Happy New Year

Yesterday we ventured to the other side of Sydney, taking my good friends visiting from the states, to Bondi Iceburgs for lunch. The view was amazing and the weather was fantastic. We rang in the new year with a few friends last night and are off to the beach today to enjoy some more of the beautiful Aussie summer. Wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2009. -kel

One of My Favorite Aussie Traditions

Paddle Pops following an afternoon at the beach! Luca with his cousins Corey and Emilly -kel

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve we hosted a dinner with Mark's family, some friends and our guests from the US. A big turkey, tons of food and lots of laughs. Happy to hear about the white Christmas for my family in the states, but even happier to take a dip in the ocean yesterday afternoon! We both have the next two weeks off, our plans currently consist of more food, more friends, lots of cricket and time at the beach! Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Here are some photos from the festivities! -kel

Party Animal

Yesterday we hosted a 2nd birthday party for Luca complete with baby animal farm. At first we thought we might have been going over the top a bit, but after an hour and a half and 12 kids thoroughly entertained we knew we had made the right choice. The baby animals (guinea pigs, ducks, chickens and bunnies) were a huge hit. Luca and his friends enjoyed the party and after a week of solid rain, we were lucky enough to have a bright sunny 100 degree day to enjoy the festivities. It was an exciting day yesterday, Luca said thank you in many ways, but the best thank you of all came this morning when Mark, Luca and I all slept until 8 AM, a first in two years! Our little man is growing up. Six weeks until his life is turned upside down and he becomes a big brother. Somehow I think this might mean another two years until we sleep in again!-kel

Santa 2008

Our annual Santa visit in the city turned out to be a great day with a few unexpected twists! After a morning of talking about Santa, looking at last years photo and saying Ho Ho Ho we were all looking forward to the visit. Neither Mark nor I ever thought we would have our photo taken with Santa again however, after we saw the total and complete look of fear in Luca's eyes when we got to see Santa the only photo option was a family shot. The team at David Jones was amazing, an although he looks happy as can be in this shot the real Christmas miracle was that we didn't leave with a tear stained photo! He was clinging to Mark and I like his life depended on it but after a little coaxing and some funny antics from Santa's Elves we got one smiling photo! After we left Santa was still on his mind and he hasn't stopped mentioning it since. While it was a bit hectic, he actually seemed to enjoy the experience. Now we'll see how he goes next year! -kelly

Deuce

We've been trying to get Luca to understand that it's his special day all week and not his mate Sean's whose birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I think he finally understood today, well I know he did, when I came home from work the first thing he said to me was "happy birthday Luca".

We love the little guy so much it is so great to see him a bit puzzled by getting gifts but generally being so happy with each one that we have to ply it away before he will open another one.

Our boy is nearly 2!

This year has gone very quickly. I was playing with Luca this morning and he was entertaining me with a duck hand puppet, this time last year that was one of his favourite things, the difference being I was doing the entertaining and he was the audience. Luca at North Curly

Apple Cup! Winless Season!

Do I really need to say more? Not really but without overdoing it I did like the start to this news story and thought it deserving of mention on Sunburned Feet...

"PULLMAN -- Outside Martin Stadium, where Cougars fans were still frolicking Saturday afternoon as if they'd just clinched a Rose Bowl berth, one Washington State student jumped into another's arms and yelled, "This is the greatest day of my life!"

Happy frolicking Coug fans!

Have a great day.

- M

Northern Rivers - wrapping up (days 3 & 4)

We could get used to this sleeping-in thing, especially when followed by a swim and a walk to get pancakes and coffee. The only energetic thing we did on day three was to get a couple of bikes from the hotel and cruise around the beaches and drop in on a few open houses. A super chilled day. The highlight was our only fancy meal of the trip at Finns - Kelly's friend from work had raved about this place and it was good.

