.

It may be a month late but I FINALLY get to enjoy a birthday party for yours truly with all of my friends.

It's been 10 months since I've seen my beloved city.

New York, I love you, mama's comin home!

I just wish it was longer than 4 days!

Cat Birthdays Yay or Nay

Excuse me while I veer away from my normal blogging subjects and pose a question to my lovely readers.

It's a ridiculous question I might add.

But I'm curious nonetheless.

Do you celebrate your animal's birthday?

I never have. I kind of always thought it was silly.

I mean, it's a cat, he doesn't know it's his birthday.

Besides, I never knew my cat's birthday. And I don't know our new kitties birthdays.

But then, for some reason, we decided one of our cat's should have Dom's dad's (who has passed) birthday.

I know, how random. What kind of a conversation was that? How did Dom's dad and our cat end up in the same conversation.

I don't know.

But I do know that we decided one cat has Dom's dad's birthday as his birthday now.

Then we were like well shit, now we need a birthday for the other cat. And since the other cat is about a month, month in a half younger we decided, hey! Thanksgiving! His birthday can be Thanksgiving!

So, guess what, we gave our cat's birthdays and we will not be with either of them for their birthdays.

What kind of shit parents are we?

We had trips planned, planned for awhile, and yet we still decided to give the cat's birthdays on day's where we are away.

Assholes.

Anyway, back to my original question, DO YOU GUYS HAVE/CELEBRATE CAT/DOG BIRTHDAYS?

On Turning 30

Let it be said, I really really like my birthday.

It's a celebration of ME and I am...

1. a Leo

and

2. a middle child

This equates to birthday time = it's all about me = awesome.

If I said I didn't like all the attention I would be lying.

And also the worst Leo ever.

I love my birthday.

So, you can only imagine the sort of nonsense I was planning for the big 3-0. I was not excited about turning 30 per se, but it was my birthday, who cares about the age, it's the birthday that's the important part! It was going to be AMAZING. I was going to NYC and we were going to P.A.R.T.Y our little faces off.

Dom and I were even taking a break from Clomid and babymaking.

Just so I could turn 30 like a rock star.

And then...

Well then I found out I was pregnant. On a Clomid cycle that was WHACK (I thought I wasn't going to ovulate at all, hence the NYC birthday plans! and then my body decided Day 29 would be a good day to ovulate, I tell you WHACK!)

And my 30th birthday took a backseat.

A really really far back of the car backseat.

August 13th, 2011 became just another day.

We went to Oregon and out to dinner with my family and told my grandparents about the baby, and while it was in fact MY birthday dinner, it didn't feel like it.

And it was OK.

I guess I was more excited about being pregnant than having a birthday. Just 30 and pregnant not 30 and still not pregnant (I was 28 when we started our TTC journey, I thought I would already have a baby by 30).

I surprised even myself with just how much I didn't care.

Remember last year on my birthday in Australia? No friends for my birthday and Dom not announcing to the others at dinner that it was my birthday and me getting a little too drunk and crying about it? Yes, that's the kind of behavior one can usually expect from me when birthday plans aren't suitably um....Jesica-centric enough.

This is not necessarily a good quality in myself, it just IS. This is what happens when you have a Leo who is also a middle child. All those parents out there of the following combination...you have been warned.

And while it's always a goal of mine to disguise my feelings on the outside and pretend that sort of thing doesn't bother me and to appear less selfish, you can't change how you feel on the INSIDE and that's what I'm talking about.

But this year was different. So so different. But it's good guys, it's really good.

I was scared about what kind of parent I'm going to make. The friends I know with Leo parents, those parents are...how shall we say this...a little self-centered. And even with their adult children they always seem to make everything about themselves, not their children. I don't want to be that kind of parent. And now just from this one tiny little thing that happened, or rather didn't happen, ie. me not feeling like it was the end of the world because I was pregnant on my 30th birthday and not getting to party and celebrate like I always imagined, I feel like it will be OK. Maybe, just maybe, I will be a good parent regardless of my self-centered, attention seeking, Leo/middle child tendencies.

