Cruisin'

We are still onboard...working our way around New Zealand and having a grand time. We learned FFM is not allowed in the ship's pools, however, which has put a slight damper on the days we are at sea and not in a port (something to do with non-toilet trained children and the filtration system). However he's made a million pals onboard and jogs around giving high fives. Yesterday Travis and I did a tour on our own while Grandma Penny babysat and someone we don't remember ever meeting asked us where our kid was...that's how deep FFM's posse is.

We'll be back with more stories soon, but with internet onboard at US$28/hour the only internet we slow down for is at internet cafes. Expect more news and loads of photos from our trip about Jan 6th or 7th upon our return to Australia!

Around the world we go

We're off again, to rejoin Travis down under. FFM, Penny and I head out of Denver and back to Australia tomorrow evening after a lovely two month visit to the good ole USA. I've eaten Mexican food nearly every day, driven an enormous SUV around for most of the time, and done a great deal of American style consumer shopping.

This flight will be a little shorter, 17 hours of planes plus about 6.5 hours of airports for grand total of about 23.5 travel hours. We're only going as far as Sydney where we'll connect with Travis and hang out for a few days. Then we're all off to New Zealand for two weeks on a lovely family cruise. I've never cruised before and am looking forward to the new experience. Especially now that we have the bed solution resolved for the munchkin that outgrew every pack-and-play known to man.

FFM loves his 'Peapod Plus'

So things may be a little quiet for the next couple weeks....there is internet on the ship but it's pricey. Little fingers got to my camera yesterday and it got smashed...and then replaced today (darling darling husband calmly emailed that yes, a decent camera was immediately necessary) but for a brief moment I thought perhaps there would be no photos of New Zealand to share! Fear not, the traveling Moores continue on.

We hope you and yours all have a safe and happy holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and we hope the New Year finds you all in fine spirits.

You know it's really cold when...

...you run outside to take the garbage out and your nose hairs freeze. Yup, that's when it's really cold. It's frigid, like seriously freezing here. We didn't make it to double digits at all today and at 9am when we got out of the car to go to the doc it was still -2. That's F folks, in C that's about -19. AT 9AM! Not the middle of the night! And in DENVER! Sure, sometimes in those high mountain valleys it gets a little chilly, but it also usually warms up as the sun comes up. By lunchtime I think we made it all the way to about 4F. Balmy!

Meanwhile, Travis reported the thermometer on our back patio got to 99.1F (or 37C) yesterday. He called it 'global temperature parity.' I call it living on opposite sides of the planet and being ready to be done with that. Soon...we'll head out of Denver before the end of the week to connect in Sydney for the next leg of our adventure.

Update - record breaking low of -19F that night. Very very cold.

Feliz Navidad

Who can resist a trip to the (in)famous Casa Bonita when you've got kids. Or if you've got an weird addiction to sopaipillas. Yes, the food is subpar, but the ambiance, the memories, the divers!

For the many of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, Casa Bonita is a theme restaurant to end all theme restaurants. It's endless rooms of Mexican kitsch, unchanged for at least thirty years. There's a waterfall right in the middle of all the hoopla and every ten minutes or so you get a show which might be a damsel in distress, a shoot 'em up cowboy fight, or cliff divers. Mariachi bands stroll, there's a puppet theater, and a spooky cave to wander through. You can peek into wishing well and when you leave every kid gets to pick a treat from a giant treasure chest.

I've never been this time of year, and it's absolutely gorgeous. This Denver landmark gets decked out with twinkle lights, Christmas trees, and nativity scenes. Last year I took FFM to the awesome Botanic Garden light display but due to construction at the garden they aren't doing lights this year. This was almost as good and we didn't get snowed on.

Ryan and Skylar were kind enough to keep us company. We went on a Tuesday night and things were pretty quiet. The kids explored the endless rooms (caves with dripping stalactites, ballrooms with mirrored walls, cafe style balconies overlooking vast courtyards) and managed to find a set of rooms Melinda and I had NEVER EVER seen in all our years (and it's been decades, folks) of going to Casa Bonita. Did you know there's a mine there? Nope, neither did we but you, too, can eat surrounded by timbers and ore carts. Just put up the little flag and you'll get endless sopaipillas down there, too

Visit with Santa 2008

First, a reminder of last year...
what a little cutie!

