Boat pup

We took Tani for his first boat trip in the Dampier Archipelago.  It was a great day which started with a herd of dugong 5 minutes from the boat ramp!  I was super exited!!!

And ended with a pod of bottlenose dolphins which came right up to the boat.

Burrup gorges

Tani learns to swim in the beautiful gorges on the Burrup.

Thailand trip

In February I met Mum, Dad, Jul, Hylan and Aili in Thailand for a couple of weeks.

It was Aili's first trip to Thailand and it was great to see her with Tuat (great-grandmother).

Creative Pup

We have a very artistic puppy... here is one of Tani's art installations:
This one's a string compilation called "Manny did it".

Being this creative is tiring.

OK, so I'm hugely behind in blog posts... read on for my attempt to catch up on the past few months...

Tani punishes his Mummy for being so far behind in the family's blog site...

Tani's graduation

On Thursday 2nd February, our clever little boy graduated from Puppy Pre-school classes!  He topped the class in the final test (it was stiff competition) and won first prize!

Here he is in his graduation cap.

Tropical Cyclone Iggy... and the mud

I'm a bit behind in my blogs - this one is from late January! (Australia Day long weekend)...

TC Iggy was a lot more eventful than Heidi and brought almost a week of lovely drenching rain - yay!! 

During the week Adam and I finished two garden beds.  Concreting in the pouring rain was sometimes challenging!





Parts of our garden were a boggy quagmire... everything got covered in mud!

But the end result was worth it.

Trip to the Burrup

Last Sunday we took Tani to the Burrup as there was some water "trickling" from recent rain.

 

Some Burrup landscape shots...


Spinifex grass in seed.

Puds & produce

Puds shows off the first produce from our new garden beds.  It's great to have a garden again!  Another eggplant is growing and is well on its way... if Tani doesn't "pick" it for us first!  He (unfortunately) "pruned" one of our capsicum plants so I'm not sure how that is going to fare.

We finally have a carport!

Yay!!  We finally got the concrete poured for our carport!

The guys did a great job.

And here are some "before" shots to show what it used to look like...

Foreman Tani checks that the rio mesh has been laid correctly.

Adam adjusts levels and falls prior to the pour.

Full moon fun

Last night was a beautiful full moon so we went to Hearson's Cove to watch it rise over the water.  Ali and Bailey (a labrador Ali was dog-sitting) went too.  The evening storm clouds added great atmosphere.

Bailey in the distance as the tide comes in.



Tani experienced his first little waves...



...and harassed Bailey at every opportunity!

Tropical Low off coast

Currently heading straight for us... and may develop into a cyclone tomorrow...

Later...
Well, she developed into Tropical Cyclone Heidi and was a non-event.  No wind and (unfortunately) no rain :(

She crossed the coast east of Port Hedland (north-east of us) so they got all the rain.

Welcoming the New Year

My good friend Ali and I got up before the crack of dawn and drove to Hearson's Cove to climb a hill to watch the first sunrise for 2012.  It was a lovely way to welcome the New Year!

We went for a beach walk then Adam and Tani joined us for "New Year's breakfast on the sandflats" as the tide was out.  It was Tani's first trip to the beach and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ali and Adam set up breakfast...

Overseen by Ali's Landi and Adam's Landcruiser...

Farewell 2011

To be honest, I'm not sad to see the end of 2011 - it was a challenging year with several family members receiving surgery or treatment for various reasons throughout the year.  Hopefully 2012 will have less incidents/accidents/ailments and involve less trips to hospitals!  On the bright side, we are all still here and relatively intact so for that I'm very thankful.

Health issues aside, here's a quick run-down of 2011 with some photos inserted throughout the text to keep you interested...

Our family trip to Kalbarri was a great (albeit hot!) start to 2011...



Adam and I near "Nature's Window" in Kalbarri National Park.


Easter saw us on the east coast with a road trip from Manly to Noosa.  It was great to catch up with friends and family along the way and get a good dose of gorgeous east coast beaches. 

Walking down to one of my favourite beaches in northern NSW with my new board (Mini Mal).

Adam waits for a wave in Noosa.

In June we went to Thailand to visit my Dad who was teaching English there.  We took our Mums with us and all had a great time with a side trip to Penang (Malaysia).   

On the way to visit Dad - Priwan waterfall in Phatalung.

Having a dip in Emerald Pool, with its brilliant green water and strange yellow rocks.

Work-wise, I had three really fun dive trips to assist in coral surveys at the Montebello Islands Marine Park.  My annual Rosemary Island turtle tagging program went well - it was great to hang out with the turtles for two weeks! 

We decided that Adam wouldn't return from LWOP to his Marine Ranger role with DEC.  While he misses field trips to the Montes, he is really enjoying his job on the tug boats in Dampier with Westug.

We finished the year with a trip to Perth and a side trip to Albany to collect Tani before returning to Karratha for Christmas and New Year.

Family portrait where the kids are semi-behaving!

I hope your 2011 was an enjoyable and fulfilling year!!!