Taz's 1st birthday

It's been a while but we are re-entering the blogging world because we have a whole new set of adventures to share as we explore the world through these little eyes.  Since I last posted, we have added a new member to our family - Tasman Petter - an inquisitive, precocious, goofy little kid who loves the outdoors and loves animals (hmm, where does he get that from)?  He turned 1 on June 20th, and we did our best to have a proper celebration.  Our friend Kristie came down from Dubbo to join in the festivities.  We kicked off the party at home with cake and presents (but no birthday hat!)

Not a fan of birthday hats!

 

 
 

Cake was exciting, but despite the appearance of imminent cake smashing in this photo, we did not get much of a cake smash :(

And of course had to share some with Ani - feeding animals turned out to be the theme of the day!

Not quite sure about this opening presents thing...

... so Ani helped him out

...and dad helped, too.

After cake and presents we headed off to the zoo, because what better place is there to celebrate your first birthday!?!  And when you have a friend who works there, it's even better! :)

Always excited to go out on an adventure!

Watching red pandas get fed

Got to feed a bongo...

and give him the stink-face!

Got to feed a zebra

And last but not least, got to feed a giraffe!

All that animal feeding was pretty exhausting!

Taz was a happy chappie all day long, and I think it was a pretty successful first birthday, if I do say so myself!  Only thing that would have made it better is having family there to celebrate with us.

Land Down Under Pride

Australia has some horrendous ads. But when they manage to get it right, they do a fantastic job. They completely tap into that sense of Aussie pride, and even manage to touch a nerve in us ex-pats. There are some good ones coming out with the Olympics, but my favourite is one done by Telstra – I can’t help but smile every time I see it. Check it out here. (I love the footy team and their "do-do-do-do-do"!)

Fixing a vacuum is hard…

…I give up.

(So did we – we just bought a new one).

A relaxing evening at home

Bike Ride to Ocean Grove

Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads. We’ll take the beach.

A top priority when you move is getting to know the lay-of-the-land. And what better way to do that than by biking? Along the beach. To a town 20+ km away. On one of the hottest days of the year. In the middle of the day. (See mom and dad – you aren’t the only ones we make bike at ridiculous temperatures.) So we biked from Torquay to Ocean Grove – past all the kids splashing in the water, past all the people walking their dogs, past all the surfers, past all the girls working on their tans, past all the paddle-boarders. And in Ocean Grove we stopped to fuel up. We missed breakfast by 2 minutes and despite our pleading they refused to make any eggs. So we settled for lunch.

On the way home, with the sun a bit higher in the sky, a fast dip in the ocean was essential. The coolness didn’t last for long with the 100 degree temps, but it felt good while it lasted!

Move over Hasselhoff

Who needs The Hoff? I have my own Baywatch stud! :)

We love dogs

Torquay is much more dog friendly than Sydney, and Ani is loving it!

So are we :)