The Sites of Downtown and Snuggling with the Wild Life!!!!

Well, yah we pushed hard for a month of awesome tourists sites and traveling, but it was still a vacation, so some of this happened too!  My kids just couldn't get enough of their grandparents.  So, when Gramps tried to sneak away for a nap, the girls just followed him and had a little Netflicks movie time.  Gramps enjoyed the show through the backs of his eyelids.  Or as Oaks would say, "He just needed to do some really long blinks!"  

 As soon as they were rested...we hit the ground running again.  We visited downtown Brisby and saw City Hall with the clock tower and the Brisbane City solar powered Christmas tree.  During the sunny summer days of December, those solar panels gets plenty of charge!

The city square is really fun.  And has some beautiful architecture.  In a previous post, I showed you all the City Hall building because that's where our stake conference was held.  Here's Oaklee and her friend Eric (the Moon family joined us for the day at city square and Queen's Street)!  Riding off into the sunset together.  Two true Americans!  (These 2 love to play a game they call "Americans" where Oaks plays house and Eric is the Dad that fights in the army for the American wars!  Hilarious!)

 The inside of city hall is gorgeous.  Mom and I snapped a pic in front of the assembly hall.  Isn't my mom beautiful?!

Here's Ev with the lion and don't miss Birdy accidentally photo bombing in the back ground as she leaps off the plant boxes!

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 If you're looking for souvenirs, Queen's Street is the place you want to be!  It's a tourists heaven and a shopper's dream.  Tons of shops, diners, cafes, bakeries and arcades line the walks.  It's a street for pedestrians only.  No traffic in the middle of Queen's and the intersection there.  So much fun!  Lots of stuffed koalas to choose from!

 The spoils at the arcade!!!!

 

One of our favorite places in Brisby is South Bank Parklands.  It's another street full of shops and fun places to eat.  There's the man-made beach, movie theatres (yes we got to see Frozen there with Grams and Gramps) and the Wheel of Brisbane-- our ferris wheel.  The South Bank Parklands are gorgeous with flowering trees and tons of tree plants everywhere.  

 Down the aisles of flowered boweries at South Bank!

  Of course we took them to see the native wild life of Australia!  We loved Lone Pine and showing off our roos and koalas!

Yep they really do just eat right out of your hands.

 Oaklee is always in the mix when there's animals involved.  She is fearless!  And loved teaching Grandma how to feed the roos, just the way they like it.

This picture cracks me up.  Grandma and Grandpa were perfectly posed petting the kangaroo and right when I said "3" another roo hopped over to get some attention and scared the first one away. Ev is still in mid-pet!  Don't worry there are plenty others in line waiting for your pets and snuggles.  

We all got to do something at Lone Pine that was a first.  Even though we've visited many times, we've never actually gotten to hold a koala.  We've petted many of them but we decided to pay the fee and hold ourselves some koala!  They are adorable.  We loved it so much!!!

Koalas are just as cute in person as they are in the books.  Oaklee was surprised at the little claws.  Once you are holding them, they have to kind of cling.  So stinkin cute! Serious bucket list business here!!!  Snuggling with a live koala....check!

We also took a stroll through the Coottha Botanical Gardens.  Gorgeous and so many fun native Aussie flowers and plants.

Weird Aussie flowers.  They look like birds!  Or alien space ships?

 Girls love the pix and Park can't believe I'm still taking them!!!  Cheese Parker!

 After the Gardens we drove up to the peak and watched the sunset.  We ate dinner at the cafe at the top of Mt. Coottha and saw the awesome view of Brisbane at night.

Oooo I love these 2!  

We had so much fun at the gardens and at dinner.  We just kept crossing things off the their Brisbane List of Things to Do.  Everyday was full of adventure!