The Move Home

Well, the time has come for the Fosters to pack up and head back to the frigid North. The three of us are currently all squeezed into a hotel room at the Sydney airport, and the two cats are boarded at the Hanrob boarding facility getting pampered before the flight home tomorrow morning.

Our prep for this move was long and tedious, but it appears to have gone off without a hitch - so far (though we still have 20+ hours of flying with a toddler ahead of us).

We've been told that our air shipment is supposed to be flying out of Sydney in three days time, and that our sea shipment is currently over the depths of the Tasman sea on the ANL Windarra. We've also been informed that our sea container is expected to arrive into Montreal in 7 weeks. Until then, we'll be 'living it up' in a small one bedroom hotel in downtown Ottawa.

Our 40 foot sea container being loaded outside our home in Canberra

ANL Windarra - our cargo ship! Please stay afloat, pretty please?!

Skyfire 2015

SkyFire is an annual fireworks event in Canberra, dating back to 1989.  Though we did make it to SkyFire 2013, we missed the 2014 show because we were in Western Australia for Stacy's birthday. Since our time here in Canberra is winding down, we decided that we needed to see SkyFire one more time!

After enjoying a nice going away meal with friends, we made our way to the lake just in time to watch the fireworks. With well over 100,000 people on hand, the areas around the lake were quite crowded. Though we did not have the best of seats, the fireworks display didn't disappoint!

Fireworks, fast and furious.. to the beat!

Grand finale!

Canberra Balloon Festival 2015

We were a bit late to last year's balloon festival and as a result ended up taking photos from across the lake after several balloons had already taken flight. This year we decided to get up at 4:30AM (!!!) so that we could get up close and personal with the balloons before they took off at dawn. It was a great idea because we ended up with some spectacular photos. Although we enjoyed last year's festival, the up-close experience made this year's so much more enjoyable!

Dozens of balloons take flight!

Last year, the feature balloons were the Sky Whale balloon and Darth Vader.  This year they upped the ante by featuring a Yoda and Angry Birds balloon!

Angry Birds Red and DoDo!

Enlighten 2015

At last year's Enlighten Festival, we only managed to get a handful of pictures of Parliament House. We had a a very young baby boy with us and we were already pushing past his bedtime. ;)

This year we had an older boy on hand, so we were able to view all of the architectural projections and get a true feel for the festival. It was certainly well worth the late night out!

Projections on Old Parliament

Projections on Questacon Science Museum

New to the festival this year was the Night Noodle Markets! They were a huge hit with over 150,000 visitors stopping by to eat lots of delicious dumplings, noodles, kebabs, and N2 gelato!

Mmmm.. Gelato!

Chloe (1999 - 2015)

When we moved to Oz, we knew it was possible that Chloe would not be coming with us on the return flight home (she was 13 when we moved here). As our move home date approached, however, we really thought she was going to make it. Sure, she was a bit slower than she was years earlier, but she still seemed to act like her normal self for the most part. We began prepping her for the return home - an updated rabies vaccine and a cargo booking on Air Canada.

Unfortunately, only a few short weeks ago, Chloe started to go downhill very quickly. In a matter of a couple days she went from acting normal to no longer eating, no longer drinking water, and to falling over when she attempted to walk. The night before her final day, she was bad enough that we didn't think she would make it to morning. It was then that we knew we would be faced with the difficult decision of putting her down.

RIP Chloe, our baby girl. We hope that you're now running around, chasing birds again.