Did we do the haircut?

I've got a few pictures from this month to share with friends who have asked. For Katie, and others, who have asked about the haircut. Yes, we did a fringe/bangs trim and probably should hack away at the rest of it soon. We swallowed hard, it's difficult for us brunettes to part with all that silky blond hair, and a couple weeks ago did a pretty awful job of trimming FFM up. He does look much better, though, and it's nearly creepy how much he looks like T as a toddler. Color is all wrong, but for YEARS T had the same hair cut that we just gave FFM. The first day after the cut I got the willies and I've only seen it in pictures! Hopefully Penny can scan an old photo of Travis sometime this summer and I'll post it.

Before:

After:

And for Deborah, who's been posting some great swinging shots of her own, we finally found a toddler swing here. All the local playgrounds only have 'half' buckets, with a chain across the one side, so we don't do much swinging anymore. Sometimes we'll put FFM in backwards, with the chain to his back, so he can swing without sliding out, but it's not really stable enough to really get a good swing in. We went up to Redcliffe this weekend, a northern coastal 'suburb' of Brisbane, and they have a playground every km or so along the beach. Every single one had a proper bucket swing. Yahoo-eeee!

Going for a stroll. He can't get enough of this these days. The wagon gets a heavy workout.And just for Travis (who really likes that sort of thing,AND he's the one who remembered to take a picture, AND this isn't just my blog after all you know). This is what the first day of winter looks like in Brisbane. Winter solstice here was June 21, when most of you were having your summer solstice. It was a gorgeous day. You see me wearing jeans, but it's mostly to give my summer clothes a break since I've been wearing them since we moved here. It's still in the 70s most days, although it does get down to the 50s or sometimes 40s at night. Lovely, lovely weather, I'm enjoying winter :)

Quote

Quote of the week from T:

"You know when people ask us the best advice we can give new parents? We should tell them to get their company to rent them apartments for the first few years so when they get messy you can just move."

This as we are having family dinner and the table, tile floor and all grout, sliding glass door, and all three of us are covered in veggie pasta. We are also remembering the polka dotted milk spit up floors, rugs, sofa, etc in the last apartment....

Fraser Island

And we're off again! To Fraser Island this past weekend. Notable for being the world's largest sand island, this UNESCO World Heritage Site was something I really needed to see for myself. So I dragged FFM and Travis along and off we went. It's about 4 hours north of Brisbane plus a short ferry ride. There are no paved roads on Fraser, so you are required to have a 4x4 for any travel around the island. Boy did we learn why! On Saturday Travis was tickled pink to rent a 4x4 pickup and bump all around the island. And it was bumpy!

'Camping' and hiking last weekend, off roading this weekend, we are truly feeling like we're getting back to our roots. It was good for us to get out of the city and into our element - especially during our long discussions about upcoming job choices for T.

Some of the sights of Fraser...it really is a big island, we only covered a tiny bit of it! The entire thing is sand, now covered by trees and vegetation, but no rock or coral anywhere. Just one giant sandbar.

Lake McKenzie, one of the larger lakes on the island, is a "perched lake". One of the really interesting things about Fraser Island is that there's freshwater on it. How does the water now just slip through the sand you ask? Well, some plant material clogged up the sand and made it less permeable so the water stays in the lake. Being a freshwater lake you get the best of all worlds: no salt + nice beach. Travis showed FFM how best to touch the water, explaining that you can't just look at a body of water, you really need to touch it if at all possible. The water was wet, but not very cold.

Our next lake, Lake Wabby, was pretty cool, too. It's the only lake on the island to have any fish in it and it's a window lake. Window lakes start when a depression in the earth is lower than the water table, causing the water to pool. To top it off it's also a barrage lake, which is a lake formed by a sand blow blocking in a depression. All these funky lakes are another of the reasons Fraser Island is a World Heritage Site. Here's the sad part about Lake Wabby, the sand blow/dune is moving in on the lake at a rate of about a meter a year, so in a few decades the lake will be gone. What's going to happen to all those fish? Bummer this is the ONE lake they ended up in. (Side note, all this fresh water flows to the sea in some nifty sand filled creeks that you can wade or tube down if you go on a hot day. It was nice the day we were there, probably about 65F, but a little chilly for splashing around if you ask me.)

Family self-portrait at Lake Wabby. Dontcha just want to pinch those cheeks?