Day 4. Our last hurrah! After a swim we checked out of the hotel and as we had some time to kill before flying home we decided to get on the road to Bangalow again - it was market day in the town. We really had expected a small farmers type market. No, no, wrong! This thing was big and it was hopping. The hippies had come into town from their mud huts and there were some crusties to be seen, there were also some pretty high fashion couples, bikies, in all a bit of a miss-mash but great people watching. The markets were also superb.

We were gone for four days but it seemed like a lot longer. We will be back up to this part of the country again for sure. We missed Luca a ton and as soon as we got on the Rockstar to fly back to Sydney we were both impatient to see him.

Northern Rivers - small townin' (day 2)

We were sort of excited about getting to sleep-in these holidays so we rolled out of bed at 9:30. Kel headed off to the Spa for some pampering and I went for a waddle on the beach - I definitely bit off more than I could chew and ended up nearly keeling over and had a forty minute walk back along the beach to where we were staying.
Some funky big houses in the area around the hotel so we did a bit of exploring and after lunch decided to chance it with a trip out to the hinterland to visit a small town called Bangalow. Jackpot! Bangalow was great, what Byron should be. Lot's of original small town character, unbelievably cool shops and some nice art work. We ended up spending hours wandering around.

It was pretty warm out in Bangalow although not one word of complaint from my heavily pregnant wife, she is definitely a trooper. It was time to get back to the beach and the pool. I needed to cool off and give myself some time to think about what to put on the line with this years Apple Cup bet - I was feeling confident!

Northern Rivers - beachin' (day 1)

It's bittersweet leaving the little guy for 4 days but after a short trip on Rockstar we we're feeling the warmth. The sun is out, the skies are blue, Kelly is hitting her fourth Australian state (Queensland) and turning 31 all at once.

We jump into the rental and wave good bye to the Gold Coast as quickly as we can, heading for the NSW border and a slower pace. We make a quick stop to view the Miamiesque skyline of Surfers Paradise and are more than happy with our decision not to hang around.

We spent the morning checking out the northern NSW coast culminating in a lunch time stop in Byron Bay. Some beautiful beaches and disconcerting warning signs "brown snakes are prevelent in this area" are the highlights. Byron has only gotten bigger and more bustling since I was here in 1998, the beach is still beautiful however and the view from the lighthouse headland spectacular. After a quick bite we headed back north along the coast to find our hotel and for once it lived up to the promise of the brochures. We took a dip in the massive pool and spent some time lounging around and reading (these activities were repeated numerous times over the next three days). We drove to a nearby small town (Kingscliffe) for dinner and ran into the gnarliest looking line of black clouds I have ever seen. By the time we had our food and were in the car the storm had let loose. We had about 5 miles to drive but it was pretty scary with the sky pitch black except when interupted by crazy lighting and thunder all the while it was raining sideways. Glad to be back in the hotel that night.

The Race That Stops A Nation

A public holiday in half the country and it may as well be in the rest of the country. The Melbourne Cup is a BIG deal down here.

For Luca just a chance to hang out with his friends an extra time this week and get an ice cream cone as a special treat. Almost as good as winning the trifecta!

My name is Luca and I live at Curl Curl

We've had a few hectic weekends in a row getting the driveway/front fence project close to completion and it seems like everything else has stopped. We made sure we took a little time out last Sunday to explore the headland at the local beach and have some fun togther. It was a fun time even though the weather turned a bit sour just as we were leaving (after a weekend of sunshine and hot weather - always the way).

Last week was also eventful for Luca who made us proud by confidently saying his name at art & moves. He gets invited to do this every week by the teacher and after about eight months of invitations he finally told the lady that he was Luca Ferguson. Our little boy is growing up.

progress

We are slowly making progress on the front yard. The new wall is in, the driveway has been laid, the gates will be here this week and this weekend Mark and his dad built two new raised beds inside the wall. Luca was right into the action loving every second of the construction, lending a "helpful" hand wherever he could! -kel

