Bush Bike Ride

G’day Mates (just kidding, we’re not going to start saying that),

 

Jones on walkabout

Hard to believe so many of you have already seen snow this year!  We will definitely miss seeing the white stuff.  Did I already tell you that all the Christmas decorations over here have snowflakes and cold weather pictures on them?  It’s pretty funny when it is so warm out, but it does help it seem more like Christmas.  Still need to get a tree, but don’t want to decorate Christmas until after we celebrate Thanksgiving.  A few weeks ago some Australians at a lunch party asked us what Thanksgiving is all about, so we got to explain the pilgrims and Indians history in the US. They were intrigued, but had never heard why we celebrated it before.  That gave us a chance to ask what Boxing Day celebrates, and they all looked at us blankly and said, “Nothing really, just getting rid of the boxes from Christmas I guess.”   I guess it is the big shopping day of the year over here, similar to our Black Friday after Thanksgiving.  (I looked up Boxing Day online and there seems to be a more noble historical reason to celebrate Boxing Day, giving boxes of goods to the poor/servant classes on the day after Christmas.)

Jax on a climb

Let’s see, this week…Monday and Tuesday seemed pretty normal, Wednesday we went to dinner at a family in the church’s house.  We were to bring “starches” and drinks.  I tried to make Missy’s rolls from the Bleakney Cookbook, but we have a forced fan oven and it just blew all my pretty raised rolls into flat ciabatta style ones.  L  They tasted pretty good, but looked strange, so we stopped by the store and got a few packs of dinner rolls to bring.  I had also made mashed potatoes and bought juice boxes and lemonade.  The mother had made two corned beef silversides (roast beefs), which were very good and a white roux type sauce to put on them.  They have five daughters and the mom teaches at a local Christian school and the dad stays home and teaches the girls.  The daughters are ages 17, 15, 11, 8, and 7.  They have a pool so the kids all swam first and then we ate and talked and played.  We didn’t get home until 10 pm…on a school night!!  That’s just crazy.  It was doing a pretty cool lightning show in the distant skies that night and all the kids were gathered outside to watch the sky light up every few seconds.  Their oldest daughter loves photography, so climbed up on the roof with her guitar and tripod (and a pillow, I believe) to wait for that perfect shot.  The family is from South Africa, but has lived in the US and England before settling a little over a year ago in Alice Springs.  The wife’s brother lives here with his family too. 

Aboriginal art - The Caterpillars (in ochre and lime)

Then, Thursday I got a migraine and was out of medicine, so I was laid up Thursday and Friday (until Trent came home early from work to get me a local rx of the medicine).  Finally got to feeling better Friday evening.  The kids had an unexpected couple days off of school, but they got super creative while I was sick and made seventeen tons of construction paper  items:  megaphones, airplanes, binoculars, telescopes, more megaphones (seriously, we must have twenty), puppets, …you get the picture.  I had to put a stop to it after two rolls of tape and the stapler ran out of staples.  Sweet babies, they originally made the first megaphone for me to be able to still yell at them from my sick bed.  So thoughtful.  J

Three Joys in the Bush

Saturday we did a bike ride from Flynn’s Grave to Simpson’s Gap (about 17 kilometers or 10.5 miles).  We met the family we had dinner with (Lionel and Eunice with 5 daughters:  Rebecca, Elizabeth, Domlouise (that’s how they say it, not sure the spelling), Rachel, and Hannah) and the brother’s family as well (Rupert and Wendy and their two girls: Ellie (7ish) and Jade (4ish)).  The kids all did really well for that long warm ride!  Jax, Jones, and Beaux were the only ones without a mountain bike with gears, but were in the lead for most of the trail.  The other three smaller kids had bikes that hooked onto their parents’ bikes (like a tandem).  It was really very fun to ride all through the outback like that.  We stopped every 4 kilometers for a break and snacks, so that was something for the kids to look forward to, and the trail was paved and each kilometer marked with a little sign.  There were picnic tables along the way and a few shade trees, so we could rest for 15 minutes or so before we started off again.  It only took a couple hours and we were pulling up into our shelter to cook some hotdogs and have some lunch.  It was a very fun time, and our kids all loved being with these other families.  Trent and I took all the kids over to the water at Simpson’s Gap while the sausages were cooking (American hotdogs only take minutes, but sausages take much longer) and they all took off their shoes and waded and played in the seaweed.  One of the girls caught one of the long-nosed dragon lizards from the rocks!  She was the 15 year old and seemed very interested in animals.  All in all a very fun time.  And nice to know the kids can ride that far.  We didn’t take the camera because we were so focused on snacks, camelbaks, water, lunch, bikes, sunscreen, etc.

Kookaburras in a Gum Tree (or Koalas?)

Today was church and then after lunch we went to the markets in town (which are Sundays from 9-2 or something).  We didn’t get anything today, but are gathering up our ideas for Christmas purchases!  Haircuts and tidying up this evening…back to the grind this week, can’t afford to be just getting sick and skipping school at every whipstich.

Cheers (just kidding, we’re not going to start saying that either),

 

Hilary & Co.