Wreck of the Maheno on Seventy -five Mile Beach (which I hear is really only 65 miles/100km but either way it's a LOOOONNNGGGG beach). In the early 1900s it was a luxury liner, then a hospital ship in WWI. After the war it was sold to Japan for scrap, but during a cyclone (a clockwise hurricane for you northern hemisphere folks) the tow rope broke and the ship grounded on the beach. After a number of attempts to dislodge it, they gave up and just left it. It was used for air force target practice in WWII. There are perhaps 5 decks below the sand and less than two above.

This is our off-road limo, a Toyota Hilux running on distillate (diesel). Note the snorkel above the hood (looks like a seal looking at Travis), which takes air into the engine above blowing-sand level. We strapped FFM's car seat in the back and took off. He loved it and took several naps on severely bumpy roads. This is on Seventy-five Mile beach again. It is a sort of freeway/runway with 4x4s driving up and down and planes landing and taking off. Speed limit is 80km/h, you must follow all normal road rules (including using your indicator/turn signal), and cars have to yield to planes. Seriously.

Sand formation called The Pinnacles. This is baby sandstone in the making and has over 75 distinct shades of sand in the pile. We did not stop to count them but you'll just have to trust the 4x4 guy who told us we should check it out.

Driving home on the beach.

We did see ONE Dingo, Fraser is famous for them, and as we were watching the sun set after our bumpy day one wandered across the beach down below us.

Official Statement

A very official sounding statement from T regarding current job/moving news:

"I just wanted to let you know that I have declined the job on the B&V Chile project. After due and careful consideration of many factors, Maggie and I found that the needs of the project and client are not the best fit with the needs of our little family.
Not sure what will be next after Bundamba, but I will begin sniffing around Australia for a new job."
Travis

On the trail again

We celebrated the Queen's birthday (and thus a long weekend for us Queenslanders) by beating a path to the great outdoors. Instead of making tracks for the coast we headed inland, to the 'bush.' Our destination was Carnarvon Gorge National Park, about a day drive from Brisbane.

The wildlife was unbelievable. The kangaroos and wallabies were everywhere, we actually started paying attention to the kangaroo crossing signs. Once we arrived at our 'camp' there were kangaroos grazing between all the cabins, too.
Starting out in the hike up the gorge. There were a total of 10 stream crossings before our destination, the Aboriginal Art Gallery, about 5.5km upstream.
Taking a snack break. FFM enjoyed the hike, he isn't bothered at all by being WAY up high on Travis' back. This is a nice thing for me, while I end up carrying all the stuff (and it's way more than when it was just the two of us hiking, we have to pack nappies and entire spare outfits now!) my pack, while much larger and heavier than before, is still lighter than carrying FFM. Having a little nap.
We made it! It was definitely worth it, this is just a small bit of the gallery. On the way back down we did a side hike to the Moss Garden, complete with waterfall and tree ferns which are unchanged since dinosaur times. See, I went on the hike, too.

Hiking takes a little longer now, having a little person along affects distance/time in the great outdoors just like everywhere else. We were pleased to get in a good 12k hike in before meltdown began. We take more breaks and T's hips were a tad sore from carrying heaps of extra weight.

Our lodging/camp. It's a canvas tent with wood floor. The posts you see are holding up a tin roof that keeps rain from rotting the canvas roof. There's also a little wood veranda so you can sit outside and watch for wildlife.I've stayed in a similar style place before, but this was a first for the boys who had a blast exploring.
It was really a great time, we've missed getting out into the woods and hiking, even if the woods are interspersed with palms and ferns. We saw more wildlife than we've seen the entire time we've lived here, it was just like going to to the zoo except the animals really were wild. Kangaroos, wallabies, an echidna (they're really shy and we spotted 2!), kookaburra birds, at least three kinds of parrots- even some that look like giant parakeets. Not to mention the yellow crested and very noisy cockatoos, bush turkeys, and one bright yellow snake that I tried very hard to ignore.

The link for the echidna actually takes you to a page about Monotremes, which is a fancy biology word for mammals that lay eggs. Everyone knows about the platypus and echidnas are actually the same type of mammal. So when trivial pursuit asks you for the mammal that lays eggs you can answer platypus OR echidna and be right.

I feel a little rushed getting these photos up, but we're headed out again this weekend and I didn't want to get too far behind. Off to Fraser Island tomorrow which is the largest sand island in the world. What are we doing there? Renting a 4x4 and driving all over it of course!