Australia #2

THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE....

AT RIVER BEND!

After a few days enjoying the big lights of the city (Geelong), we headed home to the farm. And that's where we stayed for the rest of your vacation. 

Grandpa quickly put Howard to work. 

We found a few moments for relaxing on the beach.

The view from the back door. 

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset dinner from the Back 80 with the lovely Mr Spitty Elyjah. 

Howard spent a lot of time training the girls to search for gudgeon. 

The girls enjoyed being in the river together. 

When the river was slippery and bumpy, they helped one another out. 

In between searching for gudgeon, there was time to gather some "pond scum". 

You can never have too much algae. 

Imogen was delighted to be out in nature every day. 

Grandma and Grandpa were delighted to explore nooks of the farm with us. 

That's me and my dad. 

The view from the top! This is River Bend. 

We tried to get a family photo, but Imogen was more interested in stomping down the hill by herself. 

The uncles take the kids for a ride. 

Grandpa always shears a sheep for us. Paloma took a close look at the action with this photo. 

Imogen explored the shearing shed with Juke.

Paloma and Imogen wait for Grandpa to finish shearing the ram. 

Australia #1

The Journeyers, Back to Australia 

Loading up, buckling in,  and reading the safety features of the Airbus A380. It was one of the seemingly quickest and easiest flights we have made so far. Touch down in Melbourne 14 hours later.

The first week we spent with the Atkins. Paloma and Imogen got to hang out with and spend some wonderful times with their sweet cousins, Rachel and Archie "Rocket" (zooming around in the background)

Here we all are at Serendip Sanctuary checking out kangaroos, emus, brushtail possums, tall spike rush, tussock grass, and...

tawny frogmouths!!

We of course went to the Great Southern Ocean. All our beach attempts this trip were punctuated by overcast skies and blustery wind

Blustery winds, white cheeks and great expanses.

It did not stop us from exploring the beaches, running through the sand and...

...some of us played in the water. note: in the previous photo I am rugged up in a winter sweater.

More to follow. We will be heading to River Bend next...

Boo!

The beasts of all hallows eve....

Born from the bones of a rotting bird corpse, and from the ashes of a fallen unicorn, the spirits rise for Halloween....

Bwa ha ha haaaaaaa.....

The Bird Skeleton hits the trick or treat trail.

The Ghost Unicorn needed a little help navigating the trick or treat trail. 

Thanks for the pumpkin, Auntie Cathy!

Spirit week

Every year, our preschool celebrates "Spirit Week" by encouraging the kids to dress up every day. Some days, they are asked to wear a certain colour, or wear pyjamas to school (always a hit!). Other days, the dressing up is more elaborate.

One day, we dressed as our favourite cartoon characters:

Popeye:

Butterfly: 

CRAZY HAIR DAY!!!

Having crazy hair is serious business....

"The Day After Tomorrow"

Snow daze

It finally snowed in Albuquerque!

It snowed in our front yard!

 And in our backyard!

Some of us were more content to stay inside (mainly because she doesn't like hats and jackets).

Our new xylophone survived the snow.

Semilla had a great time bouncing around in the snow.

So did another little girl...

 Meanwhile, inside, towers were being constructed...

Howard is very proud of this one. 

Dragoons

This year for Thanksgiving, we made grand plans to go to Big Bend, TX. I don't know where the idea came from, and why we decided that this year was the year to do it, but we did. We spent weeks planning the trip - menus, camping gear, best locations for camping, dog-friendly hotels on the way... The night before we left, I packed the food and Howard packed up the truck. By 10pm, we were loaded and ready to go!

We thought we should check and see if we needed to take wag bags for primitive camping, so Howard jumped online and looked up information about the National Park. There was no mention of wag bags, but there was something about keeping dogs on leash... and off trails... and out of rivers... and not letting them anywhere, really.

This was a glitch.

We couldn't leave Semilla behind, and we couldn't take her with us.

Without missing a beat, we changed our minds and decided instead to go to Cochise Stronghold, AZ. We bought an Arizona road atlas at a gas station along the way, and we were organised.

Semilla was very glad to be with us. 

We stopped along the way for some snacks, and to consider our route...

Here's a little friend we met. Such a big, shiny abdomen! We have been learning all about black widows (same family as red-back spiders) and how spiders are cool, but not good to touch. 

We camped on the west side of the Dragoons. This is the view, a short hike from our camp. 

Looking west over the Arizonan plains.... Is that Tucson in the distance?

The vegetation here was a little bit different to what we are used to seeing. I'm not sure if this is still Chihuahuan Desert this far west?

Ocotillo!

We all had a great time, running around in the desert air (and bike-riding and hiking and climbing rocks). 

The sunset was spectacular!

On the road - a break from our unexpectedly long bike ride. Imogen has a seat behind Ayesha and Paloma has a bike-trailer behind Howard. We can really get going - much faster than ever before!
And Semilla is wonderfully tired by the end of the day - she had to drag herself out of the tent at marshmallow-cooking time....

Lots of interesting things to see... 

Century plant! They were everywhere, and made great sticks for Semilla to chase and Paloma to ... create elaborate imaginations and games about witches (with Imogen in tow). 

What's over there?

The highly toxic native coral bean!

More gorgeous views.... 

Our little home away from home for four lovely nights...

There were some lovely little creeks too - we discovered this one on our circuitous way out (I'm sure we could have found a short-cut, if only we had a map...)

Oh, and by the way: Paloma is awesome.