This is Perth. It's gorgeous and it sits around the Swan River. You can actually take a leisurley ferry boat to work (that tells you a little about how they feel about working). This is taken from the "Central Park" of Perth. It's up on the hill and is a large nature resrve with hiking trails and nature in general =)
The city is all outdoor and is full of little specialty shops. I actually passed a map store. Where else would a map store survive? The stores, even the grocery store, close at 5:30 everyday. They stay open "late" on Friday until 8:30. Here's a picture of the "mall." Yes, of course I found the mall. They said they hold votes every so many years to keep the stores open longer and it always fails to pass. They said it's a "culture saving mechanism."
But Australia isn't about shopping, it's about being outside and hanging out. Hiking, biking, surfing, rowing. If it's on the water and outside, it's a major pastime. There are miles and miles (duh) o fblue water and white sand beach. The Indian Ocean is freaking freezing, especially in winter) but it's beautiful! The beach is a ten minute subway ride from downtown Perth
I was working all week, but I did manage to have a little fun on the weekend. The first day we took a trip down to Freemantle. This is where all of the original prisoners who came to build the British colonies were housed. 
I visited the prison here and had quite possible the worst tour guide in the history of the world. He read everything in his script (including the jokes) in complete monotone and then paused where we were supposed to laugh at the "jokes".. didn't work out so well. But I got to see the gallows where they hung 50 people or so. They kept this a working prison until 1994 with no working toilets! Two guys shared a cell and a bucket and they had to take it out in the yard to dump it out. G_ROSSSS. They were in the tiny cells all day and then had to hang out in this concrete square for 13 hours a day. Now THAT's what I call prison! 
The next day I got to check a bucket list item and pet a kangaroo in Australia. Cheesy, yes. Absoultely necessary- OF COURSE! Here it is- the money shot.
Evidently they scratch all the time, but I was a liiiitle iffy after this. Quick flea check!
We went to a wildlife refuge and got to hang out with a bazillion kangaroos, wallabies (small kangaroos) oalas, kookaburras, and the unexpected favorite.. the wombat.There were probably 50 kangaroos in an area where you can pet and feed them. The funniest thing about them is how they lay, propped up on their elbow. 
We also visited a local cemetery, kind of creepy yes, to see real "wild" kangaroos. This one had her Joey sticking out head first. This is really rare. 
Usually you just see a foot or a tail like this... kinda creepy! 
You could also actually go in and pet the koalas. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't hug it, but I had to settle. They actually DO move.
And here's the wombat, I mean, really, there's no competition for favorite weird animal.
Now, just listen to the video and guess what it is.. Something exotic right.. no, it's a freaking crow. It looks exactly the same but somehow makes this horrendously annoying noise. And they're EVERYWHERE. If there was one bad thing about Perth (besides the 40 dollar breakfast) it was the freaking crows at 3 am outside my hotel window. I thought it was a wild herd of goats the first night. I asked where the goats were and the hotel staff looked at me like I was nuts.
It was a beautiful trip! Hard work, but lots of fun. I think we will definetly be back!
It was a beautiful trip! Hard work, but lots of fun. I think we will definetly be back!
Friday we get a call saying that they're at our house doing a walkthrough. Well no one knew they were doing a walkthrough, so we hadn't finished cleaning the house! They said they weren't closing because (I'm not kidding) the oven wasn't clean enough and we hadn't vacummed!! Seriously? So Blake and I went and crammed about two days worth of cleaning into four hours and went off to do our closing. While we were closing they did another walkthough and on thier way out the door, they decided that the house had a BEE PROBLEM!! (A bee problem, outside, of course) and they could not close until it was fixed. They wanted me to ensure that there were no bees outside the house. OUTSIDE THE HOUSE... I can't really write what I had to say about that but they FIANLLY closed on the Monday after that and we are gone from Spring Alps Court forever!
Poor Pops then spent the rest of his "celebration day" moving our crap to his house, where we're hopefully moving at the end of the week if we can get our house officially sold! We'll make it up to Pops when he gets back from his vacation...by making him move our stuff out of his house and into our new house.. just kidding! (That will be later =) )
This morning we had donuts with Dad for Father's day breakfast. Emmy also had a nice blueberry lunch. She won't eat fresh blueberries but the frozen ones are ok for some reason. They are also a gigantic mess!
