Back to Blogging -- a summary of the last three months

Well after sometime away from the blog we are back at it and hopefully will keep everyone up dated. I can't believe that it has been nearly three months since we had an entry into the blog and specially since we have came back from our epic tour of Australia and Hawaii. Lots of exciting things have happened since that time and probably to many to list out. But the high lights are:
Tennis lessons for Gabbie and Baseball camp for Gavin when we first got back.
Back to school and the fire station for Stephanie and myself.
Gabbie getting her tonsils and adenoids out.
Start of football season, so Gavin and I heading down to watch the Beavers play. Both good and bad.
Start of 1st and 3rd grades for Gavin and Gabbie. New back packs, meeting up with friends after a long summer, all day at school and lunch for Gavin, new teachers and principal.
Starting of soccer season for Gavin, so far he had two goals, he is on a good little team of all 6 year old kids playing kids up to age 8 plus they only have 7 players and they play 6 on 6 some the kids get lots of playing time. Haven't won any games yet but a couple of draws but most importantly they have fun and play hard.
Decision to get a new dog. Chocolate lab born September 9th, will finally see them this weekend and get to take her home in the first week of November. Her name has already been picked out, ROXY.
New vacation home in Eagle Crest. We are actually headed up there today to check it out. Pictures to follow of the house, but it will be a great family vacation house.

Well I am sure I have missed a lot of other things that have occurred over this time, but at least this is a brief run down on what we have done. I will post picture today of the happenings of the last couple of months plus some of our Australia and Hawaii pictures.

July 23rd -- Botanical Gardens and a Ferry Ride

Today was spend getting up early and heading into the city for a day of adventure and site sighting. Our first stop was a walk through the center of the CBD in the heart of Sydney and looking at all the different shops. We continue our walk all the way across the city until we got to the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens. There we walked through the gardens and saw all the different plants. The kids were amazed to see thousands of bats hanging in the trees. There is so many that they are actually trying to get rid of them as they are destroying the trees. We then headed around the harbour front to the Opera House for a couple more pictures.
The next part of the day saw the four of us take a ferry ride across Sydney Harbour to Manly enjoying a nice scenic trip. Once in Manly we headed to the beach area were we enjoy lunch with the seagulls that Gabbie really did not like. After lunch we walked back to the ferry for the ride back across the Harbour to the city. After a quick stop to get the kids some ice cream to refuel before jumping on a train and heading back home.
Monday night the kids enjoyed dinner and a movie, while the adults got to enjoy a grown up meal. A beautiful home made dish of Chicken and Seafood Paella made by our sister in law Carol.

July 22nd

Sunday we headed off across Sydney after a late morning brunch prepared by my brother to one of my cousins houses in Cronulla. This is another beach community just 30 minutes south of the city. So we enjoyed a nice afternoon catching up with my cousins and his wife, and like all Aussie gatherings so far, we had good food, wine and beer.

July 21st

Today was our day to head back to Sydney from Surfers Paradise after a great week in the sun. Our morning was nice and smooth, just packing bags and heading down to the shop for a coffee and one last look around. After a 30 minute shuttle ride back to the airport we had to sit for another 4 hours as the schedule flight was delayed due to fog in Melbourne. We rescheduled onto another flight back to Sydney and then waited and waited. All this waiting and the flight is only an hour long.
Once we finally got back to Sydney it was off to my sisters house in Liverpool for one of our nieces Confirmation. After that we had another big family dinner and some wine and beer, plus watched a little Australian Wallabies in a rugby game against New Zealand. Once again the kids had their cousins there to play and run around with.

July 20th --- Surf School

After a morning run by Stephanie and myself we enjoy some relaxing time around apartment we were staying in. Then it was back down to the beach and another day relaxing on the beach. However in the afternoon we all headed for surf school. Yes all four of us went and took a surfing lesson for two hours, and we all had so much fun. Both kids showed no fear in the water and just kept on heading back out to catch more and more waves. By the end of the two hour class both kids were standing up and being real surfers.

