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!)