A Month of Pre-Baby Travel

This month is a month of travel. Joel has spent a week with 3 mates in Iceland on a bit of an adventure holiday. I had 5 days away at the European Resuscitation Council conference in Porto, Portugal. We’re about to hop onto a plane this week to go and see Bec, Terry, Jade, Diane, Rene and all Bec’s lovely Swiss friends for their wedding in Solothurn! It’s so exciting, one of the biggest bummers about living overseas and so far away is missing out on some of those big occasions in the lives of our friends and families. We’ve missed out on heaps of weddings. So when we found out that there’d be one in Europe, and especially for our lovely Bec who was one of my beautiful bridesmaids, well there’s no way in the world we’d miss it! We’ll be sure to upload some pics.

Late last month Joel and I also celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. We made the most of the excuse to get away for a  romantic pre-baby long weekend in Italy. We flew into Milan, took a train about an hour north to Lake Como and spent 2 lovely nights there in the little town of Torno on the lake. We spent the days just meandering around, eating well, drinking well, shopping, and taking in the sights. We then went to Milan for a night where we did more of the same. It was a wonderful trip, we talked a lot about our wedding 12 months before and how special it was.  He

We are so blessed and lucky to be living this amazing life together. 12 months on and marriage has been a blast! In many ways not much has changed, but for us our wedding was really a milestone in our relationship. It signalled for us a commitment to each other and was a way I guess of cementing that we’re moving ahead together in the same direction. For us, that also meant wanting to start a family. We’re making our preparations, practically and mentally, for our much anticipated new arrival in February.

Pregnancy is a weird and wonderful thing. I’m now up to 30 weeks, only 10(ish) more to go. I’m definitely into the third trimester now and have to say I’m really feeling rather pregnant! I hear that in the next 10 weeks the baby’s weight will double. Given that I’m already feeling pretty big in the tummy, struggling to lean over to tie up shoe laces, need some help to get up if I have to squat down or kneel down or something, the thought of doubling the size of my baby bump (which I actually think is a bit cute just at the moment!) seems a little daunting! My latest trick, squatting down to do something (today it was to put paper into the paper basket) and falling straight onto my bum. Seems my centre of gravity has changed a little these days and my brain is yet to catch on!

The baby’s movements have changed in the last few weeks from being fairly indecipherable wriggles and kicks to something quite different. Now you can really feel that the baby is in there and you can feel very distinct movements under the skin, little limbs pushing against the outside of the uterus. I really am enjoying being pregnant and for the most part have felt really well. I think I’ll need to slow down a bit now though, I get a bit tired these days and my body doesn’t react well to ‘overdoing it’. So I’m going to take the hint and ensure I get enough down time.

In other news, our friends Aud Trude and Kristian (who you may remember from our wedding) had a beautiful little boy Oliver a few weeks ago. Aud Trude is already showing her super mum skills and is managing beautifully. Mari and Kev are next with their second baby due Jan 19th, then it’s our turn!

We’re planning a pretty quiet Christmas at home, probably focussing on ‘feathering the nest’ for the baby’s arrival. Joel is planning to continue the renovation plan and tear down the walls and ceiling in what used to be our study and will become the nursery. Personally I think a coat of paint would do the job, but he’s insistent, only the best will do! I plan to leave him to it and instead focus on reupholstering the rocking chair I bought second hand, reading up about birthing techniques and pondering on baby names. Until next time, Merry Christmas!

Some pics from Joel's recent trip to Iceland:

Bump Watch

It has been ages since we've posted a blog. Sorry about that, life gets in the way!! Everything is going really well and Baby Ireland is growing like crazy and giving us lots of kicks.

Joel has just got back from a week's project management course in Aberdeen (Scotland), and we have now completed our weekend birthing course. Tonight we did a tour of the hospital including the 'fødeloft' or 'birth loft' which is where we will most likely end up when Baby Ireland decides to arrive. It was great to see where it will all happen and we both feel really comfortable with what's to come.

Here are a couple of bump watch photos, we'll have more to post soon with a long weekend in Milan coming up and Joel's week long boys trip to Iceland in early December. Loads to look forward to.

