A little bit late, I know, but I hope all our friends and loved ones had much to celebrate and give thanks for this past week. I've been so thankful for my beautiful, healthy family, a lovely place to live and the opportunity to see the Indian ocean from my living room all day, the perfect weather we've had for the past week, the fact that we'll be leaving in 9 short days to head back to Houston and see the rest of our families for Christmas, and that I'll get to see my sister pregnant for the first time! Just to name a few...I could go on a lot longer. God's blessings are so abundant.
Thanksgiving day was just another day here because we didn't make any dinner plans with anyone since our sitter didn't work out. That turned out to be a good thing because Matt ended up working until midnight so luckily we didn't have to cancel anything. Instead, we met up with the Perth Aggie Club (yes...Aggies are all over the world!) and had a wonderful afternoon yesterday with turkey and all the home-cooked fixins. Dressing, sweet potatoes, pecan pie...it really felt like Thanksgiving! It was a great afternoon with fellow Aggies and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I forgot to take any pictures but the kids had an absolute blast. Ben is definitely my child because he ate just a little dinner then had about 4 desserts. Wonder where he could have learned that? Alex was too busy exploring the house, stairs, koi pond, flowerbeds, and dogs to sit down and eat much but was a pretty big fan of the turkey and desserts as well. There were about a dozen other kids there but mostly older, so Matt and I were watching the parents that got to sit down and eat their entire meals uninterrupted while their kids played upstairs. One day we'll enjoy such luxuries!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Margaret River Weekend
We decided to make it a long weekend and head south to Margaret River (about 3 1/2 hours south) so Matt took Friday off and we packed up the car and hit the road. Our first stop was Busselton for lunch and to let the boys run around a bit. Unfortunately we had a pretty good cold snap so the weather wasn't the best but it didn't keep us from enjoying anything.
Alex managed to stay very busy while we waited for our food.
Margaret River is on a cape at the southwest tip of Australia and the landscape is beautiful. The coast is rocky and the bush is colorful and full of blooming flowers and birds.
And one of the main attractions is the fabulous wines produced in the area! We stopped and tasted a few for as long as the boys would stay entertained. This was outside Sandalford winery, by far our favorite find here.
We finally checked into our little cottage and let the boys explore everything.
It was a great 2-bedroom chalet just outside the town.
It had its own playground out back.
And the best part was that the kids could help feed the farm animals at the main house. The owners' daughter introduced us to all of their animals. They had two orphaned kangaroos that had been raised as pets, along with chickens, guinea pigs, a rabbit, cows, and ponies.
This little girl was so cute! She is still young and needs help holding her food.
Alex loved the chickens. What is it with him and chasing birds? You can hear him saying "bock bock" while he's trying to catch them.
After a nice dinner, we tucked the kids into their room and listened to them play for the next hour and a half. Ben kept getting in Alex's crib so no wonder they didn't go to sleep. I finally went in to tell them to go to bed and Ben was leaning against the wall with a paci in his mouth reading a book. I wish I'd taken a picture! Once I finally stopped laughing, we got them to sleep and got to relax and enjoy some of our wine.
Unfortunately, traveling farther south (where the sun comes up even earlier, if that's possible) and leaving the comforts of our own beds meant the boys woke up even earlier than usual so we started the day Saturday at about 4:45am.
This was about 30 seconds after breakfast.
We drove around and explored the area some more. I thought this carnation plant was pretty cool because I'd never actually seen carnations growing anywhere before.
We spotted more black cockatoos.
The first group of wild kangaroos we encountered. I think it's like spotting deer here but I still get pretty excited.
The area is dotted with limestone caves and we stopped in to visit Mammoth cave. I was a little unsure how it would work with the kids so we picked one with a self-guided headphone tour and well-protected walkways.
The cave had some beautiful formations.
And I shouldn't have doubted that the kids would enjoy it. Ben loved running in the semi-darkness and Alex thought all the walkways and stairs were just a huge playground.
He also thought the flash on the camera was hilarious and started counting "one two three" to have his picture taken.
The exit was a different story...it was a LOT of stairs to get out, then a trail down the hill back to the visitors center. Mama and Daddy had some tired legs afterward!
The trees around the caves were enormous.
The vegetation was so beautiful! Everywhere I looked it seemed like some kind of flower was growing wild.
We stopped at the next cave to let the kids explore in the discovery center and they loved this play cavern.
We took one look at the entrance to this cave and turned right around. It looked like hundreds of stairs going straight down.
Instead we wandered down a few more beaches...
...and stopped to do some more tastings, this time cheese, ice cream, chocolate, and olive oil. Alex was kind enough to pick up all the used spoons on the floor and put them in the trash can.
One of the pretty vineyards.
