April to May 2011
well, payton returned from his overseas interview adventure, exhausted and hoarse, on a sunday. he chatted his way through meetings, interviews, presentations, and meals - everything but bathroom breaks... because there weren't any bathroom breaks - from University of Texas to Sandia National Laboratory to University of Oregon. with nothing more to do on that front we eagerly awaited the arrival of aunt iris!
and a mere four days later, she was here! with hardly a moment to rest, we charged through the next five weeks, venturing to the hills, ningaloo reef in western australia, the barossa valley and kangaroo island. in between, iris went on her own exploratory adventures throughout adelaide and surrounds. what a blast. auntie i provided some much needed daytime adult conversation for me and devoted hours of reading to nova (lots of dora the explorer - it's time to learn spanish! turns out iris means rainbow in spanish) as well as babysitter services for me and payton to go on a couple (gasp!) dates! iris - it was SO much fun to have you here and to get to spend time with you!
first things first: nova was so excited that aunt iris was coming to visit (we were asked about it for weeks in advance - iris' arrival was, if nothing else, a final reprieve from nova's questions: and then aunt iris comes? so, daddy's gone for two weeks and then AUNT IRIS COMES! and then we go on a plane... with aunt iris?! and then aunt iris comes?) that she learned to write her name!
the mandatory cleland park wildlfe refuge tour - the one-stop shop for checking all those weird australian animals off the list...
oh... nova LOVED reading with aunt iris. loved it.
Ningaloo Reef
oh, but there were even more fun things to do! this was one of those few vacations where everything was awesome. we flew to exmouth, western australia, rented a land cruiser (we named him bruce. he came complete with road safety yellow reflective tape, yellow siren-light on top and reverse alarm. as if it's not hard enough to back a pop-up trailer into place in a crowded caravan park, the alarm makes sure you have everyone's attention on you while you do it. brilliant! ) and pop-up trailer and spent eight days and seven nights exploring the coastline and ningaloo reef - the world's largest fringing reef. unbelievable! the weather was gorgeous, the ocean was clear blue and warm as a bath, the beaches were empty and baby friendly, the snorkeling was meters off shore, nova slept through the night...! it was incredible.
iris went snorkeling with whale sharks, which can grow to 12 meters in length (~36 ft)! payton and i took the kids on a glass-bottom boat, so nova got to see the reef, some colorful fishes and green sea turtles. she was an AMAZING swimmer the whole time, just wanted to spend every moment in the water - such a kid! - and even demanded to be in the deep water where we snorkeled with the sea turtles.
sun safety first! we went through a LOT of sunscreen here.
we spent half our ningaloo holiday at coral bay and half here, at cape range national park. this is the path to the beach behind our campsite. peaceful, beautiful and remote, its worth a half a world of travel...
the beach where, a mere 100 meters from bruce and trailer, we bid the sun goodnight for every sunset. not bad swimming, either.
oh, and good morning sun. although nova slept like a log, canon - and therefore us - was up before the sun. a fantastic way/reason to enjoy each sunrise.
canon, payton, lindsey, nova and iris. we were all there. strewth! this pic was taken by a gal from the neighboring campsite. she and her family, dairy farmers from victoria, were on a nine week tour. they'd left victoria, driven all the way across the nullarbor plain and australia, turned north up the coast from perth (where we met them at cape range np), and were headed to broome, through the kimberly, to darwin, down through the center (alice springs, uluru) and back across to victoria!!! what a trip! americans do not think in terms of 9 wk holidays, but man!, australia may have ruined us! i go in to detail to remind myself that we need to do that trip some day. anyway, the farmer was catching fresh fish every night, so he gave us a couple and payton cooked up a mean fish curry. doesn't get any fresher.
Easter
iris got to experience the full saturday chaos of the central market where we got all our ingredients for a fantastic easter dinner feast.
saturday night, we dyed some easter eggs so the easter bilby could hide them in the morning. there are no white eggs in this country.
after our sunday morning easter egg hunt (canon even found an egg hidden under my coffee mug), during which nova found three chocolate bilbies (that were largely eaten by the adults), we went on a hike up morialta. canon was enthralled.
brian and jessica came over for easter dinner and brought homemade quince paste in the shape of a squirrel (australiana cookie cutters are hard to find).
they also brought nova an ice cream cupcake for dessert (the big kids ate poached quince after all the babies were asleep). nova was thrilled - and VERY hyper for quite some time.
the oakbank easter racing carnival, called a picnic race because you can bring in your own "eskies" (coolers), is a fantastic family event. one of the races is a steeple chase (this pic is of a hurdles race), but most of them are flat track.
although iris and i weren't wearing bad hats or dresses that looked like the leftover dregs from some '80s prom and despite the fact that we had on practical shoes (vs stilettos), they still let us in to the races. what a FANTASTIC fall day!
