Quit Wheezing the Juice!

All the pictures are messed up in the order I wanted them to be... but anyway.

Ethan and his new hat. Ethan and me playing in the pool

Ethan's first night in the big boy bed

Ethan on the balcony

The balcony facing downtown

The balcony looking out over the harbor

The bedroom

2nd bedroom

Standing in the kitchen looking towards the living room

The kitchen

Ethan's room

2nd bathroom

Hallway entering the apartment

Ethan on the Sydney flight

The bane of my existence for 14 hours... see below.

Well, we're here and we're adjusting and enjoying exploring the city. At least our little corner of it since we can't venture very far without any wheels...

Anyway... here are the details of our time over the last couple days...

We left Friday afternoon Des Moines time. Before we left the Smith family, and Ben, came over for lunch and we had Mexican food. I bet you're glad I put that. And with how long this entry is going to be I bet you're glad I'm still rambling on about it. After that it was a two car caravan to the airport because we had a ridiculous amount of bags. The best part is... every single suitcase was over the 50 pound weight limit. Kari won big with a 64 pounder and the least was 51 pounds. Of course we still got charged the $50 fine. And by 'we' I mean PGI. After checking in we waited around for a while and Ethan played with 'papa'. At one point Jim wandered off with Ethan and we were worried he had kidnapped him to prevent him from leaving for the year. Kari tracked them down though. After that it was time for goodbyes. Apparently I'm dead inside as I really didn't show emotion. It is what it is...

Getting through security was a treat. With all of the crap we had packed for Ethan we got searched. What was even more fun was trying to lug all the crap on to the plane without mashing someone's head with either a bag, laptop case of Ethan's car seat. We tried to get on first but apparently rich people with 'red carpet' status get that honor...

We had a relatively quick flight to Denver and then another one to LA. Ethan was really good. About the only thing he did wrong was kick the seat in front of him. But, we got compliments from other passengers that they barely noticed he was there. In Denver not much happened... we struggled again getting all the crap off and then had FatDonald's before jumping back on the plane to LA. The LA layover was quite a bit longer and keeping Ethan entertained was sometimes stressful. BUT, I did have my first ever celebrity sighting! I was standing at a charging station by a jetway when a flight from New York landed and off walked Brendan Fraser of 'Encino Man' and the Mummy movies. He was taller than I thought. And he had ripped jeans on... that were died red almost. It was strange. But what it really means is in a couple years I will own jeans like that too. Just need to wait until they get to the midwest and Kari makes me own them so I'm 'fashionable.'

ANYWAY... on the longest. flight. ever. We got on the plane and quickly learned it was a lefull flight.

Strike One.

Then, I looked at the movies they were playing. Garbage, garbage, garbage and complete garbage. There was only one I had actually heard of and it did not appeal to me.

Strike Two.

Then I noticed there were no plug ins to keep laptops charged so I wouldn't be able to watch my own movies.

Strike Three.

It didn't get much better after that. We got a meal shortly after takeoff which wasn't terrible. But, they had all the cabin lights on so Ethan couldn't sleep. After the meal was over and they finally turned out the lights Ethan eventually fell asleep and so did the rest of the plane. However, he was up an hour later cause he was restless in the car seat. I got him out and let him sleep on me since I thought it would buy us some time and he needed to sleep since it was already past 2:00 AM Des Moines time. Oh, he did sleep some on the flight to LA as well. I should have put that earlier in the blog but I'm too lazy to go back and change it now. Anyway, he slept a lot better after that and I slept not at all. Instead I got to watch some garbage movie called Nights of something or the other with Richard Gere and some other middle class lady. Richard Gere sucks. Ethan slept for close to 5 hours on me. He tossed and turned and squirmed the entire time. And I had to scrunch down to keep him at a horizontal angle... I don't know that my arse has ever hurt so bad. The sacrifices I make... :) Kari slept the entire time if anyone cares.

Anyway, after he woke up we did all we could to keep him entertained. This include books, toys, videos and he and I spent quite a bit of time playing in the bathroom cause he enjoyed turning the water on and off. I would have stayed in there more but it was close to 35 degrees C in there. Enjoy that conversion! That's what I'm dealing with over here now...