This is a kookaburra, an Australian cousin of the kingfisher. They are said to "laugh" but they sound more like very loud monkeys to me and kindly start their calls at sunrise, which is around 5am. No wonder we're all up so early!
These wineries are so beautiful!
Daddy and Alex stopped to smell the flowers.
We had dinner in town again and Alex did surprisingly well sitting in a big chair. Well, once the food came anyway. Nothing gets his attention like anything edible.
Sunrise on day 2. I thought the dewy spiderweb was particularly pretty.
While Matt went out to surf, the boys and I fed the animals again and played around on the little farm.
The swell came in on Saturday night and there were some huge waves on Sunday morning! This isn't what Matt surfed but was still fun to watch.
After a nice brunch, we meandered our way back toward Perth but stopped outside Dunsborough to check out the whale-watching point. Sure enough, we were lucky enough to watch several humpback whales leaving Geographe Bay and heading back towards their Antarctic feeding grounds. They were still a pretty good ways out but through the binoculars we got a nice look at the giants. Click on the picture for a bigger version and you can see two breaking the water. I really hope to do a whale-watching cruise and see them up close!
Once again, Matt and I got a pretty good workout after hauling the two kids on the 30-minute roundtrip hike. It was totally worth it to see whales for the first time!
These were two great videos of the boys playing basketball. I'm pretty sure Alex will be a natural athlete.
And Ben is finally learning how to throw a ball!
Alex managed to stay very busy while we waited for our food.
Margaret River is on a cape at the southwest tip of Australia and the landscape is beautiful. The coast is rocky and the bush is colorful and full of blooming flowers and birds.
And one of the main attractions is the fabulous wines produced in the area! We stopped and tasted a few for as long as the boys would stay entertained. This was outside Sandalford winery, by far our favorite find here.
We finally checked into our little cottage and let the boys explore everything.
It was a great 2-bedroom chalet just outside the town.
It had its own playground out back.
And the best part was that the kids could help feed the farm animals at the main house. The owners' daughter introduced us to all of their animals. They had two orphaned kangaroos that had been raised as pets, along with chickens, guinea pigs, a rabbit, cows, and ponies.
This little girl was so cute! She is still young and needs help holding her food.
Alex loved the chickens. What is it with him and chasing birds? You can hear him saying "bock bock" while he's trying to catch them.
After a nice dinner, we tucked the kids into their room and listened to them play for the next hour and a half. Ben kept getting in Alex's crib so no wonder they didn't go to sleep. I finally went in to tell them to go to bed and Ben was leaning against the wall with a paci in his mouth reading a book. I wish I'd taken a picture! Once I finally stopped laughing, we got them to sleep and got to relax and enjoy some of our wine.
Unfortunately, traveling farther south (where the sun comes up even earlier, if that's possible) and leaving the comforts of our own beds meant the boys woke up even earlier than usual so we started the day Saturday at about 4:45am.
This was about 30 seconds after breakfast.
We drove around and explored the area some more. I thought this carnation plant was pretty cool because I'd never actually seen carnations growing anywhere before.
We spotted more black cockatoos.
The first group of wild kangaroos we encountered. I think it's like spotting deer here but I still get pretty excited.
The area is dotted with limestone caves and we stopped in to visit Mammoth cave. I was a little unsure how it would work with the kids so we picked one with a self-guided headphone tour and well-protected walkways.
The cave had some beautiful formations.
And I shouldn't have doubted that the kids would enjoy it. Ben loved running in the semi-darkness and Alex thought all the walkways and stairs were just a huge playground.
He also thought the flash on the camera was hilarious and started counting "one two three" to have his picture taken.
The exit was a different story...it was a LOT of stairs to get out, then a trail down the hill back to the visitors center. Mama and Daddy had some tired legs afterward!
The trees around the caves were enormous.
The vegetation was so beautiful! Everywhere I looked it seemed like some kind of flower was growing wild.
We stopped at the next cave to let the kids explore in the discovery center and they loved this play cavern.
We took one look at the entrance to this cave and turned right around. It looked like hundreds of stairs going straight down.
Instead we wandered down a few more beaches...
...and stopped to do some more tastings, this time cheese, ice cream, chocolate, and olive oil. Alex was kind enough to pick up all the used spoons on the floor and put them in the trash can.
One of the pretty vineyards.
This is a kookaburra, an Australian cousin of the kingfisher. They are said to "laugh" but they sound more like very loud monkeys to me and kindly start their calls at sunrise, which is around 5am. No wonder we're all up so early!
These wineries are so beautiful!
Daddy and Alex stopped to smell the flowers.
We had dinner in town again and Alex did surprisingly well sitting in a big chair. Well, once the food came anyway. Nothing gets his attention like anything edible.