July 19th -- Another day at the beach

Today we spent the most of the day at the beach enjoying the beautiful weather. Once again the kids loved the surf and even with the water being a little cool today you could not get them out of the water. We also run up the beach a little which the kids liked. There was also lots of sand castle building going on as well.
Before and after the beach was shopping time, the kids trying to spent the last bit of their money find all kinds of wonderful Australian treasures.
That night we meet one of my cousins Greg who lives up in the Brisbane area for dinner. The kids got to enjoy a true Aussie dinner at the local Surf Life saving club. We had a good time catching up with him and hearing abut his family as it had been about ten years since we'd seen him.

July 18th -- Currumbin Wildlife Santuary

Another day with the Australian native animals. This time we head a little south of Surfers Paradise to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. The great part about this place was you could get up close and feed the Kangaroos and Wallabies along with a Lorikeet feed. The kids had fun feeding the kangaroos and wallabies, Gavin freaked out when the hundreds of lorikeets came in at their feeding time. We also got to see several animal shows and talks, and after each one the kids got to hold some of the animals. The high lite for Gavin was holding a snake and Gabbie got to hold a ringtail possum. There was also an aboriginal show were they song, played native instruments and danced. I even go to participate in this one with being pulled out of the crowd and had to do one of the dances.

July 17th -- Seaworld

Today was a trip to the Australian Seaworld in Surfers Paradise. Once again it was a fun day filled with see lots of animals, this time sea creatures. No whales at this Seaworld but we did see the Dolphin, Seal and Water skiing shows. We also got to see lots of sharks and lots of other amazing sea creatures in the man made reef area, and Gabbies saw her favorite animal, the polar bears. We spent the afternoon going on the rides at the park, Gavin even got brave enough to go on a couple. Gabbie once again showed no fear and went on the two big rides, the Pirate ship and the corkscrew roller coaster. We even tried the water park they had there but eve thou it was warm weather the water was freezing, the kids had fun but it was short lived as the parents were cold.

Once again it was another fun day.

July 16th -- Relaxing on the beach

Today was spent relaxing. After Stephanie and I both enjoyed a morning run on the beach, one at a time we didn't leave the kids by themselves. We had a lazy morning by the swimming pool and hot tub at the hotel. The pool even had sand beaches. Gabbie loved that as she was able to make sand castles. After lunch and Stephanie buying some beach toys we headed down to the beach and were we spent all afternoon playing in the sand or in the water. The kids had a ball running in and out of the surf, getting knocked over by the waves.

The evening was spent writing in journals, having Gabbie's favorite dinner ravioli's, and watching a movie. And yes another good Australian red wine.

July 15th -- Off to the Surfers Paradise

Sunday July 15th saw us head off to the Gold Coast of Queensland and land in a place called Surfers Paradise. After a quick flight of just over an hour and a shuttle bus from the airport we were at our hotel in the heart of Surfers Paradise. We stayed at the Chevron Towers of Renaissances, a nice new complex of three 40 story residential towers, and we had a wonderful view of the beach just a block away.

Our first stop was hitting a local American landmark, the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Then it was off exploring the shops before we finally made our way down to the beach. The kids loved it running around and playing in the sand. They didn't go swimming but got there feet in the water, which was a lot warmer than the water in Sydney.

July 14th -- Rest and Seafood feed

Saturday was a day of rest for the late night everyone had. After picking the kids up mid morning it was back home for some lunch, a little TV and then a nap for the kids. While Gavin napped my brother Ian and I went and got his long awaited Sea Eagles jersey. Thankfully my brother played footy with the guy who owned the shop as he gave us a good discount.

