ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

I have been interested of late about the states that make up Australia. So I did a little searching on the Internet for some facts. Australia is made up of six states, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland, and Western Australia. As well as two major territories which are Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. The capital of Australia is Canberra which is located in the Australia Capital Territory. Sydney is the largest city in the country and Australia is the smallest continent in the world. Now from the map it is easy to see where our travels have taken us over the past week. Our trip to South Australia lasted one week - 4 days were spent on Kangaroo Island and a trip to Victor Harbor (Tuesday, Jan. 15 - Friday, Jan. 18) and the rest spent in Adelaide and the hills surrounding it (Saturday, Jan. 19 - Tuesday, Jan. 22). This is a picture of Jessy and Kelli's Aussie house. They were so great to let us come and stay with them. It is so nice to spend time with friends!! The drought has affected Adelaide with it's hot temps and low humidity (they seem to have a climate similar to Utah's). They can only water their grass and plants once a week by hand to save water. No wonder the grass is all dry and yellow in all the yards. I found a map of Adelaide area - Kev would be so proud (he loves, loves, loves, maps) - so it would be easier for me to remember where everything was.

Saturday found us winding our way up into the hills above Adelaide. We drove through wine vineyards and through sleepy little towns and came upon the city of Hahndorf. We ate our sandwiches in the car and Kev and Jessy helped jump start a car before we made our way to the strawberry patches. For a small fee you could go and eat all you wanted but had to pay for any strawberries you wanted to take home. Since they were over $8 a kilo we decided not to take any home with us. They were delicious and a great after lunch snack. We then drove back through Hahndorf, which was founded by the Germans and therefore had such a feel about it, and I loved looking at all the unique buildings. I wish we would have done a little widow shopping, but this is easier said than done with six kids between the two families.

After the strawberry picking Jessy took us to a wonderful ice cream parlor where we enjoyed ice cream cones. After the cones were done we headed to a great park for the kids to burn off some energy.

Sunday we got up and went to Church. It was nice for me to go to Sunday School and Relief Society. It has been a long time since I have been able to go and I thoroughly enjoyed the lessons taught there. Madi and Cooper headed off to Primary with Savannah and Collin and loved it - of course. We all came home from Church exhausted. The kids had a little quite time after lunch and watched a "Liken the Scriptures" movie. Kevin, Jessy, and Kelli all ended up taking a nap and I took some time to update my blog about KI and Victor Harbor.

After a yummy roast, potatoes, and gravy dinner we went for a walk on the bike/jogging trail by their house to go and feed the ducks.

Before reaching the ducks we came upon the mulberry bush and had to have a sample of the fruit. It seemed to have reached it's prime and was really tart. This didn't seem to stop our kids from having some though and getting the juice on their hands to show for it. They were stained for a few days, but they seemed to like the mulberries. I tried a few some were really sour, but the last one I had melted in my mouth!

We finally made it to the ducks and had fun looking at the different varieties in the pond. Many we had never seen before. Kelli was passing out rolls to the kids and Cooper immediately took his half of the roll and threw the entire thing in the stream at once. He was disappointed the he only got another half, but this time, after better instructions from us, he was so careful just to take off little pieces to throw in. Rylee was mesmerized by the ducks and just couldn't take her eyes off of them.

I then thought it would be great to get a picture of all the kids together. There were these fallen logs that made a great place so we headed over there to take some pics. As everyone knows it is hard to get everyone to look in the right place and smile at the right time. So we did the best we could with very tired kids and didn't get many shots.

(Hunter, Cooper, Collin, Madisen, and Savannah)

(Cooper and Collin)

It was all well and good until Cooper fell off one of the logs and hit his head pretty hard. After giving him hugs and of course checking his eyes for a concussion he said his head hurt but he was okay. Kev gave him a piggy back to the house and he told me that he was fine by the time we got there. We then decorated a cake and had a little dessert!! After which the kids headed to bed and we stayed up to watch a little Australian Open Tennis (we actually seemed to watch this every night - Jessy and Kelli were lucky enough to go there last year and see it in person) and play a rousing game of Monopoly, the Australian edition.

Monday was our last full day in SA so again we headed for the hills. This time we went to a huge (The biggest one in the world to be exact!) rocking horse and toy shop. Kevin and Jessy took the big kids up to the top and I stayed down with Rylee (I wasn't too sad about this seeing as how I don't really like heights).

