The next day we started with the Fetherdale Wildlife Park. Basically, it's a small privately owned zoo that allows you to pet some of the animals- or at the very least be very close to them. It was one of my favorite parts of Australia. There were wallabies and kangaroos all over the place that you could feed and touch. There were koalas also everywhere, though you could not indiscriminately touch them.
They had the funniest sleeping positions.
A Tasmanian Devil. He is blurry because all he did was run in a circle around this tree. It was actually pretty pathetic and sad. Whitney commented animals will just run around in paths when they are bored/unhappy. :( Not so much like the crazy twister "Taz" we all know. Needless to say PITA people would not have like Featherdale, with the free range animals and the somewhat small cages, but it really was still awesome and this was the only animal I felt bad for.
A red kangaroo (they are bigger- isn't its tail ginormous!).There was no petting of the big kangas.
This guy was adorable as well, I don't remember its name. Cute pokiness.
White Dingo. They we really pretty and very much looked like dogs, but you could tell they could take you out.
Albino kangaroo. Apparently, they don't survive in the wild because they don't blend in. I don't know why, but that makes me giggle. 
Emus! I was eating an apple, and they tried to poke my hand off. I stayed clear of them after that. Random boy and his dad in picture- the boy informed me that the emus "loved his dad."
After we left Featherdale, we headed back into Sydney. This is in the Queen Victoria Building, which is really nice (posh if you will) mall. This Christmas was gorgeous.
We went to the Sydney Aquarium, which is supposed to be one of the best in the world. I thought it was pretty good, reminded me of an aquarium. It was still very neat.
You could see straight into his head- I'm hoping his brain is just farther back.
Neat pic of jelly fish.
Shots in the aquarium.
We ate at this wonderful Malaysian? place. It took forever to take our orders but they literally got our food out in less than five minutes. I'm still not sure if I want to think about how they did that. The food was fantastic though. Next random thought- there were a lot of different ethnicities (especially Asian and Indian) in Australia- perhaps more than the United States. 
I had to get this picture. Rather than exit signs they have "Way Out" signs. Every so often there were "No Way Out" signs. How discouraging.
When we first saw these bats, we thought it was so cool, then we realized they are all over the gardens. Still cool though. Yes, those are not pods, those are bats. Flying foxes I believe. They were loud- they sounded like screaching birds. Did they generate a lot of poop? Yes, they did. Did I step in it? Yes, I did. (Though not on this first vist, when we went back later I got whole helpings of bat feces on my sandals.)
There were neat neat trees all over. They had huge trunks that were bulging and hanging all over the place. Aaron really liked the trees. He doesn't like this picture, but I do. :) 
There was an area near a cool pond that had all sorts of colorful, exotic birds (like parrots and whatnot). Very cool. 
Opera House from the other side. A nice random lady took this for us. It was just Aaron and I on the first day, the rest of my family got there the next day. 
We stopped the bus tour at Darling Harbor (which is right next to Sydney Harbor). Darling Harbor is really neat- very clean with lots of shops and restaurants and museums. We weren't able to see all the shops and museums, but just all the stuff out on the sidewalks were really neat. Case in point: this fantastic Christmas tree (Sidney didn't take their Christmas stuff down till right before New Years). Notice the silver kangaroos!!!
Isn't this an awesome fountain? They had water fountains in random places (not all like this fantastic one, but still really neat) that you were supposed to play in. It felt like Disney World.
That night we went to the Opera House to see the Australian Symphony. It was AMAZING! Just being in the Opera House was cool (though it was actually hot as a fart when we finally sat down, probably because of all the body heat). The performance was really neat- they played just instrumental pieces and also had opera-style type singers that actually weren't that bad. They brought in this solo violinist who was amazing! The acoustics were really good (though I don't have too much to compare too). The view during intermission is awesome because you look out onto the harbor. 
This is mainly what he wanted to do with his presents.
Me with my stocking (Aaron was taking pictures).
We helped him open his gifts. He wasn't as excited about tearing the paper as I thought he would be, maybe his was too excited about eating it.
Daniel with the wonderful blanket Julie made him. She is all things crafty.
Well, forgive me for a once again long long post. Christmas truly was fantastic. After we opened gifts, Aaron's parents dropped us off at the airport. I only had a few tears in my eyes when I left Daniel, and when I heard a crying baby on the airplane, I was glad he was not with us. I missed him a lot while we were in Australia and did cry when I held him when we got back. I am so blessed to have him and Aaron (without Aaron I would not be able to handle Daniel I think). 2009 has been a good year!