Anyway, we eventually got breakfast which was pretty good and maybe an hour later we landed in Sydney. As I read over this it doesn't seem that bad... trust me, it was. It was awful and I never want to do that flight again. I know it was bad because shortly before I landed some middle aged Australian lady was jazzercising in the aisle to wake up her legs right next to me. I had the incredible urge to punch her because anything and everyone was on my nerves at that point. And as you all know, I'm so calm most of the time...

Here are a couple tidbits from the flight I didn't mention:

• They had a TV that showed our progress during the flight. I hated that $%&*@#$ thing. I wanted to rip it off the wall. Why put that there to torture people who can't sleep? Some a-hole gets a good laugh out of it I bet.
  
• I puked for the first time over international waters. Got food caught like I tend to do and had to bring it back up. I rule...
  
• The flight attendants sucked. One lady rammed me with the cart in the elbow as I was trying to adjust Ethan as he slept and she blamed me and said 'move your arm.' I saw red, but remained calm on the outside..
  

Anyway... once we were finally off the plane it was time to go to customs and get our bags. Customs itself went pretty fast. But, as you wait for your bags they have dogs come around and sniff all your stuff to try and find food. They seemed most interested in fruit and beef jerky. Fruit I get... beef jerky not so much. Anyway, we got stopped several times cause of the food we had for Ethan. I told the guy it was 'fruit snacks' and that got his attention cause I said 'fruit' But, they were fine. I think we got searched 3 times before we got out of the airport. A co-worker from here was waiting with two drivers to get us and all our crap to the apartment. The cars were sweet... driving on the wrong side of the road was a little unnerving..

Anyway... we got to the apartment, threw our crap down and tried to relax. Kari went and got some food some time later and we had an early lunch before naps. We made sure to take only 2 hour naps so we could try and adjust to the time here and then we took a walk down the harbor outside our apartment to see what there was to see. Lots of shops, restaraunts and the aquarium and a place called animal world or something like that where you can pet snakes and other crap I want no part of...

That night we had Subway for dinner and didn't do much else. I eventually went to find internet so I could post the previous blog. Ethan did spend his first night in a 'big-boy' bed. He did fine. It took him a while to fall asleep and we've had to lie with him for a while but over all he's done really well with it. Today we didn't spend nearly as much time trying to get him to sleep as we did in the past so that's getting better...

Yesterday Ethan was up pretty early and Kari brought him into our room to sleep more. I thought he was back asleep so I tried to sneak off to the other bathroom so he didn't hear me. But, when I came out I went to go back to bed and I hear breathing behind me. Apparently he wasn't asleep and followed me. If it wasn't for my ninja training I probably would have been scared by the loud breathing in the dark...

We also made our first trip to the grocery store. We walked there and then had our first cab ride home. We found most of what we were looking for. The prices were less than desireable so its a good thing Kari and I make so much money... Ha. Yesterday afternoon Ethan and I played in the pool for the first time. He had a great time jumping off the sides, ledges and playing in the waterfall. The water was a little chilly and by the end he was shivering but he still didn't want to get out.

Ethan loves spending time on the balcony outside the apartment. He has no fear and walks right up to the edge and peers over. We have glass and not railings... I don't know why I put that. Anyway, the balcony makes me nervous even though I'm pretty sure its fake. And, he's not allowed to bring anything out there cause I'm pretty sure he's going to launch something over the railing at some point and the pool/patio are right below us. Anyway, the balcony is nice as the main part faces the harbor, but it wraps around to the east and we can see downtown Sydney as well...

As soon as I found out about this 'opportunity' the thing I decided I wanted to get out of it was the chance to surf. However, I was watching the news yesterday and there was a news story about there being 39 sharks spotted of the shores of Sydney beaches over this past weekend ALONE. 39! Are you kidding me? The story was questioning whether the beaches are still safe... if the locals are questioning it perhaps I should be as well. I don't need a shark taking a bite out of my pale ass anytime soon. I'm still going to try it... but if anything brushes up against me I'm going to be screaming like a girl and racing for the shore. For all the good that will do me with a 1000 pound animal chasing me that can swim 48 kph.

Alright... I have more to write but I'm tired and the laptop is making me sweat. Which is actually probably good practice for the 95-99(did the conversion for you) degree days we're expecting over the rest of the week. Sweet... I'm pretty sure I'm going to get burned. This white boy was not made for sun like that.... thanks mom and dad. Also, I am unable to confirm toilets flush the opposite direction down here. The ones in the apartment just release a giant torrent of water and then the show is over. No swirling.. I will work on confirmation in the upcoming days.

OK.... done.