Friday, July 23, 2010

Summer Fun

We have had a great summer so far!  We have been keeping busy since we got back from Australia.  Tante Angela has been staying with us to watch Rachel while Nanny Carrie is out on maternity leave and we have all loved it.

Rachel has gotten very active these days.  She loves playing in the water and going to the playground.

So much fun in the backyard pool!

She always asks to have more water poured on her head.


Every Sunday, we have to play on the swing and slide at the church before heading home.

Rachel is also getting much better at feeding herself.  She likes to use a fork and can sometimes get food from the plate into her mouth without help.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Last Day in Perth

Before we started the 30-hour trip back home, we had a great final day in Perth.  In the morning, we went to Fremantle and visited Rachel's great-grandmother one more time while Oma was at her school reunion.  Then, we went with Pam to a wildlife park.


Rachel spent some time enjoying the garden in the morning.

Rachel also loved visiting the playground.

Wes enjoyed this playground as well.

We had a great visit with my Oma.

Oma and Pam by a poinsettia tree

Rachel was unsure about the kangaroos at first

But, it did not take her long to get the hang of feeding them out of her hand.




We met a lot of fun animals at the wildlife park.  We stayed until it was time for the park to close.

We had a nice dinner at Trevor's house and left for our midnight flight.  We had a great trip back - Rachel was very well-behaved on all of the flights and the layovers.  We are looking forward to our next trip!

Days 9 through 11 - Road Trip South

Since we have been back from our trip for almost a month, I guess it is about time I finally finished posting about it!  During our week in Perth, we took a great road trip south to Margaret River and the Valley of the Giants.  We visited many vineyards, saw beautiful scenery and also saw plenty of wild kangaroos and emus.

We drove out on Tuesday morning and spent the first night in Margaret River.


We stopped in Bussleton on the way and had lunch.  Rachel had fun checking out the cows in the Margaret River Cow Parade.

We stopped in our first few vineyards and a brewery in the afternoon.

After we checked into our hotel, we watched the sunset on the coast.


The hotel where we stayed in Margaret River was the best of our entire trip.  We were a little sad to leave it behind.  We started Wednesday morning with a nice walk close to our hotel and then drove south, stopping at a few more vineyards and the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse around lunchtime and then heading on toward Walpole.

It was cool on our walk but we still had a very nice time.

Oma took good care of Rachel while Wes and I were tasting wine inside.

Here are Rachel and Oma outside of the lighthouse - behind them is where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet.


Rachel and Oma had a good time in the back seat.

On our final day, we visited the Giant Tingle Tree near Walpole and did the Treetop Walk in the Valley of the Giants.  We got up to 40 meters above the ground!

Walking back to the car from the Giant Tingle Tree


There we are in the treetops

Before heading back to Perth, we stopped at the Conspicuous Cliffs and walked up to the whale watching platform.  We are pretty sure we saw one whale blowspout.  There was a shark attack at this beach a few days before we were there, so we did not venture into the water.