The Lay Chronicles, Abridged

In an effort to keep from completely boring anyone who reads my blog, I have decided to give you all the abridged version of the last month...

The Outback:  Took 15 hours to drive from Darwin to Alice Springs.  Saw no kangaroos but fed Wallabees.  Got up, drove 4 hours to Ayers Rock.  Raining.  Drove to see Ayers Rock anyway.  Lots of gigantic flys.  Not normal flys.  Ones you have to slap to get them off of you.  Drove to see the Olgas.  Still Raining.  Had Kangaroo, Crocodile, Emu and Beef for dinner and stayed in Lost Camel hotel.  Woke up, drove to see Ayers Rock at Sunrise.  Raining.  Had camel burgers for lunch (who knew they had camels in Australia?).  Drove 8 hours to Coober Pedy.  Stayed in hotel 25 meters underground.  Cool, but creepy in the dark.  Woke up, did opal mine tour, drove 8 hours to Adelaide.

Adelaide:  Stayed with our friend Adam.  Met lots more friends from Nando’s Adelaide days.  Went wine tasting in Barossa Valley.  Yum!  Went to Mt. Lofty and Cleland WildlifePark.  Got to feed kangaroos, pet koalas and saw real live Tasmanian Devils.

Week 1 in Melbourne:  Arrived in Melbourne on January 19, a week after leaving Darwin.  Picked up the keys to our house and then spent a few days staying at Jasmine and Brad’s.  Bought our second car.  Went to the Australian Open.  Twice.  Got to see Jokovich vs. Ferrer in the semi-finals from corporate box seats.  Nando’s excitement levels?  Priceless. 

Weeks 2 – 4 in Melbourne:  A blur of setting up life activities.  Insurance, grocery shopping, endless numbers of boxes to unpack, horrific green furniture from Nando’s bachelor days that necessitated several shopping trips.  Lots of fun times with family and friends.

Ovi, zonked out after playing

Week 5 in Melbourne:  This was a good week.  We are almost into real life now and we added our first addition to the Lay family, a 9 week old Moodle (Maltese x Poodle) named Ovechkin “Ovi” Lay (named for Nando’s favorite hockey player, Alex Ovechkin)!  I am sure that future Lay Chronicles will revolve heavily around Ovi’s adventures in addition to our own.  We can't get enough of his cute little bunny hopping run or those big puppy dog eyes.