Good Evening

We took a peaceful walk along the golf course last night, stopping to admire the mandarin orange and lemon trees and the flocks of Eastern rosellas in the bushes. For all of you golfers out there, the course looks challenging. Zach had a good sized bowl of cereal for dinner. As you can see, he's starting to get the hang of eating food. Tonight he gets to try oatmeal! Yum! After a messy meal he needed a bath. It is becoming a challenge for Brett to hang onto Zach in the bathtub and stay dry. You'll have to see for yourself what we mean. Our appologies in advance to Zach when he grows up for showing a clip of him in the tub!

My First Footy

We spent the day getting everything ready to move into our house here. Tonight we are finally going to sleep at our own place. Yippee! I can scream all I want and not wake up our hosts. Here are a few pictures of me today. I'm getting pretty good at sitting up. It's much more fun than rolling over. I also got my first footy (that's Australian for football and it's not like American football) today. It shouldn't be long before I'll be kicking the footy around the backyard. And just in case you thought my parents were posting this blog under my name without my input, just check out the last picture. Clearly I'm in charge here! Love, Zach.


Love the Ugg boots and bear hat!


Learning to love footy!


Editor-in-chief of Zachdownunder

Birds on the Brain

We wanted to share a few pictures of all the amazing feathered creatures we see down here everyday. We think Zach is getting into this bird-watching thing, too. He followed a flock of cockatoos as they fly overhead the other day. He's not a big fan of all the noise they make; neither is his dad. Brett thinks the novelty of the noisy laughing kookaburras in the backyard may wear off soon, too.


Galahs, the local parrot...as common as pigeons.


Masked lapwing...not known for its looks


Ibis on a walk through the neighborhood

A pair of black swans

The infamous laughing kookaburra

Our little laughing kookaburra!

(It wouldn't be a blog without a picture of Zach)

Dad's Little Man

Zach is learning from dad how to wait for mum in the mornings. First we read the news while mum showers, then we sit back and relax while mum eats breaky and gets all of her papers gathered for work. Then when she's ready we can finally be on our way.

Where Are We?

We thought we would tell you a little bit about where in the world we are living. Shepparton is a blue collar, agricultural town of 25,000 located about two hours due north of Melbourne by car. It is in the center of a wide flat river valley that reminds us a lot of the Red River Valley and Fargo. The valley is filled with fruit orchards, olive groves, and vineyards. That and fields of sheep and cockatoos. Shepparton is located in the state of Victoria, which is the smallest and southern most state in the country, if you don't count Tasmania. The history of Victoria is colorful and filled with gold rushes, outlaws, brothels, and sheep ranches. The Snowy Mountains (as in The Man from Snowy River) are a two hour drive away as is the ocean and the desert. Sydney and Adelaide are 8-10 hours away by car and the rest of the country requires an airplane, jeep or camel to visit. It is the middle of winter right now but not too cold; occasional frost on the windscreen (i.e., windshield) in the morning. It feels more like fall without the colors. As we sign off, a bright yellow moon is rising in the east with a bunny rabbit on it. Yes, there's a rabbit in the moon instead of a man in the moon down here.

Zach slept well on the plane ride down here!

Lazy Day, Busy Day

Today was a busy day for us. We bought a car (finally) that happens to look a lot like the car we left behind. We'll post a picture soon. We spent the rest of the day cleaning the house we are going to move into later this week. Mom and Dad were exhausted by the end of the day but not Zach....he had a nice (and cute) nap at midday. He also had time for a quick walk along the golf course in front of the house with Dad. Soon we'll be all settled in and ready for visitors!

Didgeridoo, didgeridon't

We took a quick trip to Melbourne today to get our visa stamps on our passports so we are official here. While we were there Brett stopped at a homebrew supply store and picked up "heaps" of supplies here, as they say. Good beer down under is on the way! Zach also had a chance to check out the Melbourne public market where he found his first didgeridoo. Before we know it he'll be an expert at didge. We're hoping Grandma Charlene will have to accompany him on it at music festival. Practicing the didge might be like practicing the drums, though. After awhile we might find ourselves screaming didgeridon't!


Playing the didge at Victoria Market, Melbourne


Sunset in the Goulbourn Valley, Australia--July 18, 2008

Wildlife

I know we have already posted some neat pictures of the wildlife down here but you really wouldn't believe the variety of animals we see here. For example, my mom saw rainbow lorikeets squawking in the trees outside the hospital yesterday and a kookaburra flew right up to the kitchen window today and laughed at us. Dad even discovered a wombat on my new diapers when he was changing me the other day. Take a look!

Six months old

Can you believe it!? Today is my six month birthday. Time flies! To celebrate, my mom and dad had the grand idea that I would get my first bite of food today. Check it out:

To be honest, I don't know what all the excitement about eating food really is.

Maybe I'll learn to like food but for now milk still makes me happy.

That, and toy carrots....

Yum!

Just a normal day

I love my bouncy chair!

Mother Goose is sooo much better laying down....

I thought I would give you a glimpse into what a normal day for me looks like. It starts with me playing in my chair and watching mom and dad have breakfast. If I kick really hard the chair bounces and plays songs and I can't help but giggle. Then it's off to work for mom (she's always late), and dad and I have all day to hang out. We usually take a walk and see strange birds and then read books in the afternoon. After picking mom up I usually get to play on the floor with all my toys; they just have to go into my mouth. By 7pm I'm usually ready for bed. Trying to look cute and laughing all the time wears a baby out, if you know what I mean.

A walk in the bush

It's only taken us 10 days of being Down Under to get a blog up and running. Maybe we were inspired by the wildlife on our Sunday afternoon walk in the bush (woods) today. As you can see, Zach was only mildly interested but Mom and Dad had a great time watching Eastern Corellas and the local mob of kangaroos! Can you spot the kangaroos?