Ho Ho Ho in 2008.
Really, our kid does smile. It was nearly impossible for the photographer and I to get him to turn around and look at us, he was SO interested in Santa! Santa has big jingle bells on his boots and FFM had some good times with those, too.

Yes, he is indeed a big kid, just turned 17 months in this picture. Is appx 33.5lbs and over 33" tall.

Wish they'd move the tree back to where it was last year...maybe next year!

Giving Thanks

'Tis the season to give thanks for...

funny reindeer antlers that one long armed toddler grabbed at the store and jingled all the way home...Thanks for Thanksgiving dinner with family...Thanks for fireworks in Beaver Creek with Aunt Karen and Uncle Q...Thanks for giant Christmas Trees and huge flakes of snow...

Thanks for birthday celebrations with traditional cherry pie...Thanks for the beginning of Christmas...

Doesn't know his own strength

When he helps grandma unload the dishwasher,

he REALLY unloads the dishwasher.

Mountain Life

Escaping to the mountains before the ski areas open is a lovely thing. Vail opened today but Beaver Creek is still looking a bit bare and you can still snag a parking spot at City Market without any trouble. It's a nice time of year to be here. Sunset earlier this week from the front porch...

Mr. Man is using his height to his full advantage in his new digs. He's learned all the seats in the house he can get into/onto on his own. He has no problem getting down from any of them except the bench, it took a few practice tries to get that one down.

Gosh, is he really only 16 months?

Yesterday we bought a 10 trip punch card to the very nice local rec center and went for a swim. Today we drove west to Glenwood Springs (spotting several bald eagles along the way!) and had a soak in the hot springs there. I guess seeing all the lap swimmers both places inspired FFM who came out of my room this evening with my goggles pressed against his eyes. (This is especially interesting as he's only seen me wear them once, months ago, and he doesn't have any of his own yet.)

He thought it was the funniest thing of the evening, even better than my bout of hiccups.

Official Wedding Pics

For anyone who knows my brother, or who's nosy (OK, interested), here's a link to the official wedding pictures. We're not in many of them, but you might spot Travis, who was part of the wedding party, in a few. I was busy chasing FFM around a lot of the night...

http://www.willoart.com/quentinkaren/

Winter and Fall

Yesterday, FFM learned all about fall...

and made sure to point out all the planes that passed overhead.This morning we all woke up to winter! Good thing I had a snowsuit ready to go and Eric got rid of all the leaves yesterday afternoon. It was only a tiny bit of snow, but enough to make some good tracks in.In between the leaves and the snow there have been many trips on the famous red elephant. This was my elephant when I was about FFM's age. My grandma took me to Woolworth's and apparently I sat down on the elephant and wouldn't get off. Even when we were in the car (this was back before kids had to be in car seats, how did we ever survive?!?!). She's kept it all these years and all kinds of grandkids and great-grandkids have ridden it, but she's never let anyone take it, she's been saving it for FFM.I didn't know/remember this story, but I'll tell you one of my own. We went to a department store in Perth and FFM found a sale table that was covered with a table cloth. Peeking out from under the cloth was a little plastic scooter. He sat down on it and refused to get off. We ended up going home with that little scooter and it's in our backyard in Australia right now. Hmmm...something about the apple not falling far from the tree comes to mind :)

I had really good taste in elephants, she's even got fluffy eyelashes.

Some other news, FFM has his first, first cousin (I've got some cousins we call his cousins since they're close in age). Travis' sister had her baby on election day 11/4 and she's happy and healthy and we can't wait to meet her. It'll be a few months, they're in PA and believe it or not even though we managed to get all the way from Oz to CO it's just not in the cards to make it to PA this trip. Meet Audrey!

And last, but certainly not least, in my long list of catch ups, some wedding pictures from my brother and Karen's wedding. The ones during the day are at the rehearsal picnic. We had a BBQ at a park where there was a little train we could all ride. Then off to rehearse! The night photos were all taken by another guest and I have borrowed them. I was busy keeping FFM from jumping in the pool, tearing down the candles, eating the decorations.....seriously, he was really good.

Meggan Jacks

About a year ago we had a photographer in Phoenix, Meggan Jacks, take some family photos. We don't do 'professional' photos very often so we did a big splurge and found a really great one. We went back to see her again this year and she's posted our album online. It'll be available until Nov 21, after that these instructions won't get you anywhere. Until then, if you want to take a peek go ahead.

