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| Jax giving praise at Ellery Creek Big Hole |
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| Ellery Creek Big Hole |
Well, it's official...I love online grocery shopping!! It's lovely. Really lovely. I just have my list ready, order everything online (where I add items to my "trolley" and schedule a delivery time), and just be here to receive delivery the next day and put the groceries away. The delivery rates get lower and lower the more groceries you buy, so I can usually get them delivered for $5...which I am more than happy to pay someone else to be in the grocery store for me!! Two unexpected delights in the process are: free grocery bags that our goods are delivered in (in the store they cost 15 cents each because they want you to reuse), and a little free goody for placing an online order (we have gotten a little football and a keychain so far). There is nothing NOT to like!
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| Jones with Ellery Creek gap |
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| Last hurrah! Cold!! |
In other food-related news, Corned Beef Silverside is a nice inexpensive piece of meat to roast in the crockpot (interestingly, the one we tried was very red...very done and very tender, but very red). Tonight we are trying scotch filets on the BBQ, which appear to be the Australian equivalent to a ribeye cut. We had to get A1 sauce from the butcher for a small fortune, therefore will be using it sparingly, but savoringly! I had zucchini leftover from last week's visit to the veg market, so made zucchini bread this afternoon to have tonight as well. It's always a bit squirrelly baking in the Celsius convection oven, but it appears to have turned out. Lamb Stew tomorrow!
Last weekend we visited a beautiful spot called Ellery Creek Big Hole, which is another gap in the mountains where a permanent waterhole resides. The kids got to play in the strangely frigid water, decorate sand castles with long green reeds, and explore themselves silly! It was a very fun day. We just went for a couple hours and brought snacks, but they have free gas grills to use there so next time we go, it may be fun to grill and stay longer. It's already been over 100 F quite often here, and the heat really is intense, but it makes you really appreciate those beautiful 80s and 90s days! Next weekend is supposed to be a bit cooler, so we may try to plan to go somewhere fun. We'll let you know!
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| Beaux sand-building |
Yesterday we had a birthday party at some friends' house, and there was an Aussie lady doing face painting. She did such a good job! Beaux got a dolphin on her arm with glittery sparkles, Jax got the whole top half of his face painted like spiderman, and Jones had a huge redback spider painted on his face. She was so professional and fun, the kids now think I should ask for a face painting set for Christmas so I can paint them up all the time! Yikes.
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| Emily Gap |
We've been playing lots of card games and solitaire lately. Many evenings after dinner the kids will go outside with Papa and play ball tag and wall ball. It has been fun watching the kids learn new games. It has also been interesting to be without most of our possessions for a couple months. While it will be fun to get the surface shipment of household goods, we have really enjoyed the extra time together that being "low on stuff" helps us focus on.
Beaux, Jax and Jones are really looking forward to Halloween in Australia! They will miss trick-or-treating with cousins, but I hope we can find a nice area and maybe some friends to go with here, to help take their minds off what they are missing back home. Their costumes already came and fit great (miracle!), so we are ready for any parties that come our way!
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| Jones Emily Gap |
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| Beaux Emily Gap |
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| Kids at Jesse Gap |
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| Desert Park field trip day |
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| Joey getting milk (Desert Park) |
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| Mount Gillen hike |
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| Mount Gillen |
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| Looking out past Mt. Gillen |
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| Jones with Skink (near the pit) - he could barely stand the tickling! |
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| Jax skink on shoulder |
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| Papa and skink |
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| Beaux with skink |
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| Land Rover Discovery II (or "Disco" as we call it) |
Now we are trying to "Holiday" our minds early, so we can get things sent with plenty of time to spare. Christmas decorations are all over the stores here, and I must say it is very strange to see items covered in "snow" in this weather! We are planning on celebrating American Thanksgiving early and then maybe having our own "holiday" and traveling somewhere and staying overnight for the time off of work.
We are running low of strange Australian customs/wording...I did see that muffin papers are called "patty pans". I bought "coriander" at the grocery store, and I am pretty sure it is cilantro. They sell it in a bunch with the roots and it has lasted at least three weeks and still looks nice! I guess lice and worms are pretty prevelent here, so deworming your children every six months and adding tea tree oil to shampoo to deter the lice (I guess they don't like the smell) is common. Just learned that yesterday..still processing that information in order to not FREAK OUT. Denial may be my best bet...
We are extremely thankful for all we have and how blessed we are every day through God's grace. We thank you all for thoughts and prayers you may send our way and hope God's blessings follow each of you.
Hilary
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| Disco |
