Australia Part 2 - The Outback

After a couple of days exploring the Great Barrier Reef it was time to move forward on our trip. We boarded a plane and headed for one of the most famous areas of Australia - The Outback. We were mostly excited about the opportunity to see another famous native animal of Australia - the kangaroo. The Outback was beautiful and provided us with a lot of great pictures and memories.

Our first kangaroo that we spotted in the wild. 

Another kangaroo that we spotted out in the wild. This was actually a huge one. They are also pretty fast. We got a little too close to and it darted off.

We went to a didgeridoo concert which is music that is native to Australia. I bet you have heard one and never realized that is what it is. If you have ever seen an Outback Steakhouse commercial then you have heard one. It is what is playing in the background of the commercial. 

Jennifer and I with the actual Australian flag. How lucky of a man am I that I get to call this pretty lady my wife!

Another meal that Jennifer and I actually shared so that we could try the local cuisine. From left to right: camel kabobs, buffalo steak, emu sausage, kangaroo filet and crocodile rissole. 

Alice Springs is the area that we stayed at in the Outback. There were not a lot of amenities here, but it made up for it with the views and scenery.

One of our most favorite things that we did in Alice Springs was wake up early one morning to head out into the middle of the Outback and get into a hot air balloon to float over the Outback and watch the sunrise.

It took quite a while to get the balloons ready for takeoff. Especially when we were standing out in pitch black wilderness for about 30-45 minutes. 

We are off the ground. We were the first group to actually take flight.

My beautiful wife a couple hundred feet above the Australian Outback.

Apparently someone had started a fire - either intentionally or not. We were flying over some of this burnt area and it was just completely destroyed. It was very sad that many of the creatures were being forced from their homes or even dying.

In the hot air balloon. It was a lot bigger of a basket than I could have imagined. It held up to 15 passengers and we had our own little compartments for a couple people each to fit into.

It is so hard to display the beauty in a photo, but this was an amazing sunrise!

The only part of the hot air balloon adventure that I was not prepared for was the landing. I just was under the assumption that the balloon just landed peacefully on the ground and then we would all just get out. Totally wrong. Our landing was determined by how fast we were blowing in the wind at the time of descent. We were told to brace for impact and warned that the basket could tip over at any time which would cause us to be dragged along the ground. We needed to listen for careful instructions from the pilot. After a successful landing they then proceeded to make us pack everything back up for them. This was a picture of the women putting the balloon back into its traveling case.

Kata Tjuta National Park where we took a tour of and did a little bit of hiking.

Probably the most famous natural landmarks on the continent of Australia. This rock formation is known as Uluru. It is actually a scared area for the aboriginals (native Australians). This is a place that you can climb, but many of the locals suggest that you don't because it is disrespectful, as well as extremely dangerous.

The colors of the sky during the sunset were amazing.

Pictures again can not capture the beauty.

Sunrise over Uluru

Jennifer and I at the base of Uluru. If you look closely you can see a small discoloration in the mountain side. This is the path that people have taken to the top. Many people have died trying to make this climb due to the steep incline. 

The Outback proved to be an amazing adventure. So far our journey had taken us to 2 of the most famous outdoor parts of Australia. The next half of our journey was going to take us to the more modernized big cities in Australia. It was time to board another flight for our next destination of Melbourne. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Australia Part 1 - Cairns

I have heard people say before that if you waited until you were completely ready to have kids, then you would never have any of your own. There is just no way to completely prepare yourself for what children bring to your life, both good and bad. Jennifer and I always wanted to start a family, but we were stuck on trying to get everything in our lives right so that we could be the parents that we needed to be. We both had jobs, had just bought a new house and were working on paying off some of our school loans and other debts. We then decided that once we had kids it would really put a damper on our worldly and stateside traveling. Jennifer and I came up with the decision that we would take one last big vacation and then we would concentrate on adding to our family. One place that we had always wanted to visit was Australia. It really wasn't that difficult of a decision for us to both agree that this was the best possible destination. After trying to figure out hotels and travel for the both of us we decided that it was in our best interest to maybe book a trip with a group travel agency. We ended up booking our trip through Go Ahead Travel. This took away a lot of the work planning the vacation and allowed us to just worry about what to pack for a 15 day adventure in the Land Down Under. The day of our departure finally arrived and we headed to the airport for what was going to be a very long day spent in airports and airplanes. We traveled to Los Angeles for a little layover before boarding our long flight (14 hours) to Australia. During the flight we actually crossed the International Date Line which meant that we actually lost a day on our journey, which we would get back when we traveled back home to the USA.

The first stop on the trip was Cairns. You might not have heard of this city but I am almost sure you have heard of the tourist attraction that is near this city, The Great Barrier Reef. This was by far the best part of our trip and I could have stayed here the entire time. I told Jennifer that after the first 2 nights that we stayed in Cairns and visited the reef that we could have gone home and I would have been OK with the price that we paid for our vacation, which was a pretty penny. On both of these days we traveled out and snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef. It was so amazing seeing the underwater creatures and animals.

