My Byron Bay Birthday

My 34th birthday started the week before January 27, when Zack brought home these beautiful yellow roses for me. Unfortunately, they only lasted a few days, but they were gorgeous while they lived!













In Byron Bay, I awoke on my birthday morning to find my mom had made "Aubree's Dessert," a treat we used to make as kids. I'm not exactly sure why it was named after me, but I remember making it over at Aunt Kathy and Uncle Greg's house one time and it didn't have a name, so I think we started calling it that. Anyway, it made for a good first breakfast, but then we had scrambled eggs and toast outside under the veranda.





I also got a morning "Happy Birthday" serenade from my mom and Aunt Kathy. This video absolutely cracks me up every time I watch it, and this was the second version, because I didn't have my camera ready the first time they did it (they are completely sober by the way-this is just how crazy they are!).

It was a rainy day (of course), but we managed to get out and walk around town. Zack scheduled a surprise massage for me, so I got to relax for an hour. For dinner, we all went out to a nice Italian dinner near the water. It was a wet, windy adventure to get there, but the food was good (and the martinis were delicious!).

When we finally managed to escape wet and windy Byron Bay a few days later, I arrived home in Melbourne to more beautiful flowers courtesy of Adam and Emily. I may not have gotten the beach birthday I was hoping for, but I'd say it was a pretty decent day anyway!

Happy Birthday to Me!

We had fun celebrating my birthday today in Byron Bay!

Birthday Boy

On June 20th, Zack turned 34 years old. We’d been so busy moving into our new place, but I still tried to make his day a special one. I attempted to recreate his favorite pizza of all time…a fig pizza we had at The Stash in Crested Butte, Colorado during our engagement weekend. I had fun gathering fresh ingredients (figs, cheese, flour for the dough, etc.) from the nearby South Melbourne Market, and for dessert I made his favorite-gooey butter cake.

We took a series of funny pics-in this one we were looking at the birthday boy!

Emily and Adam were able to join us for dinner and a game of euchre, and they brought along a delicious warm brie cheese appetizer and some Whoppers (called Maltesers here) for Zack. This was the first holiday that Zack wasn’t able to guess his present from me ahead of time, but as he was opening it, Adam randomly guessed that it was a new briefcase (which was correct!). It was a nice Wednesday night, and hopefully Zack’s 34^th year is his best one yet!

Goodbye Grandpa Schultz

I don't usually post personal stuff on here, besides "here's what we did today" type of things, but I found out that my grandpa died a few hours ago, and he deserves a blog post more than any of the frivolous stuff I usually write about.

Dancing with Grandpa Schultz at our wedding.

Grandpa Schultz was a farmer, hunter, and fisherman. He played a mean game of euchre; I still remember him calling trump on basically nothing ("right-nine all the time"). He and my grandma had seven kids and were married for over fifty years before she passed away ten years ago. My grandpa could build and fix anything, and he worked for General Motors for several years. He was the most helpful guy in the world, and he loved his kids and grandkids like crazy (he always cried when we said goodbye). And he liked to talk and tell stories-sometimes very long ones!

Goofy Grandpa Schultz-I love this picture of him!

Up until a couple of months ago, my grandpa was super healthy. He even had a full head of dark hair at age 90! But about six weeks ago he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos (from all the years working with GM), and he'd been declining ever since. Lots of the family was able to be with him in Michigan over the past week, and he's been under Hospice care in his own home for the past few days, so things went as "good" as they could have considering the circumstances. But I sure will miss my grandpa.

Video of Favorite Memories of Grandpa Schultz

Above is the link to a video my family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) made last week for his 90th birthday, which was just a few days ago. They played it for him yesterday, and my mom said he was able to hear everyone's voices and feel the love. You're welcome to watch the whole thing if you want to, but I'd at least check out the first few minutes, because my brother made a really awesome intro using his bouncy ball collection!

Goodbye Grandpa Schultz-I love you!

Australia Day and My 33rd Birthday

Australia Day is on January 26. It's kind of like Australia's version of the 4th of July, celebrated with BBQs on the beach and fireworks. It was on a Thursday this year, and since Zack had the day off of work, we threw together a spontaneous get-together with our friends Emily and Adam. They biked down to the beach right across the street from our place, we carried our portable BBQ downstairs, and we grilled up some sausages and played beach games for a couple of hours. That night, I enjoyed watching the fireworks from our balcony.

Luna Park makes a nice foreground for the fireworks over the city and atop the Eureka Tower.

January 27 is my birthday, so I decided to have some friends over to celebrate the Australian holiday in combination with my turning 33 on Friday night. I made some Australia-themed snacks for the party. I'm especially proud of my Australian flag fruit kebobs; thank you Pinterest for the inspiration based on the US flag.

Australian cheese and crackers, fruit and veggie kebobs, sausage rolls, and chips (and cupcakes!).

We had sort of a small crowd because several of our friends were gone for the holiday weekend, but those who could come were awesome. They even brought me presents, which was totally unexpected! Here's a picture with Kristy and Joy. I think Emily and her friend Andrea were outside on the balcony at this point. Below are the boys (Adam, Nigel, Zack, and Hannes) and a shot of my favorite chocolate cake that Zack gets at a place across from his work. Yum!

It was very strange celebrating my birthday in the summertime. I'm used to wearing sweaters instead of sundresses and planning snowboarding trips instead of beach parties, but I'm not complaining! I'm hoping my 33rd year is the best one yet. It sure started off nicely!

