Crumpled Home

The next stage of our adventure brought us to Monkey Mia, where we met some friendly mammals with a taste for seafood and thousands of crustacean squatters before dragged through the ocean from a high speed catamaran. After a hair-raising drive through an extended muddy bog, we made it to Gnaraloo Station, a delightful paradise marred only slightly by a small infestation of surfers and a veritable plague of ecstatic, frisky whales.

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LR stands knee deep in water as the pod arrives.

During July, we packed up the camper trailer, waved goodbye to our cat and dog and jumped in the car for a massive road trip up north. Our goal? Get to the coral, do some swimming and skindiving, maybe wave to a dolphin or two. The first few days involved lots of driving, but the kids took it well and we had the chance to meet up with friends of ours in Geraldton. From there we continued north to Shark Bay… and encountered some three billion year old creatures, one Barking Fence and a few billion white shells…

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Seven hours in the car? There's definitely time for a pit stop along the way. Hello, Cervantes!

While her actual birthday fell during the school week, LR’s party had to wait until the weekend. She spent days planning the event and how everything would work. The main focus of the party was to have everyone act in a play that she had put together. She put significant amounts of thought in to who should play each role, and to anticipate problems that might occur. During the party, groups of people would act out a scene at the house, while the others played games across the road at the park. Taking turns acting and playing, none of the girls had the chance to see the entire production until it was edited and put together for a grand screening at the end of the party. Everyone loved it!

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Mom sets down the cake as LR dangerously wields the notorious Birthday Cake Knife.

Read on to find out about our exciting adventures with dangerous oversized animals at the Ulun Danu Beratan Temple at Lake Beratan. We get drenched by a massive tropical thunderstorm, and are amused/delighted/revolted by some hot beverages. Finally we end up having a meal at a great little place on the coast.

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Mom leads the kids off to the Ulun Danu Beratan Temple!

Bali is absolutely packed to the brim with three things: motorbikes, temples and souvenir shops. One of the temples we explored was Tanah Lot. Like most of the temples, it was calm and quiet… We also visited Ubud, a market district renowned for its artists and crafts… and markets and temples… and it was NOT calm and quiet. Finally, we had a great time on the (heavily chlorinated) water slides and rides at the Waterbom water park!

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PA and RL stand at one of the entrances to Tanah Lot!

Our trip was filled with new experiences with a lot of things that we’d never get the chance to do back in Perth. We stopped by a lodge where they take retired elephants and spoil them by feeding them melons all day (in exchange for carrying tourists on short walks through jungle and rice paddies). They had a couple of young orangutans who we were allowed to play with, as well as an albino python that RJ thought would make a terrific pet. Finally, we had a fantastic meal at a great, but confusing restaurant motorcycle shop skate shop place called, “Deus Ex Machina”.

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Hungry elephants LOVE to eat melons. If you're not careful, they'll even stop along the track to stomp on a jackfruit and eat that too!

In April of 2011, we embarked on a terrific adventure to the island of Bali, in Indonesia. It is actually closer to Perth than the other capital cities within Australia, so it’s a popular holiday destination for Western Australians… which is one of the reasons we’ve been hesitant to go.

After a tiny 3 hour flight, we met Poppa, Grammy, the cousins (P. and M., Auntie Bron and Uncle Troy), our aunt and uncle from the US (Carrie and Paul), and finally, our second cousin Sophie and spent a week there staying at an incredible, luxurious villa (Puri Angsa, in Canggu, Bali) together. It really was like staying in paradise, with each family having their own cottage or series of rooms, most of them directly overlooking the pool.

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We arrived at our gate with plenty of time to spare and some amazing colours in the sky.

Grandpa Jeff took a few days off work to play with us! First was a great trip to the Baltimore Aquarium with the cousins. It’s much bigger than the aquarium back home.  The next day we went hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Grandpa Jeff tracked down some geocache coordinates and brought his GPS so we could find them. Finally, he took us into a commercial cave.

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There are these great bubble tubes right near the entrance to the Baltimore Aquarium.

After our first few days in Shepherdstown, we took a quick road-trip down to Charlottesville and Nelson County, Virginia to catch up with some old friends. We only had a few days, so we didn’t get to catch up with everyone that we wanted to, and it’s something we unfortunately have to get used to (until we become ridiculously wealthy and can extend our vacations to months at a time). After getting back, we had some more fun with Grandpa Jeff and had some more cuddles with Baby V.

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We drove down to Nelson County, Virginia to visit Jimmy & Jane, great friends of ours. The customary cookies and hamburgers were very popular.

We sadly left Wyoming and flew to the East Coast where we were greeted by warm, humid weather… We definitely weren’t in Perth anymore. We arrived at the house to find a pool AND our cousins all ready and waiting for us. Time to have some fun!

We had some great times splashing around in the pool, hunting frogs down by the pond, picking veggies in the garden. Grandma Wendy and Aunty Grace took us all to the lake one day, and Dad took the four kids for a huge play at the park while our new cousin arrived. The next day we went off to the hospital for our first visit!

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We finally arrived in Shepherdstown to warm weather, cousins, and a swimming pool!