The Beard

He's really been enjoying this beard.

enjoying while he can

When we go back to the USA he has to shave it all off

for the new job. He's not going to like it :(

Onker is my imaginary friend

Ethne: "Onker is so gwoss(gross) he eats out of da GArbage can. Onker is my imaginary friend. I don't invite him o-va(over) because he is so gwoss. He doesnt have any mannas(manners). He doesn't even have a mom."
G: "what if he did have a mom?"
Ethne: "den he would have mannas(manners)"

Kangaroo Island Australian Sea Lions

 Seal Bay Conservation Park "where visitors can walk among the third largest and only accessible colony of Australia Sea lions"

This was an expensive activity for a family of five. It is a conservation park and probably takes money to keep up though, so your money is going to a good thing. You can pay more and get up close to the AU Sea Lions or you can pay less and stand up on the board walk and take pictures. I think it was worth the extra money to go out on the beach with them and not be so far away. 

Sleepy Sea Lions-

Ezra in the sand, tired and not really paying much attention to the sea lions after the first 15 min.

Another tired and slightly sun burned kiddo.

After the sea lions we drove around the corner to another beach where you could get in the water and swim. It was wonderful. The sun was still high in the sky even though it was late because of the time of year, but that got me thinking about dun dun dun....SHARKS.

I was thinking about how it was feeding time and how just around the corner was the favorite food of the Great White Shark and then all of a sudden the water didn't feel so good on my legs.

G and I started feeling nervous about the kids and we got more shallow and then finally out of the water altogether :) We had been told that there are lot of sharks around the areas where seals hang out and this was a prime time and place so we played in the sand for a bit.

Ethne was so cute in her swim suit. This is Ethne's swimsuit that matches Baby Camilla's swimsuit and so she loves to wear it.

This sand here was so fine and white and nice. We loved it.

rinsing off to go home

Here are a few more of the seals

this one has a pup

It's really fun to watch when they play with each other.

These guys do not look anything like the sea lions in San Francisco and I asked the lady in charge what the difference was between a Sea Lion and a Seal. Why are some called Sea Lions and some seals? She said there wasn't really much of a difference and I thought hmmm...really? I pressed her for a better answer and what it came down to was that she didn't really think we were either smart enough or serious enough to get into the details of that answer. So she gave me a short very unsatisfactory answer that left me wanting to "Google it!"

So I did and here is what I found: http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/zoology/marine-life/seal-versus-sea-lion.htm  Notice the picture at the top? That is an AU Sea Lion on Kangaroo Island- Very nice! The short of it is that "True" seals are "ear-less". They have ear holes but no external ear features like sea lions and fur seals.  Another big difference is that Sea Lions and Fur Seals have larger hairless front flippers and can walk effectively on all fours on land. "True Seals" have smaller hairy front flippers and can't get around quite as well on land.

check out that muscle-

I Can "Tend" I'n E-Knock

Ez: No Ethne you can't play with me
Mom: Ezra that's not very nice what if  you were Ethne?
Ethne: "I can tend(pretend) I'n E-Knock"
Ezra: Ok Ethne you can play.
Ethne: I'n E-knock
Ezra: no you're not
Ethne: "Oh, OK, I'n Ethne Princess then"

This broke my heart to hear Ethne thinking she needed to pretend to be Enoch for Ezra to want to play with her. But luckily her little heart wasn't so sensitive and she thought nothing of it. They played and had a good time after that. But Ezra got a talking to from his mama about the proper way to love a sister.

Kangaroo Island arch and NZ Fur Seals

I should have mentioned in the last two posts that these attractions are all part of Flinders Chase National Park on KI. The Rocks, The lighthouse, and Admirals Arch below. All for a small fee for the whole family to get into the park.

This wooden trail is the path down to Admirals Arch and the NZ fur seals who are up here from the antarctic for breeding. There were signs warning how dangerous it can be to disturb them during this time and to STAY ON THE PATH. Which we did :)  When we went to the red rocks in NZ we were MUCH closer to the seals before we realized that we weren't supposed to be that close.

This is admirals arch and to be honest the pictures we have just can NOT do it justice. It was truly beautiful and we were in awe. Looking out of the arch you see the beach full of seals and the water was slipping up and down the beach peacefully. And if that wasn't enough the sun coming through made it seem heavenly and surreal.

It's just too bad you can't really get a good picture of it from on the path(you know that one you have to stay on so as not to disturb the breeding seals).

This picture was taken from high up on the path to Admirals Arch. Such a breathtaking view. We now live 1.6K away from views just like this. We walk there and back all Summer, Fall, Winter and now Spring. The weather right now is perfect. I wish it stayed like this all year long.

My beautiful family.
Enoch was reading over my shoulder and said "why'd ya say 'my beautiful family' when you aren't in it? You're part of your beautiful family". Then he said "You should'a been in it and let dad take the picture. He's better at taking pictures". Silly boy!

OK, not sure how I ended up with this picture here. This is the AU wilderness sort of picture. It was taken on KI on the property with the Raptor Show. Instead of this picture there should be pictures of the NZ fur seals. I will see if I will remember to add them later.

Kangaroo Island Lighthouse

Loved this lighthouse. There isn't much else around it but there are some good walking trails and a BEAUTIFUL view. This had to be the cleanest lighthouse I have ever seen.

Something really cool about this lighthouse is that we had a small connection to it before we ever saw it. We were on a train to Glenelg in South Australia and met a man who was offered a post here to be the lighthouse keeper for 10 years. He ended up turning it down after a bit of drama with the offer but his story was a neat one and I thought it was so fun and random that we met him and talked to him about this lighthouse

before we even went to KI and saw it.

Ezra had a pretty rotten attitude about taking pictures here. I can't remember what it was but he had something stuck in his craw.  

Eating an apple on the lighthouse steps. Snack Time.

Hot, humid and hungry were the three words that best described my crew when we got to the lighthouse. Good thing we had some mighty good apples and lots of water.

Scale-

Aren't they cute?

Ready to go see the NZ fur seals yet?? k, Lets go!

Kangaroo Island: Rocks

These shots are taken from the famous "Rocks" on Kangaroo island. So beautiful!

Beautiful view but not so great to be up there with G taking pictures and not helping to pay attention to our 3 kids running around.

See how this looks kind of like an elephant? No? well you will.

My super cute family. I love these guys.

Ezra pretending to be a mountain lion. He "dis-da-peared" as Ethne would say and I was so worried.  He was with G one sec and gone the next and as soon as I knew G didn't have him I was really worried. There were tourists all over and there were signs saying stay away from the edge because there were no safety measures to keep you from falling off the edge and onto the rocks sticking up out of the water.  He was only gone for a min and we found him but while we were looking for Ezra Enoch walked off and he took longer to find. He walked into a rock where he couldn't see or hear us and we were calling him and looking everywhere. Not my favorite moment. I wanted to shake him when he came out of his dark little hole.

now do you see how it looks like an elephant?

So cute!

Ezra still being a mountain lion and Enoch running down the side of the rock looking like he was about to jump to his death. It still makes me feel like I can't breathe when I think about how those two tried my nerves on those rocks.