Any other Leo parents out there? Have you found it easy to be less selfish (because let's face it if you're an unselfish Leo, you're a rarity) after having children?

3-0

Today is my birthday.

I'm 30.

But hey...

or so I've heard.

Me and the Biebs...and Quinn Fabray

My niece turned 5 last month and because she's a big fan the party was Bieber themed.

And because my sister and I are awesome we made ourselves (and our husbands) Bieber shirts.

Woohoo for Justin Bieber!

I didn't actually think I would ever wear the shirt again, but this morning I just couldn't help myself and threw that baby on.

Don't worry, my shirt is awesome and I look amazing, I will show you in a minute.

As I was sitting down to watch a Glee episode I'd missed from a few weeks ago I discovered that not only am I awesome because I'm rocking the Biebs on my chest, but that apparently I am channeling a bit of Quinn Fabray style today.

My outfit:

Please excuse the messy room, I'm moving remember!

Quinn's outfit:

source

Bitch stole my look!

The Big 3-0

I turn 30 this year.

I'm none too thrilled about it.

Some things I've accomplished in the timeframe I imagined.

Others I have not.

Either way it's coming and there's nothing I can do about it.

I began my 30 before 30 list and only made it to 13 before I ran out of ideas. (Maybe that's a sign of....of...well of something...because my birthday is on the 13th?)

Really Jesica? There's not 30 things you would like to accomplish before you're 30?

I'll let you all take a peak at my unfinished list, maybe you can help me along. It's not cheating to have people give you ideas for your own personal goals is it? It's not like I'm stealing ideas...ok I'd like to steal some ideas please, PLEASE!

Some of these things were things I always imagined I'd do before I was 30, others I've added and hope to accomplish in the next few months.

1. Adopt a pet - CHECK!

2. Learn Italian - I'm woefully behind on my Italian, but I DO have my rosetta stone, this IS achievable if only I would apply myself.

3. Get married - CHECK!

4. Start a family - Fingers crossed over the next 5 months!

5. Own a home - CHECK!

6. Visit all the inhabited continents, I'm only missing South America and unfortunately I don't think we're going anywhere else this year...but I'm very close to this one.

7. See the pyramids - CHECK!

8. Live in NYC - CHECK!

9. Live in San Fran - This one can be checked as soon as our renters move out!

10. Live in London - Sadly this one is unaccomplishable (yes I know that's not a word) but maybe in the future, 40 before 40?

11. Have a career - this one unfortunately has gone out the window, but I thought I would keep it on here because I'm trying to be honest with my list.

12. Find a way to be tidier...and stick to it. Once we have kids it will be much harder than it is with just the 2 of us and I HAVE to find a way to keep myself tidy and organized. Ideas would be welcome here!

13. Buy a pair of Manolo Blahniks, I've been wanting to do this for years, but as the price creeps from $500 to upwards of $700 a pair I find myself more and more hesitant to actually do the deed. I bought Giuseppe Zanotti's for my wedding but justified it because they were wedding shoes and it's just not the same as the coveted Manolos. So, before I turn 30 I'm buying some Manolos. Hmmm...maybe Ebay.

14.

So, anyone have any 30 before 30 ideas???

Happy Birthday to Me Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

Where were we?

Oh yes, we were just about to get to the hotel.

So, after admiring all the scenery we finally made our way to the Mai Tai Resort, which just so you know was not a resort like what comes to mind when you hear resort, it was in fact a 4 bedroom B&B. They call all of their small hotels resorts here for some reason. I DON'T GET IT. But anyway, not to impugn the beautifulness of this little B&B though, set up on a hill overlooking the rainforest, it was stunning!

This was our view for breakfast every morning. Gorgeous!

