Home Too Fast

The last two weeks blew by in a flash! We had so much fun and packed in a ton. Of course, I didn't get a chance to blog about nearly as much stuff as I wanted, but when you've got a finite amount of time with the people you love it's hard to spend much of it in front of the computer. Here are some things I missed:

The kids got to have a spa in my parents atrium spa tub.



Against my better judgment, I did let my dad teach Max to shoot.


Yay for weapons. *Sigh* Watch him murder a tin can here.

A day at the beach in Glenelg.






The kids camped out for two nights in one of the back paddocks. Mum, hubby and I went out to see their camp and have a drink. Then we went back to the comfort of Tori Park while Dad and the kids braved the Aussie "outback."





And, to add another item to the list of Things I Let the Kids Do with BBD that Were Against my Better Judgment, Dad and Max built a go cart.





My dad says I need to relax and let kids be kids. I tried on this trip, I really did. But listen to how terrified I sound here. And here.(I know, no helmet. Please don't report me to CAS.)

It wasn't all scary. Sarah pets Will, the pony.





One of the best things was how much fun it was to see the kids with their little cousin, Sam. They just love him so much and really got to know him on this trip.






Plus, Sam waited for us to get there to start walking! See it here

He's such a cutie. Watch him eat dinner here and here.













Oh, and in case you're wondering, Sarah did sing the song for Fiona. But it happened spontaneously when we were at Cleland and I only got the end of it on my parents' camera and I didn't get a chance to upload the video before I left. You couldn't really hear much of it anyway because of the noise in the cafe where we were sitting having lunch. Aside from all that, it was really sweet. Sarah climbed up in Fiona's lap and started humming and Fiona asked, "Does that song have words to it?" and she just started singing it. The look on Fiona's face was priceless. I wish I could have captured it.

It's hard to believe it's been two weeks. And that we're home.

Now is usually the time when I set about moping around, feeling pretty sorry for myself. But I don't know, I don't feel like that this time. I think it's because, after two weeks of having the best time with my family while simultaneously watching the devastation in Japan unfold on the news, I feel pretty lucky. Lucky to live where I live, lucky to be able to travel all the way to Australia to visit them. And then there's just plain, old lucky to be alive. It makes you wonder what's happening in the universe to see such a catastrophe and then the subsequent fallout. You have to wonder what the ramifications will be in the years to come for the rest of the planet.

So I'm counting my blessings. It does suck to be away from my family but there is an upside. I'm sure if we lived close by and I saw them all the time family dinners, shopping trips, going for coffee, all the things I enjoyed so much the past two weeks would seem mundane. Maybe I wouldn't hug them lots and tell them how much I love them. Maybe I would take them for granted.

Don't get me wrong. It would be nice to see them all the time. To pop in, have spontaneous get togethers, Sunday dinner, the usual stuff. But that's not my reality. And instead of lamenting it, I'm going to start embracing it. Our family bonding isn't watered down. It's concentrated. All the fun you can have, everyday for two weeks. Boom. Done. What a blast.

And if you see your family all the time so that you don't often feel the need to hug them or tell them you love them, do it now.

You never know what the future holds.

With Bijou-bi

If you were to overhear a conversation between my sister and me you might require an interpreter to decipher it. My sister has basically created her own weird language based on thirty odd years of mixing English, French, Japanese, Aussie colloquialisms, cockney rhyming slang, weird BBD sayings, short forms, inside jokes and combinations thereof. We also rarely if ever call each other by our first names. And to explain the origins of any of the names we do have for each other (Bijou-bi, Jimmy, O-face, Mon hubu, Natoyan, Poler, OASAMVBF, to name a few) would require more time and inclination than I'm sure anyone would want to invest.

We are sisters who have to pack years worth of bonding into short bursts of two weeks of mayhem. I'm sure anyone who lives away from loved ones can relate. And much like the way ordinary words like drink, dinner or party immediately become more fun when you insert the word birthday in front of them, so too do these occurrences when I add With Bijou.

Eating ramen.

Going for lunch.


Visiting a winery.


Having a coffee.