From Bump Watch Nov

Week 23

From Bump Watch Nov

Week 27

PS. Huge welcome to little Oliver, Aud Trude and Kristian's beautiful little boy who arrived in the early hours of Sunday morning. We haven't met him yet as Joel and I are recovering from a cold, but we hope to meet him very soon.

21 Weeks

We had our 21 week ultrasound last Friday 8th October. Everything was great, the baby is growing and developing normally. My official due date has now been set at Monday 21st February. Despite some last minute wavering from Joel we stuck with our earlier decision not to find out the gender of the baby.


Here are some pics from the ultrasound, my favourite is the 2D view where baby has its legs over their head. No wonder I’m feeling lots of wriggling from this little baby! Practising their cycling moves overhead perhaps?

Some old pics

I've just been going through our little digital camera (which we don't often use) and clearing off some photos and have found some really lovely ones that I had to share with you. They are mostly of Bec, Jade and Terry's visit (though strangely Terry doesn't feature in any of the pics! Think we took those ones with Joel's proper camera!). There are also some pics from my trip to Greece with Mum and Dad this summer.

So here they are!

Girls Weekend in Oslo

(Note: This blog was written earlier this week!) I just returned from a lovely weekend away with Louise in Oslo. We decided that the blokes are always off here or there on boys trips and seeing as Joel was offshore this would be a perfect time to get away for a girls' weekend! We looked into London but the flights were too expensive, so Oslo was our next best option. We went to a concert on Friday night, Amy McDonald. It was a venue called Sentrum Scene, a fantastic venue, really small and intimate, and even short asses like Louise and I had a perfect view!! Amy McDonald is a really great Scottish singer/songwriter, she has a fantastic, unique voice and great songs. You may know her songs This is the Life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6MRYLWJb1o&feature=channel and Mr Rock and Roll http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR7SdaXHPH4&feature=channel. She's great, buy her albums!

Amy McDonald playing at Sentrum Scene, Oslo

We did some shopping on Saturday morning and then went to a pub on Saturday afternoon to watch the St Kilda v Collingwood grand final "live". The actual result was known by about 10am on Saturday morning but I switched my phone off and managed to avoid finding out the result. The Aussies out there of course know the outcome of that saga - the scores were even at full time, and unlike most other sports, a drawn grand final means a rematch the following week. It was such an exciting, nerve wracking, depressing, inspiring game of football, I was absolutely beside myself for most of the game. Poor Louise - I'm impressed she didn't leave the pub after my carrying on! It was actually Louise's first game of AFL football (she grew up in the States but spent most of the last 10 years in the UK) so I definitely blame her Aussie husband Charles for leaving her this long in the dark. Louise is a fan of rugby and cricket, so I reckon it's a matter of time before we get her hooked onto AFL!

Game (GF1) about to start

Me and Louise at the pub about to watch the GF1

Dinner at a lovely French bistro Saturday night, then Massages on Sunday, lunch at Aker Brygge and we met up with some of Louise and Charles' friends in the afternoon for a while. We had a ball, thoroughly enjoyable and just the right mix of activities and relaxation! So thanks Louise for being a great travel buddy!

Meanwhile Joel is now up to day 24 offshore, working like a trooper doing really long hours and having to deal with lots of issues due to bad weather. AT this time of year the wind and waves can really pick up and cause a lot of issues for the cranes onboard the ships to lift the heavy equipment off the sea bed and into position. They are doing a lot of Waiting On Weather which at this stage of the project, in what should be the final days/week it's extremely frustrating. They just want to get the job done and get home. His return date may be this Sunday but could very easily stretch into early next week. But there's not much we can do about it, we're at the whim of the weather, so we're just hoping for some calmer seas and good progress out at BP Valhall.

Cooba is missing his daddy

Bump Watch 18 Weeks (2 weeks ago) ....and new hair!

Update Today (Saturday 2nd October)
Baby - We've hit the 20 week mark now with the pregnancy, everything is going well. Next ultrasound was postponed until the end of next week so Joel could be there. Really looking forward to seeing Baby again!
Football - I don't want to talk about it.
Joel - Still off shore, finishing up the last few things at the field and will start heading back soon. Hopefully home Monday night, maybe Tuesday at the latest.

A sign of good things to come?

