Bundanoon is Brigadoon

Okay, I've never seen the play/movie, but now I've got to. We heard about this crazy festival out in a little town 2 hours northeast from us and D felt up for an adventure... so we set out to experience "Brigadoon" for the day. The tiny town of Bundanoon puts on this impressive annual event to which thousands of Scottish descendants flock to celebrate and participate in the games and traditions of "the good old days."

I've never seen so many kilts, plaid, or scotty dogs in one place before. It was an awesome spectacle - the kids didn't know quite what to think. But we rolled up to this one road town, found a side spot to ditch the car, followed the throngs and parked our blanket on the hill just as the myriad bagpipers were marching across the field by clan. 

It was crazy - there were strongmen hefting atlas stones and doing caber tosses, re-enactments of famous battles with clashing swords and flying arrows, shot putt / log throwing / hay tossing competitions, and jousting training to name a few. Total blast.

Claim to fame of "the Ultimate Scottish Experience" they've been doing this Scottish Highland Gathering the last 35 years. I loved that they provided relatively free kid-friendly games like egg toss, water balloon toss, haggis hurling, kilted races and more. But really a highlight was just seeing the confident young bucks line up to heave those cabers (basically telephone poles), only to have their egos promptly crushed when they could hardly carry the things (despite 5 fire fighters helping them lift and balance it), let alone toss them any distance at all. And man, those beefy strongmen racing to lift the enormous "Bundanoon Stones of Manhood" onto barrels. Now that was entertainment!

I wasn't doing any heaving that day, but I did join in the Scottish Country dancing demonstration out on the field with the girls. They thought it was the best thing since sliced bread as we weaved in and out in groups of three. Darren showed some people up on shot-putt and Will got two eggs in the face when he amazingly caught Dad's lengthy throws.

Worth a trip for a fun family Saturday and definitely a way to make some memories - more especially if ye've got any Scottish blood in ye!

the old "on the barrel backwards through the legs" stone throw

Kenna mostly spent her day avoiding all the mud and Sums was completely enamored with all the dogs :)

Random Events

Living it up at Mini-Q in Questacon and at the Discovery Zone of the Nat'l War Memorial. Some intense play going on.

 A $4 run down the Super Slide?? Steal of the Century! 

(not)  

Kenna getting in on the lawn mowing action.

Love those little mommy-daddy-summer dates on those U.S. holidays when the kids are in school.

 Family hike up Mt. Ainslie for some great views of the city.

 About 10 minutes from the top, D took one half of us back down due to some freakishly intense ear pain for poor Kenna. (ear infection) They were so close!

 I love that stage when baby is old enough to safely discover the endless joys of the playground.

 And Mommy's new once-in-a-blue-moon highlights in her hair (or highliters as Kenna calls them.)

U.S.A.

As you probably know Darren is on assignment here with the U.S. government. We have lived in MD and UT with his job, but this is our first overseas position. And being so, it was my first opportunity to be party to all the necessary "briefings" at the U.S. Embassy upon our arrival. I must say, it has been pretty fun. The US/Australian relationship is quite developed and our embassy here reflects that in its size and beauty. Gorgeous grounds and buildings. It was a treat to walk through and get my badge and mailbox keys and make the rounds to all the appropriate meetings for a few days. Having the kids already in school was a huge help as well as all the prep work and research we'd done on our own prior. I felt like it was sort of a two day date with my husband (which is MONEY when you usually don't get to reconnect 'til all the kids are snoring and you're both hammered.)

This is also my first time experiencing the "expat" culture that accompanies such a posting. Granted, I'm not struggling with any language barriers or many challenging cultural differences, but it's still enjoyable to have a nice, familiar, community feel every time I visit the embassy or attend one of its functions. They have trivia nights, movie nights, massive garage sales, moms groups, parties, etc. I went to the embassy book club the other night and I was shocked by how much it felt like a Relief Society function. All these ladies being gathered with one commonality (citizenship rather than religion) to eat, socialize and share ideas late into the night. The conversations were fascinating. Such rich and diverse perspectives from a myriad of backgrounds and experiences - different cultures, family structures, professional grades. It was so uplifting. I genuinely appreciated the stimulating and political topics that repeatedly came up through our discussions. And of course it was fun to hear the familiar sharing of where to find this or that or who found what at such a low price, etc. It's also fun to see all the different government-owned housing (and that familiar furniture) as we visit others' homes.