Since it was my birthday and we still hadn't made any plans for that evening we sat down with one of the owners, Andre, and had a little chat about our options. Fortunately enough Andre knew absolutely everything there was to know about Port Douglas and recommended we go to Flames of the Forest since it was a special occasion and that it would be a one-of-a-kind experience. Basically Flames of the Forest is like dinner theatre. You end up out in the rainforest with a bunch of other tourists where they give you WAY TOO MUCH BOOZE =) and interesting dishes like kangaroo to gorge yourself on while you watch aboriginals play the digeridoo and prance around telling a bedtime story. And like any practical minded individual who just shelled out a ridiculous sum for this one-of-a-kind experience we felt it was our duty to consume as much alcohol as they would give us...to make sure we got our moneys worth. Like I said...practical.

UNFORTUNATELY it just so happened to also be THE COLDEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR. Now, I'm not talking NYC cold, but let's just say I WAS NOT DRESSED APPROPRIATELY for anything below 70 degrees F. I was wearing a long flowy dress, a cardigan and sandals...I think the sandals were my downfall.

Oh, and we were dining outside! But we made the most of it and just kept drinking to try to warm ourselves up ;-) And after shamelessly declaring that it was my birthday to the whole group because someone sitting next to me, ahem, did not, I somehow ended up with a shawl from the waitress which did warm me up enough to survive the evening. All in all, it was a very interesting experience...but I wasn't blown away by the whole thing and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone going to Port Douglas. Keeping in mind that I was cold and slightly depressed that I had no friends around to celebrate my birthday with me and that Dom didn't immediately tell everyone at the table that it was my birthday so they could all bask in my birthday glow...I may not be the best judge on the whole evening. Not Dom's fault mind you, I was being a brat, but whatever, my birthday, my blog, I was not happy.

The aboriginals and their digeridoo.

Moving on to the next day which got off to a VERY late start because let's face it it's not a good birthday unless you drink too much and have to have a late start to the next day =) After finally dragging myself out of bed we headed north again towards Cape Tribulation, which is the farthest north along the coast that you can go in our car hire (car rental) because the rest is all unsealed (gravel) roads. See, I can talk like an Aussie. Anyway, we set off looking for coffee, but instead made it all the way to the ferry and found more signs...oh the signs! This one was for crocodiles.

That sign basically says, don't be stupid, the crocodile is bigger than you and faster than you and will eat you, don't go in the water.

Great.

Why they don't just build a bridge over this little river I've no idea, but because they haven't built a bridge you have to take a ferry, which apparently during high season you can be waiting for 3 hours to get across this tiny stretch of river because the ferry only holds about 20 cars...and because there are crocodiles. Lucky for us even though it's high season we waited all of 10 minutes before loading onto the ferry and continued our journey into the Daintree Rainforest.

Since Australia is all about doing things that we wouldn't normally have the opportunity to do...I decided I would try my hand at driving with the steering wheel on the right. (Don't try to tell me that because Dom's family all live in England I have ample opportunity to drive on the right, that's not the point of my story...just go with it) I was fantastic, just ask Dom...ok don't ask Dom he'll tell you I sucked. But whatever, I drove on the "right" side of the road, YAY FOR ME.

After successfully not driving us off the side of the road or into an oncoming car (which is my definition of fantastic driving for this post) we made it to Cape Tribulation. This part of Oz is particularly beautiful and amazing because the rainforest meets the sea, which I was told by MANY a Queensland Aussie this is the only place where such a thing exists. I disagree and think that the rainforest meets the sea in Hawaii as well...but if you google rainforest and sea you get a bunch of sites about Cape Tribulation and the Daintree forest so.....I don't know, maybe there's some definition of rainforest meeting the ocean that I'm missing.

Anyway.

Before taking a little stroll along the beach there were MORE signs.

