Last Day of School 2010

The kids awoke to an invite to a Breakfast Party to celebrate the final day of school for year 2010. They were treated to their favorite breakfast of Belinis, fresh fruit, yogurt and their choice of beverage.
We're all excited to have the summer ahead of us. Lots of hiking, biking, playing with friends and family and loving the summer sun.

A Few Post-Game Pics of the Team

Sydney

We arrived in Sydney on Saturday morning, the same morning 16 year old Jessica Watson was arriving from her solo sailing trip around the globe. Sydney harbor would be an awesome sight on any day. But on this day with all the boats out to welcome Jessica and her little pink vessel back it was absolutely amazing!


World Famous Bondi Beach. The surf was crazy. There weren't even any surfers willing to hit the huge waves here. Great beach, fun people watching...not enough time!


We took a bus tour from the airport around Sydney to our hotel that was located right in Sydney harbor. From a point right above Bondi Beach we could see over the entire city, the famous Sydney bridge, the opera house, etc..

Brisbane - The Gold Coast

Eastern Most Point of the Australian Continent-Byron Bay




We've been on a lot of great beaches but the Gold Coast was simply one of the best. Because it's going in to winter there, there were hardly any people on this pristine beach with sand like fresh brown sugar. The sand was so clean and fine, it squeaked when we walked on it. The beach went on as far as we could see in each direction and the water was clear and blue.

Townsville

Brad went on another dive out of Townsville while I took the day to enjoy Magnetic Island with some of the group. We took a ferry out of Townsville and landed on the island where we hiked and within 15 minutes we were seeing/waking and bothering koalas in the trees above. This is one of the few populated areas where koalas can still be found in their natural habitat.

A Visit to the Zoo

Day two of the trip we did what every tourist in Australia must do...fed kangaroos and cuddled koalas..OK, we didn't cuddle the koalas but we looked at them at this zoo.

Our Australian Adventure

We were fortunate enough to be invited to join the SUU Thunderbirds Men's Basketball team as they played 4 games in 4 different cities on the Eastern Coast of Australia. A group of 9 players, 4 coaches and some of us "hangers-oners". Enjoyed seeing the home country of 3 of the players.
Australia is an amazing country full of life and beauty and offered much, much more than I ever imagined. 9 days flew by!
Team Cook back in Cedar City did great and survived (even thrived) without Mom and Dad around. We owe our kids and sitters a huge thank you for making this wonderful trip so stress free for us. Love you all.

First Stop: Cairns

The boat ride was a bit cold, after all it is going into winter there but we had an amazing time. Brad completed 3 dives. I did one dive and snorkeled. I found Nemo and Brad swam with Crush the turtle for about 20 seconds!

This is B as we head out to the Great Barrier Reef for a day of diving..First day in Australia..This is the way to spend it. Amazing.

7th Heaven

Charlie and Jack had their party today at Funtime Inflatables. There were 12 boys their age from school and soccer as well as Sam, his friend Mohammad, Cairo and her friend Janica. It was a wild, crazy, good time.
Love you boys.