Barossa Valley
beach time, camping, horse races... no south australian trip is complete without a trip to one of the wine areas. the adelaide hills and mclaren vale continuously supply us with fantastic wines, but the best known valley is the barossa. obviously, it would have been terribly rude of us to send iris on her own wine tasting expedition... so we went too. kids and all.
the barossa valley in autumn colors, looking out from mengler's hill (where, it turns out, my new favorite vigneron - bob maclean - resides. if i'd known that when this picture was taken, i wouldn't have bothered going anywhere else in the valley!). the vines were splendid in yellows and reds...
two hands winery. the bull and the bear cab shiraz... fabulous. (later paired with dinner at the tin cat cafe with brian and jessica while iris babysat the babes. thanks, i)
ah, the delightful turkey flats vineyard - home to some of the oldest vines (grenache) in the valley. obviously, we got a bottle of grenache.
i mean, what caption is there for this picture?! the glasses, the hat, the look... what else is there to say? i love this girl!
Kangaroo Island
yes, i know the adventures - and therefore this blog post - just go on and on! and still, after our kangaroo island trip, iris went on to tour melbourne and sydney by herself for a few days before she flew back to the US! anyway, our last adventure with iris was four days on kangaroo island, south australia. of course, we also had our favorite travel buddies, brian and jessica (my dad teasingly asked what brian and jessica were going to do once we left australia, to which the only obvious answer was, "what are WE gonna do?!" you perky canadians had better come visit us!)
payton sipping coffee and surveying the coastline. what is he thinking about? helium 4? groundwater? nuclear waste repository? 3rd cup of coffee?
if you are pregnant or have a child less than three, get an ergo. this little baby rolls up small enough to fit in the diaper bag but can still hold the 15 kilo child when she is too tired to walk - and she can quickly pop back out again when two minutes later, she has suddenly recovered from her consuming exhaustion. canon, in the meantime, gets the rolls royce of back packs...
there is a fur seal and sea lion colony at the base of the cliffs on cape du coudec - and a nice little boardwalk away from where we were staying.
looking back along the coast towards the lighthouse.
we visited an area called the remarkable rocks - ventifacts formed from years of strong winds on the largest batholith on... kangaroo island.jessica, nova and mama.
this is a cool playland for kiddos (and geologists - payton, jessica and brian could not stop looking or taking pictures)
brian and jessica
iris, jessica and i were trying to get nova to act like a tiger, but she was having none of it! in fact, she seemed largely unimpressed.
weirdos.one of our best hikes was at snake lagoon. fortunately, none of us are "birders", so after identifying a cockatoo and a rainbow lorikeet, we were quickly able to pass through an area otherwise known for taking hours to walk through - if you are a "birder".
what DID catch our eyes, however was this HUGE spider just to the side of the trail. we didn't see any snakes or lagoons at snake lagoon, but there was a jagnormous spider. fascinating and horrifying all at once. i'm pretty sure scenes from "arachnophobia" were whirling through everyone's mind. 
the snake lagoon path follows a small creek and then suddenly opens onto a small beach where the creek runs out to sea.
just us freaks...
nova lovin' on her aunt iris.
brian and nova playing in the creek.
so, obviously, we were having a great time outdoors, but in the kitchen, once the kids were down, payton and brian were cooking up some incredible food. iris, jessica and i took it upon ourselves to distribute (and drink!) the fantastic wine we'd brought with us. a sample dinner as seen below:
wood-fired oven
lamb roast on a bed of winter vegetables
the chefs
hors d'ouvres... a clare valley riesling paired with fresh, local oysters
dinner is served!
grrr!
while on KI, we also visited the Kelly Hill Caves, where our breathy tour guide gave a speech so full of pregnant pauses and double-complete-rainbow wonderment, that it became difficult to follow along. nova, impressively, remained politely quiet for each extended "moment of silence" (although more than once she asked why we were being so quiet); however she now thinks words like stalactite and stalagmite can only be said in whisper talk...
an area of huge sand dunes, known as "little sahara", makes money for the locals by teasing foolish tourists in to renting sandboards at exorbitant prices. the pictures on the brochure (and, surprisingly, some of our own pictures) make it look so fun and fast. ummm, it's not quite the same as sledding on snow.
payton has mentioned learning how to snowboard while the kids learn to ski....
they may be well matched....
we visited the island pure sheep dairy where they make sheep yogurt and cheese. pretty tasty, although we had some questions about their marketing. canon enjoyed looking at the sheep and munching on gum leaves.
we also visited clifford's honey farm. KI is very proud of their honey and honey bees - it is the only place in the world where pure strain ligurian honey bees can be found.
finally, we returned home. iris had a day layover to get her stuff together before heading to melbourne then sydney and, eventually, back to durango. in the end, after five weeks, payton still hadn't landed a job. one thing we do know - we'll be back in august. iris - it was wonderful to spend so much quality time with you and share all these great adventures. thanks for coming to visit us! we'll see you back stateside in a couple (only two?!?!?) months!