Fishy Weekend

It was a three day weekend in Australia and it rained almost the entire time. Needing a little out of the house adventure we headed to the Sydney Aquarium on Sunday morning. We enjoyed all of the fish the Great Barrier Reef exibit was our favorite. As per usual Luca kept us laughing...in the shark encounter (underwater walkway with HUGE sharks and sting rays swimming all around us) Luca saw another visitor through the glass and started shouting and pointing "man, man, man" here we had taken him to the Aquarium all we apparently needed to do was take him to anywhere he could point at people and yell for entertainment. Needless to say we got a few funny looks! When we got home Luca had to practice his swimming like the fish, the pool being too cold he headed for the bath. -kel

Summer (almost)

We are not there yet but when you get spring days in the 30'sC it seems like summer. We spent our first few hours this morning at Curly beach pool, a place we are going to get to know well this summer! Luca is loving the water much more than last year already.

Wobbegong Sharks

Yesterday Luca's nanny took him and his friend to a local beach where the Sydney Aquarium was releasing Wobbegong Sharks into the wild for the first time. When we got home from work there was lots of fish talk and some grubby boys who had spent the morning at the beach on a windy spring day. Australian news covered the shark release and the boys are pictured in their double stroller for about 3 seconds during the story. http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/ (Search for Success for Shark Breeding Program to view the story.)

buba

As my belly is quickly growing we’ve been talking to Luca about the new buba (buba in Aussie lingo is an endearing term for baby). This morning Mark caught this photo of Luca giving the new buba a kiss. In reality the poor little man has no idea what the new buba is going to mean to him, let’s hope the terrible two’s don’t hit at the same time! -kel

Baby Cino

We were up early this morning (5:30 AM alarm from Luca...UP....UP...UP) out the door and running errands. After a stop at my favorite French bakery and quick chat with a few cows in a local pasture we were off for coffee, juice and Luca's first baby cino (steamed milk with a dusting of chocolate). A cold and wet Saturday in Sydney, this afternoon we're cuddled up in our trackies watching the Olympics splitting the cheers between the US and Australia. Wishing you all well. -kel

bye bye ugly hedge

It's been a busy winter around 45 Bennett. Last weekend we took out the hedge/noxious weed in the front of our house. This weekend it was all about trench digging to pour the fittings for our new rendered wall with gate! Mark, his dad and Luca's godfather (the master builder who built our house) did most of the work. Mark's mom and I "helped" Luca help daddy (we kept him out of the way) as these days whatever daddy is doing Luca is doing. The highlight of Luca's day was the concrete truck in our yard, you should have seen his smile, ear to ear! Had to put a stop to the help yesterday when Luca got distracted and started eating the concrete! Only a few more weeks and we'll be finished. I'll be sure to post some "after" photos, here is a shot of my boys hard at work. -kel

3 + 1 = 4

Mark, Luca and I are excited to announce we are expecting a new addition to the family arriving in late January. Here is the first photo shoot, legs were kicking like crazy during the ultra-sound.

A Day In Tigertown!

I haven't converted Kel to football fanaticism but she at least pays attention to how the Tigers are going and when they return to their spiritual home for a game at Leichhardt Oval she is as keen as my dad and I to go.

A great sunny winter day, Luca off having fun with his Australian Grandma so we were off to the footy. My dad showed Kelly and I the house that he spent his first eleven years in (and it hasn't changed a bit!).

A full house of Tiger fans urging them on our team had a great win over the competition leaders. A few beers at the Leaguesy on the way home to complete a fun day.

And the next day all three of us were on the front page of the sports section of the main Sydney newspaper ... albeit along with a section of about 400 others in the crowd. I'll take my fame wherever I can get it.

Luca Lingo Lesson #1

Some of you may remember my Aussie Lingo Lessons. Well now that I have an 18 month old I thought I would post a little Luca Lingo Lesson, those I have desipered and those I haven’t…if you understand those I haven’t, please please let me know!

