Christmas 2012

Santa, friends and family were very generous:  Here is a picture of all the presents around the tree before everyone woke up on Christmas morning.

The first present of the day was the boys slept in.  First one out of bed was Jamie at about 7:30, then Braden at 7:45 and Gavin didn't stir until about 8:15.  I'll wager that that will be the one and only time it happens for many years.

First was the stockings, filled with cars, trucks, candy and cool headlights.

After that came presents galore.  Lesson learned - all presents that require assembly should come from Santa, so they can be opened and pre-assembled.  We spent most of the day assembling various toys.  This plane was the worst, because it came with no directions.  Thank goodness for Google.  However, it took until we got back from our holiday to locate the last piece and put it on.

It also took a couple of hours to get everything open, because everyone wanted to play with their toys as they opened them.  I also think that is the last time that will happen.  Once it was over we were able to finally clean up:

The aftermath

Christmas Concert and Graduation

This is one super crazy time of year.  Hot Hot Hot days.  Getting ready for the holidays.  Summer break.  Planning vacations.  In the middle of all this we reached a milestone.  Jamie has completed Pre-School.  To celebrate all the classes came together and presented songs and stories before being awarded their diplomas.

Unfortunately, Ian was back in the States, so I was trying to operate the video camera by myself.  Which means I failed to video Puff the Magic Dragon.  :(  I finally got some of the action on video; the best was the Wombat Wobble. Jamie's class did three songs; I have no idea what the second one was called, but Jamie did a great job.

The second song:

Not sure if you can see it, but Jamie was very disappointed that his friend Cory danced with the princess that he woke up (Niccola).  He did end up dancing with two other princesses (Erin and Hannah).

He was most excited to do the Wombat Wobble with all kids in his pre-school.

Very proud of our little boy - getting his diploma:

Birthday Weekend (Gosse Bluff)

On Sunday morning, we opted to take the long way back home, so we could drive by Gosse Bluff.

Par for the course around here, more than half the journey is on unsealed road which makes for a bumpy ride.  This particular drive was made a bit more exciting by a group of camels that our little caravan of cars startled.  Of course, camels being the bright creatures they are, when they heard the cars from their safe position off the road, they immediately turned and ran ONTO the road.  Fortunately, we didn't hit any of them.  They are perfectly shaped to crush your windshield.  But we did manage to get a photo or two.

According to scientists, Gosse Bluff is what remains of an impact crater from a comet that hit the Earth about 140 million years ago.  Beautiful satellite picture is available here.

The road into the center of the crater.

However, the locals have a different explanation.  Amazing how similar the "dreamtime" story is to the scientific explanation.

The dreamtime explanation is that women were dancing among the stars and one set her baby down.  The baby fell out of the sky and crashed into the earth.  Very little of Gosse Bluff (Tnorala) is open to the public, because it is a "sorry" place.  Many years ago there was a "family" on "family" massacre so everyone left.  Now, there is no camping, fires or even hiking permitted outside the small park zone.  It is all on the honor system, though, as there are no rangers or fences.  The penalties for disregarding are hefty, so few people go outside the zone.

So tired he couldn't finish blowing up his balloon.

Birthday Weekend

It is still hard to get used to having a summer birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.  I think its one thing I won't miss when its time to head home.  In the meantime, though, we try to embrace everything there is to do here.  Last weekend, a group at Ian's work organized a Thanksgiving Dinner at a "local" resort.  Glen Helen Resort is about 80 miles west of Alice Springs.  The boys and I visited back in May when Ian had to head back to the States, so this was Ian's first trip.

On our way we stopped at Ormiston Gorge.  Still the most beautiful gorge around here... Looks very different in the summer, but the boys actually got to play in the water this time.

Jamie and Gavin jumped right in.  Braden took a bit more convincing.

 We stayed so long playing at Ormiston Gorge that we had to hustle to get ready for dinner at Glen Helen.  It was a bit warm, but the turkey was juicy.

 After our big dinner, we took the kids swimming in the pool just in case they hadn't worn themselves out enough.  Marti then surprised me with a birthday cake (Southern Living Pound Cake - DELICIOUS).

Cake, please. Cake, please.  Cake, please.

Palm Valley (again)

Some good friends of ours are getting ready to leave Alice.  Its one of the hardest things about living here is making friends and having them move away.  Before they left there are a few places left they wanted to see and one was Palm Valley.

 However, Palm Valley requires 4WD and they weren't sure that their AWD vehicle would do it.  So, since we love the place and our truck has 7 seats we all piled into "The Beast" as I call it and headed out for the day.

Having a quick lunch before heading out on our hike.  (It takes about 2 hours to get to Palm Valley, so of course we timed it so we could be there at the hottest time of the day.)

Jamie went with our friends to walk along the rim walk, while Ian and I took Braden and Gavin on the easier valley walk.

Jamie had a great time holding up the rocks and throwing stones into puddles left over from a recent rain.