The Rest of November

November wasn't very busy apparently. Looking through pictures that didn't involve our road trip consisted of an are project by Lilly and Thanksgiving. So that's what you get.

Lilly made a rainbow out of fruit loops:



We had Thanksgiving at our house which consisted of a family from France, a family from the US and a token Aussie family. It took us a while to find a turkey and when I did the checkout person asked if I was getting my Christmas turkey really early. I said no, it's for Thanksgiving. This response just got me a blank look.



We had a kid's table:




And the adult table (photo courtesy of Lilly):

Family Trip

On October 28 I had my 20 week ultrasound. Did I mention I was pregnant? giggle. Yeah, we didn't tell anyone until this point but it looked funny since Seth was still in the states and I was trying not to puke in Australia. We did know that I was pregnant before Lilly and I came home, it was just a bit early to get excited about it. We really didn't know that Seth was going to be gone for another 3 months but we chose to wait to tell people until we were all together again.

Anyway, the ultrasound looked great although baby measured small for my due date so it was pushed back 5 days. Whatever, I hope that baby wasn't listening to that part of the conversation. And of course, Seth wanted to know what we were having and the doctor was rather confident that we are having a boy.

So after the appointment we ran home to pick up Lilly (at a friend's house) and pack up the car. We were going on a holiday!! So instead of telling you all the details, I'm just going to post the picture album that Seth made. I really hope it works. Let me know if it doesn't. Click on the map below to see all the pictures. (crossing my fingers that it works the way it should!)

Australian Holiday Oct/Nov 2010

More of October

My mom sent this cute Halloween shirt and Lilly is in to posing so we thought we would combine the two:



(The shirt glows in the dark!)

I was on the committee again for the AWA Trunk or Treat event. It was even bigger than last year. We are really going to have to come up with a way to make it better and bigger, we are getting a little crowded in our space. I think we could have more cars for the kids to go to but we just don't have the space.

Meet Bindi. As in Bindi Irwin. She's Lilly's idol right now. And if you ask her, she might even tell you her name is Bindi. She's a bit obsessed.

Here is Lilly with her best friend Alex. They were trying to trick us with the hats. But Lilly was still Bindi, don't try to tell her otherwise.

A rockin' family picture. Get it? Bacon and Eggs? No one got it if we weren't standing together. Someone did ask if I was an angel. That was cute but I couldn't figure out what the big yellow dot would have been.

One of these days I'll have a moment to photograph other people's cars. I'm usually really busy checking games to see everything there is to see.

Lilly's Kinder went to the Bundoora Park Children's Farm. It was pretty neat. They got to feed some baby animals, take a hay ride (we were in a cage), and ride a pony. Lilly had a really good time.


Lilly was excited to feed this turkey while I just envisioned her getting her eyes pecked out. It was a scary moment for me but she was fearless.


The drive to and from the farm was pretty uneventful in our enormous bus (the Greyhound sort). However, our but broke down 100 meters away from the school. But we were at a very busy intersection and couldn't get the kids off the bus without stopping traffic and there were concerns about doing this. we waited on the bus for about 40 minutes for a police officer to come and stop traffic. It was silly, considering I was waving at Seth and the other parents were just standing on the corner. And because the bus was blocking the intersection we did cause an accident. The kids were in fairly good spirits so at least it didn't end too poorly!

October - The First Half

This will not cover all of October because hey, Seth was finally able to come home. His date was pushed back many times but he came home! Work gave him a couple of weeks off and he took another week and we had lots of family time and a vacation.

So really, all we did in the first part of October was sit around and wait for him. Just kidding, we did make one day trip out to the Werribee Open Range Zoo. We've been there before but I enjoyed it enough to make the drive.

However, the drive took forever because just as we were traveling down the highway I noticed a ton of police officers. As we exited from one highway to another, I found out why. We were about the third car stopped on the exit ramp. But all traffic was stopped going south so no cars were coming and we just sat and waited. After about five minutes I noticed people getting out of their cars, not a good sign. Ten minutes later I noticed how far traffic was backed up and that people were lining up on the pedestrian bridge. And then I remembered the small snippet of news I actually heard that morning. Because the AFL Grand Finale had to be replayed (due to a tie), some huge bicycle race had to be postponed to Sunday. Which was the day we were driving to the zoo. Sure enough, the bikes came and went. Of course, we were then behind the bikers and could only go as fast as them, but at least we were close to them as we didn't have to wait forever to pull onto the highway and didn't have much further to go.




Once we got to the zoo we went on our safari tour and saw Lilly's favorite 'aminal', the giraffe.



We also checked out the hippos for a while.



Lilly climbed around the ferocious looking statues. If only it had been warmer this would have been a water fountain.



And just a fun little mushroom we stumbled across!

September

What? Another generic post? What's going on? Well, more rain, Seth was still in the states and I still had morning sickness to deal with. My favorite doctor's appointment was when they did blood work and I was told that I needed more Vitamin D. I asked the best way to get it and the midwife said spend time outside. Then she looked at me and said, 'oh, never mind, it needs to stop raining first.'

But we did do something!!

We went to the Melbourne Museum where this tile/lego board is Lilly's favorite activity:



Seth sent me flowers for our anniversary which was August 31 but I was trying to wait for the flowers to open before I took the pictures. They were awesome and a great pick-me-up that day. (I did have a friend deliver Seth some flowers at the hotel.)



Lilly and I went to the zoo to see the baby elephants. The one I got a picture of was about 6 months old. There was also a baby that was only about a week old but no where to be seen at the moment.



And Lilly really just wanted to play on the playground anyway . . .



Lilly and I braved the rain and went to the Royal Melbourne Show (aka state fair). Of all the things they have to see, Lilly just wanted to hold the chickens. And so, she held the chickens.

August

I know what you are thinking, 'how can she title it August?'. Well, I'm being very generic because Lilly and I didn't do a lot in August. Seriously. We had two months of winter in the states and when we got back here, we were hit with every bug under the sun. Only it wasn't sunny. Victoria was getting more rain than they had received in years. People were talking about taking their kids to see lakes that had been dry for a decade. Melbourne downgraded the water restrictions to Stage 2. And, I may have had some serious morning sickness . . .

So what did we do? Well, Lilly went back to Kinder two days a week. We started swimming lessons back up (she became this amazing fish while we were gone apparently) and got back into soccer. I think I slept most of August, although I did play some more indoor.

And there is August. See? I don't even have a picture to share.

Last Weekend in the States

Seth's cousin was getting married near San Fran so it was a good chance for Lilly and I to fly out that direction and break up our flights a little bit. So the three of us flew out together (Seth was completely in charge of Lilly on these flights!). We were able to spend some time with Seth's family as well as some friends in San Fran.

We did all the very touristy bits while we were hanging out with our friends. We even ended the day with a late dinner at one of those places where they just walk around with meat on sticks. Seeing as how we had dessert at Ghirardellis beforehand, I pretty much needed to be rolled out of there.





The wedding was great fun and Lilly got to dance a lot!




Of course the sad bit was that the next day Lilly and I had to board a plane and fly to Australia. Due to timing and meeting family we only had time for a quick good-bye with Seth. It was probably for the best, I was nervous about flying back out without knowing when his return date would be. But, we were fine the two months before we came to the states, what could go wrong?