Christmas in the Snowies

Our regular readers will no doubt have noticed our prolonged absence form these pages over the last weeks. Our excuses are (i) that pre-christmas is always busy, and (ii) that since Christmas Eve we've been incommunicado in Guthega (near Perisher). So far from civilisation that I had to resort to text message updates from Jase for scores from the Boxing Day Test.

The Guthega plan was a Hogg Family escape, designed by super-planner Cathy to avoid the drudgery and boredom of a Canberra Christmas. We had the famous Doorack lodge to ourselves for much of the time, and the entire family was coerced into cooking Xmas dinner, giving Mum a rest for the first time in decades.

Christmas morning itself - replete with glorious mountain sunshine - dawned to the tune of screaming children as they discovered just how good Santa had considered them to be over the last year. (Personally, I think Santa's judgement is questionable.) Most of us escaped in stages to get some exercise in anticipation of Christmas dinner - Nat around the resort by herself; Susie and Cathy dragged Dad down the aquaduct, while Patrick & I popped up Guthega Trig - one of the best Xmas day runs that I've done, as evidenced by the 270 degree panorama shown below (you can even pick out Mt Kosciuszko if you know where to look).

Once we'd all recovered it was present time. And presents there were. Ella didn't really have the concentration span to fully realise just how much loot she scored - and was more interested in the bubble wrap from her first present than any of the subsequent packages.

Christmas lunch was chaotic and bountiful. The challenge was to make sure you ate enough to avoid needing dinner. Then all the kids took their new bikes/scooters/wheelbarrows down to the concrete turning circle to test them out (with several spectuacular failures). Probably the biggest failure of the day was Cathy's Santa dress (see photo) which attracted several comments from passers by and was the talk of Guthega village.

Of course, there is more to tell from subsequent days in Guthega, but I'll stage these out over the next few days.

Perth Zoo

While in Perth we thought we'd take the opportunity to get free entry to the Zoo seeing though granddad (Nat's dad) has just started working there.  We took along Great Nan as well as Cath and Aoife.

Many of the animals were sleeping thus avoiding the mid afternoon sun so we were a bit disappointed with that.  Ella's favourite animal were the penguins which would swim up and down the pool.  Everytime they disappeared out of sight Ella would say 'more, more' and of course the penguins would swim by again so she'd jumped up and down giggling and laughing excitedly.

We were kicked out at 5pm which was probably lucky as the two girls were very tired from all that running and climbing.

Perth Summer

The whole family jumped on a plane last week to spend some time with family & friends in Perth. Plane trip was getting a bit fractious, but the wiggles DVD saved the day. Ella's general impression of Perth is that playgrounds are sandier (gets in your shoes) and slides are longer than in the East. Last Thursday we trooped down to Bunbury (see Ella riding a bike to the playground with Ashley Oliver) which has great parks and swimming pools. (Didn't go in the surf this time, because last time we did that we got dumped by a freak wave and I dropped Ella into the white water.)

We also managed to trek out to summer series orienteering in Glen Forrest, where the local Perth orienteering kids all emerged. Highlight was being befriended by Kate Braid (see left) who took it upon herself to give Ella a guided tour of the local park.

Tomorrow we're off to the zoo, where Ella's grandpa will give us the personal guided tour.

Shock horror

This morning Ella and I were busy - picking up an oven light cover, returning the new (faulty) microwave and picking up a few things at Bunnings.  So in and out of the car it was for most of the morning.  Managed to fit all the necessary jobs in plus drop by the Yarralumla Nursery.  Once at home Ella had a play, some lunch and more play.  I casually mentioned to her was it time for a sleep and so maybe she could put herself to bed.  Off she wandered in the direction of her room and I followed a minute later.  You can imagine my surprise when I look into her room expecting her to be taking rugs out of the drawers and wrapping any soft toy nearby and there she is sitting in her cot!!! She has never climbed into or out of her cot before and I'm hoping that this was a freak incident.....I suppose will just have to wait and see....

Vegies

Our vegie patch has erupted with produce.  The snow peas are growing furiously up and over the top of the fence.  There are loads of green tomatoes and the lebanese cuecumbers are coming along nicely. Green beans are doing well and Andy picked a handful of those yesterday.  Corn, zucchini's and pumpkin are slow.  A selection of our produce can be seen below.  Hopefully things don't grow too much over the next fortnight as we are off to Perth on Tuesday for a week and hence this blog will be keeping it's slow reputation for a while longer.

Unexpected Visitors

Last week Jo, a work colleague who just returned from 10 months in Jordan and her 15 month old son Isaac joined us. Isaac was very frightened of Pippa as he wasn't used to dogs at all.  I think though he should have been more scared of Ella! When Ella wasn't giving Isaac a 'friendly nudge' or complaining about him playing with her toys - they played along together quite nicely as seen below. Isaac particularly liked the sandpit and evenly got the courage up to pat Pippa (while she wasn't watching  of course).

It was interesting to watch them copy each other and amusing to her them chatting along.  We were woken fairly early one morning to Ella talking (as usual) only to hear an echo.  Ella would call out hello and Isaac would respond with hello, Ella would then say baba and Isaac would repeat.  This went on for some time and was very cute!

Jo and Isaac left on Sunday traveling to Wollongong.  There they met up with her husband and two other older children and planned to have a week at the beach before returning to Canberra.

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!)