Click on the link:
http://www.megganjacks.com/index2.php

THEN, Go to previews

type: moore08 in the password space (that's a zero after our name)

This shoot was tough, FFM is getting so many molars right now he's perpetually crabby. The location was great, it's an arts center with so many different colors and texutres I could have played there all day!

What time is it again?

We're now in mountain time (Colorado) and will be here for about the next month. Whew. It's been a lot of traveling for these Moores lately and we're a bit pooped. I checked in with my overflowing inbox and discovered my return flight now includes a 15 hour layover in LA. I would lament the airlines and random flight changes but it doesn't do anyone any good.

Brother Q's wedding was super duper fantastic and it's great to finally have Karen officially part of the family. The trip from Phoenix to Denver was exciting, I've decided that the length of the flight isn't what makes flying alone hard, it's airports that have rental car shuttles that drop you off three lanes of traffic away from the skycaps and/or rental carts. How exactly am I supposed to get my carseat, two bags, two carryons, and one wiggly boy across that??? After that we were challenged by bag screening that was in a different place from ticketing and of course security. I broke my middle right finger while in Phoenix so I'm further hindered by a gimpy right hand. OK, my little pity party is all over now, we're here and I'm REALLY enjoying my glass of ice cold Colorado water...mmmmmm

Well, the computer says it's 1:48pm Wednesday, my watch says it's 9:48pm Tuesday, my body is pretty sure it's the wee hours of the morning since it only got about four hours of sleep last night. There will be photos soon, and more regular blog posts forthcoming!

A day late and a dollar short

24 hours from now we will be heading out to the airport for our marathon trip home, and this evening is when our 'new' installation of internet finally was completed. Whew. At least Travis will have internet at home while he's sitting here by himself for a month while F and I are gallivanting around CO... after some technical difficulties with our first phone/DSL line our entire order was abruptly cancelled without our consent or notification. To fix this we had to simply start over. Which meant waiting in queue again for 10 business days for an installer to show up between 8am and noon. I just hope it sticks this time.

We've had some fun times lately, a great Halloween party, splashing around at the pool every week, and lots and lots of errands. I'm not quite sure why there are so many errands, but it seems that leading up to any great trip there's just always a lot to do. Today, filling the carryons with snacks!!! and making sure we really do have enough toys to entertain a 16 month old for 30 hours (in case he decides not to sleep for any of it...)

Next week we'll all be in Phoenix for my brother Q's wedding. Yippee! We're excited to see Q and Karen again, it's been since last Thanksgiving and this year F won't spit up on them quite so much. He'll terrorize the cats more, tho ;) Travis' sister is expecting a baby any moment now, probably right when we're in the air and can't get any phone calls telling us it's happening.

Signing off for now, but it's only temporary this time folks.

Gone again

We are offline at home again :(

Back soon I hope. Thank you faithful readers, stay tuned.

You know for sure you're down under when...

We bought bikes this weekend, taking advantage of a killer exchange rate and being quick before retailers get their next orders in with the 'new' pricing. When test riding the bikes a little quirk came to light...pressure on the right brake only will topple you over the handlebars. For those of you who aren't avid riders, that's because the brake cables are reversed from US standards here.

In the US (and as far as I know the rest of the world) when you squeeze the right lever the rear brake grabs slowly bringing you to a safe stop. Here, it's the front brake. Flip city. Good thing to know before taking off down some gnarly bike track (luckily I was gently navigating the parking lot behind the bike shop).

Sunflow

An update from my friend Nancy...order now for holiday gift giving!

The Moon Rises Over Trans-Atlantic Duo -- Sunflow
"Under the Stars" Release for Digital Download

(DUBLIN, Ireland)"Under the Stars" a ten-song collection of lush, sweet melodies to help get to Slumberland, will be available for advance digital download to the press and bloggers globally from October 6.

The new duo, SUNFLOW, is the brainchild of two trans-atlantic songwriters Nancy Falkow(USA) and Fran King(IRELAND). Upon a chance meeting at a train station in Dublin, Ireland, Falkow and King became fast friends due to their mutual musical interests.

A few years and ten timeless tracks later, "Under the Stars" was born.Originally intended as a lullaby album, the songs seemed to take on a life of their own. Drafted in to augment this project was producer, engineer and multi-instrumentalist Duncan Maitland (The Honeybus/Colin Hare), who elegantly and effortlessly brought out the best in each composition.