Going to zumba. [Photo removed by author due to embarrassment issues.]

Hanging Out

It's weird, but one of the things I look forward to doing when I visit my parents is the laundry. I know. When you signed on for reading a travel blog of Australia you were hoping for something a little more exciting than household chores. But it's true. It's because here we hang the laundry out on a line.

I can't quite capture it in words. Of course it depends on the day, but generally the sun is warm and pleasant. The air is a glorious mix of fresh, country air, clean laundry and a faint hint of eucalyptus from the beautiful gum trees. There is a fig tree right beside the house. The view is of the rolling Adelaide hills. A cow might walk by in the neighbouring paddock. The clincher though is the cacophony of Aussie birdsong. The tweeting, cawing, warbling, chirping, laughing, twittering calls all mingle together to create a serenade I've only ever heard in this country. It's like nowhere else. To say it soothes my suburban soul is an understatement.

And then, when it's all hung out, there is the satisfaction of standing back and looking at this testimony to the fact that my family is here, on my parents' farm. I know it's silly. But seeing my family's clothing, from Sarah's little socks all the way up to hubby's Tshirts hanging there, blowing in the eucalyptus tinged air with the hills as backdrop, it's just... good.



It's really good.

It's going to be hard to leave.

Fun with Acrophobia

I only realized the extent to which I'm afraid of heights a year and a half ago while atop Gaudi's Dr. Seuss like creation, La Sagrada Familia. We waited about two hours in line to go up that crazy ass building only to be tortured by a winding spiral staircase with no handrail on the way back down. One would have thought I'd learned my lesson and would henceforth steer clear of crazy structures requiring climbing. And I have. Until two days ago when I was faced with this:



So what, you're saying. Looks perfectly benign. Why is this crazy woman trying to vilify something as harmless as a smiling rocking horse? It's because this is Gumeracha, home of the Biggest Rocking Horse in the World!!!! Look again. See those little dots on the top of it's head? That's us!!! Why?? Why, I ask? Why would someone create this evil thing that children will want to climb thereby forcing their poor acrophobic parent to accompany them on the horrific journey? If I thought climbing down an insanely high structure was hellish, it was only because I hadn't thought to combine it with first watching my two precious babies climbing down an insanely high structure. Here we are going up:













I wish I could have stayed with my mum. This is more my speed.



If you ever find yourself in Gumeracha, South Australia, I would advise avoiding this insanity at all costs. And speaking of costs, I paid two dollars each for this nightmare. Oh, but it was worth it, they gave me this:




And then we went to their petting zoo which was an episode out of When Goats Attack. But that's another story...

Like many suburban moms, I stress about my kids not getting enough vitamin D, spending too much time in front of the TV or playing DS. I wish there were less Wii and more we. So it really does my heart good to see the homemade, low tech, old school fun they've been having here. So far this week they've spent time:

1. Feeding Horses. Papa invites them out twice a day to go with him as he drives around the farm giving the horses their feed.

2. Going on a Treasure Hunt. I told you how some of my best memories were of the treasure hunt my aunt and uncle did for us. So my sister, because she's the best sister ever and awesome in general, put one together for Max and Sarah. Just look at the fun they're having here.

3. Playing Boggle. I so loved playing this game at my grandparents' house with my family when I was a kid. So full circle moment playing now with my kids. We were in fits of laughter over my dad constantly coming up with words we never heard of (e.g. "bene," a prayer or boon. Uh, of course Dad) or trying to pass off words the letters of which weren't actually connected. The surprise was Sarah who I didn't think would be able to play but who held her own with words like "reset" and "tuba."

4. Petting Koalas and Kangaroos. What trip to Australia would be complete without seeing the local flora and fauna?>

























5. Building a Hay Fort. Do you remember how much fun it was to build a fort when you were a kid? My sister and I used to use blankets and TV trays. Snow in the winter. I never had anything as awesome as this:


They had been gone a long time and I was just starting to get worried, seeing as how they were out alone with my dad, aka Danger Man (cf. earlier post about how he nearly hit me with his car). But it was the most excited I've seen them so far when they raced in, breathlessly demanding I come out and see what they had made with Papa. They also carved walking sticks and my dad cheerily informed me I would have had a conniption if I had seen what they used to make them. I decided not to ruin it by asking further questions.