So, the cassowary, have you ever heard of a cassowary? It's a giant 6 foot bird, much like an emu or ostrich except it has 3 razor sharp claws that it can RIP YOU TO SHREDS WITH. Seriously, they've attacked people before and they use their claws to rip your intestines out...STAY AWAY FROM THE CASSOWARY. He looks like this:

Then there's the box jellyfish sign, you know the one, the jellyfish that has a sting so powerful that people are ON MORPHINE FOR A WEEK BECAUSE THE PAIN IS SO INTENSE. And those are the lucky people that survive the sting because THE OTHERS DIE. Yeah, so there are those at this beach. I was however amused by the bottle of vinegar that they had with the sign, how awesome is that! No peeing on yourself or getting others to pee on you when you get stung by said jellyfish...so at least the beach has that going for it.

Then there's the crocodiles ON THE BEACH. Apparently the use the beach AND SOMETIMES SWIM IN THE OCEAN to move from one estuary to another. I don't know about you but I DID NOT KNOW THAT CROCS WERE EVER ON BEACHES. Perhaps this is because I've never been to Florida or any other place where you might find crocs in the wild...yes, that must be the reason for my ignorance.

All of these signs are at 1 beach, that's right 1 beach with ALL these ways for you to die...and that's not including the sharks! Which they don't have a sign for...I guess you're just supposed to KNOW there are sharks...anyway it makes for a very uneasy stroll along the beach and along the path, but ultimately I think it was worth it to see this:

One little creature I did enjoy on this beach, because it could not kill me, was the soldier crab. He apparently mows through sand voiding it of nutrients and deposits it back in these little balls. And for whatever reason they end up in these pretty star shape patterns.

They were ALL over the beach...it was pretty amazing.

That's it for today folks, next post will be The Great Barrier Reef!

Happy Birthday to Me Part 2

Sorry I haven't been writing...I just haven't been in the mood. All sorts of life plans are coming to fruition and we've been concentrating on getting our San Francisco remodel going (in our heads mostly, but the renters are moving out soon, so it's about to ACTUALLY start happening as well) and our Oregon home which we finally get to see again! Very exciting since we bought the house after having only been in it for all of 15 minutes 3 months ago! So weird that our time here in Oz is already almost halfway over and we have to now start looking forward toward real life back in the States!

Anyway, I'm going to properly recap our weekend up north now...since it was officially 2 weekends ago and that's just sheer laziness on my part!

First things first, the whole weekend was a surprise (except obviously I had stated my views on where we were going and like a good husband Dom listened =) so we made it all the way to the airport, through security and were having a snack at the airport before Dom would spill the beans about what the weekend would entail.

Sidenote regarding domestic flights in Oz...it's like being transported back 10 years ago to Pre 9/11 days when you can prance through security with your shoes firmly on your feet and liquids in your bag and nary a ticket OR IDENTIFICATION in sight. In fact, you know movies where people get off planes and go running into the arms of a waiting loved one, the reunion that much to the chagrin of movie directors everywhere, doesn't happen at the gate anymore, but 15 minutes later in baggage claim, yeah well you can still meet loved ones at the gate in Oz. IT'S WEIRD.

Moving on.

Plan was:

Fly to Cairns (said CANS, no 'r'...and that's cans with an American accent, like a soda can)

Stay the night in Cairns, get up next morning, my birthday (yay for Friday the 13th) and drive the hour north to Port Douglas in our uber cool convertible that we rented.

Stay 3 night just outside Port Douglas in a cute little B&B in the rainforest.

Snorkel the reef.

And that was it, that was as much as we had planned going into the weekend.

The flight to Cairns was uneventful as was the drive north.

Sidenote, (there are lots of sidenotes in this story, this is how I would tell it in real life) unbeknownst to me on the morning of my birthday, some of my friends back home in NYC got together and secretly with Dom arranged to have a video Skype chat with us! Unfortunately the internet connection was quite shoddy but I did get to "see" my peeps back home for a few minutes before the internet threw a wrench in their well laid plans. But thanks for that Jess & Dom! I must say I got a little teary eyed when the whole thing went sour as it would have been lovely to sit and chat for a little while =( But luckily I think I will see everyone in September, so that's 2 months earlier than we had originally planned! Yay!