Sunrise on day 2. I thought the dewy spiderweb was particularly pretty.
While Matt went out to surf, the boys and I fed the animals again and played around on the little farm.
The swell came in on Saturday night and there were some huge waves on Sunday morning! This isn't what Matt surfed but was still fun to watch.
After a nice brunch, we meandered our way back toward Perth but stopped outside Dunsborough to check out the whale-watching point. Sure enough, we were lucky enough to watch several humpback whales leaving Geographe Bay and heading back towards their Antarctic feeding grounds. They were still a pretty good ways out but through the binoculars we got a nice look at the giants. Click on the picture for a bigger version and you can see two breaking the water. I really hope to do a whale-watching cruise and see them up close!
Once again, Matt and I got a pretty good workout after hauling the two kids on the 30-minute roundtrip hike. It was totally worth it to see whales for the first time!
These were two great videos of the boys playing basketball. I'm pretty sure Alex will be a natural athlete.
And Ben is finally learning how to throw a ball!
We had a wonderful weekend. We all loved Margaret River and can't wait to go back. The best part was that Ben didn't wear a diaper, even in the car, and was accident-free the entire weekend. Now, back to real life!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Success!
I don't want to speak too soon, but it appears that we have finally convinced our 3 1/2 year old to use the potty. We've been pretty much homebound for 2 weeks with various ailments (virus for the kids, flu for me, conjunctivitis for both of them) so I figured it was as good a time as any to seriously get Ben out of diapers. The good news is that he caught on really quickly and within two days was going regularly, although we've still had some accidents here and there (thankfully all #1!). So I hope we're finally only buying diapers for one here.
Q: what can two little boys accomplish in the time it takes me to start one load of laundry?
A: a LOT, especially when it has just rained and there is plenty of dirt available
This is how I found my two culprits...
Shovels, muddy water, dirty clothes...
A bumper full of dirt...
And a cooler with fresh mudpies.
Wow, these guys keep me on my toes, especially now that they've figured out how to work together! It's twice the madness.
But after I'd stripped off their dirty clothes (and stopped the washer to add them to my load) I had to get a picture of the cute little bottoms. They are such different people! Ben just gets taller and never gets wider and Alex still has his sweet little baby rolls. Without a diaper I have no idea how Ben is going to keep his pants up!
It was a great week for mail here! We got Christmas gifts from the Dulaneys, Thanksgiving cards from Grammy and Grumpy, and a birth announcement and dryer sheets from the O'Neills (which was a terrific surprise because Emily remembered we can't buy them here!) Thank you everyone for making it fun the check the mailbox!
Tearing into the gifts was fun for everyone!
Ben got out his scissors to cut the ribbon.
All the gifts were so exciting! And greatly appreciated during a week we were dying for new entertainment around the house.
And some other random pictures:
Sweet little Alex sleeping with a spare paci in his hand
Ben using windex to make a "carwash" for his cars
I've been waiting for grapes to come in season because we haven't had any since we left Singapore and we finally saw them at the store last week. Ben spotted them immediately and didn't understand that $30/kilo is really steep, so I caved and bought a small bunch. But I took a picture to remember that I paid $10.25 for this little bunch of grapes. Welcome to Western Australia!
Q: what can two little boys accomplish in the time it takes me to start one load of laundry?
A: a LOT, especially when it has just rained and there is plenty of dirt available
This is how I found my two culprits...
Shovels, muddy water, dirty clothes...
A bumper full of dirt...
And a cooler with fresh mudpies.
Wow, these guys keep me on my toes, especially now that they've figured out how to work together! It's twice the madness.But after I'd stripped off their dirty clothes (and stopped the washer to add them to my load) I had to get a picture of the cute little bottoms. They are such different people! Ben just gets taller and never gets wider and Alex still has his sweet little baby rolls. Without a diaper I have no idea how Ben is going to keep his pants up!
It was a great week for mail here! We got Christmas gifts from the Dulaneys, Thanksgiving cards from Grammy and Grumpy, and a birth announcement and dryer sheets from the O'Neills (which was a terrific surprise because Emily remembered we can't buy them here!) Thank you everyone for making it fun the check the mailbox!
Tearing into the gifts was fun for everyone!
Ben got out his scissors to cut the ribbon.
All the gifts were so exciting! And greatly appreciated during a week we were dying for new entertainment around the house.
And some other random pictures:
Sweet little Alex sleeping with a spare paci in his hand
Ben using windex to make a "carwash" for his cars
I've been waiting for grapes to come in season because we haven't had any since we left Singapore and we finally saw them at the store last week. Ben spotted them immediately and didn't understand that $30/kilo is really steep, so I caved and bought a small bunch. But I took a picture to remember that I paid $10.25 for this little bunch of grapes. Welcome to Western Australia!
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