Albany

We just enjoyed a long weekend exploring a new part of Western Australia that we hadn't yet seen. We'd heard a lot about the Albany area and couldn't wait to see it for ourselves. It definitely didn't disappoint!

It took about 4 1/2 hours to drive from Perth so we checked into our cottage, dumped our stuff, and started seeing the sights. Our first stop was West Cape Howe National Park since it was at the end of the road.

Simply stunning!

Not for the faint-hearted - a hang gliding ramp leading right off the cliff. We saw a guy setting out his gear for a jump and would have loved to watch but didn't want to wait 30 minutes for him to get ready to risk his life.

The views were really spectacular.


All the coastline we've seen along the southern edge of Australia is brilliant blue water against white sand and only a handful of people. It's hard to compare to anywhere else on earth.

Our next stop was Torndirrup National Park to check out the natural bridge. It was massive and had big waves crashing underneath.

Hard to give it perspective, but the boulders on top were bigger than a person so the entire bridge must be tons and tons of solid rock.

More beautiful coastline and not-so-beautiful smiles. Will we ever pass the age of painful picture faces?

Massive waves crashing over the rocks. The water is such a beautiful blue that even the waves have a lovely tinge to them.

We also saw a huge natural gap and watching the waves come crashing in with a boom that echoed along the walls.


Ben enjoyed the tiny flowers growing in the rocks.

We finally made our way into Albany (pronounced AL-bany here, something I have trouble saying) for a nice dinner, then stopped at Mutton Bird beach on our way home so Matt could scope out his morning's surf spot. We saw these cool tufted doves in the trees when we pulled into the carpark.

As it turned out, we stopped at a perfect time to catch the sunset and the last light on a beautiful, nearly deserted beach.

We drove down to the beach to get a little sandy and soak in the last warm rays of sun. Even in the middle of summer the nights were still chilly down south.

What could make this little guy happier than a big rock and lots of sand?




It's hard to make me much happier than moments like this!

Back up at the road the view was amazing. The people down there were enjoying the most scenic game of cricket I've ever seen.

I don't think I'd ever get tired of exploring Western Australia. The vast amount of coastline and natural wonders compared to the sparse population make it feel like we're the first people to discover some of the amazing scenery. This southwest corner made it in Lonely Planet's 2010 top 10 regions to visit and it's easy to see why when we're taking pictures left and right, stopping at wineries, cheese factories, toffee shops, and art studios, and generally loving every minute. We'll share more pictures tomorrow of the rest of our adventures.

Sore Loser

It appears that one of the little people in this house is already highly competitive. I don't want to name names, but you may be able to figure it out after watching him get defeated playing Wii swordfighting. This happened every time he lost!


On the other end of the spectrum, the boys were playing so nicely this morning that I had to document it on video. Our closet has three sliding doors on each side, which annoys me to no end because it's impossible to have all three open at the same time. Very hard to keep organized. But luckily for Ben and Alex, it's endless fun. Today one side of the closet was a bus and the other side was an airplane. As you can hear from the video, Ben is buckling Alex into his seat and then returns to the front seat because "he's the bus captain and drives it". The best part (which of course I never could get on video) was that each time Ben put Alex in his seat, he'd say "I love you" and Alex would reply "I love you, too!". Totally precious.

Please excuse the nudity. It's getting harder to censor everything with two guys who like to buck their clothes. Hopefully Alex will forgive me one day! This was too sweet not to share. And lucky for me, his naked bottom was on Matt's shoes and not mine..ha!

Buckets of Fun

Wow, I guess we didn't do much of interest this week because the only pictures I have are of the boys playing outside with the faucet. On an interesting side note, Ben now calls it the tap. I've never used that term in my life so I know it's something he picked up at school. He's slowly working more and more aussie words into his vocabulary but his accent remains unchanged. Whatever you call it, all I have to do is turn on the water, strip the boys down, and let them loose for lots of fun outside. One day their friend Malcolm was over and he quickly got initiated into the fun of water play.

When they have company I try to have them wear swimsuits or undies, but when it's just us they happily play in the buff.

These guys crack me up!! I did censor this picture for those innocent eyes out there...

All mopped and clean :)

It was only a matter of time before this happened.

Silly guys!

I've also come to the realization this week that each of the boys picked up some of my worst habits as a kid. Ben has selective blindness when he's looking for something right in front of him. It's a problem I had for years (and still suffer from occasionally) and I'm sure drove my mom crazy because I couldn't ever locate any of the things she sent me to find, especially in the pantry. Alex inherited my superior stubbornness at dinnertime and will do anything to avoid eating it. I caught him chewing the same bite for almost half an hour the other night and I nearly lost it because that was one of my patented tricks, along with scattering my food, hiding it, and generally doing anything to get up from the table. He's quickly catching on to all of these. I'm in so much trouble!

Port Beach

If you've had enough of our beach pictures, just stop reading now! We've had awesome beach weather lately and can't get enough of it. A perfect day here is hot, dry, and breezy so the cold ocean feels fantastic. (Clouds, wind, and cooler temperatures get our skinny Ben cold too fast to make the outing worth our while) I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon than with my three favorite guys relaxing on the beach. This is Port Beach, a couple kilometers from our house, and a beach we visit regularly for its gentle waves and great cafe where sandy children are welcomed.

