Memorial Day Weekend 2012

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Ian and I planned to join another family and take the boys to Glen Helen Resort (using the term loosely) for the night and do some sightseeing around the West MacDonnell Ranges. Unfortunately, the day before we were due to leave Ian's grandfather died and he ended up having to go back to the States for the week.  I decided to stick to the original plan and join our friends for the weekend.

After the 90 minute drive out to Glen Helen, we all got out of the cars to check into our rooms.  As we walked thru the group of tourists gathered there on break from their bus tour, I heard one man say, "one has two children and the other has three."  It took a full second for me to realise he thought we were a polygamous family.

Marti and I got a kick out of it and referred to each other as "sister wife" for the remainder of the weekend.  Of course. Braden helped by calling both of us "mama."  :)

Here are photos of the spectacular scenery around Glen Helen and Ormiston Gorge.  I actually took some while on a helicopter ride Sunday morning.

Glen Helen Gorge at sunset

Aerial view of Glen Helen Gorge and "resort"

Ormiston Gorge

Ain't nothing but a hound dog. (listening to Elvis)

Pre-School Excursion

Last week, Jamie's class got to go on an excursion (field trip) to Territory Metals.  They are a local metal recycling centre, so the kids were going to see what happens.  The highlight of the day was the car crusher!  I was running the video camera for the teachers, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would've liked but here are a few.

Bangtail Muster 2012

The Bangtail Muster is the annual fundraiser for the Alice Springs Youth Centre and one of the Centre's major events. The centrepiece of the event is a parade of floats down Todd Mall, which starts at late morning adjacent to the Town Council and finishes at Anzac Oval. The story behind the Muster goes back to the old days when cattle were the main industry of the Centre and Stockmen would cut of the ends of the tails to record the number of cattle mustered.  The theme for this year is 'Our Community'. 


There are several different categories for floats and Jamie's pre-school (Bradshaw) entered a float in the pre-school category.  We spent several weeks leading up to the parade by helping the kids decorate cutouts of themselves and finding costumes to represent our interpretation of the theme.  The float was titled "Community Helpers Hold Us Together."  The kids all dressed as someone who helps the community.  Jamie opted to be a fireman.

His Worship, the Mayor Damian Ryan.

The float (you can just see Jamie's black helmet on the left by the cubby house.)

Jamie with his AMAZING teacher, Kate Kennedy.

Bradshaw won best float in the Pre-school Category.

ANZAC Day 2012

What is ANZAC Day?  ANZAC Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they took in that name endures to this day.  More information is available here.


Since this is an Australian holiday, I had the day off of work and Jamie was off from school, so we decided to join some other spouses and kids to drive out to a working cattle station for the day.  The Old Ambalindum Homestead is 3000sqkm and is just amazing.  Ambalindum Station

I circled the homestead in purple the rest is the actual station. Alice Springs is on the left.

Jamie getting a ride on a motorbike with our amazing hostess.

Tractors.  Need I say more?

Easter Morning 2012

On Easter morning, the boys woke up to awesome baskets from the Easter Bunny.  Complete with trucks and blanket and toys.  The Easter bunny was supposed to hide eggs, too, but he ran out of time.  Jamie found out that sometimes Mommy and Daddy have to give the Easter Bunny a hand to get everything done.  We invited another family over that has 7yo twin boys for the Easter Egg Hunt and waffles with real maple syrup (thanks Grump for continuing to feed Ian's addiction to REAL maple syrup since you cannot buy it here).

Its good even with the wrapper still on!