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PREPARE FOR CUTENESS!!

Scott took Noah and Beau to the zoo when they were each around 4 years old, so this visit was good timing for Seth’s turn. We took him to the Healesville Sanctuary for the day, which was also a treat for me since I hadn’t been there before.

We watched a really cool platypus show. Platypuses (platypi?) are way smaller than I expected. That girl picked Seth out of the whole crowd to come up and feed an eel but he was too shy and passed (while hiding behind Scott). Aww.

Then we went to a birds of prey show where birds swooped right over our heads. Very exciting. A wild wedge tail eagle kind of ruined the end of the show by scaring away all the demo birds though. Seth is showing off his feather we found earlier.

We saw koalas, emus, dingos, kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, and lots more too.

Seth really really wanted to get a bird on his arm. I was impressed by how quietly and carefully he would go towards the birds. Much patience!

Having a plate of food helped, but he really wanted it on his actual arm.

So close.

Then we drove back to his house and we all drew pictures of each other and jumped on the trampoline (I taught Seth popcorn) until Michelle and the other boys came home. A fun day!!

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1. FAMJAM/#jornapalooza2015

April helping Uncle Scotty use the computer.


An extremely cute Easter bunny.

I love that the whole family likes games. Simultaneous Wits & Wagers and My First Carcassonne.


Cutest dinosaur ever (Seth).

Jemma and April.

The entire Jorna family together! This hasn’t happened in a long time. It made Pat (Scott’s dad) so happy. :’)

2. SPORTS

We went to a rugby union game. I learned all about weird things like BORING IN THE SCRUM.

Scott’s cousin hooked us up with ultra cheap tickets to the footy. The Hawks demolished the Cats. It’s one of my life goals to go to a full house AFL game at the MCG (100,000 people) (happens about a dozen times a season according to Scott), and this was close, but not quite. There were 72,000 people there, for a FIRST ROUND GAME! Melbournites love their sports.

Hawthorne cheer squad.

We even caught a Canada vs. Fiji Rugby Sevens game on TV, which made me laugh, and made Scott run to his room to put his jersey on. Canada was even winning for most of the game! But then Fiji smashed us. They seemed like they could run twice as fast as the Canadians.

3. AUSSIE FOODS

I ate 5 meat pies in 2 weeks. :D

We went out for dumplings, but they weren’t great. Should have researched a bit more about where is good these days.

At one of the spots on our impromptu pub crawl. We also went to a bar that was a little house right in the middle of the CBD, and Transport, and possibly somewhere else. Hmm.

Really expensive fancy margarita and really expensive piece of pork something. Too tipsy to remember the name of the restaurant. The pork was mega delicious though.

– we also ate lots of lamb, vanilla slices, parmas, flathead, Freddo Frogs, etc etc. And brought back an entire suitcase filled with Savoys, Tim Tams and BBQ Shapes.

 

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After more than 24 hours of travel we finally arrived in Melbourne. Brett and Beau picked us up with packages of Tim Tams, Savoys and BBQ Shapes in hand. They dropped us off in Boronia, and then we headed off with Vicky (Scott’s mum!) to Shannon Bennett’s Piggery Café for lunch in the hills. We had barramundi burgers, pork belly BLT, and lots of salad. It was lovely.

We had a night to adjust and then the next day we drove to Phillip Island to join the rest of the family at the holiday house they rented. Brett, Michelle, Noah, Beau, and Seth were all there, along with Jemma, Damien, and April, and then Scott and I and Vicky. FAMJAM!

Scott and I meet April for the first time! She was pretty aloof with us at the beginning. Lots of side-eye, haha. It was also my first time meeting Seth, who seemed pretty excited to see me, especially since I was carrying a big bag of presents.

It was hot the first day so we spent the day at the beach. Scott played a lot of beach cricket with Noah.


We played a lot of games while we were there. Scott and I got the boys kids Carcassonne, kids Wits & Wagers, and Forbidden Island. Kids Carcassonne is fun, even for adults, although it’s best when you play with people around the same strategy level because I had to sort of restrain myself from SMASHING 4 year olds. Kids Wits & Wagers is pretty much the same as the adult version, except slightly easier questions, and an easier betting system. Everyone liked it, we even played it after the kids went to bed. And Forbidden Island is a cooperative game, similar to Pandemic.

We all went out for dinner at the Cowes RSL.