The words we understand:
More – Give me more of what I want NOW
Shuuuuzzzz – Shoes (currently the most adorable black and white slip on Vans)
Tst – Toast
UP – Pick me up out of my cot now, usually yelled from his crib
SHHHHH – Sleeping time, the traditional shhhh noise including the finger held up over his lips
Duckduckduckduck – Duck
Bol – Ball
Ish – Fish
LuLuLu – Luca this is what he says when you ask him his name
Mummy – Please give me more food now

Yet to be determined:
Daaadlea
Whowhowho
Woah

Some how I think this is the first of many lingo lessons, can’t you imagine a lesson when he is 16 using words like sick to talk about something cool?

Cheers - kel

Look, up in the sky

Is it a bird? (quite possibly) Is it a plane? (most likely)



Luca's new found passion for pointing out birds and planes got a workout this morning with a trip to Rosebery to check out a fabric printing business that Kelly had long wanted to visit - right in the flight path to Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport. The planes were flying low and flying often.

We were supposed to be going up the coast this weekend but a mix up by the agents saw the place double booked so we tried to make the most of it at home by visiting a few favourite places and places we have wanted to go to for ages.

We also had fried chicken ... a surefire way to make any weekend special!

Luca

Fall

Amazingly the water is still warm and the sun making regular appearances. It’s Fall in Sydney, the days are shorter, the wind is cooler, the leaves are falling but we’re still at the beach. Have I mentioned how much I love living here? Mark and Luca at Freshie on Sunday. -kelly

Home sweet home

I arrived home from Paris on Wednesday morning. Paris is about 30 hours of travel from Sydney, a long long way away. Seeing Mark and Luca was fantastic, I think Luca grew taller while I was gone. He also mastered “Ut-Oh”, officially his first word. He says it and he knows what it means, the funny thing is that is the only word he knows, so he says it over and over and over. While I was gone Mark and Luca had some serious boy time, lots of footy, beer drinking and hanging out in their PJ’s. Mark, being the great dad that he is, taught Luca about gardening, the environment and water conservation. In other words it’s fun to pick up leaves and put them in the compost and watering from the watering can once each day is plenty. Here is apicture of Luca at the garden workbench playing in the buckets and dirt. Seems like someone might have a bit of a green thumb like his grandpa and daddy….-kel

Les Deux Moulins

Today was a beautiful cold sunny day in Paris. I started my morning in Montmarte where I looked up at Basilique du Sacre-Ceour as I sipped my morning café latte. After walking to the top of Sacre-Ceour, I explored the Montmarte quarter most of the morning, stopping for coffe at Les Duex Moulins, the café where Amile was a waitress. The café was very hip, surprisingly not very touristy and had fantastic atmosphere. With the sun shining in the windows and the French pop playing in the background I felt like I could have been a customer in the movie. After a ham a cheese crepe I was off to explore Euproe’s largest market, Marche auz Puces de St-Ouen. The antiques were amazing, all much to big for me to take home! I then headed via the metro to the Opera house where I explored the side streets to Place de la Madeline, then down to the Rue De Rivoli, across from the Louve where I strolled for hours in and out of shops, cafés and little courtyards. It was a fantastic day, my feet were dead tired from hours and hours of walking, after an early dinner I was sound asleep by 8:30! Tomorrow the rain is expected to be back, I will be off to explore Maris! –kelly

Sprinkles, showers, downpours…

It rained all day yesterday, I experienced Paris in just about every kind of rain in a 12 hour period. I stayed pretty dry with my umbrella, hat, scarf and long coat however my feet were another story they were soaked! I stuck mostly to a few shopping areas I wanted to see including Le Bon Marche (a very famous department store), Le Epicurean (amazing grocery store) and the Rue de St. Germaine. I had a afternoon coffee at Café de Flore, a famous hangout of Hemingway and a light dinner of French onion soup (fantastic) at a café across from Notre Dame. While it did rain most of the day, at abut 6:30 PM the skies parted and I was able to capture a few great pictures of Les Invalides during a long evening stroll. Au revoir –kelly

