House/yard tour and other fine stories

Well, we've been at the new house in Ocean Grove almost two weeks now and are feeling very settled in now. I've done a house and yard tour of our place via video, so you can check those out on YouTube here:

House tour
Yard tour

The weekend of January 24th was a 3-day weekend here in Australia (as in Barry didn't have to work), as Monday, January 26th was Australia Day. We spent the weekend exploring Ocean Grove and the surrounding area in our little loaner ("clown") car.

On Saturday we went to Barwon Heads, which is a town 3 km from Ocean Grove. There is a great playground right on the beach there and the beach is at the mouth of the Barwon River, so the water is beautiful and very calm. It was a pretty chilly day (for us), so we didn't swim, but we did walk along the water to get our feet wet. The playground is a great one, with many unique things, so we'll be heading to that one often!

On Sunday, we went to Mass in Geelong at St. Mary of the Angels Basilica and then went to morning tea after Mass. We met a nice gentleman that has lived in the area all of his life (at least 70 years if I had to guess). After that we went down to the waterfront as Geelong was celebrating their annual Festival of Sails. They were offering free sailing, so we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately it was for 7+ (yes, Kiernan is 6, but only for a couple more weeks), so Lydia couldn't go. Barry, Hannah and Kiernan filled out the paperwork and got their life jackets on. Lydia and I stood on the boardwalk to watch and got the camera (with telephoto lens) prepared. They were waiting on the beach for quite a while and the wind was picking up.

Geelong Festival of Sails, January 25, 2015

Sadly, when the sailboat came to shore to pick them up the staff decided it was time to cancel for the day as the winds were too strong. They were afraid that the sailboat would flip over. Wouldn't that have been an exciting/scary story to tell?! We'll just have to try sailing on a less windy day.

Sunday afternoon/evening we went to a BBQ at Tim and Leah's house. Barry works at CSIRO with Tim. They have three children. Their youngest is just a year older than Hannah, so they had a lot of fun hanging out. The most popular thing to do was jumping on the trampoline. All three of our kids left there worn out! Tim and Leah's children are very musically talented, so there was some piano playing by their oldest, while all of the other kids sang. He could play anything I requested from memory. Amazing!! A few other colleagues of Barry's were also at that BBQ, so it was nice to meet them. Tim and Leah prepared an amazing amount of food and the desserts were amazing. Leah made pavlova, which was perfect. She also served frogs in the pond for the kids (Jell-O with chocolate frogs), mini cupcakes, lamingtons, and Tim Tams. The lamingtons were complete with Australian flags in honor of Australia Day. Such a fun evening!

Tuesday evening Hannah and I went to the Ocean Grove Toy Library. It's a toy lending library and is perfect for people like us who didn't bring many toys with us. There's a small membership fee and then we can check out three toys at a time. We came home with a Little People Princess Castle (huge hit), a Duplo train and track, and some kind of building gadgets. It's been great to have some "big" toys around here.

Wednesday morning the kids and I went to the Ocean Grove Library for Toddler Time. It was definitely a happening place. They do about 10-12 little rhyming songs and a couple of fast paced stories, so that the toddlers never get bored. Lydia was a bit off about the whole thing (too many new people I think) and then she threw a huge tantrum when we left, but we'll try again soon. I did meet another mom there who had a 3 year old and a 6 month old. She gave me information about a playgroup that we plan to check out on Friday. That evening we had reservations at The Dunes Cafe here in Ocean Grove. It's a great place on the beach for dinner. The waves were about 5 feet that evening, so we watched surfers while we dined. Food was excellent!

The kids and I enjoy going on walks up to the business district, as there are a number of shops to explore, etc. We also love the park that's on our walk. It has a small walking trail and plenty of good equipment. We've had a few knocks on the door from neighbors saying hello and the kids have met lots of kids on our street. We live on a dead-end street, so all of the kids play in the street (it's very common here). The neighbor kids have been really great about sharing their scooters with our kids.

Ocean Grove Park

Lydia climbing at Ocean Grove Park

Rainbow lorakeets in our backyard

Rainbow lorakeet holding a leaf

Point Lonsdale (near Ocean Grove)

Thursday morning we woke up to more Huntsman spider excitement. I went down to start laundry and noticed there was a spider between the screen and glass again. Thankfully some gentle banging on the screen and that one headed off, but much to my horror I went upstairs to the family room and noticed one on the wall. Yes, inside the house! I had seen a video about vacuuming them up, so that's what I suggested Barry try to do. That way you don't have to kill it and you can release it from the canister outside. It worked!! Sorry, no video or photos....I was just too freaked out! And fortunately I've now met a neighbor who doesn't mind getting rid of them. We think that one was already in here and now that we are monitoring windows/screens more we won't find anymore. Wishful thinking? Maybe.

This weekend the weather was similar to last weekend. It's been about 65 degrees for a high, so it's pretty cool in the morning and doesn't warm up enough to go swimming in the ocean. We've been told that February is much warmer, so we'll see! We've been loving the cool temps. Friday I made one of our favorite Friday meals...quiche and fruit salad. It's nice to have some meals that feel like home.

Quiche and fruit salad...feels like HOME

We spent Saturday in the business district of Ocean Grove, with a walk to the beach to see the surfing competition for kids that was being held there.

Our view during our Saturday walk

On Sunday we went to Mass at the local Catholic Church. It was quite rainy so we weren't sure if we were going to be able to do anything outside, but after Lydia's nap it cleared up and we went to the Jirrahlinga Koala and Wildlife Sanctuary, in nearby Barwon Heads. Jirrahlinga is a non-profit organization that provides a place for animals that are rescued and need rehabilitation. They then release many of the animals back to the wild. It was a gorgeous little place with so many amazing Australian animals! We saw koalas, birds, wombats, reptiles, kangaroos, bats, quolls, and so much more. Everything was clean and we could get very close to many of the animals. My favorite was the koalas. I could watch them all day. Amazing creatures! Can't wait to spot these guys in the wild. There are many places not too far from here that are promising places to spot them.

Jirrahlinga Koala and Wildlife Sanctuary

Echidna, Jirrahlinga Koala and Wildlife Sanctuary

Kangaroo mum and joey, Jirrahlinga

Hannah and Kiernan, making friends with some local kangaroos

Lydia studying the kangaroos 

Koala eating eucalyptus

Wow! This post was long, but I don't want to forget anything we've done, so I've got to document it all here.Watch for a blog post from Hannah later this week with all the new Australian words we've learned.

Sarah