Saturday was also the last full day my brother Ian and his two girls had in Sydney before heading back to Oregon. So that meant another big family gathering and this time we threw a shrimp on the barbie and had a good old Australian seafood BBQ. With fresh seafood from the Sydney fish markets it was a night of cooking fish and drinking wine and beer. Along with another night of kids running around screaming and having fun, especially since it was going to be the last time all ten cousins would be together for several years.

July 13th -- Taronga Zoo, a big sleep over and the footy

All ten cousins and Gran and uncle and aunties, 18 in all, set off to Taronga Zoo in the Sydney Harbor suburb of Mosman. The zoo probably has one of the best settings in the world over looking Sydney Harbor and the city in the back ground where you can see the Opera House and the Harbor bridge. It was a little cold out but still not too bad for the middle of winter. We explored the zoo for six hours, seeing Kangaroos, Kolas and all the other unique Australian animals, plus we got to look at the other usually zoo creatures. The kids had fun run from one thing to the next.

Once the zoo fun was over it was time for the kids to head off for the big sleep over. My sister was having all ten cousins stay at her house for the night. Pizza, movies, games, and lots of running around screaming. Reports back from the kids were that it was lots and lots of fun. There was no bed time so kids just kind of passed out, Gavin was reported the first one gone, Gabbie hung in until about 2 in the morning, and their oldest cousin decided not to go to bed.

Well since the kids were at my sisters, my two brothers and I got to go to another rugby league game, this time between Manly Sea Eagles and the West Sydney Tigers. We meet up with several of my brothers friends at the pub before hand and then meet several more one at the game. We also ran into our cousin Greg Gately that we had not seen for about ten years. After a good game of footy, which the Sea Eagles won, our local team, we headed of the the pub were all the plays got after the game. Since my brother Ian played there back in the late 80's and early 90's he knew lost of people, so it was a long night talking with all the old players which gave my older brother and myself lots of stories about our brother Ian.

A quick update

Sorry we have not updated this for a couple of day but we have been away from a computer. right now we are in Surfers Paradise, Queensland enjoying the sun and beach. We are having a ball, especially the kids. Yesterday we went to Seaworld and today we are off to the Currumbin Wildlife sanctuary to see more animals.

Well as I'm sitting in a hotel lobby on the Internet and my times nearly run out I'll have to sign off. Once we get the kids to bed tonight we'll update you all on our adventures for the last couple of days.

Take Care, the Gatelys

Thursday July 12th -- A Day at the Beach

Today we spent all day at the beach with all the family for pictures of all the grand kids for my mother and then a picnic. We in fact went to two different beaches, the first being Dee Why beach and the second Palm Beach.

The first stop of the day was Dee Why beach where we grow up and so my mother hired a photographer to take pictures of all ten grand children plus some family shots. After an hour or so of taking pictures the kids were let loose and went crazy on the beach. All the kids had a great time playing in the sand, collecting sea shells and getting wet. We had to keep them back from the water as the surf was huge and we didn't want to lose any of them. Of course after a couple of hours all the kids were soaking wet and covered in sand, and this was only our first stop of the day.

After cleaning the kids up and a new set of clothes we were off to beach number two for more playing on the beach plus a picnic lunch. The second beach was Palm beach which is the last beach on the Northern Beaches Peninsula of Sydney. All the houses have unbelievable views of the beach and ocean, the best part is you could probably pick up a cheap house for about $2 million dollars up there. This is the beach that several Wiggles videos were made, and is probably one of the most beautiful beaches in Sydney.

Well once again the kids spent all there time playing on the beach. Sand castles, collecting shells and running around being crazy. It was another great time at the beach and the kids were very upset when it was time to leave. Once again all the kids were covered in sand and soaking wet.

Thankfully for the long drive home it was very quiet as the kids were all worn out.

The kids had a quiet night of nachos, ice cream and a movie. What a day they had, probably couldn't get any better than that.

