01.09.11

The first week of the girls being here has gone by so fast. New years day, Justine, John and I and the girls all took the train downtown. We walked up and down the Yarra River, took a quite detour to see what we were missing at Summer Dayze (a huge house/techno festival that we wanted to go to but was too expensive. Featuring David Guetta, my favorite DJ) and toured the outside walk of Crown Casino. We stopped for lunch before heading back to Epping.
On Sunday, Len and Jen had taken the 5 of us to Port Sea, about an hour and a half south of Melbourne for a Scuba Diving trip. It was his Christmas present to us all. Len dropped off the kids and he and Jen went out for lunch while we dove. The first hour was a quick scuba lesson and an intro dive in a pool. Then we went to a nearby pier to dive! We had to split into two groups of 4 so Lisa volunteered to be with the group of strange people and John, Justine, April and I dove in the second group. The main goal here was to see the Sea Dragons, which are the pretty sea horse-like creatures. I hadn't slept for days out of excitement, and apparently, Southern Australian oceans are the only place Sea Dragons can be found.
They really had us all suited up, with pounds of gear on our back and head to toe wet suits so that we could stand the freezing water. When we got in the water, Aprils mask broke, so the instructor took a minute to fix them back up. We all went down on our first decent, before realizing that April went back up. We to went back up, and realized that April was having a hard time breathing and was going to sit this one out. A few minutes later, the three of us now try and go down on our second decent, except this time, something was wrong with Justine. To make the story short, I believe we descended 3 or 4 times becuase Justine kept having a hard time adjusting. John and I just waited on the bottom, anxious to start swimming around. We found a hermit crab and jelly fish in the mean time. Eventually Justine made it down and we started to swim. We saw several blow fish and a star biscuit, but it wasnt long before she once again went back to the top. By the time she got back down again, we swam the few feet back to where we started and had to get back on the dock. John and I just looked at each other, obviously disappointed but having a hard time not laughing at the
To be completely honest, we all did so much, and the week went by so quickly that I barely remember all that we did! We did eat dinner at Mina's, and Liz and Frank's, went downtown severalmore times, saw Zia and the girls and Justine went to Apollo Bay with Lucy and Gray on Thursday and Friday and returned early Saturday. We ate at the Devlin's favorite Thai Restaurant and went to Trak on Saturday night.
John had worked two or three shifts that week, and I worked my first shift as well. The cafe is called Deganis and it is about a 20 minute bus ride from Epping. We were both elated to have found work so close to home. John was scheduled for more shifts, but when I worked they told me to tell him that they had too much staff and were going to give the hours to people who have been there longer. John had mentioned how they reacted when they found out he was 25 and we both knew that that was why they called him off and still haven't asked us to do any more shifts. (Out here, they pay you by your age, which is a good thing, if you live here. Being a traveler, its too hard getting a casual job because they dont want to pay 23 bucks an hour for a 25 year old when they can pay an 18 year old 15 dollars to do the same work.)
The only positive thing about him being called off is that he was able to go with all of us to the Healesville Sanctuary. Jen and Len have been trying to get me and John there since we arrived, but it never seemed to pan out. Luckily, a day opened and we all jumped into the van and went. The girls got to see the Yarra Valley and how beautiful the country side is, and I was just tickled pink to go and see some animals. We had visited a few wineries, tasted some local cheeses and went to Mina's for dinner that night.
We ended the week with a family get together at Zia's. This is when the girls got to meet most of the rest of the family, including the kids of the 10 kids, and even their third generation children. We ate tons of food and just sat back and enjoyed the company.
I'm exhausted and I really didn't do anything. I can only imagine how tired Lisa and April must be. We got so many great pictures, and they are still full of excitement to be meeting the family. I still can't believe that the first week has gone by so fast!