Well this little baby of ours is already showing some good signs of being a very compliant and obedient little one, and upon it’s mother’s request for it to ‘get a wriggle on’, has done just that. In the last week or so I’ve gone from feeling some very faint little movements and the very occasional little kick or poke, to these days being able to feel more and more movement. Every day now I can feel him/her wiggling around and it is absolutely thrilling each and every time. Perhaps the novelty will wear off (I doubt it), but feeling our baby moving around is just so reassuring (it’s alive!) and really feels like things are progressing.


Tomorrow will be the 18 week mark according to our current due date and that makes us 2 weeks away from the half way point. That in itself is something I have to wrap my head around as in one way it feels like the time has flown, but on the other hand the weeks have dragged by at a snail’s pace!

Due to a pretty poor weather forecast over the rest of this week, Joel’s ship has come back to the port nearby to pick up some more equipment and shelter from the rough seas. He arrived in yesterday morning and was able to leave the ship at about 6:30pm to come home for a few hours to see Cooba and me. He’s working 12+ hour shifts on the boat (6am – 6pm). The ship will probably be at port until some time Friday night so he’ll hopefully be able to do the same thing again tonight. He prefers to sleep on the ship which is completely understandable – if he stayed at home he’d have to get back to the ship by taxi by about 5.30am. Plus he really needs to be ‘on call’ in case something happens during the night shift and he’s needed.

It’s so fantastic to be able to see him, such a treat and not something we had expected. It really does break up the 4 week stint to have a couple of evenings together half way through. I was really hoping that Baby would be cooperative and try out a few good kicks so Joel could feel it, but even with the patience of a saint and plenty of poking, prodding and verbal encouragement, we couldn’t get him/her moving. I’m pretty sure though that by the time Joel gets back from this offshore trip he should be able to feel the baby moving. It will be amazing to be able to share that together and it’s something we’re both really looking forward to.

Joel was also able to check out all the loot I picked up at the Stavanger Kids Sale last weekend http://www.stavangerkids.no/ and he was so happy with everything I chose. Among other things I bought a cot, travel cot, car seat with base, baby monitor, auto breast pump, baby bjørn, bouncinette, lots of clothes (onesies galore, sleeping clothes, socks), burping cloths, wraps. We need a change table, a bath and a mattress and some linen for the cot (which Mum is going to make for us – thanks Mum!) and then I think we’ve got most of the basics sorted out. I think I saved about 2/3 of what it would have cost to buy it all new. I’m also hunting online for a rocking chair for the nursery. We’ll have heaps of space in there and I always sort of liked the idea of using that for cuddles and maybe feeding. But we’ll see what comes up on http://www.finn.no/.

The view from Joel's home/office

This is where Joel will be spending most of the next 3 weeks out at sea – on a vessel at the BP Valhall oil field. It’s in the North Sea, between the UK and Norway. The 10m seas that he experienced transiting from picking up the equipment in the UK and getting out to the field have calmed down, and from the picture below it looks like it’s quite pleasant out there indeed!

Map showing the position of the BP Valhall field

BP Valhall taken with Joel's phone camera

Reflections of Motherhood

This post on mamamia (http://www.mamamia.com.au/) came at a very opportune time. Today is Regina and Ulf's baby's due date (http://www.misshermelin.blogspot.com/), 2 nights ago I felt our baby move for the first time (2 little pokes, amazing! Nothing since but you can bet I'm on the look out!). So motherhood is really on my mind. I don't know if its the hormones or the day or maybe I'm missing Joel and my sister and my mum, but I cried my way through this video this morning over my toast and coffee! I hope you enjoy it too.

An interesting visitor – 52 marathons in 52 weeks

Facebook is really a weird and wonderful thing. I got a message via facebook about a week and a half ago from an old school friend Amanda who I hadn’t heard from in oh about 15 years!

I was first a bit sceptical – we’ve had quite a lot of visitors this summer which has been fantastic, but I must say Joel and I were quite enjoying having the house to ourselves once again. Hosting a marathon running stranger wasn’t exactly high on our ‘to do’ list that weekend! But then I took a look at his website (http://www.runlikecrazy.com/) and read a bit about his mission, and wow, did I change my tune.
The guy’s name is Tristan Miller. He’s about my age, grew up in Melbourne, and quite likes to run. He decided to sell his apartment and all his worldly belongings to fund a year-long mission to travel the world and run 52 marathons in 52 weeks. He’s raising money for charity (Unicef and Facing Africa). His marathon in Stavanger was his 34th. Joel and I agreed that Tristan was doing something pretty special and we would be really happy to help him and his mate John (An Aussie living in Sweden joining him for part of the trip) with some accommodation.