They had a professional photographer that swam around and took all kinds of pictures and of course wanted you to buy them. We couldn't say no to the picture of the both of us because it is so hard to take a selfie under water.

Another of the professional shots. This just shows how close we actually were to the reef. We were actually floating right on top of it.

My beautiful wife and I with a red variation of the Australian flag. It is normally primarily blue in color. This was an early variation that was used in the early 1900's.

Surrounded by fish. It was so amazing seeing all the different types of fish and other animals. 

Jennifer with some of the fish. Thankfully we bought an underwater camera before we embarked on our journey. We were able to take a lot better quality pictures than we had on previous snorkeling trips with the disposable cameras.

We even found Nemo while we were out exploring. 

We also spotted Spongebob's friend Patrick.

I just really thought this was an awesome picture. There is just so much life and then just a few feet away from this was complete open water. This also got me a little paranoid because I just kept wondering if any sharks were going to swim up in the open water area and attack. Thankfully none did!

If you look closely you can see the outline of a sea turtle. This might have been Crush.

I enjoyed diving down to see things just a little closer. We thought about doing an introductory scuba course, but we were both a little terrified about it so we just stuck to what we know which is snorkeling.

Pictures just could never do justice to how beautiful this place really is. It truly was one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen. 

I just had to try the local fare. This is crocodile and kangaroo kabobs. Kangaroos tastes just like a really lean steak.

Meet Harvey. He is a koala that we got to meet while in Cairns. Apparently in some parts of Australia it is illegal to hold a koala, but not here. This was something that Jennifer really wanted to do while on our trip so I am glad that we were able to do this. After we got the picture and were looking at it we said it looked a lot like a family photo. If we had only known that in about 9 months we would be able to take our first real family photos!

If you ever have an opportunity to travel to Australia - do it! They have some really amazing things to offer and I guarantee that you will have a good time. This was only the first 2 days of our trip. So I can't wait to tell you all about what other adventures we got into on our trip. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Kid Free Vacation - Gatlinburg 2014

One of my goals that I wanted to accomplish before turning 30 was to take a trip with just Jennifer and myself. I felt like this would be good for us as a couple to get away and enjoy some time with out worrying if we had enough bottles or diapers. For any parents of young children you can understand how difficult it is to actually enjoy getting out and doing things without at least one child having a meltdown. I started having ideas about overnight trips that we could take within a couple hours driving distance. Since the children had been born we had never both been more than a few miles away from where they were. I had a couple ideas in mind - either Gatlinburg, Nashville or Cincinnati. I had thought about making this a total surprise, but since I was unsure what to pack for Jennifer I finally decided to tell her. After talking with my parents (who were going to be our babysitters) I decided that Gatlinburg proved to be the best option. We also decided that instead of just a one night stay we would spend a week in the mountains. Jennifer and I would go down first and then a few days later they would join us. We did a lot of planning and decided that there were a few things that we definitely wanted to try and do on this trip. Jennifer really wanted to do some hiking in the mountains and I had always wanted to go rafting.

This was a picture with the kids before leaving on our kid free getaway. 

Our first adventure of the week was hiking. I was surprised at how much fun this really was. Being out in nature was so peaceful and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was a cool overcast day and perfect weather to hike a mountain.

 A distant view of Rainbow Falls. 

We made it! So nice to finally see Rainbow Falls. It was a 2.7 mile hike up too see this waterfall and it was worth every step. It was a pretty rough terrain, but we both did really well. The worst part was that after making the trek, you had to turn around and head back the same 2.7 miles that you just walked to get back to your car. So we stayed a while to take it all in.

Up close view of the Rainbow Falls. There were signs that said to not go off the path, but so many other people were heading up to get a closer look so we did too.

I was a little more adventurous than Jennifer liked. She kept telling me to come back, but I wanted to see how close I could get to the actual waterfall.

We brought along our remote for our camera because we didn't know if there would be many people out on the trails to take pictures of the 2 of us. 

Grotto Falls was the next hike that we took. This was a much easier hike and only about a mile long trail. Since it was an easier trail there were a lot more people that we met on the hike.

Jennifer and I with Grotto Falls

Picture with us standing underneath the falls.

Again I had to go off the beaten path. Jennifer was a nervous wreck that I was going to fall and not be able to make it back to the car.

Thank goodness for FaceTime! We were able to give the kids a call and see them before it was time for bed. Apparently when the parents are away the grandparents decide to do all kinds of stuff. They went to Chuck E Cheese and had a good time together.

The next day we got up really early and headed out on our next adventure. White water rafting was something that I have always wanted to do and Jennifer said she was up for it. However, right before it was time to leave on the boats Jennifer informed me that she was really scared that she was going to fall out. This statement made me go into protector mode. I was a nervous wreck for the whole trip because I was constantly looking to my left to make sure that Jennifer was beside me. Apparently this made me seem like a very unhappy person. The guide kept giving me a hard time and saying that his goal was to see me crack a smile. I had a great time on the adventure and we actually helped pick up a person that fell out of another boat. 

