More like home

Yesterday marked an important day in the settling process - we received our first delivery of household goods!  Most of what we got was kitchen stuff, computer stuff and linens.  This is one of the things we wish we would have done differently in hindsight.  We were under the impression that we had to give our "welcome kit" back as soon as we received our first shipment of household goods; however, we don't really have a deadline for that, except that the in town services folks would like their stuff back soon after we receive our final shipment.  This being the case, we would probably have packed kids toys, bikes and school stuff for the first shipment.  But alas! We can't change it now!  No, but seriously folks, we'll be just fine.  The boxes and packing paper have actually doubled as play things for the kids the last couple of days.  The extra bedroom is now the "Paper Room"...I don't believe we need to expound on that subject...you can visualize!


Flynn's Grave - Early explorer to the Red Centre
(central Australia). Largly responsible for the Lutheran
presence in Alice.

Saturday we went to a company picnic and met some folks we hadn't met.  Some people were camping overnight, but we just went for the evening.  We brought our dinner and they had a bouncy castle for the kids.  There were also a few swings and a sand volleyball pit or two.  When we first pulled up, the kids were a bit shell shocked because the bouncy castle wasn't up yet and there were very few non-adult types running around... they got over it as soon as the castle went up.  One of the air tubes for filling the BC popped open shortly after all of the kids got in, and it collapsed on them.  All of the grown-ups were brought back to reality with a mass amount of children screaming!  I ran over and tied off the tube that blew and the castle came up again.  Most of the kids were just asking what happened and thought it was great!
We visited Alice Springs Baptist Church on Sunday and everyone seemed to like it pretty well.  We met some really nice people and the kids made some friends, so are very excited to go back next week.  They will try the Junior Church next Sunday, will all be in the same class.  The preacher is actually an American from Seattle who just came two weeks ago!!  We were kinda looking forward to hearing an Australian speaker every Sunday...ha, ha!  The main homeschool contact that we corresponded with before moving actually attends the church as well, so we accidentally met her and talked with her and her husband for some time (not much about homeshooling though!).


McDonnell Ranges (similar view from our house)

We went hiking again at the telegraph station on a different trail that led to an old cemetary.  The kids are actually pretty interested in old graves and how old the people were etc.  We saw quite a few more kangaroos, and they were very close up.  One of them actually got up and hopped between us - I was trying to fit a camera lens and Hilary and the kids walked ahead a little and the roo just decided we were too close and got up and hopped across the trail between us.  The kids are loath to leave the house but always have great fun and actually love hiking and especially climbing on rocks.

Simpsons Gap

This evening we walked down our street (Memorial Ave) to the cemetary and looked at quite a few graves there.  Lots of very old graves and young people.  They have it all divided by church, a couple areas were Church of England, one area was Lutheran and the area that had only a couple of graves was, you guessed it, non-denominational.  We did see the grave of "the most" famous Aboriginal artist.  His name is very long and I can't remember it.  We'll try to get a picture.  We did find that there are "goat heads" here very similar but different from Idaho goat heads.  Our shoes were covered in them!
Well, that is about all I have for now.  Sunglasses are called "Sunnies" here.  Chickens are "Chook".  Hilary and the kids have checked out some kids books from the library, and it is funny how many of them use specific spider species like "Red Back" or "Huntsman" in the stories.  In the US, it seems like spiders are generic.  Tic Tac Toe is "Naughts and Crosses".  Hilary bought "fine polenta" to make corn bread last night.  Graham crackers are "digestive biscuits".  "No worries" means you're welcome/goodbye (usually).

Trent