Tristan has been running marathons all over the world, from Tokyo to Mongolia, Rwanda, South Africa, the Great Wall of China…you name it, he’s run it (or is about to run it). It’s quite remarkable, but honestly what really struck me after meeting him is that running the marathon is not even half of it. In a way that’s the easy bit! Can you imagine crisscrossing the world many times over, spending no more than a few days in any one place, having to work out flight plans, train and bus timetables, travel visas, hotels, maintaining clean jocks and socks, just all of the logistics and headaches and flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants exhaustion that must come from spending a year travelling? Add to that the physical and mental exhaustion of running a marathon every single week…I just find that utterly amazing and inspiring.

I wanted to help Tristan generate a bit of publicity for his cause. I contacted a couple of local newspapers and managed to get a pretty good response, Rogalands Avis ran almost a full page article on him as well as a snippet on the front page http://www.rogalandsavis.no/nyheter/article5254795.ece. Stavanger Aftenblad ran about a quarter page article in their sports section. Not bad for a PR novice hey?! A TV2 film crew also arrived (through one of Tristan’s connections – I can’t claim that one!) and did a great story for the Saturday night sports news http://www.tv2sporten.no/ovrig/maratonmannen-foeler-seg-som-forrest-gump-3276858.html. Joel also took some fantastic photos. For Tristan, having a photographic and video record of the trip is hugely important. He is getting about with his little digital camera but Joel’s Digital SLR with fancy lenses and filters provided some great pics which Tristan took with him.

What was also special about this particular weekend was that Tristan was running the Stavanger marathon on Saturday, then leaving on a 6pm flight to Denmark, taking a bus down to a ferry port, and then taking an overnight ferry to a little island called Bornholm to run an Ultra Marathon – that is 100kms after travelling all night. The man ran 142km over a weekend. That is just mind blowing.

Tristan at the finish line, Stavanger Marathon

We spent a bit of time with Tristan before and after the race. He’s a fantastic guy, and not nearly as crazy as you’d think! He’s basically a normal guy who’s been given some great (but also fairly “normal” – not unlike you or I) opportunities in life, who found himself in a bit of a rut and decided to just turn it all around, to think big and do something amazing. That was really his message – that you can do anything you set your mind to it if you set a goal and then go about planning the steps it takes to achieve it.

Joel and I have been really proud to help Tristan out over the weekend with hopefully a welcoming smile, some good food and a warm, comfortable bed to sleep in for a night. I hope the publicity helps him get the attention he wants for the charities he’s supporting. We’ve also donated a small amount to Unicef in his ‘everyday hero’ appeal. I also know that each and every donation is so appreciated by Tristan, he was reading his twitter “runlikecrazy” and checking the Unicef donation page and commented about how thrilled he was that people had been inspired by his self-proclaimed “Captain InsanO” double-up marathon/ultra weekend and were making donations.

It was a really interesting weekend, and definitely one that we felt great about – it’s fantastic to every now and then open yourself up to new people and experiences and to give something of yourself and your time to help someone else. However I’d argue that we were really the beneficiaries as we really felt like we’d been part of something special and important. We truly wish Tristan all the best for the months ahead and the many kilometres still to run. He plans to finish up with an ultra marathon in Antarctica (!!) and his final run will be in Melbourne during the daytime on New Years Eve. If you’re interested to read more or get involved (maybe run with him on NYE!) I highly recommend his website http://www.runlikecrazy.com/.

L-R John, Tristan, myself and Joel

Bump Watch, 16 weeks

Get a move on Baby!!

So I’m 16 weeks and 3 days along now. From what I’ve been reading and hearing from friends, it is around the 16th week that I could start to feel the baby. It’s been described variously as bubbles, a flutter or the feeling like a snake or something in your belly that slithers around. Nice image hey?! The midwife told me the best way to feel it is to lie tummy down with a soft cushion under my stomach. Mari has said she feels it best when lying on her back on a hard surface and applying some gentle pressure to the uterus. Naturally I’m trying both those positions daily but without much success! I have to stop myself from dashing off from my desk into an empty meeting room to lie on my back and press on my stomach! Can imagine how that would look to anyone who happened to walk in!

