Where's Blue Lake?

Last week we had visitors - our cuzs - more commonly known as Heather and Adrian (or whale or daisy....).  After arriving on Monday arvo, our plans involved driving to Guthega on Tuesday, staying there until Thursday then seeing these guys off to Sydney on Friday. 

Tuesday morning dawned, in fact the rooster (aka Ella) got all confused as to the time and started happily chatting and singing to herself at 4.30am!  After some warm milk and another hour of talking, she finally decided to drift back off to sleep to wake at 8.30am - a much more reasonable hour.

The drive to Guthega was fairly uneventful with Andy and Ella dozing off at various points as both were a little under the weather.  Traditional lunch stop at the Sub Lime Cafe in Jindabyne was quite disappointing although Adrian did enjoy his chickpea burger. After arriving and unpacking Adrian, Ella and I headed off on a short wander down to the dam returning via Farm Creek.  Andy and Heather relaxed in the lodge.

Wednesday was to be the day that Andy and Adrian ran from Guthega to Blue Lake while Ella and  I drove around to Charlotte's Pass and walked to Blue Lake.  The boys aborted the run as Andy hadn't recovered from the previous days gastro bug.  Instead we all decided to walk to Blue Lake from Charlotte's Pass - about a 10km round trip.

The wether had closed in so we packed in our warm jumpers and rainjackets. With Ella in the backpack we headed off.  The first 1km was a steep descent down to the Snowy River which we crossed via the stepping stones without falling in.  The next 3km was a slow uphill climb.  Just after 2.5km we donned the raincoats as the mist was quite wet and at about 3.5km we had to negotiate a snow drift which crossed the track.  

When we made it to Blue Lake lookout, the rain was gently falling and the mist had set in - in fact we couldn't see Blue Lake!!!  We decided not to venture down the last km and turned back for home. Ella had gone quiet by this point - I think despite being tucked away in her little rainproof backpack she was cold.  The return journey was slightly faster - with Ella drifting off to sleep. 

As Andy was feeling stronger, the boys discussed the possibility of running to Kosciuszko from Charlotte's Pass early the next morning.  It's an 18km return trip which they thought they could do in about 1.45 hours.  We were woken the next morning to the sound of rain however this didn't deter the boys and off they went - thermals and rainjackets on. Crazy stuff I thought tucked up in my warm bed....Unfortunately they didn't make it to the top - something about the bad weather and lack of oxygen (is that right cuz?).

We packed up and cleaned the lodge managing to leave Guthega by 11am for the trip home.  Stopped off at Bredbo at the Organic Cafe for lunch - which got the tick of approval by the coffee police (aka Andy).

Thursday night Heather and Adrian treated us to dinner at The Ridge. Located at the Farrer shops, this organic restaurant was sure worth the long trek. Delicious!

 While I dropped Ella off to childcare and went to work on Friday morning, Andy and Adrian played some golf, before squeezing in breakky and coffee at ANI, before catching their plane to Sydney. A perfect way to finish a perfect visit (except for the weather!)

Meet Jerry ...

The latest news from here is that Ella will have a younger sibling (don't know which variety yet) in late May next year. Pre-birth name is Jerry -- but you'll have to ask Jase & Dave how the nickname came to be.

Words

People have recently been asking me if Ella says anything.  Yes she talks - sometimes you can understand, sometimes you can infer and other times it's yibberish.  Just for the record, I've decided to make a list on the words she currently says:

mama

dada

nana

nana (banana)

puppy

puppa (pippa)

teddy

baby

bubbles

cuddle

moo

roar

baa

woof

neigh

car

bird

duck

cheese

shoe

poo

wee

away

please

bye

ella

hello

more

and of course no!

Mega Fun

As Andy ran in the 3 Peaks on Saturday morning, it meant no Sunday long run and therefore a free Sunday morning!  So we headed down to the local trash n treasure markets.  Bought our first cherries for the season and also picked up a heap of mega bloks including a little wagon. Ella added this new purchase to her small box of bloks so now there is a decent amount of bloks to actually build something. As you can see, it was not only Ella who was interested in building towers!

Cork St Cafe

Dropped Ella off to the grandparents then ventured out to Gundaroo (3o mins from Canberra).  Met up with Dees, Walders and McCrae clans for a pizza lunch.  There were celebrations all round: 

- Stacey finished her Masters Thesis which was almost double the length of Andy's Phd! 

- Stacey and Dave will celebrate their FIRST wedding anniversary tomorrow

- Thomas has a new job which he starts in December

- Belinda managed to paint the master bedroom in their house - another room of mustard gone!

Sensational pizzas! It was just a pity it wasn't warm enough to sit outside.

Things I Like To Bath With

MY TRUCK:

Animal Rescue

As we exited the house this morning to take Pippa for her walk, I noticed a black bird in the backyard who didn't fly away as Pippa charged out. On closer inspection the bird appeared to be injured.  We were in a rush (as Ella had a sleep in world record - until 8.45am!!!) so made a mental note to check on bird later in the day.

Returning home at lunchtime after our morning at the YMCA's free program called Rhyming Connections - yes singing and learning nursery rhymes and songs - we discovered the bird was still in the backyard hopping around the garden. He looked happy but still wasn't flying. Perhaps I'll leave him a little longer so off for a haircut and to the markets for some food shopping.

It was now 5pm when we returned home to discover the bird, a Currawong, was still in the garden not wanting to fly.  

Time to call RSPCA Wildlife who told me to bring the bird in. Hmmm..... Turned out that catching the bird was very easy - I just drapped a towel over it and lifted into a box.  The only hard aspect was getting Ella out of the box the bird was supposed to go in!

The lady at the Wildlife Centre wasn't able to establish whether the bird's wing was injured as it became a little distressed while being examined. So the bird was placed into a cage in a room with lots and lots of baby currawongs to be looked at later.  No doubt she said it would be returned to our neighbourhood  once it was rehabilitated.

Bubbles

Well, we've suffered from Blogger fatigue a little bit over the last month, but with any luck it won't be permanent.

Anyway, life continues as normal here in Canberra, and Ella continues to grow and surprise us. Part of this growing process always involves the sudden realisation that her character traits has her following in the footsteps of her parents (sometimes with trepidation). For example, she has her mother's good looks and her father's impatience (tantrums). She likes the water (that's mum) and bike riding (dad).

The latest trend is one that she doesn't get from either of us, but instead from her paternal grandfather. Yes, I'm afraid Ella is obsessed with doing the dishes. This has become known as bubble time in our household. When one of us decides to do the dishes, Ella runs around shouting "Bubbles, Bubbles". Then she drags a barstool over to the sink so she can stand there and help with the dishes.

Of course, there are pros and cons with this. We need to put a towel on the floor to control spillage, and we all have to wear our old clothes. On the bright side, when the dishwasher breaks at least we have a ready replacement...

Finally, as promised and only slightly late, here is a movie of Ella learning to jump.