Wednesday July 11th -- Stephanie's Birthday

Stephanie got to celebrate her 38th birthday early in Australia. She started her day off with cards and presents from the kids and nieces and nephews. After a morning of relaxing and also watching the MLB All-Star game, Gavin and I could not miss that, we headed up to my mothers house. All the relatives went a saw the new Harry Potter movie while we went shopping and enjoyed the afternoon with just the four of us.
That evening we celebrated Stephanie's birthday by going out to dinner with all the cousins and my brothers and sister and other relatives, twenty in all. Once again Stephanie got some more presents and the kids also received presents, lucky them. All the kids ran around being crazy while the adults related and talked, and of course enjoyed some good Australian wine and beer.

Tuesday July 10th

Tuesday was a day spent at home relaxing and a sleep in for the kids. After all the activities the kids were wiped out and took it easy for the day. Our big adventure was walking up to the local grocery store to get food for lunch and dinner. After that, the rest of the day was spent making crafts and playing games.

Monday July 9th

Today was spent at one of the local shopping malls. At the request of Gabbie and Gavin's cousin Rachael who desperately wanted to get a Harry Potter Nintendo DS game, plus the kids got some birthday money from their Great Grand mother over here. After a couple of hours shopping and some lunch, we all decided to head to the ice skating rink and went ice skating. This was the first experience for the kids at ice skating, and they did great and had lots of fun. By the end they were both wet from falling several times, but enjoyed themselves.



For the evening Stephanie and I got a treat for our anniversary, a night out without the kids courtesy of my brother Mark and Carol. We enjoyed an evening at the movies, seeing Knocked Up. The movie was great but the best part was the luxury we had seeing the movie. We went to a theater call Gold Pass where we sat in recliners and had waiters bring out gourmet food and beer and wine. It was a nice time and a nice way to celebrate our 13th anniversary.

Sunday July 8th

Today started with a relaxing morning around home after a long night for the girls and boys at the different activities of Saturday night. The kids played most of the morning before all resting and enjoying a DVD to relax after the long week of site seeing. Also after a week on nice sunny weather we finally was hit with rain, another reason to slow down.

My afternoon was spent with my brothers and sister at my mothers soon to be new house doing landscaping. Lots of fun. Late in the afternoon Stephanie, Carol, our sister-in-law, and the kids came up to see our progress and also to have dinner.

The evening was relaxing, with the kids heading to bed early and then an evening of watching sports on TV and a couple of beers.

Saturday July 7th


Today we headed back into the City, and Darling Harbour to visit the Sydney Wildlife Park at Darling Harbour. We were joined by my brothers and sisters family for the day. So after a quick trip into the city on the train we headed for the wildlife park.





The park is a new area, that just opened several months ago and you can see all the exhibits from inside. So even though it was a little cool outside we got to walk thou and see all the animals in warmth. We got to see more of the usually Australian animals, plus more unique animals. We saw the six most deadly snakes in the world, which of course all live in Australia and then the two most deadly spiders, which again live in Australia. The most exciting thing was to find out that both the spiders live in my brothers garden during spring and summer.





That evening the Gavin got to experience his first professional Rugby League at the local field that we grew up going to and where one of my brothers played professional rugby. Gavin had a ball and it was even more exciting as the team we support, the Manly Sea Eagles, won 56 -0. Most of the scoring coming in the second half of the game, right in front of where we were sitting.





While the boys were away at the football, Gabbie and her girl cousins had a girls night of movies and a sleep over at my brothers house. Gabbie was in heaven, all the girls and doing lots of girl stuff.

Day 8

Today the boys and girls split up and headed in different directions.



Gabbie's cousin Rachael was in a Ballet/Dance Camp all week long and Friday was open day. So Gabbie, Stephanie and Carol spent the day watching Rachael dance. It was a long day for the girls but Gabbie was in heaven watching all the dancing.