Having both recently become parents, Falkow and King had searched in vain to find music on the market to equal such time honoured records as Harry Nilsson's classic "The Point" and Carole King’s “Really Rosie.” They then decided to put together an album of their own-- music for parents and children to enjoy together-- and Sunflow shone.

"After I heard Fran's song, 'Eve's Lullaby,' I was inspired to write something for my little girl," explained Falkow. "I would be honoured if kids that hear this, grow up and revisit it with their kids someday."

Sumptuous, warm vocal arrangements rest comfortably on beds of acoustic guitars, strings, and keys. The result is an enchantingly refreshing album that celebrates childhood innocence & parenthood. “Under the Stars” is a must for any new parent, and lovers of songs that brim with melodic harmony! "After listening back to the final masters of this album, I became very aware of the reality that songs and records of this style are almost a lost art," discussed King. "I had Harry Nilsson in one ear, and James Taylor at my shoulder (in my head anyway) with Carole King waxing the melodies--I hope this album inspires listeners as much as it's influences have inspired us."

Fran King, native of Dublin, is a pop/rock artist with an internationally acclaimed debut album (“Beautification”/Head Space Records/2006) already under his belt, and a follow up album "Anywhere but Here" due for release in 2009. Nancy Falkow is a native of Philadelphia (via New Jersey)currently based in Dublin, with three equally melodic albums already in her discography, her last release being the well received, Clear View(2004.)

“Sailing along on an ocean of sound on a ship that's always homeward bound, With you on my shoulders as I hold the wheel, you make every moment, a moment to steal.” - 'Daisies and Orchids' (fran king)

The album will be available to the public digitally via ItsAboutMusic.comand hard copies with lovely artwork will be available from the end of November.

View the video for "I Wish You Love" and be our friend here:http://www.myspace.com/sunflowmusic Thank you for taking the time to download and try not to fall asleep!
*****************************************
More notes from Nancy:
SO if you need the actual disc (which looks fantastic) wait a little bit or pre-order(and it will make a great gift for the holidays or new baby I tells ya!)....but if you can't wait...get downloading!
Go directly here:
http://www.itsaboutmusic.net/catalog/index.php?cPath=434_929 Click DOWNLOAD
OR Pre-order the cd and look at our fancy new page here:http://www.itsaboutmusic.com/sunflow.html

Home (or quick quick before I lose internet again!)

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Local color

In no particular order, and since I keep forgetting to finish taking pictures of the house, some other stuff that we've been doing to distract you.

At the Perth Royal Show (which is extremely similar to the Ekka) FFM rode his first carousel. He's also had his first professional haircut and looks quite dashing but the responsible parent I try to be he's got his hat on to protect his fair little head so you really can't see it.

Here we are having a go feeding some baby farm animals. FFM's response to the animals was quite different than at the Ekka, he was excited and tried to pet all of them, chickens included. I think being able to stand and walk around and away from the animals makes a big difference.


Thanks to Katie for such nice photos! We trooped all through the Royal Show with the Edsalls who all survived and even came away with a few showbags.CRAYONS! Even though the package warns that crayons are meant for 24mos+ FFM is ready for them now. He's in a stage of mimicking everything we do and that includes taking any writing instrument he can reach and trying to scribble with it. After pulling a pen out of his hand for the umpteenth time in a day (he's tall and can reach amazing places, I'm not just leaving pens laying about) I decided there wasn't any reason he couldn't just scribble away with appropriate tools. ooooohhhhh, it was so quiet and he concentrated so much he even forgot to stick them in his mouth.

The weekend before the Perth Royal show we went to a huge park here in the city called King's Park. It's got botanical gardens, a treetop walk, huge wild open spaces, and even a couple of playgrounds. The day we went was so windy the treetop walk was closed, but the spring wildflowers were cooperating nicely and were being very showy. Travis got some nice shots.

Connected

Yahoo! I am CONNECTED again! Being without internet for two weeks is not the end of the world, but being my best mode of communication with family and friends who are scattered on pretty much every continent (except Antarctica, no one's there right now) it's made me miss visiting with everyone.

More to come soon, but it took my blessedly patient husband three hours tonight to get us up and running with a suitable home network :) This after a bit of a saga which included problems with my accent interfering with the automatic computer, mail that we couldn't get to since we had no mailbox key, and two different days sitting and waiting 'between 8-1' or 'between 12-5' for a technician to show up.

