Gorge Wildlife Park, South Australia

Every time we take a trip back to Australia I'm always asked by my friends here in the US about the animals. Will we get to see kangaroos on our trip? Will we get to a cuddle a koala? Will we get bitten by a deadly snake/spider/shark/crocodile/jellyfish? 

Ok, that last one is asked more often that you'd expect - and obviously the answer is no because I'm here to write this post today. Unless I'm zombie Sally right now! You never know!

Anyway, scary animals aside, Australia's weird and wonderful friendly animals (or at least, friendly seeming animals) are always what my friends here want to know about. 

My kids are just as intrigued by Australia's wildlife, so every time we go back to Australia we make sure to plan a trip to a local wildlife park or zoo.

During our recent trip back to Adelaide we visited Gorge Wildlife Park in Cudlee Creek.

Let's take a look...

Our Big Summer Adventure: Fiji, Australia and a USA Road Trip

Summer break has been and gone and we’re back into the full swing of the school year. Our big Summer adventure is still on my mind though and I have a ton of fun stuff to share with you.

If you’re following along on Instagram you will likely have already seen a few of my favorite moments from our Summer break trip to Australia and Fiji. Today I’m sharing all of the fun! Well, maybe not quite all of it because we were away for an entire month. More of a highlight post with a run down of all the places we went. I’ll be sharing more in-depth posts about some of our bigger adventures in the future.

Our Summer adventure was a pretty big one with two international destinations and a Western USA roadtrip. We started with a two day drive from Colorado to Los Angeles, flew to Fiji, spent five days soaking up all the tropical island vibes before flying on to our home city of Adelaide in South Australia, took a road trip to Melbourne, road tripped back to Adelaide, spent a few weeks catching up with friends and family, flew back to Los Angeles, and then spent three days driving back to Colorado with a stop over in Las Vegas. As you can imagine, we were exhausted by the time we got home. I bet you’re tired just reading that, right?!

This post is going to be a long one, so get comfortable and prepare for the onslaught of photos! Let’s go…

Flashback Fridays: Flinders Ranges, South Australia

This one's going back a fair way. All the way back to 2003...

Back then Kim and I were living in Adelaide in South Australia. Adelaide is our home city but over the past 14 years we've moved backwards and forwards quite a bit: Adelaide, Zurich, Sydney, Adelaide, Sydney, Adelaide (again!) and now the San Francisco Bay Area. Plus multiple moves within each city. Whew, that's a lot of moving!

After living in Sydney (the first time) with all the hustle and bustle of a big city we were keen to get out and see as much of the countryside as possible while back in Adelaide. Being Australian, and therefore used to incredibly long drives to get anywhere, we found ourselves taking quite a few long distance day trips on weekends. After an impromptu drive five hours north to the southern Flinders Ranges (and back again) one Saturday we decided that a proper visit was in order. So a few weeks later we headed to Wilpena Pound in the spectacular Flinders Ranges for a weekend away.

Flashback Fridays: South-Eastern South Australia

It's been a few weeks since I've posted a Flashback Friday adventure. All of this pregnancy stuff has been keeping me busy and making me feel pretty tired. Only one month to go today!

Time to get back to it. This time let's take a look at a short trip we took from our home city of Adelaide, Australia...

Back in April 2011 we spent a few days in the popular tourist town of Robe, South Australia. Robe is a small town located along the Limestone Coast, a picturesque coastal region in south-eastern South Australia known for its red wines, abundant seafood, amazing caves, rugged coastline and beautiful beaches.

On our drive down to Robe we stopped in Kingston to check out the Big Lobster/Crayfish. If you've ever been on a road trip in Australia you'll know that Australian towns love their kitsch "Big Things". We've had the pleasure of visiting many of these "Big Things" over the years: the Big Banana, the Big Pineapple, the Big Orange, the Big Koala... Apart from their gigantic size the one thing these all have in common is that they are extremely tacky! The Big Lobster may just very well be THE tackiest of them all!

The girls and I with the Big Lobster