Christmas at the Kirkham's

While most people are pulling out boxes from their attics with decorations or setting up their Christmas trees, December at the Kirkham household means time to pack up and fly across the world! Literally, we booked Around the World tickets this year on Star Alliance. We had to make three overnight stops and fly in one direction around the globe. No problems there! We decided to take a mini-vacation to New Zealand on our way home, spend 3 weeks in Texas and Alabama, then overnight in Singapore on our way back to Perth. Our entire trip is 22,500 miles and will take us through Auckland, Christchurch, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Mobile, Moscow, and Singapore. That's a lot of flying! And in New Zealand we're renting a motorhome and driving around the south island for 6 days so these kids should be pretty good little travelers by the time we get home in January. Thank goodness for DVD's! Needless to say, we can't wait but I think there may be 4 grandparents on the other end who are getting pretty excited themselves. They have missed these sweet little faces this year!

I've done a ton of online shopping already and I know there is a mountain of stuff waiting for us at my parents' house. First item on the list - more pacis for this little guy. When he carries around three at a time no wonder they disappear!

And he usually gets a little help.

On Saturday Matt and Ben went to pick up lunch from the Flying Taco (a Perth version of Freebirds! Not as good, of course, but good enough) and happened upon a street fair. Wonder what color snow cone Ben chose?

Sunday afternoon we enjoyed a day at the beach. The weather has been beautiful but the wind is still a little cold and we had to leave when everyone started shaking. This was a great little pool made from the high tide rolling in.



Alex takes frequent breaks for snacks. This is his "more" sign, the only one he ever learned except for his "blankie" sign. Between the two of those his major needs are covered. He's talked earlier than I remember Ben talking so maybe he hasn't needed to communicate as much through signing. He also points a lot more than Ben ever did so it helps decipher the cries when he wants something.

This kid can polish off a bunch of grapes in no time.

Cute boys sporting their new Christmas tees. I thought they were memorable because of their Aussie terminology. Ben's says "I love toys, lollies, and Santa" and Alex's says "Happy Christmas". I also love that they can use the word Christmas here and not get sued.

Today I took the boys to check out the Perth Zoo. I knew I'd been spoiled to Singapore's amazing zoo and tried to keep an open mind, but this was a big disappointment. The exhibits are small, the animals are hard to see, and most of the time the bottom half of the windows were blocked to the kids couldn't see anything from the stroller. It was okay but I don't think we'll be going that often. There was nothing for the kids to touch or feed so they got a bit bored. A few of the highlights:
the little penguins

the echidna, an egg-laying mammal

kangaroos, of course

these beautiful plants are called kangaroo paws and I thought the colors on these were particularly pretty. They're usually all red or yellow.

The sun bear came right up to the window and gave the kids a good show.

Alex was talking and trying to touch him.

This is what we saw over and over - a dingy habitat, no animals, and graffiti on the windows. Even in the big animal exhibits, they had one elephant behind an electric fence, one crocodile sleeping far away, two giraffes behind a lot of trees...you get the idea.

This carousel was a hit, though! The kids both loved it and wanted to ride again.



Lunch was good as well. Fish and chips (an Australian staple) always hit the spot.

Ben got his first candy necklace as well, so we ended the day on a good note!