Christmas

This year we were lucky enough to have Andrew and Stephen visit us for Christmas! It was a great visit and allowed Matty to spend lots of time with his uncles! The guys were here for almost a week before they left for the rest of their Aussie adventures, but we made sure to enjoy lots of relaxation, catching up, and sightseeing of a few of Canberra's highlights.

As with the past three Christmases we've experienced in Australia, the weather wasn't the best - 25C (at most) with overcast. We imagine the 'quintessential' hot and sunny Aussie Christmas does exist, but we've unfortunately not had the opportunity to experience one while posted here. Maybe someday... ;)

Christmas Party at Canadian High Commission

We were invited to the Canadian High Commission's Christmas party this year, hosted at the High Commissioner's home in Redhill. The home itself is located on Mugga Way, a street locally known as Canberra's Golden Mile. The area hosts palatial-style homes with selling prices starting at no lower than $3 million big ones. The Canadian HC's home is no exception. The home is located on a two-tired piece of land, with the home itself located on the bottom tier and the pool, pool house, and entertaining area located in the backyard on a top-tier overlooking the home.

Upon arrival, we were offered glasses of champagne and hors d'oeuvres. We were all told to bring our swimsuits for a pool party, but it was a bit cool (25C) for the adults to swim that day (though the children certainly took advantage of the large pool)! We mingled with our colleagues and some of the HC staff. The High Commissioner himself was only present towards the end of the evening, as it was the last evening of his post here in Canberra - so he was obviously pre-occupied with other things on his mind.

Following the champagne and hors d'oeuvres, we were invited inside the home for a Christmas buffet meal. The meal featured a mixture of traditional Canadian Christmas items (turkey, stuffing, cranberries, etc) mixed with Australian Christmas items (fish and seafood). It was a fantastic meal, and a beautiful home. Speaking of the home, it is quite clear that it was designed for entertaining. There was a whole section of the home dedicated directly for this purpose, including a staff kitchen and dining area. It was quite neat seeing the separation between the entertaining area and the actual area of the home where the HC and his family lived.

Following the Christmas meal, Santa arrived so we all headed back up to the pool area to meet with him and have him pass out presents to the kids. Unfortunately, Santa arrived ringing his bell loudly and shouting "HO, HO, HO" which did NOT impress Matty. He was scared of Santa from that moment forward. Nonetheless, we still got a photo or two of Matty sitting on his lap. Sure, Matty may be screaming his lungs out in fear while sitting on Santa's lap, but they're pictures we will treasure well into the future!

All in all, a great afternoon and evening hosted by the High Commission!

Swim lessons

Every Saturday morning since Matty was 10 months old, we have been taking him to swim lessons at a fantastic baby aquatics program in a nearby suburb. We were a bit hesitant to start him in swim lessons so young, but here in Australia 10 months is considered a late start - most babies start when they are 8 weeks old!

The program Matty is in is called Aquatots and it is an absolutely fantastic program. It is designed not only to teach him about safety and survival in the water, but it also incorporates many activities to help him develop core muscle strength in order to hit physical development milestones. For instance, classes typically run for a half hour each week. During this time, there is a set number of water skill activites that take place (such as splashing, kicking, back floating, jumping into the pool from the ledge and learning to quickly turn around and hold onto the ledge to save themselves from drowning, etc). All of these swim activities are spaced out with non-swimming activities in between them (because let's face it, infants have an attention span of about a minute).

To provide a bit of an overview of a typical half hour lesson, the babies and their parent will get in the pool and form a circle with the other parents/babies and the instructor. They will begin singing a song all while incorporating splashing, kicking, tossing baby in the air, and dunking the baby under the water. From this they will move on to a circuit of activities: back float from one end of the pool to the other; when they arrive at the end of the pool there will be a bucket with toys in it. The kids will be encouraged to grab a net and scoop a toy out of the bucket (which teaches them hand-eye coordination). From there, they will walk across a thick mat lying across the water to work on their core muscles and balancing, and then they will move on to do an underwater swim drill with the instructor. Each week there is a new theme, new swim skills to work on, and there is always new non-swimming activities included. To us, this is what makes these swim lessons so valuable. They keep Matty's attention the whole way through, all while teaching him some new skills.

But the big question is - how does Matty like it? Well, during the first handful of lessons, he was a bit hesitant. He was often found placing his finger in his mouth (a technique we believe to be a self-soothing one). But once he got used to the routine, he really got into it! Now, from the moment we arrive at the pool to the moment he is back in the car exhausted after his fun morning swim, he has a HUGE smile on his face.

If only we could find a similar program in Ottawa...We are definitely going to miss our weekly Saturday morning routine!

Halloween

Halloween in Australia is a relatively new celebration. It has never really been a part of the Aussie culture and there has been (and still is) much push back towards it simply because of its American influence. It is often believed to be an over-marketed, unnecessary celebration of greed. Nonetheless, it has gained in popularity over the last 3 to 5 years and is becoming a growing trend. Stores now sell Halloween costumes and decorations, houses now put up orange balloons at their doors if they are participating in it, and even the odd house here and there goes all out in terms of decorations.