Belated Christmas Dinner with a View

The Keys at Sails on the Bay.

In late January, as a belated Christmas present, we took Zack's parents out to dinner at Sails on the Bay, a beachside restaurant in the nearby suburb of Elwood. We also celebrated my birthday a few days early. We had some good food and a great view of the beautiful sunset that night!

View out the window at Sails on the Bay.

Rock of Ages

Zack's birthday present was tickets to see the show Rock of Ages in Melbourne.  He had been wanting to see it for awhile, and the stinker even saw a commercial and said, "You should get me tickets for that for my birthday" after I had already planned on doing that.  Grrr!  We went on Thursday night after getting back from Sydney on Wednesday.  I met Zack downtown after work, took him out for some pizza (his favorite meal), and then we went to the show at the Melbourne Comedy Theatre.  He looks all fancy here, because he has to wear a suit and tie to work every day now!

Rock of Ages is a musical set in the 1980s.  It has all sorts of 80s rock songs, which we sang all the way home after the show.  It was fun and really well-done.  Having seen some shows on Broadway, I didn't set my expectations really high, so I was surprised that it was so good.  The music rocked, the actors and actresses were excellent, and the show was extremely professionally done.  I was impressed!  Zack has since downloaded lots of the songs onto our iTunes, so we can relive them.  "To Be With You," "Every Rose Has Its Thorns," and "More Than Words" are a few of my favorites.

We came home after the show and dug into the gooey butter cake I had made (another one of Zack's favorites).  It turned out kind of weird since I don't have a real mixer at this place, but it still tasted good...more like a custard than a cake.  Oh well.  And that's how we celebrated Zack's birthday in Melbourne!

Zack actually left for Sydney early this morning and gets back late tomorrow night, so I'm on my own today and tomorrow.  I'd like to say I'm doing something exciting, but I'll most likely be getting ready for the move into our long-term place, which happens on July 1.  We're so ready!

Darling Harbour and Fenced in the Gardens

Monday was a beautiful sunny day in Sydney.  While Zack worked and before he got home for his birthday celebration, I explored some other parts of the city we hadn't gotten to on Sunday.  I first walked around Darling Harbour.  This is a touristy area with several seafood restaurants and water features.  In this picture, you can see the track for Sydney's monorail.  We never rode it while we were there; we just walked everywhere.

I grabbed some fast food for lunch and ate it on some steps overlooking the water.  Several seagulls gathered around and were eyeing my food, waiting for me to drop some so they could snatch it!  It was about 70 degrees and sunny, which was a nice change from the cold rain we had been getting in Melbourne.

After walking back by the Harbour Bridge and Opera House later in the afternoon to get some sunset pictures, I meandered through the Royal Botanic Gardens.  I saw several strange birds, which I'll talk about in another post.  Anyway, I didn't know they locked every gate at 5pm, so I found myself trapped inside!  This is a picture of the fence near a fountain where I was trapped.  I could see the whole city off to the right, and I needed to get out and back to the hotel before the Birthday Boy got home from work!

Apparently this happens quite often, because a sign like this was posted at every gate.  So I called the ranger, and fifteen minutes later (and after about six other trapped folks had joined me), he came and let us out.  I got home with plenty of time to spare before Birthday Boy left work.  Zack is actually headed back to Sydney for work on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, but I think I'm done with Sydney posts, so tomorrow's blog entry will be about something else.  Hope you're having a good weekend!   

Zack's Birthday Recap

Zack's birthday was on Monday.  He had to work during the day, but we had a nice evening together.  We took the city's ferry from Circular Quay to Manly, which is a thirty minute scenic ride that goes past the Harbour Bridge and around the Opera House over to Manly Wharf.  I've got some pictures from the ride on my Shutterfly page, but they are pretty fuzzy.  Trying to take pictures from a moving boat at night is not easy!  This picture was taken before Zack got home; I walked around at sunset to get some good shots.  But it shows the type of ferry we rode over to Manly.

Manly is a suburb of Sydney.  By the looks of it, it seems that lots of people take this ferry every day to work in the city.  We went to a restaurant called Hugo's, which was right on the water.  They are known for their good pizzas, so we ordered a fig one that kind of reminded us of pizza at The Stash in Crested Butte, Colorado.  Yum!  

For dessert, Zack ordered a chocolate tart.  It had raspberry sauce, ice cream, and pistachio fairy floss.  After some questioning of the waitress, we figured out that fairy floss is what they call cotton candy.  I told them it was his birthday, so they put a fun sparkler on the plate.  It was a good night, but tonight Zack gets to celebrate his birthday again, because I had already made some Melbourne plans.  Perhaps that will be tomorrow's entry!

In an unrelated note, we're pretty lucky that we made it back to Melbourne last night.  Tons of flights have been cancelled throughout Australia over the past few days because of the ash cloud from the Chilean volcano.  They started up again yesterday afternoon, so our flights last night were unaffected.  I feel sorry for all of the people who were stranded, especially some folks who had come from overseas and got rerouted to Brisbane or elsewhere.  Their vacations are wrecked.  Darn ash cloud!  

Lots more posts to come...our time in Sydney, the story of our surfboards, one about the currency here, our new apartment in July, etc.  Keep checking in!

Happy Birthday Zack!

Zack is turning 33 in style in the beautiful city of Sydney.  He's on his way home from work right now, and we're going out to dinner, but I just wanted to say a quick hello, show one of the many pictures we took yesterday in our (long!) walk around town, and wish my husband a happy birthday.  Lots more to come later this week!