Sunday

We started out the day with one last trip to Dawson's, which may actually be the greatest nursery of all time. It's freaking awesome - it has a cafe that serves Devonshire tea (the point of our visit), a maze for the kids, a lookout area for the kids, and a million other charming details. Unfortunately it was really hot. So hot that Felix's normally straight and well-behaved hair sort of went wonky.






And so hot that it looks like we were actually abusing Sophie in some way.






Once morning tea was finished, we let the beasties go and explore for a while.










I loved the quirky details.










I also love hydrangeas.




Once home, it was time to get ready for the family reunion that Judy and Ken had planned, because they weren't busy enough with having a houseful of people, retiring from work, and going to medical appointments.




If you mix Scottish folks with Australians, there will be drinking.




Oh, look! World's most over-decorated tree is still hanging in there. (My apologies, J&K, that we didn't have the kids undecorate it before we left.)




My eyes are going downhill fast. During one of our many dinners on the patio, I looked over and was sure that this was a real spider. I actually had to get up and walk right up to it before I realized that I'm just an idiot.




Sophie and Felix were the first to get their hands on sweet Jemma.




But Mean Tim wasn't far behind. For some bizarre reason, Jemma really likes him. Oh well, she's still young.






Jemma with her parents. (I swear that at some point this will stop being the Jemma Blog, but gimme a minute.)




And Jemma with my Auntie Diane, her grandma.




My great Auntie Pauline with my Uncle Ken. The book that she's holding is pretty fabulous - it contains many photos taken by my great-grandfather, Andrew Robertson.




Auntie Pauline and Dana.




I was too busy eating (and possibly drinking) to take photos of dinner, but here is the dessert that Judy ordered from her favorite French restaurant. It was amazing.
The pear version.




And the blueberry one.




And finally, the raspberry and peach one.




The entire Robertson crew.




Which is headed up by this guy, my great Uncle Charlie. Uncle Charlie is quite a character. He greeted me with a big hug and kiss, and then said, "well, you've no gotten any taller since the last time I saw ye, but you've certainly gotten wider". Oh Charlie. You're such a charmer. But really, anyone who is 85 years old and still has naturally dark hair and can rock the socks the way he does can sort of get away with anything.






Stephen gets schmoopy over Jemma.




The youngest and oldest Robertsons, plus Stephen and Mio.




The last photo of the night. You know that it's been a good party when two Barbies end up naked on the table, one of them strapped to what looks like a potty chair.

Saturday

I shouldn't have let myself get behind again, because now I can't actually remember Saturday during the day. I think that we slept in, and putzed around the house for most of the day. And then in the evening, Stephen, Sophie, Felix, and I drove down to Subiaco to meet our friends Steve and Kerri for a farewell dinner. *sniff*

We ate our weight in pizza, then walked over to Baskin Robbins and ate some more. I'm almost positive that we ate ice cream at least once a day the entire time we were in Perth. Mission accomplished, O'Reillys.

Saying goodbye is never fun, and this time was no exception. It does help to know that Steve and Kerri are planning a U.S. trip for late this year, so it won't be too long before we see them again. Sophie got pretty teary, as was expected, but Felix was a stoic little guy. Once in the car he announced that he didn't want to embarrass anyone by crying in public. Way to show some empathy, son.

No photos from the night because I'm an idiot and forgot to put my SD card back in my camera.

Friday

Ooh, almost caught up.
On Friday we all drove out to Fairy Penguin Island, because it was another favorite from our 1998 trip. It's out near Rockingham, about an hour drive from my aunt and uncle's house.

The penguins that live on the island are known as fairy penguins, due to their size, but they're also called blue penguins. They are just gorgeous little animals. I think that we could have happily watched them all day long. We got to the beach with not long to spare, but had time to order a quick lunch before jumping on the ferry over to the island. Once we got over to Fairy Penguin Island, we were just in time to watch the penguins being fed (or most of us were - Stephen spent the morning ironing out his visa, so he missed that ferry and had to catch a later one). The penguins in the enclosed area are all there for a reason (mostly due to being orphaned as babies).

They are adorable.




I think that my baby is tired of being photographed.




Hello there.








Here is the jetty to the ferries.




And here is the ferry that you ride back to the beach.




While we were waiting for Stephen, we got to watch this guy, who repeatedly went 20 feet or more in the air.




A puffy beach plant.




Sophie playing at the beach on the island. Felix was there too, but I guess that I don't love him enough to take photos of him that day.




Seaweed, showing how crystal clear the water is.




You're able to walk (carefully) around the island, and see many penguins out in the wild. They're molting right now, and we had to be very careful not to scare them.






These lizards are also all over the island. *shudder*




This is a sandbar that connects the beach to the island. Adventurous folks like to walk back and forth on it, however there have been MANY drownings because of it (two guys died days before we were there. They put their children on the ferry, then walked across with their wives, who are still in the hospital).




After we had soaked up enough penguin adorableness, we caught our sea lion tour. The captain started off the trip right, by playing the theme song to Gilligan's Island. The waves look deceptively benign in these photos - about two minutes into the trip, i was asking whose idea this was.






But the trip around the islands was beautiful.




This guy bit it about 1/2 a second after I took this photo.




Sea lions! Man, they are lazy.






There are also pelicans that live on this island. If you squint, you may be able to see them up on the hill.






The only downside to the day was that I somehow forgot to use sunscreen, and got a pretty bad sunburn. The rest of the day was wonderful.