We learned recently that hot wheels cars are tons of fun on the beach and these guys will race them around everywhere. We also learned that hot wheels cars released in the waves are not easy (or sometimes impossible) to find.

The boys got some boogie boards and had a lot of fun with them in the small waves, but I think what they liked most was pulling them around by the leashes. Whatever works, right? It's still hard to beat the classic bucket full of sand and water, though.

Cheese!

Little Aggies

Due to the 14-hour time difference between Houston and Perth, prime time football happens in the morning. We're watching Aggies play in the Cotton Bowl right now and rooting for our favorite team! And thank goodness for streaming TV on the internet!!

Gig 'em!

Other cute pictures from the week - Alex couldn't carry all his friends upstairs after naptime so a bag came in handy.

A little young for a mustache but it's not a bad look...ha!

We got an awesome package from my college roommate with goodies from Buc-ee's and Alex couldn't wait to try on the shirt. Not sure where the gun came from but it makes him one good-looking Texan.

And my favorite, which has a story to go along with it. Wondering why Ben has mouthwash next to the cookie dough?
He has been really interested in helping me cook this week so I've been trying to find some easy things for him to make. We chose some corn flake cookies and he did most of the work himself, but when it came to spooning the dough on the baking sheets Ben kept licking the spoon after each cookie. After we'd gone through the fourth clean spoon, I tried to explain about germs and how we don't like to share the ones in our mouth with the friends who will be eating the cookies. He thought about what I said for a while, then went downstairs and got his Listerine and said that would take care of all his germs. He rinsed out and then proceeded to keep licking his spoon. I finally gave up and just him a new spoon for every cookie he spooned onto the sheets but I was impressed with his problem solving! Doesn't hurt that he's a huge fan of mouthwash.

Back to the game...Gig 'em Aggies!!

Welcoming 2011

We didn't exactly have a big new year's eve celebration around here...more like a game of cards and in bed by 10:30! We did manage to DVR the Sydney fireworks and watched them new year's morning but that was the extent of our party. We did usher in 2011 by enjoying one last dinner with Amanda's company out on the porch. The boys wolfed down their food to get to earn their gingerbread men desserts...maybe we should use that incentive every night!

I love Alex's red lips in this one!

Had to get a picture of each of the kids with Aunt Amanda.

No flash in this one but it was such a good picture of both of them I had to include it.

A nice family picture of our foursome

And a great picture of the grown-ups (and one camera hog) taken by Ben.

Shortly after dinner Amanda had to head to the airport and has probably only been home a few hours by now. It's a LONG trip. Thanks for coming, Amanda, because we all enjoyed every minute! It was a wonderful stay-cation for us as well and such a joy to have some family here for the holidays.

Lancelin and Rotto

Amanda couldn't come to Perth without a trip to our favorite beach at Lancelin.

We made the 2-hour drive up the coast and across the sand to the best place where we got all the sun and waves to ourselves for miles. It was a perfect day for sandcastles.

I should have taken more pictures, as usual, but loved this one of Alex's cheesy grin.

We buried Ben into a shorter version of himself.

The finished product with custom designs from each of us.
And naturally, once it was done the little destructor came in to do the demolishing. By then the wind and sun were getting to us so it was time to head home anyway.

On the way back we drove through the sand dunes a little and had some fun.

The most fun was watching these crazy cars trying to drive to the top of the sandboarding hill. We were trying to guess if it was just for the sake of accomplishment or to save the trouble of climbing it on foot, and our question was finally answered when a jeep made it up and the entire family piled out with their boards. Guess they didn't want to walk!

The next day we took the ferry to Rottnest Island, just Rotto to the locals, and finally discovered why people here like it so much. The beaches were gorgeous and the snorkeling, especially here at Salmon Bay, was outstanding. I've never seen such clear water.

Hard to see in this picture, but there are five osprey families on the island and we got to watch a pair in flight.

Our next wildlife encounter was at Parakeet bay in the rocks near where we were sitting. A very poisonous dugite snake slithered about six feet away from us through the rocks and disappeared. Needless to say, we quickly relocated a safe distance away! Most of the highly venomous snakes in the world are in Australia and I'm glad it's taken so long to spot one firsthand. His tail is just hanging out behind the brush in this picture.

But before all that excitement, Ben got his first snorkeling lesson with his new gear. I wish I could say it was successful but between getting his hair pulled in the mask and the freezing cold water, it didn't go over well.

Alex didn't seem to mind the cold water at all and was in and out at his leisure.

This bay was protected from the wind and waves and was a perfect place to play and relax.

Our last wildlife encounter was with the quokkas, little marsupials that look like a cross between a mouse and kangaroo.

These little guys are only found on a handful of islands in Western Australia and it was fun to get to see them in person.

After a great day at the beach, we had a late lunch by the harbor then all got a nice nap on the ferry ride home.

To end our wonderful day, we got ice cream on Cottesloe beach and watched this amazing sunset. What a way to end 2010!