We made it downunder!

So much to say!

Before getting any further, we want to give a sincere thanks to all our family and friends that helped out with the wedding and to those who attended and shared our special day.  You are all generous, caring, and so supportive.  We had a fantastic time on the honeymoon (a special thanks to everyone that helped support our trip)!  Thank you's are coming soon.  It has been a whirlwind following the wedding and we wanted to use photos from the wedding - you'll soon see.  Anyway...

Antigua was so relaxing and so enjoyable!  We stayed at a very nice place (Jolly Beach Resort) that had good food, good drinks, a great beach, and lots of activities!  Not only did we 'bag some rays' on the deserted beach, but we swam, kayaked, and took sailing lessons.  We learned to sail a hobie cat and wind surf.  Raymond, our private instructor, is an accomplished sailor and a great teacher.  The beach was fantastic.  At any given time there were about a dozen people laying in the sand or swimming in the warm water.

We took a land tour one day to see some of the more touristy places: Shirley's Heights, Nelson's Historic (but still active) Dockyards, and Devil's Bridge.  The two of us rode in the back of a Land Rover that was outfitted for about 12.  We set up the tour for the day before, but the driver never picked us up - so we ended up with a private tour the next day - fun, but a bit awkward.

Overall, the trip was amazing and soooo relaxing.  The wedding was rather stressful and the honeymoon was a great way to wind down, relax, and reflect.  The first morning after we arrived, Amy rolled over to look at the clock: "1:30!?  I think lunch is served until 2, do you want to get up?"  haha  We had to drag our butts out of bed for lunch!  I think we were a bit burned out from the wedding...

When we returned, we spent a couple days in FOCO.  We managed to get the rest of Amy's gear cleared out of her house and most my Nick's.  There are a few remaining items in the garage - sell it and keep the money guys!:)

When we got back to the western slope, we hit the ground running and its been a whirlwind since.  We were fortunate enough to stay at Aunt Sue and Uncle Jimmy's guest house for a few weeks - it was wonderful waking up with Mamm's Peaks out the window and only the occasional vehicle passing by.

We were quite busy getting the cattle sorted and turned out.  We ended up doing a lot of riding and Nick did a lot of irrigating.  The hay was amazing and Frank had to actually turn water off in July!  The days were busy and pretty long, but we managed to get a day to camp and fish and got our things packed for the long trip.

We traveled with Sheila to Dallas for Shanna and Zach's wedding.  We left early Friday morning, leaving Gretta behind.  The wedding was perfect and so beautiful; despite the fact that it was HOT there.  Nick was sweating through his shirt ushering people at the wedding - he had to put on an undershirt before the ceremony started because he was 'pooling up'.  Shanna looked gorgeous (of course) and Zach was looking pretty sharp himself.  For some reason, we hung out at the hot tub til 4am the night of the wedding...good thinking.

The next day Nicole and us dropped Sheila off to catch her flight and met Shananaba and Yakyak before we hopped on our plane to LA.  We were flying stand-by from LAX to Sydney.  The Mayor had us reserved on United and Jeremy had us reserved on Delta.  The Delta flight had no open seats and the United flight had ~45.  We thought we had a good chance of getting on the United flight, but they closed the doors with 44 open seats and 9 stand-by passengers waiting...boo.  We got a room for the night and decided to buy tickets.

We were able to check our bags at 2pm for our flight at 10:30 - pretty nice.  Then Toni picked us up at the airport and took us to her fancy place in La Canada (outside LA) to relax and hang out.  We sat by the pool (Nick took a quick swim) and had a nice dinner before heading back to catch our flight.  Thank you so much Toni!  That was such a nice afternoon and saved us from the cold tiles at the airport.

The flight took 15 hours and we arrived in Sydney around 6:30am.  We were able to sleep some; there were also movies and games to keep us occupied.  From what we were told, they schedule all the international flights to arrive early in the morning and ours happened to be one of the later ones; so we were stuck in a long line getting through customs.  It wasn't bad though, our line was screened by dogs - little hounds of some sort.  We caught a cab to Tim and Liz's place - only cost $50...:(  Liz is one of the interns that started in February.  She got her DVM for The Ohio State and brought her husband Tim along with her.  They have been great and very welcoming.  We have been staying with them in their extra bedroom.  It would have been a real hassle and pretty expensive if we weren't able to stay with them.

Finding a place to rent is a real pain.  Regulations require that all tenants must inspect a property before they put in an application or sign a lease.  We saw about 12 places before we found our 2 bedroom apartment at 178 Oberon Street.  Amy was working, but Nick inspected the property and put in the application - each of us had to fill out the paper application.  They require all kinds of ID, bank statements, rental history, references, former utilities bills, 2 pints of blood, and a psychological exam.  Ok, maybe not the blood and psych exam, but it is a serious process!

We were able to use the Randwick Equine Centre's (REC) ute.  A ute is what we call a truck, but they aren't really "trucks" here.  Most are small little Mitsubishi's or Mazda's and some are classy El Camino styles...sweet.  Anyway, we cashed in on a moving sale and ended up with a mattress + box spring, a fridge/freezer, 2 chest of drawers, a hanging rack, and some bathroom storage drawers, all for $200.  Considering the price of things here, that was a great deal.  We have since moved all that stuff and most of our clothes to our new place.  We will likely move in permanently this weekend.

Amy is enjoying work.  REC is a pretty fancy place and they see a lot of cases.  She has been busy the past 2 weeks learning the ropes and getting used to things.

More coming soon!