Another little side trip that we had not really planned was a little trip to a ranch to ride some horses. We rode a couple of miles on a couple of trail horses. Jennifer was not really a fan of her horse. It kept running down hills and then not listening to her different pulls on the reins.

We had a private trail ride. Too bad that Jennifer couldn't join me on the date. This was actually my first time ever riding a horse.

Our guide took this picture of us and added this little clip art to it and then texted it to us. Although it was just a trail ride I still really enjoyed it while remaining terrified all at the same time. I was completely scared that I was going to fall off. I really don't like having an animal with a brain of its own being in complete control.

Really beautiful view as we were driving around. It is truly amazing seeing all that God has made.

I surprised Jennifer with an anniversary dinner to Ruth's Chris. We had to make about an hour drive back to Knoxville, but it was worth it to have an amazing dinner with the love of my life.

I was so glad that we were able to celebrate our 7th anniversary with our first kid free vacation. It was a really exciting couple of days. We enjoyed our first hiking, white water rafting, horse back riding, and go karts. The past 7 years have brought us so many adventures and I can't wait to see what adventures we get into next. Jennifer has brought so much joy in my life and I am so thankful that God placed her in my life. She makes me a better person and I can't imagine my life without her. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Green thumb or not?

This past summer I set out on a new mission to try and see if I had a green thumb or not. Jennifer let me know early on that I was a little ambitious, but I didn't let it stop me. I wanted to try out quite a few different types of vegetables so that I could see how they all grew in order to figure out what worked best for my available space. I am also not a very big vegetable eater, so this was also a way that we could not have to pay for fresh veggies and we could experiment with new recipes. I planted an early crop of spinach that did really well and once it was finished producing I was able to take it out and replant that area which worked out really well. The main plants that I planted this year are as follows: better boy tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, green beans, corn, pumpkins, watermelon, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, okra, eggplant and carrots. Hearing this list you would think that I had about an acre to work with. However, I had to get really creative because I only had a small space in the back yard in which I was allowed my experimental garden.

I started with an indoor green house. The tomato and bell pepper plants are the only ones that I actually got to survive from this starter. Most of the plants got too big and I would have liked to planted outside, but it was still too cold. I guess I just got too anxious to start my gardening adventure.

It finally got warm enough and their wasn't a concern for frost so I got to plant my garden. Just to be on the safe side we did buy a few plants at the store just in case our seeds didn't work out. Since I wasn't able to use all of the seeds in the starter greenhouse I went ahead and put some seeds out too.

Brinley proved to be my little garden helper/destroyer. She enjoyed helping me water the plants but I would have to be very careful because she also like pulling the tiny plants out of the ground.

View of the garden from our back deck. It was so much fun coming outside everyday to see if any new sprouts had come up and then to see how quickly they grew. The 2 pictures were taken about 3-4 weeks apart from each other.

Then the plants started to bloom and it wasn't long before the produce started coming in. I would go out every morning and scour the whole garden to try and find anything to bring in. Each piece of produce seemed like a trophy and I was so excited about each one.

I learned that I am very impatient with vegetables that grow in the ground. We ended up with lots of baby carrots. That's ok because it turns out that we have a couple of rabbits in our house.

Landon enjoying a fresh little carrot out of the garden.

I was super impressed with how tall the corn got. I am standing on the power box in the back yard which is a couple of feet tall. This makes the corn stalks well over 8 foot tall.

It was so nice to be able to get all of this fresh produce right in the backyard.

It was also nice to be able to create meals that were mostly garden to table. Here is carmelized carrots, sauteed okra, and squash 3 ways - grilled, sauteed and casserole.

One of the most productive plants was the cucumber. The bad part was that nobody in our house really likes cucumbers. So, I guess the good news was that I gave them out to family, friends and neighbors. If I do cucumbers again this year I have thought about trying to make them into pickles.

Here is a picture of a haul from the garden in which I was able to get a little bit of everything. The bad news is that this picture was taken in July - not the exact time to be harvesting pumpkins. 

When you also have a bunch of vegetables around the house the only logical thing to do is make a vegetable soup. If you know me at all then you know that I was a very picky eater growing up. At 29 years of age this was actually the first vegetable soup that I can recall eating ever.

When life gives you pumpkins in July - do what comes natural and carve a Jack-o-lantern.

To think that I thought the corn got tall. I just had no idea how tall the okra plants were going to get.

I know that I might be a little crazy, but I wanted to see how much actual vegetables that my first garden actually produced. The only one that wasn't updated before I erased the board was the sweet potatoes - we actually had 30 more for a total of 43. (They were left off because I had them in a box in the basement because they are supposed to cure for about 2-3 weeks for optimal flavor.) 

 Gardening is something that I will continue to do every summer that I am able to. It is so rewarding and you are able to offset some of your grocery bills in the summer with having your own fresh produce. I really hope next year to be able to have enough produce that we are able to start canning in order to have produce well into the winter. We have decided that this year we will probably try to cut down on the types of plants. The ones that we are for sure going to plant are better boy tomatoes, yellow squash, bell peppers, carrots, and green beans. Maybe next year you and your family could start a garden of your own. Thanks for reading and God bless!