While in Melbourne we took the opportunity to catch up with a number of old friends, most of whom have had children since we last saw them. Although it took him a little while to warm up, Thomas had become fast friends with Gemma by the end of our visit. Here they are enjoying the olympics together. They later had an indepth discussion about the moon and the stars as they gazed out he window together. So cute!

Can I just say how nice it was to be in Australia during the olympics? I would have almost entirely missed seeing the Aussies at their best if I’d been watching the games from Portland. With all the American superstars to watch, the Aussies don’t really get a look in. I loved having the opportunity to cheer them on, even if the TV coverage wasn’t brilliant (my brother complained about that ad nauseum).

The water wall at The National Gallery of Victoria. We had intended to check out the Art Deco exhibit (which looked amazing!), but unfortunately two tired kids (one who had decided to skip his nap) and a gallery full of art lovers don’t really mix. Instead we decided to spare the people of Melbourne and limit ourselves to the foyer, the gallery shop and the water wall.

Kei taught Thomas to hold his hands on the wall with fingers pointing down so that the water didn’t run up his arms.

This was a fun end to a difficult day of walking around the city looking for a place to eat and then a place tofeed the baby and then a place to change diapers. Traveling is definitely not as easy as it used to be but we can always find our own fun – even if we didn’t make it to the exhibit.

We walked up Southbank on the way back to the train and Thomas spent about 20 minutes trying to throw a leaf over the railing only to have the wind blow it back to our side of the fence each time. 20 minutes. See? Who needs world class historical art exhibits? We make our own fun.

I love photos like this – artsy and colourful.

Our first day in Melbourne and we decided to visit the Aquarium. The best thing about traveling to Australia now is that we are always on vacation when we’re there so we don’t mind so much when we have to spend close to $60 to visit the Aquarium (and the kids were free!). OK, so it was a little spendy but it was our very first visit and Thomas loved it.

My favourite part – the jellyfish. Aren’t they spectacular?

The massive oceanarium was also pretty amazing.

But for fabulous photo opps, I will always go back to the jellyfish.

Driving down to Melbourne under the really big Australian sky.

A few photos from around the old homestead (otherwise known as Mum and Dad’s house).

This plant is called a Banksia or Bottlebrush and is uniquely Australian. I have a memory of being stung by a bee when I tried to pull one of the flowers off as a child. Haven’t tried it since.

The old Hill’s Hoist, or clothesline as people under the age of 50 like to call it. These haven’t really taken off in America where they much prefer their clothes dryers. In Australia your house is just not a home without a clothesline.

No matter where we travel there is always a park with a swing and a slide and a boy wanting to be pushed. The only thing that has changed is the bravery of the child, his desire to swing higher and higher and his increased ability to hold on.

Geoff Fisher (Emma, my sister-in-law to be’s father – got that?) is a professional photographer. As a christmas gift to my Mum and Dad he offered to come out and do a special family photo shoot while we were in Australia. I seized the opportunity to take my own photos and, while Geoff’s are bound to be much better, I do have a few favourites from the day.

My two brothers (Benjamin on the left and Jonathon in the middle) with Kei.

Emma and Samuel.

Brotherly/Sisterly love. There are definitely no photo like this from when we were teenagers. 🙂

Geoff doing his thing. Of course he has all the gear and of course I am incredibly envious.

Jonathon and Mum with Samuel.

And there’s Geoff again.. with Samuel. That kid was held by someone pretty much the entire time.

My Dad with Thomas. Not sure what Thomas was trying to tell him.

The Australian Bush. I’m thinking about blowing a couple of these up and getting them framed.

And this one I took of Samuel on the way home. This was before he developed his hatred for the car which is why he not screaming.

An early 3rd birthday party for Thomas. We rarely get to celebrate birthdays as a family now that we live so far away so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make the most of us all being together.

Emma (my brother Ben’s fiancee) and I decided to go all out and make a train cake from the infamous Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake book – the original 30 year old version that I used to look through as a child. Women’s Weekly has released a more recent version and, while very good, it has nothing on the original. Emma and I had so much fun putting the whole thing together and Thomas even helped with the baking and, of course, licking the beaters.

I even made some sausage rolls for the event but I forgot to take a photo of them. For readers of this blog who are not familiar with the sausage roll, it’s basically sausage meat wrapped in puff pastry and is an Aussie staple. Right up there with meat pies and vegemite. The ones I made had sage in them and were delicious. Here’s the recipe I used and this is what they looked like. Delicious!

And here’s the finished cake. Pretty impressive huh? It took a lot of time and effort, and looked like this for about 5 minutes, but I think it was worth it.

And what’s a cake without a picture of the birthday boy blowing out his candles? 

The celebrations actually continued all month and well into the week after we returned home when we celebrated again on his actual birthday – and when Thomas emphatically declared that it was “the best birthday ever!”