We browsed through the toy shop and then headed to the little wildlife park that was there. Upon going to the park we stopped by a cage full of cockatoos and galahs. A man was petty a galah with his key on it's head and it seemed to really enjoy it. After they left Madi put her finger in and stroked it's head softly and it was still very content. Then Cooper stuck his finger in and was a little to harsh with the bird. It moved it's head around quickly and bit his finger. After that I noticed the sign that said to be careful because they bite. We then entered the park and for $2 bought a bag to feed the animals. We had fun feeding the chickens, chicks, peacocks, ducks, and such and then we came upon three kangaroos. They were pretty lazy and even ate the food out of the kid's hands.

We then got in the car and said goodbye the Savannah and Kelli (Savannah had a party to go to), and headed to Cuddlee Creek to the Gorge Wildlife Park. Here we got to get up close and personal with kangaroos, wallabies, baby emu, and even hold a koala. We bought a bag of peanuts and one of biscuits and headed into the park. It was such a grand adventure - too bad for Jessy who had been there at least four times previous, he seemed to have a good time anyway and said most of the animals were more active than he had seen them in the past. Here are some of the pictures we took.

We will start with the kangaroos. I was so amazed at how they used their tails to get around. They would grab the biscuit and hold it in their little front paws and eat it. We even saw some albino kangaroos white as can be. I have never been so close and was a little nervous that they would "box" us or something - but they were so peaceful and would jump away if they were really nervous. I am sure they are used to this lifestyle. Sit in the shade and people will come up to you and feed you peanuts and biscuits - not a bad way to live.

Next we headed for the wallabies. Along with the wallabies were baby emu, and they were aggressive birds. We would give a peanut to a wallaby and the emu would grab it out of the wallabies paws and eat it himself. One also tried to grab the peanuts directly out of Cooper's hands. We have some funny video (thanks to Kev) of the kids running from the emu and also from me trying to get away with Rylee asleep in the stroller. I had all the peanuts and biscuits sitting on top of the cover to the stroller and they were chasing me around. Kevin and Jessy thought it was very funny. Pretty soon the kids were all huddled around me and the stroller so we decided to head out and see something else.

We made our way to the koala showing and got to hold the koalas. It felt just like holding a baby - except it was more furry. Madi even got to hold the koala and thought that was awesome. Cooper tried, but it scratched him a bit on his neck and he freaked out. He did give it a hug and stood by me for a picture. Kevin held Rylee and the koala and Rylee eventually snatched the eucalyptus out of it's hand and began hitting the koala on the head with it.

After several hours at the park we headed back to the city and back to Jessy and Kelli's house for some dinner and Family Home Evening. Kelli did a great lesson on service and had the dads wash the feet of the kids - it was a great object lesson because we had been walking around in the dusty wildlife park so their feet were especially dirty. We then had rootbeer floats for the treat - heavenly treat!! After the kids were in bed they talked me into staying up late to play a game and because they suggested the bean game I couldn't resist!

Tuesday morning we got up early to leave for the airport (6am wake up call this time - not as bad as 3:30 that is for sure). We said goodbye to the Jones family (6am is normal wake up time at their house) and Jessy took us to the airport before he headed into work. It was sad to say goodbye and we had had such a great time. We look forward to spending more time with them when we are both back in Utah.

We had an uneventful time and Rylee quickly fell asleep on the plane. The hardest time we had was figuring out how to get Madi's peacock feathers home in one piece. This is how she walked through the Sydney airport - silly peacock Madi.

We were grateful to see Katrina waiting for us curbside and were more than ready to get back to our own beds and the kids were excited to see their toys again (especially the trains for Cooper). We had such a great time on our holiday. We were excited when we found out the Jessy and Kelli love to play games and since we had brought a few we were excited to teach them some new ones. We were entertained nightly by puppetshows and were able to participate in their family tradition of dessert everynight after jammies are put on. We stayed up late watching tennis, talking, and playing games and had such a great time. I was glad to get to know Kelli better as we spent so much time driving in the car from place to place. They are such a great family and wonderful friends! Until we met again in Utah!!

And P.S. from Kev - We love their statue/birdbath that they have in the front of their house! (We are sure that is the main reasons they got the house that they did! Ha ha ha...)