Osteria Sanao in the Hills

MaryEd was here for a whole week and Tony joined us over a long weekend. MaryEd helped out a bit as I went back to work. We picked up Tony from the airport & Cam from work before heading into the Adelaide Hills. We stayed a great little Italian place with cottages out the back.

The first night, Nevlin went in his PJs and hung out in his stroller in the corner. He was a great sport, but soon figured out that mom & dad were sleeping in the same room and fussing resulted in a quick response.

On Sunday I arranged for us to have some beef bourguignon and red wine at a little winery that only opens up 2x a year for festivals. It was a great place, lots of space & so very relaxing. We each had the beef and red wine followed by a bit of desserts. Melt in your mouth heaven in the Adelaide Hills.

MaryEd's Birthday!!!

Cam's mom, MaryEd came to Adelaide to celebrate her birthday in style. She brought her very own cake, but ate half before I realized it was the only cake we had in the house! Here she is blowing out a match (we didn't even have any candles) with balloons & some sprinkles to top off the half a donut.

There are lots of shots with Nev and only one of his parents. This one has him in some awesome socks and reading a book with lift-up flaps. Perfect for little guys who love "peekaboo."

Two dudes in hoodies, need I say more!

Nev even got to hear about the hungry, hungry caterpillar from his Meme! He really gets into books most days, but others he isn't as interested. It all depends on when you catch him (in between naps & feeds).

Sparklers on the 4th of July

Nevlin is having an extra long sleep, so I get to do more blogs (here's me avoiding doing taxes!). Speaking of the little man, he weighs well over 8kg or 17lbs now and is about 4.5 months old. He loves eating and gets a bit frustrated when he can't do or reach something that he wants. He had about a week of not sleeping very well when Cam's parents were visiting and after, but is back to a great routine of 7pm bed and we get him out of his crib about 7am. He wakes up generally sometime in the 5am hour, but only kicks/thumps his feet in his bed until he gets so tired that he falls back asleep. Its so loud that it trips the baby monitor and then there is silence. Its quite the norm for the little guy and cracks us up.

So flashing back over a month ago to Michelle's 4th of July visit, we had sparklers. We drew in the back our names and crazy things, super fun. Here are the best shots from the evening. This one was by Michelle.

Here's CamU's signature in lights.

This one could have been better, but it was the best I did. Funny, but many of my "z"s looked more like "m"s.

Michelle was inspired by CamU's design and decided to give her hand at an M one. This was her first & last attempt, done & dusted!

We wrapped up the evening with just doing anything all at once & using up the rest of the sparklers. Michelle was responsible for the infinity sign on the left, I was in the middle just going silly, and Cam ran around on the right and bottom left doing large and small squiggles. I recommend trying this out if you have sparklers.

Michelle' visit!

Michelle and I spent overnight up in the Barossa Valley. We went to the Farmers market, which was pretty awesome. I got a cheese sandwich & ate the bacon from Michelle's sandwich. It was super tasty.

What trip of mine would be complete without a bit of industrial history. This train station at Tanunda now is a radio station. It really hasn't changed much, but the architecture is pretty typical with the stone and brick. A beautiful style, I think.

Michelle is obsessed over Coopers beer, brewed right here in South Australia. This large cask in the middle of one town was enough to make her giddy.

Michelle came for the 4th weekend & we spent it in true American style with TONS of condiments on our dogs, potato salad, "green stuff" from the midwest (don't ask what's in it), baked beans, water mellon and beer. Too bad Nev had to sleep through it, but it was wicked cool.

We realized that we didn't have a photo with the 4 of us, so I snapped this at the airport. It was a really good time. I'm going to post images of the sparklers we did on the 4th after dinner next. You're welcome any time cuz!

Barossa Valley with Michelle

 Our cousin from Sydney came for a visit around the fourth of July & her and I went up to the Barossa Valley for a girls' weekend. There's been lots of rain, so things were still quite green although the vines were completely bare of grapes.

 We went on an adventure to find a beautiful lookout, but instead hung out in a dirt and undeveloped parking lot where I snapped the following photo. I'm going to try to get it on the news under the weather. Just down the road from this view was the real lookout including its paved parking lot.

 Being a Sydney artist, Michelle is always on the lookout for beautiful expressions of creativity. We found this sculpture outside a winery that we didn't even bother to go in because we felt like we'd already seen the best part. Both of us are in the center of that ball.

And finally, what discussion of the Barossa Valley would be complete without a shot of wine cases. This vineyard, The Chateau was a renovated property complete with a croquet lawn and historic clubs. I highly recommend taste testing there as we tried an amazing few sips of reds and whites that were indescribably good. Up next, other shots from Michelle's weekend in SA.

July 'n the Nevlin-ator

Nevlin has had a busy month in July. There was lots of water, sun & a mix of the two (see the rainbow photo below). Here is the little man on the local beach in Glenelg. We took this shot for our cousin back in Tx. Funny, normally its hot down here in Oz, but not on this wintery and blustery day! 

 While there Cam & Nev posed in the cut out at the local museum. You probably aren't surprised at that sentence at all if you know my obsession for these cut outs.

Here's a shot of him in the tub. He has his hands in his mouth pretty much whenever there isn't any food or toys there already. Nevlin looks a bit like a deer in headlights (or for the Australians reading a kanagroo in headlights).

Many a morning we watch baseball on TV & I talk Nevlin through the game. He may be sporting NFL gear, but the small is all about the strike-outs he sees. Some games are very exciting & go into extra innings. 

Nevlin really has quite an active life-style including daily exercises in his Jolly Jumper. A Canadian invention, this little spring can fit many doorways or trees. We can't wait till it warms up a bit & we get to take it outside. Stayed tuned for more shots to come.

Nevlin saw his first rainbow on the 15th of July. It was a double full rainbow. In fact, we saw the end of it driving home just before this shot. Sorry, no pot of gold, although I looked really hard. Instead cars just drove right through it. Very weird.

The mobile keeps growing with more & more stars. This one was from Nev's Chinese cousins Sydney & Aiden (there is an A on the back). It is one of his favorites!