Melbourne!

Ive been quite behind on my blogs but a while ago I went to Melbourne for the weekend!
A weekend is definitely not enough time to see this city! It was amazing. And very different from Sydney!
The city at night was gorgeous!

A friend I met on the airplane on my way over to Australia lives in Melbourne so he was able to take me out to Crowne Casino the first night. It was huge! and a lot of fun!

The next day Paul's brother Christopher came into the city and showed me around. The buildings and just culture in the city was mesmerizing.

There was street art down alleys,

performers on the the street,

so many little cafes down the alleys as well. You def do not go down the alleys in Downtown Phoenix. ha

Then you have what the Australian's call Arcades
This was the Royal Arcade, which is also just beautifully built!

Then you have the up-to-date architecture of the Melbourne CBD or City Center

Also in one of the malls you have the lead and factory tower. It was made in 1890 and used to make over 6 tons of lead shots per week until 1961. The building was saved from demolition in 1973 and was incorporated in the large Melbourne Central complex underneath a 84m high conical glass roof, in 1991. The bullets were made by dropping small lumps of molten lead form the top of the building. By the time they reached the bottom, they had cooled and solidified into shot pellets. Individual shots were then checked for size and roundness and were remelted and dropped if not passed by quality control.
Pretty amazing if I do say so myself

Then we come across my dads favorite part. Albert Park. This is the area that gets transformed into a race track for the Australian Grand Prix. The pictures aren't too great because I was in a car going around the "track" but it was cool to see where the drivers get to drive and take pictures for my dad back home!

Overall had an amazing time in an amazing city! Hope to go back one day to explore more cause one weekend was not enough!!!

Canberra War Memorial

A while ago I got to go to the Canberra War Memorial.

Luckily Paul's aunt Liz was able to take me. She used to be a volunteer tour guide there and without her I do not know what I would have done. It was huge! I went into this knowing nothing about ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps)

It was set up so as you walked through each area you experienced and learned about a different war or battle. Everything in the museum was real from the war. That means the boats, airplanes, submarines, etc...

Aside from the inside museum they had the Roll of Honour. The names of those who have died in battle lined the walls surrounding the memorial courtyard.

Next to the names guests put poppies of those they remember.

The Memorial Courtyard also has the Hall of memory. This is where the tomb of the Unknown Soldier is. It represents the Australians that have died in war.

It was a lot of fun and I learned so much! It even has a kids area called the Discovery Zone. I took the kids and went with Erika (Pauls sister in law) and her 2 kids for Rileys birthday. I wish I brought my camera because it was very impressive. They had 4 different rooms. The first one had a helicopter, a real helicopter from the war, that the kids could go in and pretend to fly. The next room was a submarine ship.

The next room replicated the trenches from the war.

Then they had a making peace war, and life after war room.
The kids had a blast!

Overall the War Memorial was a very fun and educational place!

Making Cookies!!

When Dan, Abbey's brother, came into town they thought it'd be fun to make chocolate chip cookies. When they asked me how I make them I told them I buy the Toll house 'Break and Bake' cookies. Needless to say there was some laughing.
I have never made chocolate chip cookies from scratch on my own before. So I did some research (because I wanted them to be amazing!) and found a recipe for 'Soft chocolate chip cookies'.
Now there were some doubts at first because it does have vanilla pudding mix in the recipe (probably to keep them soft) but we decided to go for it! (o and the recipe made like 6 dozen :) )

Recipe:
Ingredients
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Well I do have to admit the cookie dough looked and tasted normal and delicious!!

The boys seemed to enjoy them :)

And luckily the recipe made 6 dozen because yes I am a jinx in the kitchen and ruined the first batch.
I am still not quite sure how to work the oven (there are like 3 knobs, one with no words or numbers just pictures of random stuff, and a switch) and apparently I turned on the grill not the oven so you can say it ended badly :/

Then the second batch I was banned from and Dan got the cookie tray stuck in the oven for like 30 minutes. So second batch ruined as well.

We called those batches the kids cookies :)
(They did not seem to mind)

Then we finally got the hang of it and made some amazing cookies. Which were still soft days later! (thanks to my recipe I found!)

Overall a success if I do say so myself! :)

Cookies were gone in 3 days

Black Mountain Tower

This past weekend Abbey's brother, Dan, came into town from Melbourne. On Saturday we went to Black Mountain Tower.
It is 195 metres above the summit of Black Mountain (and if you are from Phoenix it is kind of like the compass room. It has a restaurant and 360 view of the city!)

It was gorgeous! Cold and windy but a beautiful view of the whole city! You could see the Parliament House, National Art Museum, and all the major attractions and government buildings.

It was just amazing to see how gorgeous the whole city I am living in now is! And all the tree's! Extremely different then Arizona!

Gorgeous view and city!
I will have to go back up at night to take pictures of the city at night all lit up!!