We are thrilled with our home here. We are the first American family to move in so it recently had all sorts of required updates and installments like alarm systems, special locks, slash-proof security screens, & high fences. It's just beautiful inside with many lovely extras we didn't expect (kids are taking real advantage of the intercom, central vac and laundry chute.) Security cars drive by at all times of day and night to check the place (one guard even knocked to say our garage door was open - talk about feeling safe. Um, minus the spiders I guess.) It's plenty big for our potentially growing family (5 bedrooms/3 garages) too. So I guess my point is - there's room for visitors!!

Canberra is very "western," and many things feel entirely familiar. There aren't many products I haven't been able to find (admittedly at a higher price) but most can be purchased online anyway. And while there aren't any familiar brands of food, the Australian versions are great. Milk, cheese and chocolate are much tastier due to the high cream content and I'm having a ball trying out lots of randoms that look interesting.

I've been impressed to find how child and family-friendly this city is with all sorts of activities that are kid-centered. Free city-sponsored playgroups and preschools with activities and snacks provided. Many "mums" with small children or pregnant. I even had a hard time finding a seat in the family lounge at the mall - a space provided to nurse and change diapers privately with a little play area for the older sibs too. So many friendly and talkative mums. It's a nice surprise and makes it feel a lot like home.

A Cup of Sugar

You ever had to run over to the neighbors for a missing ingredient (or in my case, tin foil to keep your roo from burning)? Well, I think kind neighbors are priceless. And we got pretty lucky with ours. We were assigned housing on a cul-de-sac in a nice part of town surrounded by lots of embassies. I was worried there wouldn't be much social interaction, but after introducing ourselves one couple invited us over for "afternoon tea and drinks" with the three other families in our circle, all of which have been here since they bought the lots 20+ years ago. Extremely nice gesture.

The neighbors on one side have a couple kids just older than ours (who incidentally don't use the trampoline much anymore and invited us to come and go as we please.) They also have guinea pigs who roam the backyard which has helped ease the pain of leaving our pet rats at home.

Neighbors on the other side were very hospitable empty-nesters who opened their pool to our crazy kids with an invitation to use it when they wanted. (Wow.) Our kids ran their dog ragged, playing fetch with him in the pool while we sat and visited. They've had a kangaroo fall in the pool and blue tongued lizards sitting at their back door. We learned of the other international families that had stayed in our house - and many other juicy neighborhood tidbits. We were introduced to turnip cake and candied licorice and warned to be careful at night because the kangaroos come down to our yards in the dark. And despite being asked if we were from some new cult in Utah (you know, the whole "we don't drink tea, coffee, OR alcohol" bit) it was a lovely, lovely time and we were grateful for such a warm welcome.

We've found the people, children included, to be super friendly. Kenna had no less than three girls volunteer to "look after her" within 5 minutes on her first day of school. And complete strangers almost jump to help this struggling mama daily. (I've had people load my groceries, jump my car, push my cart, & hold my baby, entirely unsolicited.) Good on ya, Australians!

City of Parks

Canberra is the capital of Australia similar to our Washington, D.C. It's an entirely planned city, and was chosen for its location between the bigger cities of Sydney and Melbourne (who were fighting over capital status.) One thing that makes it unique (besides being riddled with roundabouts almost to the point of dizziness) is that it's more like a city sprinkled among parks. With nature preserves throughout, there are beautiful places to explore around every corner. We visited 4 "parks" within a 1/2 mile of our house the first week we were here. In fact I almost wish I'd kept the kids home longer because there are so many more to explore. Fortunately, we'll be here a while. :) Here's a look at some of our recent outings.

This path behind our house leads up the hill to a playground and our favorite mob of roos.

Down the street is a real cool skate park with some new age exercise equipment and a nice pond with playgrounds nearby. And man, the sunsets. I don't know if it's just the season or what, but they are somethin' else.

Will attempting to float his make-shift skateboard raft.

These cute kids are a family that has been our lifesavers here. We got connected via email before the move since I had a bunch of questions about schools and such. Then providentially we were assigned housing down the street from them and they were assigned to be our "hosts" and are also LDS so it has become a great friendship. They picked us up from the airport with our house keys, stocked our fridge and made our beds ready, gave us rides everywhere and have loaned us more than just their car, so we consider them heaven-sent in easing our transition. Fortunately, their four kids are all within a year of our kids' ages too, so instant friends!