love, liam: january -- AUSTRALIA!

this is gonna be a big one with a lot of pictures! we had a really holiday with some really great times spent with some really dear people! what fun :)

but before we head off to aussie here's a little of home sweet home....

open floor plan! love

nice sized back garden with roses ... ahhhh

i love this view. urban rustic


cat is unsure of this change

SYDNEY

we were greeted by our lovely friend niki who we knew in la but got to be good friends with during the 6 months we spent working at animal logic in 2010. this itinerant lifestyle does have the benefit of leaving friends all over the place :) she has since also had a baby- a very cute whip smart girl named lyra. she and liam had fun and we enjoyed staying together and catching up on life as mamas. we all went to the sydney zoo where we met up with dear friends who had moved back to syndey from here- liam's friends lois and isaac and their mum ruth. and the zoo happened to have a show of anamatronic dinos that pretty much blew liam's mind. he still talks about how there are real dinos alive and they are at the sydney zoo. i haven't had the heart to burst that bubble.

ah warm beach! most like hawaii out of hawaii i have found

rawr!

his arms are gonna get stuck in that position

We were soooo excited to see auntie margot and uncle ritt-- our reason for heading to syndey! and we met them at their hotel a couple of days later when they arrived from wine country

xmas prezzie!

liam looooooves aunti margot <3


and uncle ritt is by far the most fun to cruise with :)

we all went on a fun outing to an animal park/zoo with lots of cute smelly koalas

first class ride

but the wildest animals there? these 2!

we took the ferry together over to manly beach.

aunti margot shot these beauties :)

we hit the museum on the way back to see some.... well, you can guess!

bitter sweet last sushi dinner together. gonna miss these crazy guys


cute shorties ;)

a smile for uncle ritty


family :)

MELBOURNE

we thought we loved sydney and then we found melbourne. we were lucky enough - thanks kit and ken!- to score a 2 week house sitting gig- a sweet little house on a quiet block not far from a vibrant shopping area and only a short jaunt to the beach. the house came complete with a smelly old grumpy puss- zoe- liam still talks about her and the house and asks if we can live in melbourne (?)

we spent a fun sunny day walking and busing through the city

melbourne is famous for it's graffitied laneways


no doubt the first of many ;)

matthew and i went on out one night to a late night at the national gallery of victoria. reminded us of old days going to museum nights in los angeles.... ah, a real city ;) saw the excellent gaultier show.

inside the museum. moved very,very, very slowly


fun set up -- we made a sketch of the model. reminded me of life drawing class at the sorbonne in paris

we also took liam to the museum

giant knitted sculpture!

one day we took the local train to the melbourne zoo

hi friends

we went to the aquarium ( no vancouver but ok ;)

we got to draw fish and then watch them swim!

little guy

and went to the awesome national museum

big guy

one afternoon we went to see a production of "the tiger who came to tea"

first time at the theater!

and one afternoon i painted a tiger ( and a horsie :)

we went to the beach

an artist friend, irene, lives in melbourne and we hadn't seen her since we lived in wellinton back in the day. she met us at the super cool abottsford convent area where they have a farm and cafe called lentil as anything. felt like we were in rural hippie country all of a sudden :) we also met her out one night and heard some awesome french indie band in a tiny sweaty bar. took us back to the good 'ole days ;)

we wanted to see some of the famous great ocean road so we drove out to port campbell for an overnight and took the coast back the next day. we hit the werribee open range zoo on the way out. pretty close to a real saffari for our animal lover!

look!


cute spot to spend the night

a little end of the day splash after dinner in tiny port campbell

the drive is really beautiful

uh oh. we are being stalked

we checked out the old cony island style amusement park in st kilda. was kinda sad and overpriced but liam didn't see that....

dad left to go to vancouver and then la to accept a VES award ( yay dad!) and liam

and i hung out a few days with kit and ken.

we went to the beach some more and to the awesome botanical gardens which had by far the coolest kids play area i have seen


counting

we returned to wellington, to our unpacked new home and zoomed right off the next morning to sharon's glamping bday weekend the next day! quite the whirlwind. and we had a blast. beautiful place and good friends.