We finished up the weekend with the Vacek's trying out thier new boat "Tootsie." we decided we were going to invest in leashes to tie the kids to the side of the boat where they can't move. For some reason they all wanted to sit JUST on the edge with no one touching them of course. 
With so much going on around here it was a quick and distracted Father's day, but I do have to give a big thank you to my wondeful hubby who everyday gives me and Emmy all of his heart. I'm so glad that he's the one I get to share this crazy journey with! Emmy and I say "wuvwu!" And to my Daddy, thank you for all the continued, love, support, and use of your truck =) I love you!
Kimberly made some really yummy Paula Deen" Monster" cookies for a snack. Since most of the kids don't get cookies for a snack usually, there was a LOT of chocolate everywhere. And the mommies snuck a few bites as well =)
Since there's never only 1 event a day, that afternoon we celebrate Susan's big 55 at a girl's only brunch at Brio. 
We had a lovely room all to ourselves and Susan cleaned up on shi shi outfits and cute jewelry and shoes. Unfortunately, no one gave her an IHOP gift card. I should've taken that upon myself =) Happy Birthday SuSu!
Since the cupcake was a lion she had to "RRROOAR!"
This is completely unrelated, but Emmy has been staying with Pops for the past week for his summer vacation and has started making his "Monkey face" all day! Silly monkey.
Pre-red icing licking, the kiddos jumped into the pool for some fun in the sun. I do mean jumped. Abby didn't seem to mind doing belly flops into the kiddy pool. I guess it doesn't hurt as much as it looks like it does!I tried a slip-n-slide in college (don't ask) and I almost died in agony, I guess that used to be fun too.
The birthday boy swam in various stages of undress from full swimgear to a'la nude. But hey, it's his birthday, if he want to skinny dip he can. 
We decided that it will be another 5 years before we actually get a good picture of all of them together. 
On a funny note (well not so funny for Abby) she FREAKED OUT when it started raining. She was SO afraid that the rain was going to hurt the pool. She cried so hysterically that poor Keith had to completely drain it and put it up so she would stop crying. Poor baby.
It was a fun party and we were excited to celebrate a year of Jackson!
Besides that Emmy cared about each of the animal for approximately 3.2 seconds and then told them "bye bye." It's really hard to care about much of anything when it's 850 degrees. She was more intersted in taking off and putting on her hat, running around and walking in her new favorite way. You are chosen to hold one of her hands, it's not necessarily the person closest to her. And if she choses you, you better run because patience is not a virtue she inherited. Ok, she never really had a chance of getting it from me anyway. 
I couldn't decide which one of these I like better so you get to look at both. You can see just how many curls she has now! She's getting more and more everyday!
We capped off Saturday with a little swimming in GiGi and Pop's pool. At first she said "no, no, no,no" but then she got wilder and wilder. You'll notice the "Vacek Open Mouth" in all the pictures below. It's a family trait that means you're REALLY REALLY having fun =)
The rest of the day, poor Blake spent making Emmy "JUMP!" this was the best of all. Blake can't lift his arms today, but it was worth it to Emmy. She also went down the big kid water slide, by herself. DARE DEVIL!
And we had lots of fun, as poven by the gigantic open mouths in this picture!
Kasaksthan (or at least the part I was in) looks a lot like Midland. Flat, brown, bare, and really kind of ugly =( I think other parts are actually very nice.) There was only one green part in the entire place and that was around the sewage retention pond- NASTY!)
The next day we headed down to Galveston to look at a beach cabin that Mom and Dad are thinking about buying. We were excited to take Emmy to the beach for the first time. we slathere on the sunscreen and decided to give it a test run before we all got in our swimsuits. Emmy's feelings about the beach can be summed up in one picture...
HATED IT! That's a look of sheer panic on her face. She didn't want to be put down, didn't want you to hold her in the water, didn't want to look at or talk about the water and forget the sand. She just shook her head and said "no, no, no, no, no, no, no.." I think we may pretend like this never happened and call her next time the first time at the beach. We still had to take a family picture juuuuust in case =)