Back to the story.

Once we reached Port Douglas before finding our hotel we took a little drive through town (which took all of 5 minutes, Port Douglas in not very big) and we found the apparently famous 4-mile beach that Port Douglas in known for (I think it's famous because it's one of the FEW beaches in Queensland that is free of all manner of deadly, venomous, man killing creatures).

So, we posed for some piccies

And I discovered just how far away New York is in km, which is equal to about 9,500 miles if anyone was curious, which again made me sad...this is the first birthday I've had no friends around to celebrate and as good as Dom did with the weekend plans it was just sad to be all by our lonesome =(

And then we decided to have a beer.

Another sidenote. This bar that we decided to stop and have a beer at is where they filmed some of the scenes in Fool's Gold. We discovered later that the whole movie was filmed there in Port Douglas. It was a terrible movie if you haven't seen it and I wouldn't recommend watching it, but now I think I need to see it again just because I've been there.

Moving on again.

After our quick tour of Port Douglas we decided to stop one more time before heading to the hotel, so we drove north again and stopped off at Crystal Cascades, which in all honesty wasn't that exciting. Who knew you could be a jaded Oregonian?! But apparently I am because this sort of place exists all over Oregon and I guess it's a novelty here, so yay Oregon! I can understand the appeal when the oceans are swarming with jellyfish and you need somewhere to cool off, but it seems a little overkill to have a handicap accessible path to what is essentially a swimming hole. Swimming holes are way more fun when you are one of few who know they exist and that means you gotta go off the beaten path a little bit to get there! They took out all the fun. Anyway, it wasn't quite hot enough to warrant a swim anyway, so we just wandered up to the top (on the concrete path) to the falls and back down. Keeping in mind that this is Australia and death is lying around every corner this is probably the real reason for the concrete path.

That's right people, they have evil stinging venomous trees! Know what else they have up here in northern Australia, 5 kinds of deadly snakes! So, again, that's why they have the well maintained concrete path that runs right along the water to the "swimming holes" so you don't cross paths with a deadly snake...or tree.

Please excuse the fat arm, beware of the wide angle lens, it is not your friend if you end up on the outer edges of a picture...it IS your friend if you are in the middle, then you look like you have amazingly long legs, like this:

Haha, I love this picture, they look like they're 7 feet tall.

Photography Lesson Over.

And Part 2 also over...I'm tired of writing. Back later with the rest.

Happy Birthday to Me Part 1

I know you were all left in suspense as to where we were going this past weekend for the big 2-9 Birthday, as was I, but we did indeed end up in Port Douglas =)

I'm still trying to put the whole weekend into words, so in the meantime...

I'm just going to leave you with a few piccies and the condensed version.

We saw beautiful scenery.

Beaches

Rainforests

The rainforest meeting the beach...apparently one of the few, maybe only? places the two meet.

The Great Barrier Reef

Quite boring from the top isn't it?

We went driving

We went boating

We went snorkeling

We saw signs for all the things that can kill you here in northern Australia

Crocodiles on the beach

Box Jellyfish

Cassowary, more on him later, let's just say he's a KILLER BIRD

More crocs

Then we saw them in cages

The Cassoway

The croc

Then we came home.

More to come, stay tuned.

Bushwalking, wine and kangaroos

The weekend began on Friday night, which was Dom's 38th birthday, he arrived home from NZ just in time for us to go out to a fancy dinner at Altitude, which has a gorgeous view of the other side of the harbor from our apt. In fact you can see our apartment from Altitude...which was amusing, I'm sad I don't have a picture of it.

