We Arrived

Hi Everybody.
We made it safely to Australia. It was a long trip. We left on Monday at 7pm from Salt Lake City and arrived Perth at 1pm Thursday morning. We had plane trouble and had to land on the small, French island, of Numea, which caused us to miss our connecting flights in Brisbane. The airline put us up in a hotel for the half day so we could shower, sleep and eat. We traveled with 10 suitcases and 10 carry-ons, 4 kids and myself. I highly DON'T recommend that.
We had been without our belongings since the movers took them in mid May to ship them to Australia, so everything we needed we had in those suitcases and carryons. We managed to have bedding and clothing, computers, cameras , winter and summer clothing and even a scooter to last us the three months until we would be reunited with our belongings.
Good news our shipment arrived this week and we now are no longer sitting on the floor and sleeping on the floor. Elise was quite unsure about sitting at a table after 3 months of eating on the floor, but we have all readjusted and are again civilized.
Apon arrival we had a ton of work to be done. We had to move Todd out of his apartment by noon the day we arrived and move into our new home. That really wasn't too hard as Todd had only two suitcases to his name as well. We scrambled to make the house into a home. We needed appliances and without central heating we found we needed to borrow warmer bedding. We finally got the house in order enough to function and await our furniture.
The next big hurdle was getting the children enrolled in school. The two oldest were set to attend a public high school if they were accepted into the specialist music program offered there, kids are drawn from all over Western Australia to attend this school. The kids had practiced at home and auditioned just a few days after we arrived and they were given spots in the highly competitive music program. We were all pleased. But, after speaking with the deputy principal of the school we did not feel the kids educational needs would be met at the school and we ended up pulling them out of the school and placed them in an International School, International School of Western Australia (ISWA). Here their needs will be met academically, unfortunately its a small school and they do not have a band program. We researched the area and found a community band which travels and performs in areas around Western Australia. The two kids have been accepted to join and are currently members of this band, although much to Mikaela's dislike they are the only youth amoungst adults the average age is probably around 40. It is a band of about 50 members, they have a web site I will include a link so you can see the band.
Carson and Elise are attending public school. Carson's school, like most schools around here is small, only one class/grade. His teacher, Mr. Watt, has been exceptional in working with us. As Carson arrived half way through Australian school year he missed exactly half of 6th grade. The teacher tested Carson to find out about what level he is and put him in a year 7 books and is willing to allow Carson to work out of the American math book if we feel it would be better. Carson scored an almost perfect score on his math test - the only question he missed was: What season is October? - Carson answered Autumn. Of course in Australia the answer is spring. Elise is attending kindergarten which is equivilant to our preschool. She attends two days per week and loves it. She is picking up on the local lingo quite quickly as she asked me the other day, "Mummy (pronounced as spelled), where is the bin, so I can throw away this rubbish?" The schools are very relaxed here, it is wonderful. They do not have a cafeteria, parents volunteer and run a makeshift cafe two times/week. The kids are given lots and lots of outdoor play, at least three times per day they are outside and two of them are just for fun, unstructured play. We really like how the kids are treated like kids and not little adults. We are located on the coast and the kids actually get to swim at the beach as part of their exercise programs.
We are settling in and already beginning to be busy. The kids have a piano and instrument teacher and are active in church. Speaking of which, Mikaela is the only girl in the youth program at church and when they heard we were coming the Bishop, (the leader of our local church), called a lady to be the Young Womens President, and as of last week there is a full presidency - comprised of three adults to attend to Mikaela. Todd has been asked to be Ward Clerk, help with the administration of the church and I have been asked to be the youth Sunday School teacher.
Each week or two we will update the blog and cover a new topic to tell about life in Australia. We have already seen great things and are excited to show you all the things we have seen. The wildlife here is spectacular! The ocean is beautiful, I will include some photos. Outside of being way too far away from family and friends this is a wonderful place!!! We miss you all and hope this finds you well.

Next week - toilets, and driving on the wrong side of the road.

Todd, Pam, Nathan, Mikaela, Carson, and Elise