The boys headed off to our old stomping grounds. Our first stop was a look around our old high school. We then headed to the big shopping mall for lunch and a look around at all the changes. Gavin even got to see a couple of the local professional rugby league stars. Gavin also made his first Australian purchase with his spending money, buying a mini rugby ball of the local professional Rugby League team the Manly Sea Eagles. It was very exciting for him as he wants to know all about the game, which we are all going to see Saturday night.

Day 6 & 7 - 4th of July & The Sydney Aquarium

July 4th

Today was July 4th and we had a pretty low key day. Our big adventure of the day was going to a local pet shop to see a travelling frog show and also to help Uncle Mark purchase some more fish for his aquarium. We got to learn lots of information about frogs, probably too much, but the kids had lots of fun.

That night we had our first Australian July 4th party. We stayed to be true to the American tradition with hot dogs and hamburgers, but fell short with the American beer. We just couldn't face paying $43 for a case of Bud or $80 for a case of Sam Adams. But the party went on with some good Australian wine and craft beer. No fire works but we all had fun.

July 5th

Today we gave our family a break from us and headed into the city to explore an area called Darling Harbour. After a quick train ride into the city we had a short walk thou the city down to the Darling Harbour area. The area is full of fun family activities and Gabbie saw a bungee jumping trampoline thing that she wanted to do. What fun she had jumping 20 - 30 feet in to the air doing back flips. She was loving it, and when she got off she said, 'glad Nonnie wasn't here as she'd be freaking out.' Gavin just sat and watched, really not the dare devil type.

After a quick lunch it was onto the high lite of the day, The Sydney Aquarium. We saw some truly amazing aquatic creatures. We started with the most recognized Australian aquatic animals, the Platypus and the crocodiles. The moved onto numerous other amazing fish and other sea creatures. There was a under was aquarium that we walked thou that had all kinds of fish swimming around us. We even got to see sharks and gigantic sting rays swimming around. Finally, we even got to see the stars of finding Nemo: Nemo himself, Dory, Flo & Bo, Bubbles, Scar and all the other fish in the Nemo movie, as we walked thou a Great Barrier reef display with all sorts of amazing tropical fish.

Day 5 - Visiting the Koala's

Today was a beautiful day in Sydney, with sunny skies and the temperature in the mid seventies.

We headed out for our daily adventure and landed at the Koala Park, with all the kids cousins. The Koala Park is a small wildlife sanctuary in the suburbs of Sydney, located just near my brothers house. At the park our first thing was getting to pet a Koala and take a couple of pictures with it. Plus learning about male and females, and the fact that they sleep on average 20 hours a day. What a life.

Our next animal we saw was the Kangaroo's. We actually got to feed them and pet them as well. The bonus here was that several had little Joey's in their pouches, the kids were very excited and took lots of pictures.

We also saw lots of other Australian animals including wombat's, emu's, Kookaburra's, wallabies, dingo's and so on.

After the wildlife park the kids got to experience their first meat pie and sausage roll, as we stopped by a local bakery. The kids seem to love them both.

The remainder of the day was spent playing with their cousins. Gavin got to learn how to play cricket, but he tried to throw in a lot of baseball terminology.

Day 4 - A Day at the Beach

Today was spent visiting the area I grew up and one of the many local beaches. Our first stop was a lookout near where we grow up that allowed us to have views of the city and southern coast line to the south and the northern penninusla to the north. After a drive by of our old house and primary school it was off to the beach. The local beach that we spent sometime at growing up, Dee Why Beach. At the beach we spent the afternoon playing in the rocks area looking at crabs, star fish and other small sea creatures. We then had fun playing in the sand and water digging and collecting shells. For lunch we had a treat of eating fish and chips right on the beach. The best part of the whole thing was that it was nice and sunny weather with a temperature in upper 60's, not bad for the winter time.

Day 3

We finally got a good nights sleep last night and getting over the jet lag, and are now settling in to vacation mode.

We had a good weekend mainly visiting family. Saturday was spent playing around my brothers house with his kids. Gavin is in heaven with two boys to play with, that have lots of guns and swords. Gabbie is having fun with her older girl cousins braiding hair, and doing other girl stuff.

