Aussie Niesen: July 2007

Australia Day

We also missed posting about Australia day 2007. Australia is still part of the English Commonwealth but they celebrate January 26th as a day they became a country. They are not really independant as the Queen is still head of state. We have fireworks at night and the day off. This year we celebrated the day (it was close to 100 F/35C) at the beach. We then drove back to Melbourne to watch the fireworks at night. We are missing these days not that it is winter and cold.

Rachel with her friend Maddie buried and made in to a Mermaid

Ben wishing cousin Andrew and uncle Phil were here to go boogie bording with.

Winter Wonderland

While most of our friends and family are roasting in the summer sun we are at the start of the Southern Hemisphere winter (June-August). About 90 miles from our home in Balwyn is a low range of mountains called the Dandenong range. Further inland and east the mountains grow in to the Snowy Mountain Chain. We took Rachel up to Lake Mountain one Saturday during the kids winter break. Ben stayed home to battle the Horde in World of Warcraft and he missed out on some awesome snow.

We had to park 2 kilometers from the top due to the number of people. They had a bus that it take you up but he decided to take the hiking path through the woods. We were the first ones on the path for the day and it was spectacular.

Once at the top we rented a sled for Rachel and she showed everyone how it is done.

If you are interested in a few movies with Australian themes and scenery here are a couple of good ones:

1. The Man from Snowy River - Set in the Snowy Mountains
2. Opal Dreams - Set in Cooper Pedy
3. Chopper - Set in Melbourne
4. The Castle - Set in Victoria

Mr White

Not to be out done by Ben the cat Mr. White decided to take on a neighbor cat. We don't know how the other one looks but Whitey needed 6 stitches to close up his arm. We got payback on the Vet bill by watching him attempt to Navigate the house with the cone collar.

Ben - Operation Genius

Ben is growing quite a bit lately and in a weeks time he forgot how to ride his Bike. His first incident happened on his way to school wherein he ran in to the edge of the curb that was covered in leaves. It is winter here in Australia. A week later him and Rachel Roni were out riding and this time he hit a rock in the path and went head over the handle bars. Here are the results of Ben versus the pavement - take 2.

Mothers Day

Mothers Day means Margaritas so Jenny invited a bunch of her Mom friends over to help them all celebrate Margarita Mothers Day

Upper Left - Lynn, Tori, and Leslie
Uper Right - Tony
Left - Leslie and Joe

Jake - Testing the Margaritas

The Grampians with Gma and Gpa French

While Jenny's Mom and Dad were in Australia in April we took them up to the Grampians. They are a set of Low Mountains in the center of Australia at the heart of the Gold country. The hiking is superb and the views very nice over the low lands of central Victoria.

The Cabin we stayed in had a family of wild lawn mowers.

Australia is suffering through a 10 year drought and and many of the lakes and rives are dry or significantly down. This small stream that we have pictures of when we first moved here with some water is now just rocks. The grampians were significantly burned a year and half prior just before my parents had visited. This visit we got to see how nature has worked to recover.