Anyway, we got a fancy 4 course meal with wine pairings and at the end of the night Dom looked like this:

That is Dom going to bed with the cool tie I bought him earlier in the week, which wasn't for his birthday, because ties are boring presents for birthdays, but it's still a damn cool tie if I do say so myself. Anyway, he'd been running on 4 hours of sleep for the last week and he went to bed as soon as we got home.

The next morning we got up late and got on our merry way about noon. We had a very chill, relaxed drive to Hunter Valley wine country, stopping in a little town called BROOKLYN for some gas (petrol to Aussies).

Who knew there was a Brooklyn in Oz?

An hour or so into our journey we started to see these signs:

but still no kangaroos (or wombats for that matter) EXCEPT DEAD ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD! And amusingly enough, we saw one of those kangaroo crossing signs with a dead kangaroo RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT and then later down the road a wombat crossing sign with a dead wombat RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT! I figure they were admiring the pictures of themselves from the middle of the road...using the light from the oncoming car of course and just didn't have time to get out of the way. I almost took pictures, it was THAT amusing, but thought better of it, because who really wants to look at pictures of dead kangaroos and wombats?

Anyway, aside from the dead ones we hadn't seen any kangaroos and then suddenly we hit the kangaroo jackpot! A whole shitload of kangaroos...just hanging out...I squealed, literally squealed! I sounded like a pig...yes I'm awesome like that. Seriously, one of the coolest things about Australia so far is these goddamn kangaroos. Over the weekend we saw many more and I got excited each and every time I saw one. THEY ARE COOL.

Yeah it's blurry, whatever, they're still kangaroos!

Moving on.

Sunday we headed off for our wine tour. Now, we've done our fair share of wine tastings, both in Sonoma, California as well as Portland, Oregon and let me just say that the Aussie experience was somewhat different.

First and foremost, most people take a wine tour on a wine bus, this is brilliant for about 7 different reasons, the most important of which is that it keeps you from drinking and driving (or as they say here, drink driving). Also, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING. The driver has your tour all laid out for you, so you literally just sit back and enjoy. All the vineyards are expecting you and set up special group tastings, which means EXTRA WINE! Seriously, we visited 5 vineyards and tried at least NINE different wines at each vineyard. In a word, AWESOME. Now, keep in mind that the tour lasts about 6 hours and starts at 10am, so for the first time EVER, I found myself dumping out wine that I didn't enjoy. They were just so generous with their wine AND ALL THE TASTINGS WERE FREE.

In both Cali and Oregon the tastings are anywhere from $5-$10 so i guess you feel like you paid for that wine and thus don't want to waste a drop and by the end of a day of wine tasting, YOU ARE WASTED. I gotta say I enjoyed this way better, we came home with a bunch of yummy wine and we did not end up totally smashed at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon. Not that I mind being smashed on a Sunday afternoon, a proper NYC brunch is not complete without ending up so, but we were supposed to go out for a fancy dinner at 7:30 and I wasn't sure I could muster up the energy for that after a heavy day of drinking.

We toured around in a "Cheers" bus

Monday, we packed ourselves up and headed back towards Sydney, stopping off for a quick bushwalk. Now, I don't know about you, but I had it in my head that a bushwalk would be different than hiking. For future reference, IT'S THE SAME THING. They just call it a bushwalk because they call their forests "the bush" for some reason. So, anyway, we went for a "bushwalk" in the rain, which honestly was more fun than it sounds.

Setting off on our "bushwalk"

Us and Mel (the car)

Random carving in the rock

We have a wide angle lens and like to take cool pictures of ourselves, what can I say the two faces in the camera gets boring and we are exciting.

See, I am "bushwalking"

Monkey Face Road led to Monkey Face Lookout, Australians have awesome names for things.

And that concludes our first trip outside of Sydney together, I didn't even mind the fact that it was the 4th of July and we did absolutely nothing that has anything to do with America whatsoever. In fact, I completely forgot it was even a holiday at home. What did everyone else do this weekend for 4th of July?