Our major outing was going to my sisters house out in the western suburbs of Sydney. The biggest part of this journey was that I had to drive and to make matters worse I was driving my brothers two week old car. Thankfully we made it there and back without any problems, but we probably made a few drives mad as we drove a little slow. The ten cousins had a great time playing together once again yelling and screaming playing all sorts of games.

Sunday we had our first trip in to the city on the train. We heading down to the Opera House and at place called Circular Quay where all the ferry's from around the harbour dock. It was a lot of fun looking around but also a little cold, so the kids spent more time complaining about the weather. To warm up and get something to eat we had our first true blue Aussie meal out. Okay, well actually we went to Starbucks and had coffee and hot chocolate. After our big trip on the train and into the city, it was time to meet more of my family, so we went to my Aunties house for a really Aussie BBQ. No shrimp on the barbie, but bangers on the barbie(sausages). Lots of fun seeing all the relatives but the kids were a little overwhelmed.

Well today will hopefully be another good day, at least it's nice and sunny.

We have finally arrived

Well it took 16 and a half hours to get from Portland to Sydney but we finally arrived Friday night at 7 pm Sydney time or 2 am Friday morning Portland time. The two flights we took were very long but also lots of fun, filled with movies, games, reading, ipods and eating. Plus we had the hudreds of "are we there yet". In all the kids did great and we all had fun.


On the ride back to my brothers house the kids got the go over the Habour Bridge and Gavin finally got to see "Oprahs House" or in Australia known as the Opera House. Once we arrived at our final destination, my brothers house, all the cousins were there for Gabbie and Gavin to play with, and they were in heaven. It was great to see all the family, especially my sisters kids as they were only babies when we were here in 2000.


We finally go to bed at 11:30 pm Sydney time, which was 6:30 am in Portland. We were all very tired after being up for just over 24 hours, but after a good nights rest everyone is ready for a day of fun playing around the house before we head out and explore Sydney tomorrow.

Take Care the Gatelys

Only Two more days

Well we are off in two more days. Everything is just about squared away here so I think we are set. For the several people that got on and tried to leave a comment, I have fixed it up so it should be a little easier now.

We are especially happy to be heading off with the Beavers winning the Baseball world series. Now we just have to get our new championship t-shirts to spread the news about Beaver Nation downunder.

Well take care.

The Gately's

Only eight more days until we head on our big vacation. Today was more of our preparation for the trip. The biggest thing was finally getting Gabbie and Gavin's Australian passport. We now have all the documents needed for the trip, Stephanie is feeling a little lonely with only one passport.

The biggest news of the day is the Beavers beating the anteaters of UC Irvine and now are only two wins away from a repeat of the College World Series. Hopefully we'll be celebrating by next Monday. Go Beavs.

Well its back to cleaning, organizing and packing.

Welcome to the Gately Family Blog

We would like to welcome you all to our family blog. Stephanie and I are trying to come into the 21st century with this Blog.

Our hope is to keep a dairy of our vacation to Australia and Hawaii. Over the six weeks that we are gone we will experience a lot of exciting things with Gabbie and Gavin, so this is a way that you can keep up with our endeavors. Our plan is to try and update this on a daily basis or at least when we are around a computer. Also we hope that we can add some pictures to the blog so you can see some of the things we will be seeing.

We are leaving on June 28th and will get to Sydney at 7:00 pm on the 29th, which will be around 1:00 am on the 29th Portland time. We will be in Australia until July 25th, when we will head to Kauai, Hawaii. Arriving on the 25th and staying with Nonnie and Poppa(Stephanie's parents) until we finally come home on August 8th. A lot of travelling and hopefully a lot of fun.

Once again, thank you for visiting our Blog. We look forward to update everyone on our exciting adventure.

Take Care

Stephanie, Phil, Gabbie and Gavin.