Bonjour from France

I've been in Paris this week for work and am staying over the weekend to see the sites, do some shopping and fill up on as many croissants as possible! Here are a few photos of the sunrise from my hotel room this morning, still suffering from Jet Lag I was up very early. My hotel is in Montparnasse, out my window I over look the Cimetiere du Montparnasse. It's a cold day today, about 38F and raining...but it's Paris, so I love it cold or not! -kel

Happy Easter

Luca playing with his new wooden lighthouse courtsey of the Easter Bunny. It's a nice warm day in Sydney today, we've had a quiet Easter this year enjoying time together over a nice long weekend. We wish you all a very Happy Easter. Cheers -kel

oh the joys of dinner time!

Going South: Coonawarra & back to Melb (Feb 20-23)

Out of Port Fairy we made good time to the South Australia border. We got out of the car to take the obligatory tourist pic "You are now entering South Australia" and parked next to a herd of cows. To date we had seen a lot of cool animals on this trip, both native and non-native, but it was the cows that Luca loved, we got back in the car and he was mooing - funny. We followed the coast all the way to Port MacDonnell (saw some emu's and kangaroos running/hopping along next to us as we drove along) then headed straight up to Penola (Coonawarra) through Mount Gambia (which aside from poor road signage has an amazing blue lake).


Coonawarra is a renowned red win area in Australia, something to do with the thin layer of terra rossa soil on a limestone base. The wine area is relatively small and low key but everything is very accessible, the people at the cellar doors very friendly and there were some beautiful old buildings at most of the wineries. A good mate of mine, Dave Ronson, is the GM of a big wine producer in Australia and they have a winery in Coonawarra so we were set up on a tour of the Brands winery. It was great, we learned a ton - thanks David. Some great wine and generally a good time and again Kelly booked a real winner for accomodation in the town of Penola.


After Coonawarra we headed back to Melbourne with a night in Ballarat. We spent our last night in Melbourne staying on Chapel St which is the shopping capital of the country. Kelly had a great time checking out the stores but I know she could have spent more time there if Luca and I weren't with her. We checked out downtown Melbourne - which is so busy even on the weekends and has some great arcades and reno's of old buildings and finally headed out to the airport to catch the flying Kangaroo home. The end of an awesome adventure.

Cheers all.

Going South: The 12 Apostles (Feb 19)

The morning ritual on this trip of a coffee and a pastry behind us we headed away from the windy roads into the Ottway National Park. We drove through some great forests to get to our first stop Cape Ottway Lighthouse. The Lighthouse was cool, some great views and some awesome old buildings. We explored around for a while but were careful to stay on the trails as there were signs warning that "snakes are active at this time of year". On the way out of national park we saw two colonies of koala's in trees just off of the road - this was the first time in all my years (and that is saying something) that I have seen a koala in the wild. They were so close and there were half a dozen of them.


Then onto the 12 Apostles - totally spectacular. You see them in ads for Australia but they are more impressive to see first hand. The whole coast down that way is rough and beautiful and after the Apostles we visted a few less famous rock formations that were also cool.

We stopped for lunch in Port Campbell and given it was pushing 100 degrees I also took a dip - the water was freezing, painful freezing and it took me a couple of attempts to dive in completely.

That night we stayed in Port Fairy, Kelly got us upgraded to a three bedroom suite so Luca had even more exploring to do. It also allowed us to have a seperate room from the little guy for the first time on the trip so we celebrated with a few beers and pizza.

Going South: The Great Ocean Road (Feb 18)

Across the Westgate bridge and off toward Geelong we got out of Melbourne early and just in time for Luca's morning nap. We stopped at the tourist info office in Geelong to get some maps of the Great Ocean Road. The ladies at the tourist info. loved their jobs and were proud residents of Geelong. When I told them I was skipping town as soon as they gave me the maps they went into overdrive on what there was to see in Geelong, where I should get some breakfast and why I should let Luca have a run around before continuing on toward Lorne. The ladies even pulled out the testimonial postcards from Canada and Sweden from people they had helped who were so inspired by Geelong they had to write and express their thanks upon returning home. Kelly and I are a much tougher sell - onwards to Lorne.

