Sanders Family Australian Adventures

COVID Rears its Ugly Head We have had a bit of a hard week this week, but not everything in life can be perfect.  The biggest headline for this week is a COVID diagnosis in the house. I knew it was coming eventually, and I'm just happy that it hit us now after everyone is fully vaccinated.  Though, honestly, I am really frustrated that the day someone tested positive is the day that they approved boosters for younger kids.  Though, even if they had a booster there is no guarantee they wouldn't have still gotten sick. Also, I knew  it was coming. COVID is everywhere here right now.  Sounds like is everywhere in the United States as well though. When I learned that one of the girls' closest friends here had tested positive, I figured it was only a matter of days. Frustratingly, I was trying to arrange for an extra bed for our extra room to be at the house so we would have more quarantine options in the house before it hit, and the positive test result came the same day the be

Another thing we have discovered is that burgers are not the same here. The first few we’ve had have just been a bit off. Someone we work with explained that the Australians mince their burger meat A LOT more, which gives the burgers a totally different feel. We’ve had a few that somehow end up feeling more like a meatloaf than a burger patty. But not only that, they put different things on them. Some places have too sweet of pickles on them, which changes the taste of the burger over all.  Another place had regular pickles but had so much mustard, it ended up tasting more like a hotdog.  However, one day, at work, Mike and I had what was listed as an “Aussie Burger.” This thing was a piece of work.  This is a list of the ingredients stacked like the burger was: Bun BBQ Sauce Fried Egg Pineapple Ring Burger meat Beets  Tomato Mixed greens Mayo Bottom bun I couldn’t make my way through it.  It was WAY too sweet. I actually didn’t find the beet too offensive.  But the pineapple ring and

 We didn’t do a ton this weekend. I did manage to get us out for two walks on Isaacs Ridge with the girls.  Sweet Lauren always says yes when I ask to go on a walk.  She says half because she  wants to and half because she doesn’t want me to be lonely. Today I managed to get both girls to go on a walk with me.  It was a good one.   This is just as we were leaving for a walk.  We saw lots of Rosellas and a mob of kangaroos.  At one point in the walk we actually had to turn around and walk the other way as two big kangaroos did not seem to like us walking too close (or how loud certain members of our party were). A couple of Roos taking notice to us in a way that made me nervous Some of their mob Here are more sights that can be seen on our walks through the reserve that is just behind the house (I will never grow tired of this, so I will likely post too many pictures of it): Here is a picture of the girls playing a game Caitlyn says is called “Dr Needle Bum” much like Rock Paper Scissor

 This weekend we decided to check out Canberra’s Walk in Aviary.  You pay money for admission to an outdoor space enclosed with nets.  There were a lot of pretty birds in there, plus some really ugly chickens. They give each person a bowl with apple slices, and a a little tub full of worms.  I thought because these birds were so well fed that it would be difficult to get birds to come to us.  Boy was I wrong.  I had a bird on my hand within seconds of walking into the aviary.  Mike and the girls really seemed to enjoy it. I frankly got overwhelmed pretty quickly. The birds knew exactly what to do. And some birds had zero interest in the apples and would only talk to you if you had worms for them.  Here are some pictures from the aviary: On Mother’s day we spent some time a skate park. The girls do not have a skateboard, and our bicycles are still making their way from the U.S. to our house here, but they do have their scooters. We were super impressed with their willingness to try some

 We spent this past weekend getting to know things in and around Canberra.   Friday night we went to a co-workers house for a happy hour. It is really nice that there are so many ways for us to get to know those around us, and to feel like there is a sense of community.  Thanks Aaron for the invite. Saturday, we started at Questacon- The national science and technology center (aka kids science museum).  It was a lot of fun. We were there for about four hours and honestly only made it through about half of the museum. Mike really loved this Rube Goldberg type of machine, and the girls favorite thing was this thing that spit out little chunks of dry ice into a solution of something.  They were supposed to learn something about space I think.  But it was super fun to watch, and Lauren in particular found it very relaxing.  She has asked to return with headphones and something relaxing to listen to.  She must have spent a solid half an hour watching it. We also attended a show on Liquid ni

 The girls started school this week.  It has definitely been an adjustment for all of us. The girls have to wear uniforms now. It is a big change.  The uniform has a lot of pieces, and there is more than one uniform. There is a winter uniform (with a button down shirt, a skirt or dress, a jumper (sweater), a blazer, formal straw hat, play hat, and all black leather shoes. The summer uniform is similar, but without the jumper and with a different dress/skirt. Then there is a sports uniform for the days they have P.E.  I had to make a color coded calendar to keep track of who is supposed to be in what outfit on which day. Lauren somehow lucked out and was in her sports uniform all week until Friday.  Of course when I picked her up on Friday she was missing her hat and her jumper.  She and Caitlyn were able to locate the hat, but not the jumper. Thankfully I labeled all their clothes with their names, so hopefully the jumper will eventually make its way back to us.  It is a lot to keep tr

The zoo in Canberra is quite the treat.  We went a couple weekends ago and had a great time.  We arrived at the zoo at 10AM and stayed almost until it closed. There was so much to see.  Mike commented on how active the animals all seemed. It was the end of the fall school holidays here, so the zoo was really crowded. But the animals seemed to be ready for the crowds.  It felt like a good show.  Here is a wombat: Giraffe:  Meerkats EMU Sleeping Koala We brought along "flat Ms. Harkness" (a 2d representation of the girls Kindergarten teacher, who always wanted to visit Australia: Wallaby The Zoo also has a great "adventure playground" which frankly I thought the girls were just a smidge too big for, but they had a really good time playing at nonetheless. It was a fun filled day. They have a hotel on site, with rooms where you can like walk to the balcony and feed giraffes or something like that. Lauren thought it was the coolest thing on the planet and wanted us to do