We were quite excited about Halloween this year as it was Matty's first proper Halloween (last year he was just a tad bit too young to participate). For each of his three days at daycare during the week, he wore Halloween-related clothing. On the big day itself, he sported his fancing-schmancy Winnie the Pooh outfit. He was a huge hit at daycare and his carers were proud to be helping him embrace his Canadian culture.

On the evening of Halloween, we dressed him up again and brought him around to visit some friends. He was even lucky enough to get his favorite treat along the way - an arrowroot biscuit! Following this, we drove around and had a look at some of the houses that were decorated. Let us just say, there are not many houses that decorate, but those that do go BIG.

Final Visit to Melbourne

As part of our wrap up before moving home, we have been planning final visits to some of our favorite Aussie destinations.  We fell in love with Melbourne early during our posting, and have been lucky to be back there a handful of times. As luck would have it, we had an opportunity to do our final visit in October when Blair was sent down for a weekend work conference. Since Blair would be busy most of the days during the weekend, we tacked on an extra two days - just enough time to re-visit our favorite haunts. More importantly, since Blair was busy all weekend, Stacy was *supposed* to have adequate time to visit some of her favorite shops! 

Unfortunately, as luck would have it, Stacy ended up being sick most of the weekend. The week prior to our getaway, she came down with a fairly bad sinus infection. The doctor she saw put her on a new antibiotic which she had never been on before, and she ended up having a bad reaction to it. Because of that, she ended up spending a lot of the time locked away in our hotel room for the first day or two. She was not alone though - she had her most favorite little person on hand to keep her company.

In the end, all plans were not lost. We were still able to visit everything on our list. The only thing that suffered was Stacy's shopping - but alas that was probably better for her pocketbook anyways. ;)

Ahhhhh Melbourne. We will miss your laneway culture, your awesome coffee and food, your beautiful architecture, beaches, and river. But know this. We are not saying goodbye - we are simply saying "See you later"!

South Pacific Cruise

At the beginning of September, all three of us headed into Sydney to board the Carnival Spirit! We booked this cruise because a) it visited several of the South Pacific islands we wanted to see; b) it fit into our schedule; and c) the ship still had balcony staterooms available. 

This cruise was to be our last true vacation before our move home to Canada. We have been fortunate enough to see all of the major sights in both Australia and New Zealand, but still had a desire to see a bit more of the South Pacific. We figured a cruise would make the best use of our time.
 
We were a bit skeptical when deciding to book a cruise as we've never been on one before. We were also a bit skeptical choosing a Carnival cruise given its reputation, but it was our only choice since we were booking at the last minute (4 months ahead of time is considered last minute in Australia -- many of the cruises book up more than a year in advance here).

So what did we think? We LOVED it! Carnival actually surprised us. The cruise was well planned out, there was lots to do, and we were treated like royalty. Honestly, we were quite surprised! The food was very good (and there was LOTS of it!), but it was the staff that made the cruise for us. They did everything they could in their power to make this trip enjoyable and relaxing. The fact that they all LOVED Matty was just icing on the cake! ;-)

The cruise itself was 10 nights long. It had three full days at sea upon departing Sydney before arriving at our first stop -- Port Vila, Vanuatu. From there it headed to Mystery Island (Vanuatu), then to Lifou (New Caledonia), and then finally to Noumea (New Caledonia). The islands themselves were ok (nothing compared to the Caribbean), but we still had a nice relaxing time. I think our favorite stop was Mystery Island because we were craving a simple beach day. Its hot temps, blue water, and soft sand did not disappoint!

What did we learn?

• We loved being rocked to sleep each night by the waves. 
• A balcony stateroom is fantastic....and mandatory. ;)
• You can gain a lot of weight if you truly take advantage of all there is on offer!

Here are a few pics from our cruise! :-)

Drink with a view - to start the cruise off right!

Central elevator area

Atrium

Splashpark that Matty played at

Fastest water slide at sea!

 Pictures from the islands:

Port Vila

Mystery Island

Mystery Island

Mystery Island - Where cannibalism was prev. practiced

Lifou, New Caledonia

Lifou, New Caledonia

Lifou, New Caledonia

Yes, we took a train tour of Noumea :o

l'Anse Vate, Noumea

Noumea's fantastic coastline

Ice Hockey - Team Canada Vs Team USA

At the end of July, we headed into Sydney for the night with some friends to watch Team Canada take on Team USA in an International Ice Hockey competition.

The game was pretty much bang on with ones we've seen back in Canada and the USA. It was great fun, and we're glad we can now say that Matty (as well as our Aussie friends) have finally been to an official ice hockey game.

Unfortunately, Team Canada did not walk away with the trophy that night. Following a grueling three periods (with lots of fighting), the game was forced to OT where the US scored the winning goal, thereby winning the game - and the series - with a score of 4-3 over Canada.