This first part of the Great Ocean Road has crazy roads, you hug cliffs on windy roads way above the ocean. I'm sure the view is great but I was keeping my eyes on the road. We got a laugh out of the road signs that showed a zig zaggy black line with "windy road next 120kms" - we are used to seeing the same signs with the label "windy road next 5kms" (or next 10kms...any distance far short of 100kms). We stopped in at Lorne for breakfast and Luca had a run in the park. Then on to Apollo Bay.



Kelly had booked a great place to stay for our first night out of Melbourne, it was out of town a ways and right above the ocean and had killer views. After checking in we headed in to Apollo Bay past rows of crazy wind swept trees and some cool houses. Apollo Bay is a cool small town itself but with temps in the mid 90's we headed straight to the beach.

If Luca has had more fun at any point in his life I would be suprised - he covered himself with muddy sand, he was a mess and when we finally left the beach he was none too impressed.

That night we enjoyed an awesome sunset and a swim in the pool and Luca enjoyed exploring a new hotel room. I would have been happy to stay here for a few days but at the same time I was looking forward to seeing the 12 Apostles and London Bridge.

Going South: Melbourne (Feb 16/17)

We were up before the roosters and Luca was looking at us thinking "what's going on here, I'm supposed to be waking them up" as we headed to the airport at quarter of five to catch the flying kangaroo south to Melbourne. The little guy took some serious entertaining on the plane but we got there, got our car and headed out on our first big family adventure (needless to say Kel was prepared with a bound book packed with printed sheets of all our reservations, maps, emergency numbers and shopping destinations she wanted to get to on the trip).

We haven't been to Melbourne since Kelly was in the morning sickness stage while expecting Luca and all that time I have been hanging out for a vanilla slice from Akland St, St Kilda - it was our first stop and I wasn't disappointed. After breaky we headed east to visit a couple of fabric stores Kel had had recommended to her by her blogging pals. I think Kel thought the stores were good, but to be honest Luca and I were just soaking up the warm weather and sunshine - something Sydney has not turned on this summer. It was actually cool to get out to the stores, they were in areas of Melbourne I hadn't been to before and I enjoyed having a sticky beak.

The rest of that day we did some catching up with our friends Adam and Amanda (who helped us enormously by loaning us their porta cot for the week) and Franc and Di. During our visits with both Luca managed to get himself soaking wet, first at a restaurant where he poured drinking water all over himself more than once and then at Franc and Di's house where Luca filled their daughter Sabrina's play kitchen sink with water and then splahed it everywhere. He had fun!

Sunday morning we headed up to Kelly's favourite, Brunetti off of Lygon Street in Carlton. We had a great breakfast and left with boxes full of Italian pastries.

Later we met Franc, Di and Sabrina again and headed out to Werribee open plain zoo. As I said in my last blog about Melbourne (April 2006), no trip to Melbourne would be complete without catching these guys, we have had some great times together over the years and I am so happy that Kelly has really connected with them as well. The zoo was pretty cool, I had expected to see the odd Kangaroo on the trip but not hippo's, rhino's, giraffe's and lions.

On our way back to Melbourne we stopped in at Williamstown for some Gelatto - we seriously had 50 places to choose from. I had never been to Williamstown, another side to Melbourne, and somewhere I would definitely visit again. We grabbed some Chinese take-away for dinner and Luca enjoyed exploring the hotel and then we all dozed off looking forward to the road trip part of the adventure starting tomorrow.

Bath Time

and you all thought I would only post photos of Luca in the bath! Luca doesn't like to take baths, we have no idea why. We are persevering however, he is your typical boy and is a dirt magnet! Our solution has been for either Mark or I to take a bath with him, so far so good. Photo above is of Mark and Luca last night in the bath! -kel