I think Scott took this picture when he was waking April up from her nap? Pretty dang adorable.

One afternoon Scott and I went for a drive around the island. We ate pies and went out to the Nobbies. We didn’t see any penguins (not the right time of day) but we did see the blowhole blow. And got so blown around by the wind that we felt sick afterwards. It didn’t feel bad as we were walking around but when we got back in the car we both felt awful. So weird, it was like a wind concussion. I do love those pictures though. I look like a troll!

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Dad came to visit us here in Vancouver at the end of January. We planned the whole trip around what was supposed to be an epic family weekend ski trip to Whistler. And then… it rained… A LOT.

Since everything was all prepaid we still tried to ski. The first day we were drenched by the time we got to the top of the mountain. And not just wet… I mean mittens saturated, puddles in elbows, hair dripping. It was gross. Plus it was hard to see because of the fog and the snow was super heavy and sticky. We only lasted until like 1PM and then we went back to the condo for lunch and showers and dry clothes. Poor Scott had chosen this day to pay for a full day snowboarding lesson, but somehow didn’t have as miserable time as we did. He said he learned lots and even took a few extra runs after the lesson was over. Go Scott!!

The next day we just decided to screw it and not ski. It was still pouring rain and all of our gear was still wet despite laying everything out on the heated bathroom floor and in front of the fireplace. Instead we hung around and played games and watched TV and I went to skeleton practice.

Thankfully the last day was a bit better. We were able to stay above the clouds most of the day and got to ski a bit more of the mountain. Dad helped Lauren with his skiing a bit and Scott showed off his sweet new moves. Rosemarie and I went off to ski a bit alone, and then Rosemarie and dad did a few runs alone too while I hung out with the noobs.

Dad and I ended up driving back on Tuesday to use up his last lift ticket since I had the day off work. It wasn’t raining, but it still wasn’t great because the snow was so heavy and the visibility was really bad. Dad fell on a green run and then we pretty much called it a day.

All in all, not the greatest ski vacation, but we still did manage to have lots of fun times. And at least he didn’t come this past weekend… because it’s way worse now. Man all the BC hills are having a terrible season.

Other things we did:

  • teach dad to play Settlers and Carcassonne
  • play lots of Wizard
  • trivia night at Falconetti’s (we dominated)
  • a tour of TRIUMF (dad nerded out!!! I think he should get a job there… so many employees in sweaters)
  • brought dad to watch me skeleton
  • eat sushi

It was nice hanging out with dad so much. Can’t wait until next time!

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Last week we went out to The Oakwood Canadian Bistro to try their Dine Out Vancouver menu. It’s in the $28 category.

The restaurant is in Kitsilano and definitely has a hipster vibe. The cocktails were kind of expensive and small, but they did have cheaper wine and beer pairings available.

Bacon and kombu dusted albacore tuna, miso eggplant puree, lime grapefruit gel, kimchi spiced kohlrabi, sesame snow.

Loved this. The miso eggplant puree was really interesting, the tuna was lovely and the kohlrabi was simply delicious. Everything tasted really nice in combination as well.

Smoked confit chicken, endive, celery and apple ribbons, pickled raisins, bacon vinaigrette.

This one was less exciting. Everything tasted good, and the apple ribbons were pretty, but it was just not as interesting as the tuna appy.

24 hour pork neck, bacon apple bbq sauce, popcorn grits, creamed spinach and smoked paprika scallion.

Very tender pork, buttery grits, and indulgent vegetables. Really nice dish.

Olive oil poached sable fish, smoked ham hock broth, confit leek, celeriac, potato croquette, creme fraiche, bacon crumb.

The vegetables and croquettes were good, but the star of the dish was the perfectly cooked fish.

Foreground: roasted apple, butterscotch, rhubarb grenadine gel, brown sugar oat flake. Background: pistachio cake, dark chocolate ganache, cranberry meringue, brown butter whipped cream.

I don’t like cooked fruit so I preferred the pistachio dessert more, although to be honest I couldn’t taste pistachio at all. It definitely tasted like almond extract instead. Scott says the apple one was “very nice” but could not come up with any other comments, haha.

All in all, a nice meal. I would return to the restaurant for their regular menu for sure, except I have to say… that KitchenAid mixer with a plant in it BETTER BE BROKEN. Otherwise they will have lost all of my respect. Ha!

The Oakwood Canadian Bistro Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato