Thomas's 2 year photo shoot!

So we are a month late but we finally got outside to do a photo shoot of Thomas. We could not get him to look at us let alone smile. When we would say "smile" he would blow up his cheeks with air and make a monkey face. When we would have the perfect scenery he would run off faster than we could snap a picture. Feeling like we had nothing after an hour we went back through the pictures and found a few that could work...enjoy!

This was the best picture of Thomas smiling...he is about to hit me with a stick!

The giant stick he hit me with...now he is taking off to go smack something else.

Picking flowers to throw into the water

cute hu!

playing on the doc

watching the flowers fall into the water. This is the walking path outside our house.

We couldn't decide black and white or color! The black and white hides Mary in the background.

Below is the first picture we took, and probably the only one of him sitting and looking at us, with almost a smile...he has very deep dimples in both cheeks that show when he is really happy!

The little beach outside our house, he was obsessed with burying a rock, after throwing sand on me we decided to save the camera and come inside!

Thomas is always covering himself with diaper rash cream and toothpaste, after the photo shoot he wasted no time once he was in the house.

Canberra!

Now that Ben has been here for a month we have seen Sydney in all it's glory. We are now taking weekend trips driving about three hours out in any direction. This weekend we made it all the way out to Canberra otherwise known as the nations capitol.
The first place we hit was the nations capitol. We got the official tour and learned a lot about Australia. They have a house and senate just like the USA but are still under the watchful eye of Queen Elizabeth.

The stairwell inside the capitol, completely made of marble!

The fourth largest tapestry in the world...looks like a painting hu?
Australia is a democracy and it is compulsory to vote in this country (you get fined if you miss an election) but politics work different down here. Recently we woke up to a new President (the old VP) she got some people to in the house/ senate to vote the current president out (Kevin Rudd) due to unpopularity. She got the majority and in the morning the Rudd was informed he was no longer the president. The elections took place while he was sleeping and he had quite the surprise when he learned of his cabinets decision to oust him. I have stayed out of politics out here but waking up to a new President without an election made me look around!

Inside the capitol building, the most expensive building in all of Australia (yes, even more than the opera house) coming in at 1.2 billion dollars.
Ben checking out an aboriginal mosaic in front of the capitol, it is surrounded by water because Australia is an island and then the rest of the ground covering is red rock to symbolize the red desert that covers most of Australia.

The Capitol building. Yes that is grass on the roof and you can walk on it. It symbolizes that man is always above/ greater than the government.

All the flags from most of the countries! The river behind it reminds me of the Potomac and DC! From here we got Stan and the kids from the Questacon which was a very famous kids science museum and a gift to Australia from Japan. The kids had a blast doing every interactive thing you could do there!

The next day we toured Australia's war monuments/ grave sites. It was very impressive!

Thomas looking in the reflection pool

Olivia by the eternal flame. It is in the center of a reflection pool and it never goes out...even in the rain!

The cathedral of the graveside for the unknown soldier .

The unknown soldier

Ben commented that it was interesting that the stain glass had soldiers compared to the usual saints in the cathedral .

Family pix in the rain!

Ben checking out the war memorial, mostly covering soldiers from WW1 & WW2 but Vietnam is also included in the way back.

Poppies are given out during veterans day to remember the soldiers and they are also put in the wall here by the names of family members.

From there we went to see the Australian/ American monument. From here we went to the Australian museum and got a two hour history lesson from the beginning of the aborigines until now. It was very informative but the kids got tired and Thomas set off an exhibit alarm!

Next Telstra Tower that looks over all of Canberra, you have to drive up a mountain to ride up to the top and look over the whole city. We opted out due to the rain and entry fee :-)

The ride back...Thomas rode in our car and Stan was in a second car with the girls, and now we start another week of work! Stay posted for next week!