We must say...it was pretty cool watching Team Canada play in Australia. :-)

Team USA won. Boo!! :(

Wayne Brady Comes to Canberra

After seeing Drew Carey last year in Sydney, Stacy was uber excited about the fact that Wayne Brady was coming to town. We purchased our tickets months in advance, had a friend set up to babysit Matty for the evening, and were looking forward to seeing this multi-talented man in the place we currently call home.

Unfortunately, as luck would have it, Matty came down with his very first fever/viral illness a few days before the show. Blair very kindly offered to forgo the show so that he could take care of Matty while Stacy headed to the show with one of her friends. What a great Daddy/husband!

The show itself was setup exactly like "Whose Line Is It Anyway." The entire show was improv-based, with Wayne and his stage partner creating characters, scenes, and songs on the spot with topics that were chosen by the audience.

Wayne was just as good live (if not better) than as he is on TV. What a fantastic show! Highly recommend seeing him if you ever have the chance!

These are not great photos, but the best we could get! :)

Australia's Snowy Mountains

This past Canada Day weekend, we headed to the Snowy Mountains (known as the "snowies" to most Aussies) to celebrate being Canucks! It took us two years of living in Australia before we would even fathom heading to the snow, but we figured we needed to get there before we moved home, and really... what better place in Australia could we have picked to celebrate the birthday of the best country in the world?!

The drive to the mountains is about 2.5 hours south of Canberra in the state of New South Wales. It is a fairly scenic drive which passes through a handful of small towns along the way. One thing that stood out to us along the drive was that - as we got closer to the snow - the number of snowmen signs attached to buildings began to increase dramatically. It was quite comical, really. There were snowmen, like the one below, plastered to every storefront and awning on the main street of Cooma. Also of note was that every.single.store offered both ski equipment and snow chain rentals.

The snowy mountains, located in the Kosciuszko National Park, are the highest mountain range on the continent. Australia's highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko is located at a height of 2,228 m (7,310 ft) above the ground. The mountain range experiences large natural snowfalls every winter (June/July/early August) and host several snow resorts including Thredbo, Perisher, Jindabyne, and Selwyn. We happened to choose Thredbo to head to on this particularly snowy weekend.

A colleague of ours had told us to stop at a Christmas store in Bredbo on our way to the snowies. She said that this store had every kind of Christmas item you could ever imagine. And she was right. It was kind of crazy!

Christmas store!

Some of the hundreds of thousands of Xmas ornaments for sale

After our stop at the Christmas store, we continued along our way to the snow. We knew there had to be snow in the mountains as there had been a large storm only the day before, but we didn't end up seeing any until we were inside the National Park (only once we were at an extremely high elevation). Once we were inside the park though, the roads ended up being quite snow covered. Given that we were driving in summer tires, there was enough snow accumulated for us to actually consider puling over to put our snow chains on (which, by the way, are legally required to be carried by all cars driving in the park).

Since we had Matty with us, we had no intention of skiing when we arrived. We had planned on having some lunch, taking the chair lift to the top of the ski hill to check out the view, and perhaps letting Matty play around in some snow while we took some pictures. Unfortunately, the snow was just too wet for us to ride the chair lift - we would have been absolutely drenched within minutes of getting on. Instead, we headed indoors to grab some lunch. Low and behold, the cafe at the resort was selling "Hot Cheesy Chips" - aka poutine! As we were celebrating Canada Day, we simply needed to order it. Unfortunately they were an extreme let down. They tasted so bad that we each only had a few and then threw the rest out. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised by this.

Hot Cheesy Chips for _only_ $12 :S

Nasty 'poutine'

Following lunch, we headed outdoors again to let Matty play in the snow. As a true Canuck (moreso than his parents, we'd say), he absolutely LOVED the snow. On our way out of the park, we drove through Lake Crackenback (a resort area on a lovely lake). We've decided that we will head back there sometime this summer to enjoy some of the outdoor activities they offer (it looked like it could be great fun for our little family).

Base of the ski hill

Snowy Mountain Highway

 

Some of the ski hill

Snow chains which were legally required to drive in the park

Canberra's National Arboretum

Canberra's National Arboretum is a place we've been frequenting quite a bit lately. Stacy heads there often during the day with friends, and we've both taken Matty there for a bite to eat and for a play in the playground. Why do we frequent this place so much you ask? Well, because it's a pretty fantastic place.

First of all, the arboretum offers panoramic views over Canberra, Lake Burley Griffin, and the mountains beyond. The village center itself is a huge spherical-type building, with a soaring ceiling and a wall full of windows. A photo of this place simply does not do it justice. There is also a cafe and restaurant inside where you can order some coffee and food and enjoy it all whilst sitting at a table along the wall of windows overlooking the city. Perfect.

Finally, this place offers THE best playground ever. This "Pod Playground" features banksia cubby houses; acorn-shaped pods at various heights which are connected by rope tunnels and tube slides; and discovery trails and climbing nets. It is simply awesome!

The Arboretum - Photo credit: Brett Boardman

The Village Center - Photo credit: Surface Design

Inside the Village Center - Photo credit: John Gollings

The awesome Pod Playground

Another angle of the Pod Playground

One of the entrances to the playground