Category Archives: Birthdays

Organic Getaway

Posted on by robandlinds

Before leaving for the states, Rob took me out to celebrate my birthday at a very nice restaurant in Surry Hills. He surprised me with a weekend away in the Barrington Tops National Park – about 4 hours north of Sydney. Best part of it? The place we stayed was an all organic, 100% sustainable farm with very limited access to TV and wifi! It was our “vacation after our vacation” to the states and it was certainly needed. We hiked around, met the locals, drove to the highest point in Australia (1600m), ate deliciously cooked food, and slept (a ton). It was a perfect gift!

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Success!

Posted on by robandlinds

We had such a fabulous time during our 2 weeks in the states. Thank you to all of our family and friends for making our trip so wonderful!

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It was a busy few weeks with an engagement party, 2 stunning mountain weddings, a Broncos game (Rob’s first ever regular season NFL game), a Rockies game (Todd Helton’s last home game)…

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…plenty of day hikes in the mountains, walks and runs, golfing, story telling, Tim Tam Slams…

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…birthday celebrations, brekky/lunch/dinner/coffee catch ups with friends, wedding venue ‘shopping’, shopping in general, alcoholic beverages, BBQs…

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…minding the kids, awkward O’Keefe family photos (see below)… the list doesn’t stop…. But it was all worth it! All said and done, we stayed at 8 different places over the course of 16 days! A special thanks to The Ralph’s, Al, Jeremy, Maria, Kristen and The Schneider’s for giving us a pillow to sleep on during our time at home.

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And thank you for those who made the trek to Ft Collins for our engagement party – during some of the worst flooding Colorado has seen in years.  Luckily, the skies cleared and it turned out to be a lovely afternoon at The Ralph’s in FoCO!!  Thanks for hosting, Mom/Mum/Maureen and Dad!!!

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Broncos vs Raiders – Monday Night Football!

Posted on by robandlinds

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Since Chris, Jeremy and Perry all have birthdays in August and September we decided to surprise them with Broncos tickets vs the Raiders on September 23rd, during our visit home. This was also my first NFL game so we made sure to get there early to tailgate. The Eggers’ and Burnham’s also were able to get tickets and joined in on the fun! Luckily “Uncle B” had all the tailgate supplies.

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As for the game, another dominating Broncos win, 37-21. Peyton Manning continued his record setting pace with 374 yards and 3TDs.

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30 for 30 for 30

Posted on by robandlinds

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I got in a bit of trouble from Rob last year regarding his birthday celebration… or lack thereof… (and for a good reason since I was sick as a dog). So, this year I decided to go all out. Considering it’s his 30th birthday on June 28th, I thought there’s no better way than surprising him everyday. 30 days of 30 gifts for 30 years: a present for every year he’s been alive (this will inevitably include surprises that he won’t necessarily love).

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Jervis Bay

Posted on by robandlinds

Australia celebrates Labor Day as well but in September. For the long weekend we went 3 hours south of Sydney to Jervis Bay. We stayed in a crummy bungalow in a nice town called Huskisson. Jervis Bay is famous for having beaches with the whitest sand in the world and is in the Guinness Book of World Record. Awesome weekend and a place to come back to for sure.

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Celebrating Rob’s Birthday

Posted on by robandlinds

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We went to Selby Cottage near Lake Macquarie to celebrate Rob’s birthday. The lake cabin was recommended by our friends, Grace and Shane, and advertised as a ‘relaxing weekend away’ and it was!

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The owners (an older couple who have lived there for nearly 2 decades) live in the main house above the cottage and were absolutely lovely! Upon arriving on Friday, Bob was waiting outside to help bring our bags down to the cottage and show us around. Then, just as we were packing up the car to leave, Bob and his wife invited us in for tea & biscuits! ..An hour later we were on our way.. They don’t even have to advertise!! It’s all word of mouth and we weren’t able to book for months (first available weekend was the end of August when I rang at the beginning of June)!!!!

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29 Years Young

Posted on by robandlinds

We celebrated Rob’s birthday at Phillip’s Foote – a restaurant in the Rocks – with a bunch of mates.  The restaurant is similar to the Oaks, where you grill your own meat and potatoes.

You’ll find that the service level is very different in Australia than it is to the States.

  It’s uncommon to find Rob wearing a jumper (Aussie slang for sweater or sweatshirt) on his birthday..

The next evening we went to see several Aussie comedians in the Entertainment Quarter – probably one of Rob’s favorite things to do.

Rad-elaide

Posted on by robandlinds

Linds surprised me with a trip to Adelaide, South Australia on the Queens birthday long weekend. All along I thought we were going to Berry but then she had me open an early present with Megan and Innes which (after opening several individually wrapped boxes within boxes) ended up being our plane tickets.

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Adelaide was a nice country town but my favorite part was our wine tour in one of South Australia’s most famous wine regions, McLaren Vale. Unlike Hunter Valley, some of the vineyards were right on the ocean.

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Mr. J Duffy’s Birthday

Posted on by robandlinds

We celebrated Jack’s birthday by going to dinner at the Nepalese Kitchen in Surrey Hills. Jack and Tim are above on the left.

Above you can see Tim sporting his new cowboy boots (a parting gift from Tom and Lynne, who are now living in the UK). He’s a whole new man when the boots are on!

Back to their place for Chris to show us what he has on the guitar. And it looks like Jack decided to take his shirt off.

Chris started playing Wonderwall – even though the guitar needed some tuning – and everyone sang along. It was a fun night!

Birthday Night Dinner

Posted on by robandlinds
Some of our other friends, Tom and Lynne, are from the UK.  Tom had a similar opportunity as Rob to come over to Sydney on a 457 Visa, sponsored by Intercall.  It was Lynne’s birthday on September 10th and we went out to a Mexican restaurant in Australia.  The tequila wasn’t cheaper than $25 per shot!!  It made me miss the $7 margs from the Rio…
Jack is from Chicago and is sponsed by Intercall on the 457 Visa
[He came over with Tim (aka “Party Time”) who is also from Chicago]…
Jack, Rob, and Frankie (a true Aussie – works at Intercall with Rob and Jack).
Lynne is on the far left along with Gray and Polly.  Gray and Polly are also from the UK.  They’re leaving to go back home in Nov.  They offered for us to take over their lease – along with all the furniture they purchased.  We still haven’t decided yet.

Great Wonders of the World

Posted on by robandlinds
Port Douglas is about an hour north of Cairns in northern Queensland. We stayed 5 nights at the end of June and into July. Port Douglas is one of the closest towns to the Great Barrier Reef and is right next to the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest rainforest in the world.
We were there for my 28th birthday
View of 4 mile beach
Pool shark
The start of our Daintree Rainforest guided tour
Took a boat up the Daintree River and saw a few cocs and snakes
Interesting roots on this tree. Our guide told us that Aborigines used these roots to make boomerangs.
Place where we stopped for lunch in the middle of the rainforest
I cant remember what these roots were called, snorkel roots maybe? Pretty cool.
One of the bars in Port Douglas had Cane Toad races every Saturday night. 4 lucky members of the crowd get assigned a toad. They then get a kazoo to encourage their toad to jump. First toad to make it to the other end is the winner. Not sure if I’ll ever witness something like that again.
On the 4th day we did our Reef tour. A boat took us out to the outer reef from about 8:00 am to 5 pm. We went to three different sites to snorkel. We saw several sea turtles, tons of fish, and one shark.