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RJ: Hey Dad! There’s a worm in the tadpole tank! I think he’s made of ham. He’s got red eyes too. I think he’ll be my pet, called “CheeCheese”.

Dad: What’s he doing?

RJ: Just doing the ham-worm thing. Wiggling around a lot.

(LR wanders over to have a look at the tank)

RJ: LR, I have some sad news.

LR: (sighing) What did you do, RJ?

RJ: Not me! Mum! She had to clean out the tank yesterday. There was too much algae in there. And… well… Remember your favorite tadpole, Goofy?

LR: Yes?

RJ: He got washed away. He’s not in there anymore.

RJ: Mum was really sad about it.

(There are about 15 tadpoles in the tank, all of them identical, and all of them very, very small. No one can tell them apart, and none of them actually went down the drain.)

LR: I don’t believe you. I can see him right over there.

RJ: That’s not him. That’s Gooby. I can tell the difference.

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. The villa even had their own pet monkeys, which conveniently avoided any potential ‘Enchanted Monkey Forest‘ disasters that we had worried about.

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

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This year we flew to Melbourne to spend Thanksgiving with a different set of friends and family. Because a lot of Australians don’t know what pilgrims are, except perhaps characters in John Wayne cowboy movies, we don’t get the day off to cook over here.

Instead, our friends invited a group of us (including three stranded Americans) over on the following Saturday and got the ovens fired up.

Before things got started, Dad took the kids to a nearby park to try and get some energy out. The dinner itself was fantastic — everyone loved it and all the necessary Thanksgiving staples were on the table. Afterwards, the dads took the kids down to the nearby school playground for a run around and a play before the rain started up again.

Massive thanks to our friends for inviting us over and sharing Thanksgiving with us! We had a GREAT time!

Ahhh, Thanksgiving. Delicious as usual!

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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!

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

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(over breakfast)

RJ: I really want a pet angler fish.

Dad: There’s a problem. They’re really only happy when there’s thousands of pounds of pressure on them, and an aquarium that could do that would be very expensive and big.

RJ: Maybe we could change the fish somehow.

Dad: Like what, change its DNA and genes or something?

RJ: Yeah! Give it new genes!

Dad: What genes would you add?

RJ: Frog genes. Then it could be an angler fish with jumping legs!

… Is anyone else terrified by the idea of a 1.5 metre semi-amphibious predatory angler fish? I have visions of them lurking around coastal areas and leaping on unsuspecting swimmers.

January was a really busy month! With the kids on summer holidays, we had lots of activities during the week and on the weekends. While down south we also did a bit of fishing, life-size animatronic dinosaurs came to town, we caught up with some friends and grandparents, and lots of wildlife around our house stopped in to say ‘Hello!’

A total of 5 very small fish caught over two nights -- the kids rated it a massive success!

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Pictures taken during the last half of August: Lego adventures, frog hunting, Dad goes to Canberra, trampoline time and some stories.

Rescue 1 and Rescue 2 are on a mission to save the world!

LR shows us some of the features of Rescue 1.

RJ takes Mum through some of the critical features of Rescue 2.

Some emergency repairs are needed for Rescue 2.

RJ and LR went looking for one of our back-yard frogs.

We can hear it, but we can't see it anywhere!

Dad went to Canberra for two days. This is Parliament House.

Dad's cousin Jo took him to this place for dinner. They had the best hamburgers there!

LR explains the workings of the world to RJ.

Many days end with lots of bouncing on the trampoline. Get rid of some of that energy, kids!

Time for some stories before bed. Apparently, there's a hippopotamus on the roof.