That time of year

The passing of July brings a couple of near milestones to the Aussie Kail house this year. We celebrate 4 years of marriage and Josh's 29th birthday all on the 27th. Not quite the big numbers, but getting close. (Oof....30 next year!) Being in Australia helped us enjoy the celebration for nearly two days as we did dinner and presents here on the 27th, and then received congratulations and calls from family on the 27th in the US.....which is the 28th here - yes, Josh basically turned 29 twice.

Josh burned up some steaks, sweet potatoes and green beans for his birthday dinner this year - who knew that you actually COULD cook sweet potatoes for too long on the grill! Kristi found an amazing cake to celebrate the birthday and we received many thoughtful gifts and salutations. The cake is hard to describe, but comes down to a brownie base with mouse, cream and more chocolate on top - goes very well with a cappuccino in case you are curious. ;-)

We rented a car for the weekend intending to get out of the city, which meant we didn't have to rely on trams as a nice change. Originally we were to go see whales in Warnnambool, but something affected their migration so they were running late this year and hadn't arrived yet. Plan #2 was to go see the Penguin Parade Saturday, but that plan shifted a bit when Josh came down with more of a cold than we thought (after going up and down in health all week) and ended up spending all morning in bed instead of out training. The coach had already said to rest if Josh felt sick so he took the coach's advise and didn't do a darn thing until noon. That didn't stop Kristi from going out for her scheduled 14 mile run - which just made Josh more tired and stay in bed a little longer to rest on her behalf.

In the afternoon we took a trip to the Quilt and Craft Fair to pick up some supplies for our Australia scrapbook. It was inspirational to see what these folks did with yarn, beads and cloth, but it was also a bit overwhelming! There's only so many amazing squares, patterns and sewing gadgets that you can appreciate in one day and I think we achieved that easily. After the fair we decided to explore a bit and just pick any restaurant that we came across for dinner. We ended up at an Italian place in Moonee Ponds (North Melbourne), Marinelli's Restaurant, and had very nice meals - Pollo Della Casa (chicken and avocado linguine) and Calabrese (Olive, salami and capsicum) Gnocchi. The food was great and hit the spot after a long day exploring. Now at the end of the day its another piece of cake, a nice cappuccino and a movie to relax and get ready for more adventures tomorrow!