Australia - friends and family and adventures

Here we go with another bombardment of photos, in no particular order:

1. At home on the farm

Rearranging Grandmama's kitchen drawers

 2. A visit to Geelong and the Surf Coast to see some Turners.

Playing with cousin Kayla

Auntie Jeni with Rachel (L) and Rebecca (R). 

The proud grandma's!

Chatting with Nana Turner

Paloma's first experience of the beach - woo hoo!

Pondering the ocean blue

Uncle Simon and Baby Rachel, enjoying the beach at Torquay

The beautiful coast

More sandy adventures

Exploring rock pools (can you find Paloma?)

Off on an adventure!

More pondering the ocean blue

 3. A day out in the Grampians

On the Dunkeld-Halls Gap Road. It was just re-opened after the landslide (in the
front left corner) earlier this year. 

View from the mountains (can you see Wickliffe from here?)

The road was hazardous, so we decided to walk

The local guides carried our lunches

Washed out creek

Big cobble! Washed down in the floods (?)

Giggles...

 4. Back on the farm, the Aitkens came to visit

Family portrait

Is it possible to get everyone to look at the camera at once? 

Apparently not. 

More time on the beach (this time, it's the Hopkins River)

Showing Rachel how it's done

 

I love that little hand on Paloma's knee...

 5. Visiting the Severinos in Melbourne!

Paloma and Holly holding hands

Paloma still talks about Holly and tells me that, "Holly is my friend."

Enjoying the Melbourne street art

Dean enjoying the graffiti (apparently, he was googling to find out where to find
the best graffiti alleys)

An artist admiring art

Story time in the morning (And the Bear Snores On...)

 6. A trip to Wagga to see Deana and Rachael and their tribes

Picnic time!

Silly Sharni!

Everyone loves chocolate cake!

7. All of that traveling gets tiring...

We loved seeing all of you in Australia! See you again soon!

Australia - on the farm

OK. We know. We have been back in Albuquerque for three weeks and you haven't seen anything of anything from our trip to Australia. 

We have been attempting to compile witty little blogs and saving them up to write at just-the-right-time, but that still hasn't happened so I decided to do something else. 

I'm going to bombard you with photos instead. 

Two of my favourite people in one of my favourite places. 

"Huh?"

Oh. 

'Mum's cousin Morgan' shearing his first sheep. 

Uncle John re-living his rousabout days. 

Howard having a go at shearing a sheep. 

Paloma admiring the shorn sheep. 

Canola was blooming!

The river was flowing!

The river was flowing! (And looking wonderful after the big floods earlier this year.) 

The river was flowing! (And everything is so green!)

Canola was blooming!

Paloma and Howard having a serious discussion about a beetle on the track. 

Hiding in the canola. 

Lambs! How did that spotty one get in there?

Making friends. 

Hello, friend. 

It's a pleasure to meet you. 

New gumboots. 

Considering a puddle. 

Considering three puddles. 

Splish, splash. 

Looking for little creatures...

Stop to admire the view.

Onward, ho!

The river is still flowing! (And looking fabulous.) 

"Are you there, RB mobile?"

While we were in Australia, we spent most of our time at home on the farm. Paloma loved a lot of things about the farm (which we will tell you about soon!) but one of her favourite things was talking to Grandmama on the two-way radio.

When we call someone on the radio, we call "RB Base" (at home) or "RB Mobile" (in the ute/tractor/truck) - RB is an abbreviation for River Bend, the name of the farm.

A couple of days after we got back to Albuquerque, Paloma was still thinking about calling people on the radio.

We're home again...

... Actually, we have been home in Albuquerque since last Thursday. The flight was long and none of us got much sleep. Jetlag has been challenging, and the heat in the first couple of days was a real shock to the system. Fortunately, we're almost back to normal.

Paloma spent some time getting to know all of her toys again. (All at once.)

"Cooooollllll!!!!"

Now that we have finished unpacking our suitcases, we have started organising photos and compiling posts for the blog. We will be back with stories of our Australian adventures soon.

cheap entertainment

"Mama Mama Mama Look Look Look!"

What is it, Paloma?

 {{{{SQUEEEEAL!!!}}}}

What is it, Paloma?

 "Mama look, Mama look, Mama!"

Paloma - it's a roly poly!

"A roly poly! It's a roly poly! SQUEEAL!"

Singing in the rain!

It has been so very hot, and we have been looking forward to the monsoon for quite some time.

It finally rained!

gob-smacked

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

So happy!

"Papa, Papa, it's RAINING!"

We all ran outside to see the spectacle (about 2mm in our rain gauge).

hot in the city

It has been hot and dry in Albuquerque.

So we decided to set up a swimming pool in the back yard.

Look! I caught a fish!

 Paloma loves it.

splish splash

 Everybody is enjoying the resort-style living in our own home.

Note the champagne to celebrate a proposal we had just submitted (!).