So next BBD (as Dad's also known; short for Big Bad Dad) says he's going to teach Max how to shoot tin cans. What do you think? Am I crazy for considering it?

F & F

So I'll explain F&F. F&F are my cherished Aunt Fiona and Uncle Frank. When my sister and I were little and it was our family who was doing the Canada-Australia jaunt, Uncle Frank and Aunt Fiona were the highlights of our stay. They’re the kind of cool aunt and uncle who would do things like take us away on overnight trips in their camper van (that’s Aussie for trailer), hitting the local fairs and attractions and letting us sleep on the beach. Uncle Frank would create elaborate scavenger hunts with rhyming clues at each location and a prize for each player at the end. He even used his camcorder and editing skills to make a movie with us in it (this is starting to sound creepy, but it’s totally not!) complete with location shoots and trick cinematography. They are responsible for some of my most favourite childhood memories.

The little surprise I mentioned is about Fiona. Fiona is a gifted storyteller. She could recount a trip to the bank and have you at the edge of your seat. She is also an amazing singer. Sometimes at family gatherings we are able to talk her into giving us a song and the results are always mesmerizing. So it's always the best when I can get her to tell the story about her aunt living in England and then sing the accompanying song. The story goes that seven year old Fiona was sent on a trip from Scotland where she lived to England to visit her aunt. Her aunt, who was married to an Englishman and incredibly homesick for Scotland, taught Fiona this song so she could go home and sing it to her mother, Fiona’s grandmother. It’s a lovely, wistful little song, the theme of which I can certainly relate to, and it brings me to tears every time.

So what I’ve done, you see, is I’ve taught Sarah the song. I’m going to attempt to get Sarah to sing it for Fiona and I’m also going to attempt to get it on video. As you can see, there are a lot of variables. Starting with child performances. Sarah will sing it fine for me now, but who knows if she’ll do it in front of a bunch of people most of whom she hasn’t seen in a very long time. It’s a crap shoot. But I figure it’ll be fun to try. I’ll let you know how it goes…

And after about 30 hours travelling...

...We're here!
I won't bore you with the gory details of the horror of sitting in the two middle seats of the middle aisle with a six year old for fourteen hours straight (packed plane meant we couldn't sit together), especially when the plane we were on didn't have the personal entertainment system on the back of each seat. I know Louis CK addressed our feeling of entitlement with regard to air travel (click here if you haven't seen it) and I tended to agree with him at the time,

but it didn't stop me from feeling completely incensed and ripped off when I boarded the plane and realized that I was going to have to survive that marathon flight without being able to sedate my child with the latest from the Disney channel. Luckily I spent a few hours loading up her iPod before we left.

We ended up having six hours to kill in Sydney so we visited the aquarium in Darling Harbour. It is such a fantastic aquarium with, among other things, glass tunnels that you can walk through while the fish swim all around you. But right now they also have a special Lego showcase on so there were these amazing statues and murals made entirely out of Lego! The kids loved it and I was pretty fascinated myself.





Of course as fun as that all was what we really wanted to do was just get to Adelaide. You know when you've been waiting for something for so long, anticipating and thinking about it for weeks and weeks and then when it happens it's a bit of a let down? Well this is completely not like that at all. I really wanted to get some shots of all the airport hugging and kissing and general mayhem but I was preoccupied to put it mildly. The gang was all there (minus Toddy. Somebody's gotta work!).

I don't know how to put into words how wonderful it is, when you've been away from your family for so long, to just do everyday things together.

This morning, after taking the kids out to pick mulberries from the garden, I chatted with Nat in her kitchen while I washed dishes and she cut vegetables. And it was awesome. So, so great. I continually remind myself to soak it all in.

But there are down sides too. Like how my dad almost hit me with the car this morning. I was out jogging and he was driving one way while looking another. As you do. But that's all in a day when you're hanging out with Big Al. And the key word is almost. All's well that ends well.