Swimming With Sharks (well, A shark)

Our next two days were really exciting! We snorkled The Great Barrier Reef and explored The Daintree Rainforest. The Reef was incredible. We went out on a boat to this huge platform that had semi-submersibles, an under water tunnel, restrooms, bar, buffet. You name it they had it. It was pretty incredible. It made it a great way to get out there with the kid's!

Dad was SO awesome and let Aiden and I go out and snorkel with a couple of marine biologists (they offered it through the company we used) while he stayed back and took care of Hudson and Elaina. Here we are getting ready for our adventure. We are wearing "stinger suits". We were in Australia during "stinger" season. Stinger is Aussie speak for jelly fish. They have box jelly fish that can kill you if they sting you. SCAREY!

Hudson took extra precaution, too! He makes that stinger suit look so cute, huh?!

Aiden out snorkeling.

Here is a shot of the Great Barrier Reef. It was really beautiful. I wish my under water camera could pick up the colors we saw. They were incredible!

Here is the shark we "swam" with. He was sleeping and about as tall as Aiden. It was a black tip reef shark and they pose absolutely no threat to humans. Aiden and I thought it was pretty cool. He told his teacher and friends when we got home that he swam with a shark!

Aiden and I with a giant spikey sea cucumber. It was pretty heavy.

Just trying to get a shot to show the color.

Hudson and me swimming at The Great Barrier Reef-he can't say he didn't do it!

Aiden, Dad and Laina out snorkeling...Elaina had a blast!

The fam out on the Reef.

The fam on the platform.

You could mail a post card from the Reef, so this is Elaina putting the post card to MeMe and PopP in the mail! (sorry Grampa and Gramma-we don't have your address memorized or you would have gotten one, too.)

On our way back to Cairns. That is Green Island in the background.

We did the Great Barrier Reef on Halloween. Here they are. Hudson's first Halloween. No costume this year, but really cute MeMe shirts.

The next day we took the Kuranda Scenic Railway up to the Daintree Rainforest. It was absolutely beautiful up there.

Our little puppy dog hanging his head out the window.

This turn was so sharp we could see the front of our train.

Another puppy dog!

For some reason I can't get these 2 pics to seperate. Oh well. Technology. The first one is the fam on the train. This second one is Hudson showing off his new trick (now it's old), standing up and feeding himself at the same time.

Us with our train car.

We stopped off to check out that waterfall. It was really pretty.

Hiking in the rainforest.

It was definitely a jungle out there.

The boy's found a little stream.
The fam in the rainforest.

We thought this palm tree over this river (bayou;) was really neat.

This is the root system on 1 tree. They were all like that. Really beautiful!

We took the Skyway down. It was a fun way to come down. Hudson thought it was super fun to look out over the Rainforest.

A view of the Rainforest. SO beautiful! What a fun couple of days.