Absent

Please excuse my absence - I have no internet connection :( I was in queue to get one and something in the world of installations went awry and now I'm waiting for them to send me something in the mail that I have to send back and then get back in queue again.....

I'm borrowing internet now and promise to be back as soon as possible!

We're moved in, the townhouse is turning out better than expected, and Travis' commute is less than 10 min on foot. It's in a nice neighborhood, it reminds us a bit of my mom's neighborhood in Denver-established, close to some shopping, and light commercial (ie Travis' office).

FFM is walking all the time now and bumping into things all the time, lots of bruises for our little guy and first bloody lip, too. He's loving all his space - he gets a huge room and his very own playroom at the new house. Pictures as soon as all the boxes are gone!

Suds

You know it's time to get out of your dumpy hotel apartment when you arrive home to find that the housekeepers filled the dishwasher with laundry detergent and now your kitchen is full of suds. True story.

U-Turn

Perhaps the obsession with the camera has taken a back seat to the pastime of the moment - bipedal locomotion...

My mom asked for more photos...but only video does this justice.

Special thanks to Leo who really helped FFM gain the confidence that fateful day at swimming school when he led him across the pool deck and then let go...FFM never even noticed and just started trucking along to follow his buddy.

This has all come about really in the last week or so. It's amazing to me how quickly he went from a crawly baby to a toddling toddler. He still crawls, he is very very fast at it, but now most often will crawl to a table or couch to pull himself up so he can walk to where he's going. The downside - he's not as pliable when we carry him anymore and voices his opinion when he's in the stroller and would rather be walking.

Farewell Brisbane

It's a little different scene than when we left Dublin. We felt like we just didn't have nearly as much stuff (which we didn't) and we weren't nearly as tired or bleary eyed. If you took away the two strollers, car seat, and pack and play it was a perfectly reasonable pile of luggage for three people who were moving across country. (our big stroller has it's own suitcase and it's a giant black thing that's taking up 1/3 of the trolley).

We're in a long-stay hotel in Perth right now. It's a bit gloomy but in a nice part of town. We hit the grocery store last night and drove around to look at the outside of some townhouses the relocation agent sent to us last week to get a feel for the neighborhoods. It's nice having a few things ticked off the list already - no new mobile phones this move, the cable is already sorted we just have to call to get our account turned back on when we move in, and we are familiar with the grocery store chains and how to navigate them.

Already it seems Perth is not quite the pedestrian city inner Brisbane or Dublin was, FFM and I will be adjusting to life with a car as our plan is that Travis will find his own way to work by bus/train/bike/foot or some combination thereof. Something new for everyone!

In kiddo news, FFM is a true toddler, wobbling his way between walls and furniture all over the place. Last week he started taking more than just a couple of steps at a time between T and I, and just a few days ago he started letting go of furniture and taking off on his own. We've stopped counting the number of consecutive steps, and now count how far he goes in yards (or meters). He thinks his new perspective is hilarious and toddles along laughing uproariously along the way.

On my last full day in Brisbane Mom finally let me pet a kangaroo

Oh my, he was much more excited about this than the photo shows.

We took a boat cruise to the koala sanctuary with Sara and Cooper. The boys were pretty rowdy on the way there.

Sara knows just how to pet the kangaroos, she's a kangaroo whisperer.And lastly some snippets from this weekend's Riverfire - a purely decadent event where Brisbane puts on a fireworks show just for the fun of it.

Cooper's family and our friend Leo (and his parents) came for a visit. FFM was pretty happy to have his buds around.

The city buildings get all 'decked' out with nifty lights for the event.

The scope of these fireworks was amazing, there's a giant horseshoe bend in the river where we live, and we could see the THREE barges of fireworks in front of us (I only catch one in the video) AND the barges across the city on the river on the other side of the horseshoe. Fireworks are shot off of two bridges and the tops of the city skyscrapes. The show starts and ends with an F111 fighter jet screaming through the city doing a fuel dump which leaves a streak of flame across the sky. I caught a tiny bit of it in the video (which is the end of the show but I posted first since it's the better one and if you're only going to watch one watch that one. However to get the idea of the true breadth and scope you've really got to see the second one). Make sure you've turned the volume down, these are a bit loud.