HAPPY NEW YEAR!

hey everyone! i hope the holiday season has been good to you and that the new year brings joy! court and i leave tomorrow morning at SEVEN AM to go to cairns and begin our east coast journey. it's going to be a fun one! i'll try to post from the hostels we stay in. christmas was fantastic on the beach. they were absolutely stunning. it was so great having our parents here. we saw jersey boys, went to the country, ate some good food for once and just hung out. so nice to have some familiarity. it won't be until april that we see them again! tearsss! annnyway, it's 10pm and time to get ready to go out and celebrate the new year melbourne-style!!! be safe everyone! much love and peace.

From Torquay aka the beach on Christmas!

Here's a few more from our little holiday. Enjoy!

we waited forever to try and get the water crashing against the rocks behind us, but it didn't work out.

zeee ladies

sisterly power

perfect timing!

parents together

family at bells beach

JUMPPPP

holding my card from nink!

here's dad opening up some gifts!

i'll do a longer post with actual words soon! hold tight.

snapshots

here's some photos from the past week while the parents were here! more to come!!!!!


Mom "Decorating!"

Our Christmas Tree

Stuck in a hammock! HELPP!

Mom and Dad in Beechworth

Me in the country

Our tree with the presents on the kitchen table!

these

are

amazing

decorations

Alex and us

Family

Dad in Melbourne

Court and I

There's a Courtney growing out of my head!

catch up

hello to anyone who's actually still following this almost nonexistent blog! i'm sorry for the lack of attention it's receiving! let's see...since thanksgiving, we haven't gotten up to much. i'm still working at helly hansen and enjoying it. the people i work with are great, one girl's from long island and another one looks like lindsay lohan pre-drugs, anorexia and hair dying. haha we have fun and it's great to be able to make good money before traveling about. courtney is selling roof insulation. sounds weird yea? but apparently there's some discrepancy in which the government didn't give people who are entitled to roof insulation for free, so courtney goes around knocking and asks if people want it now. it's free and an easy sell because literally they don't have to do anything! basically, our entire house does this job and it's hilarious. they all pile into a van at 3pm and get back at 8pm. so great! mom and dad come thursday! yayyyyyyy! i'm so excited to see them! we're going to go to the country where i stayed on the farm so we can ride and spend some time there. then for christmas, we got a beach house in torquay which should be relaxing. i'm ready for some familiarity. it almost seems like we're done here in melbourne. our best friends have left and although we live with an awesome group at the rock, it just feels like it's coming to an end. which is ok. in fact, it's good because we know it's time to move on. new adventures! stay well folks.

happy turkey day!

hi everyone! i hope you all are with the ones you love today and are eating until you're in a tryptophan induced coma. court and i celebrated yesterday and made a great feast for 13 of our friends! we ended up starting late--3pm, and didn't eat until 10! but it was worth it and we all had a great time. it was nice to show the aussies what thanksgiving is all about. here's some shots from the night! enjoy your day!!


daniel and courtney! it's daniel's place that we had tgiving at!

mmm sizzlin sweet potatoes. they were sooo yummy when they were done!

the chefs of the evening

green beans wrapped in bacon. moms recipe and a delicious appetizer!

nelson and dylan

POTATO CITY

cooking away

emma and daniel

the turkey. we thought it only took 45 minutes to cook. but something sounded fishy about that. so as i reread the directions, i realized yea, it takes 45 minutes---PER KILO to cook! aka about 3 hours. haha

ceremoniously cutting the turkey

the group

babble

hi everyone! sorry it's been a while. i've been really busy working. i work at helly hansen. it's a store that sells ski and sailing apparel. great stuff and i get an awesome discount! courtney has an interview tomorrow at a restaurant that i'm sure she'll get. she's overqualified for any of these places which is good on her end. it's getting realllllly warm here. summers are intense. our friend sabina left for europe today, so we're a little bummed. she was our first and best friend in au! but hopefully she's coming to the u.s. next year. cross your fingers! my birthday's on sunday. i have to work! but only til 6, so i think we're going to just grab dinner and drinks afterwards. nothing fancy. just low key, which is my style. i'm beat. i had such a long day, so i'm going to turn in. here's some snapshots! goodnight.

life at the rock!

ok, so as you know, court and i live at the rock...hostel/share house/awesome. at first, yea, i had to get used to it. but now...i love it! first off, it's clean now, primarily because i think everyone just got sick of living in a dump. but really, the main thing is, and the reason why everyone stays, is the people. we love everyone here. how cool that our friends are from denmark, finland, scotland, ireland, france, spain...and the list just goes on. we all have one connection...we're travelers. and we're all able to relate to one another so quickly because of that fact. it's great. when you throw yourself into a house of 30 people, you have no other choice but to live it up. and everyone knows everyone, so you can't beat it. anyway...here's a few shots of some good times thus far!

back in the cbd...

well, i'm back in the city. i'm living with courtney in the share house. it's definitely interesting. seriously...when you get 30 people, all from different countries, in one house...nothing's boring. it's cheap and dirty honestly. not my favorite way to live, but i don't hate it. i have 4 roommates and a big balcony which is nice. as long as i keep my stuff clean and neat, i'm all good. i'm really only here for sleeping. our really good friends live right down the street, so we go there a lot. 2 months won't kill me! just gotta make some bucks before we travel. court and i booked our tickets today. so plans are official. we're doing our east coast trip for the month of january. then january 25th, we go to thailand and we're staying there for about 2 1/2 months. we'll travel about and it's super cheap, which is great. on april 16th, we fly to rome to meet our family then fly back to the states on april 28th! and that's that...until we think of new travel plans of course. ok, i'm pretty tired. goodnight!

BOO!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!! this will be the first year i'm really not doing anything for it. no parties, no costumes, no scariness! they don't celebrate it as much in the US. imagine not going trick or treating when you were little! oh how they're so deprived! BUT we do have a ride today and that should be lots of fun!!!!

this is me last year! i went as a baseball from A League of Their Own. My favorite flick!

more from the sticks