The thing is I’m told that you may not be able to feel it that often, maybe only occasionally, so if I happen to be busy or occupied when the baby decides to Get Physical I could easily miss it! In fact I may have been ‘feeling’ the movements for days but without being aware of it. Also it’s hard when you don’t know what you’re feeling for! There are so many different movements and things happening in your stomach and abdomen when you’re pregnant. Digestion takes on a life of its own, so I predict it’s actually quite difficult to distinguish between lunch bubbling around down there and baby!

I have to say I’m most looking forward to feeling the baby move as I think it will create a different kind of connection to this little 12cm, 150g person that I am apparently incubating! It’s a weird sort of feeling for me (but I’ll try to explain it), this baby is so wanted, anticipated and is something we feel we’re 100% ready for, and of course I’ve had some physical changes signalling that everything is progressing as normal. Intellectually, I know I’m pregnant and if all goes to plan we’ll welcome a baby in Feb 2011, but emotionally I think it’s a bit of a different story. It seems abstract and theoretical. I just can’t really believe sometimes that there’s a baby there. It still came as such a (wonderful) surprise to hear the baby’s heartbeat at our last check up a couple of weeks ago. I’m not worried about it as I feel that this is something that will develop naturally as the pregnancy progresses, that you start to feel that maternal bond and protectiveness. I think and hope that feeling the baby moving will jump start that process and bring this all into reality for me, that yes there really is a baby – OUR baby in there.

So Joel is offshore now for a month, so it’s just Coobs and I at home. We’re lucky to have some wonderful friends who ensured that my first solo weekend was full to the brim with heaps of fantastic visits and good times. No time to feel lonely. The weather has also been absolutely sensational, such a lovely surprise at this time of year when we expect autumn to really hit. It’s most likely the last taste of warmth and sunshine for a long time, so we’re just soaking it up as much as possible.

I devoted Saturday to spending the first part of Joel’s offshore paycheque (!) and picked up a really comfy and I think quite stylish maternity skirt by Boob http://shop.boobdesign.com/sv/product/263/gravidkjol-once-on-never-off#filter-2 and a fab pair of leggings (tete–a-tete) from the same shop. I can’t remember the name but it’s opposite Rom for Mer and has some maternity clothes upstairs. I hope to just get by with a few essentials (a capsule maternity wardrobe, in fashion-speak?), mostly focussing warmer clothes to see me through autumn and winter. I also found some gorgeous St Tropez ribbed tops made from 70% silk at O’La La in Kirkegata which are really long and quite stretchy which will be good for layering under and over other tops during the winter, but will I hope also be able to be used post-baby, unless the bump just stretches them too much!

I promise, more bump watch photos to come!

Bump Watch 10-13 Weeks

We've been promising some bump photos, it's still early days but I have made the bold move into maternity jeans and am the better for it!

This one says 11 weeks 3 days but then at our scan the date was put back exactly a week, so that would make it 10 weeks 3 days. Quite a nice belly there, but the disclaimer is that the bump size varied a lot in the first weeks depending on certain things...I won't go into detail but I'm sure every woman who has been pregnant knows exactly what I'm talking about....

The next one here is at exactly 13 weeks:

Not much difference? Yeah I agree! I'll try to wear something a bit more fitting next time so you can compare apples with apples. Anwyay, it's all coming along nicely. I'm at 14 and a bit weeks now so hope that soon I can start to feel the baby moving soon! If I'm lucky that might happen in the next week or so.

 

Until next time!
Emma.

BABY IRELAND

Some Pretty Big News!

We are so excited to be able to fill everyone in on some pretty special news in our family. We will in about 6 months time have a new little person to introduce you all to! We are 12 weeks pregnant!

We had a 12 week scan on Friday and everything looks great. We’ll include some videos below from the 2D and 4D scan for those who are interested. These new release videos have been on a high rotation in the Ireland household! Everything looks great and we are just hoping for a safe, boring, normal pregnancy. Our due date is Feb 19th.

