Healesville Sanctuary

On Saturday (the 20th), Anne, Ev, Mum, myself and the kids headed to Healesville Sanctuary (one of the three Melbourne zoos), while Gord, John and Bill went four-wheel-driving with Brett, our next door neighbour. (Uncle Bill has videos, you'll have to ask him. Anyway, back to us!) While driving to Pakenham with Auntie Ev a day or two earlier, it became apparent that she didn't know what a wombat was, and I had a bit of trouble trying to describe one (was it like a warthog, she wanted to know? Yeah, kind of the same size, but more cuddly - hmmm, not so helpful!).

So it seemed like surveying a few Aussie animals was in order. I didn't get any photos of the animals, only a few of the Canadians, being by far the rarer species around here! However, Anne and Ev took home some snaps, or at least some memories, of kangaroos, wallabies, dingos, koalas, Tasmanian Devils, possums, sugar gliders, small crocodiles, emus, a platapus, echidna, wedge-tailed eagle, a sleeping, hard-to-see wombat, and many others! And caught some didgeridoo-playing and boomerang-throwing to boot!

Surveying the koalas...

The cutest koala!

Snap time!

Later that evening, we had dinner all together with my parents. (Nice earrings, hey Sharon! Thanks!)

Anne and Piper had made (another!) birthday cake for Piper after we got home from Healesville Sanctuary, so she was able to have a party with all her grandparents together... pretty special - you can see how much she was smiling! (The cake was a mother horse and a baby horse, a baking set I found just recently at IKEA and couldn't pass up, with these carousel horse candles - all a bit horse-mad around here!)

Canadians in Melbourne

Alright, enough of catching up on photos from the last couple of months. Here's what you've all been waiting for: a glimpse of that unusual occurance - a Canadian or two in the Dandenongs!

Last Monday, this is what the kids and I were making...

... "Welcome to Melbourne" signs. Which Jasper rather accurately changed to "Welcome to Busytown"!

Then on Wednesday, Piper and I walked into the Melbourne Airport arrivals area just in time to see Gord's parents emerging from those grey doors, and a little later, Bill and Ev, his uncle and aunt. Gord had lost me in the carpark, after I thought I'd lost him on the freeway - a saga I won't go into now. All's well that ends well, cos Gord and the boys turned up after about five or ten minutes...

We took our guests back to our place for spaghetti bolognese...

Gord was adamant about helping his family reorient themselves as easily as possible. Hence, the following day, being a Thursday and all, we found ourselves at this place (to my bemusement!)...

Leading the youngest of us astray...

Are we in Steinbach or Pakenham??

Catch this, cos it doesn't happen very often!

And for their second dinner in Australia, John and Anne and Bill and Ev invited us back to their place - Gembrook Retreat just down the road. (Check out that new guest garden area, a last-minute effort to get the retreat spaces ready for international guests!)

February: Holiday in Geelong

Gord is determined to take more holidays this year. Hence, we found ourselves in Geelong, a satellite city about an hour out of Melbourne (and more like two from our place, cos it's on the other side of the big smoke). The highlight for the kids was a trip to Adventure Park, which claims to be Victoria's first water theme park. It was fun, but will be better when the kids are older. Piper was barely high enough for a lot of the stuff, and both her and Jas were a bit freaked out by the huge amounts of water pouring periodically over the play structures! Still, lovely weather and good memories...

Piper's favourite part was the lazy river. She was too scared to go on it at first, and then by the end of the day, she was going round by herself!

This was the slide none of us went on!

Jethro and Eloi's birthday party

Our friends Tim and Jacqui have a son, Eloi, who was born on Feb 14th, just a bit before Jethro, so they shared a joint birthday party. Jacqui's friend made this amazing cake:

A few games outside...

Jethro in his element, humping around outside!

The two birthday boys feeding the horse across the road (with Eloi's grandfather)...



Not happy about blowing out the candles!

Lara sums Jethro up...

December: Christmas Day

The presents piled high...

The stockings filled...

Opening Canadian gifts...

Uncle Daniel...

Our gift to the kids - a paddle pool...

Gord with a vintage Jets cap from Sharon, holding a picture of the three kids (all around 9 months)...

More gifts!

My beautiful necklace from Sharon...


The after-math...

Christmas lunch, consumed at 7pm! (What can I say, it was a real laid-back day!)

Apple pie for dessert...

Bedtime (and a new footy!)...

December: Family portrait

I'm finally catching up on a backlog of photos, and pulling together some long-overdue blogs. This photo shoot (thanks to Dad and Auntie Donna) helped us pull together a Christmas picture.