We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, we’ll be having the baby over here in Norway but if all goes to plan we visit Oz next year. We would love nothing more than to get to Melbourne to be part of Brett and Sam’s wedding on March 20th (and our friends Jenn and Ian who are tying the knot the day before!) but it will depend on when Ireland Junior decides to arrive, and also on the red tape involved with getting a passport for him/her. We’ll have to take that as it comes.

Everything is going really well so far and Emma has escaped the major pregnancy symptoms (nausea, tiredness etc). So far so good! We are really looking forward to the next 6 months and beyond and cannot wait to be parents!

Emma's Bucket List

So I've been following some blogs lately, one of my latest addictions (in this instance http://www.mightygirl.com/) , and was inspired by one of the posts to start my own Bucket List, as in things I plan to do in life before I kick the.....

you get the idea.

So I'm just starting off and I'm sure will be adding to this a lot over the years (and hopefully crossing some off too). Some are lofty and expensive (...well most of them!), some are simple and free (gotta find some more of those ones!). I just thought sharing this might actually raise the stakes a bit and give me that extra motivation to get off my butt and actually achieve some of these things.

I'd love to hear if you have anything you would add to your bucket list, or if you have one of your own.

I plan to get off to a good start tonight and sign Joel and I up for child sponsorship - our wedding present to each other - which we've been meaning to do for ages. Number 38 - Tick!

1. Go on safari in Africa
2. Get my PADI diving certificate
3. Try snowboarding
4. Skydive or bungee jump
5. Make a quilt
6. Learn to pick up a dropped stitch (knitting)
7. Bake a sponge cake (completed for Regina's baby shower)
8. Take a wine course
9. Swim with dolphins
10. Go in a hot air balloon
11. Be a mum
12. Start my own business
13. Renovate a house
14. Live by the sea
15. Hike into Macchu Picchu
16. Own a holiday house (other than McCrae!)
17. Stop chewing/picking my nails/fingers
18. See the grand canyon
19. Play poker in Vegas
20. See the running of the bulls in Pamplona
21. Go parasailing behind a boat
22. Have a walk in wardrobe
23. Take a short barista course
24. Own a convertible
25. Sail around the Greek Islands
26. Eat tapas in Spain
27. See the pyramids
28. Scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef
29. Grow a vegetable garden
30. Have a compost bin
31. Learn to stand up on a surfboard
32. Sing in a choir
33. Be in a murder mystery party
34. See the Northern Lights
35. Visit Antarctica
36. Stay at a health spa
37. Do a road trip along the coast in California
38. 
    
    Sponsor a child in need
    
    
39. See Uluru at sunrise and sunset
40. Eat one 100% vegetarian dinner a week

Peru, Feb/March 2010

Our return to Norway after the wedding, and the long dark days of winter were not for long. In February we packed up our bags and bikinis again (or boardies...?) and headed back to the sunshine and the southern hemisphere. Our friends Paola and Paul were getting married in Arequipa, Paola's home town, in Peru. Neither Joel nor I had ever been to South America, so we were so excited to visit such a fascinating, unique country.

Paola had promised us lots of dancing, fantastic music, great food and pisco sours galore, and Peru really delivered! We had such a great time, we met in Arequipa with a big group of Aussies over there for the wedding including lots of Paul's family, family friends and mates. My mum and dad were invited too and the chance to visit South America was just too good to pass up! We had about 4 or 5 days in Arequipa to be tourists, see the city and of course attend their amazing wedding.

The wedding itself was undoubtably the highlight of our time in Arequipa. The ceremony was held in a magnificent, huge cathedral with painted frescoes and statuies behind the altar that were absolutely divine. The reception was in an enormous marquee draped in soft white an blue fabric, everything was so beautiful. The entertainment team (and I mean team - lighting, DJ, smoke machine, bubble machine, foam machine, fireworks, movie/slideshow) ensured everyone was alternately crying, laughing and dancing all afternoon and well into the evening! Later in the evening the 'hora loco' "crazy hour" really shifted the party up a notch with everyone geared up in crazy hats and glow sticks, it was just hilarious and truly crazy! The Peruvian dancing was absolutely fantastic and all Paola's family and friends were so fun, they pulled everyone into the circle to dance!

Before leaving Arequipa, I went on a tour to Colca Canyon with my mum and dad which was beautiful. Such a lush, beautiful valley in amongst quite an arid landscape. One of the highlights there was seeing Condors swooping overhead above the canyon. They build nests there and enjoy gliding and hunting using the thermal air currents arising from the canyon. Spectacular. While I was doing that Joel went on a trip with some other intrepid hikers (Simon, Gaelle and Like with a guide) to conquer Chachani, the volcanic mountain rising above Arequipa. It is over 6,000m high, higher than any mountain in Europe. The conditions were pretty horrid, altitude sickness makes the climb extremely difficult even in the best of circumstances, snow storms and wind made it even tougher. Only Luke actually made it to the summit, but wow what an experience!

We then moved on with a group of friends and family to Cuzco. Dissapointingly Macchu Picchu was closed due to flooding and damage to the trails and railway, but we made the best of it with a fabulous tour to the Sacred Valley. We stopped at some breathtakingly beautiful spots and explored Incan ruins galore.

After the Sacred Valley we sadly said goodbye to most of the crowd from the wedding and continued on with Louise (Paul's sister) and her boyfriend Zane to Puno, heading east towards Lake Titicaca. We had some fantastic visits to idyllic Isle Tequile and Isle del Sol, visiting some of the famous floating reed islands on the way. It is the worlds highest navigatable lake (or something like that - means there are ferries and things on it). Highlights? There were many. One that stands out was eating at a tiny local candle-lit restaurant with no electricity at about 4020 metres, the trout was indescribable!

We had such a brilliant time, Paul and Paola went to so much effort to make our stay there so easy and fun, it was amazing and will definitely be back to South America. Joel had an absolute ball taking around 1500 photos. We put the best of them into a slideshow. Grab yourself a cuppa as there's quite a few there...! Double click on the image and select 'slideshow' to see them in bigger format with the captions. Enjoy!

Our Wedding! 21st November 2009, Lorne

Joel has done an amazing job preparing all these photos! We received the raw files from our photographer and many hours later, here is the slideshow. We still have some more to sort through, but here are the highlights!

Is this not the cutest little labrador you've ever seen?! Joel shot this in October last year making use of his company's studio equipment (backdrop, lighting etc.). Super cute!

Our Honeymoon!

I'm putting the cart before the horse here a little bit (seeing as we haven't blogged about the wedding yet!), but we had the most wonderful honeymoon in the Cook Islands (http://getaway.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=1020086) after our wedding in December. We spent a week at Rarotonga (Sea Change Villas), the main island, and then a week on the tiny island of Aitutaki (Pacific Resort Aitutaki http://www.pacificresort.com/). It was everything we imagined it might be - beautiful weather, stunning turquoise water, incredible tropical fish, spotless beaches, warm welcoming people. We stayed in the most beautiful on-the-beach accommodation. It was just simply heaven. We can't recommend it highly enough, especially for a romantic getaway.

Here are some pics that show many of the highlights of our trip. It's a long slide show (100+ photos) but seeing as it has taken us 3 months already to get this posted, perhaps it's better to just put them all up rather than wait longer to edit them down to a more manageable number!

Easter at home

We had a fantastic Easter this year at home finishing off (or starting...) a few projects around the house and having a very social holiday seeing lots of friends. We had a great party over at Louise and Charles' place on Friday night - a dress up party. Those of you that are facebook friends of mine can see the album there, Joel's outfit was a big hit! Then on Sunday we had 12 friends over for a big roast lamb for lunch. Everyone pitched in and brought something along which made things really easy for us, lunch for 12 wasn't so daunting when we only had to worry about the main course! It was a fantastic day which turned into a very fun evening, the last guests left around 2am!

Around the house we've now finished our living room renovation and actually completed the skirting boards in our bedroom which have been missing since December 08! The living room looks fantastic, very modern and fresh. I'm toying with the idea of a wallpaper feature wall, any suggestions? I also got out into the garden for the first time this spring and planted some flowers in the multitude of pots that I'm a little bit obsessed with and can't stop buying! It's wonderful to have everything thawed out now and some longer days, sunshine and even temperatures over 10 degrees occasionally.

Enjoy the pics from our Easter Sunday lunch, as always double click to see the pics in full size.