What an amazing weekend!

Ormiston Gorge

Jake getting ready for one of his races

On Friday, the boys had sports day at school – it is similar to Field Day in the U.S. but this one happens mid-year.  The school is divided into 3 houses, the kids from each house earn points throughout the year for good behavior and the winner is announced each week at the school assembly – very competitive.  On the actual sports day the kids come to school in their house colors, the older kids really got into the costumes, wearing capes, face paint and crazy hair.  Dillon had the fastest sprint time in his class (see video)  and Jake came in second in his race, I am sorry to say their house, Flynn, did not win for the day- but came in second.

Saturday began at a school carnival at one of the local primary schools, I was very surprised when the boys asked if they could go on a camel ride – surprised for 2 reasons, 1 that they were camel rides available and 2 that they had the courage to do it.  When done, they were quite pleased with themselves. 

Glen Helen Resort

After the carnival and following our soccer game we headed out of town to the Glen Helen Resort with some friends of ours, it is about an hour and a half west of Alice Springs.  Please keep in mind that when I say “resort”,  in the outback that apparently means motel - not quite as nice as a Motel 6.  I could not help but think that if JD had pulled up at the same exact motel in America we would have kept on driving – but here the alternative would be camping, so when faced with sleeping in a tent on the ground or in a concrete block room with beds and a toilet, I chose the latter.  Once we got over the initial shock, even the boys said, “are we staying here”, everything was perfect!  The resort has Glen Helen Gorge in its backyard, which was beautiful.  It was even more beautiful at sunset as the color of the mountain changed from a paler red to a very striking deep red, we were able to sit on the patio with a cold beer and really enjoy it. 

Glen Helen at sunset

One of the funniest parts of the weekend was the looks and laughs that came our way everywhere we went.  Our friend Heather’s husband had to rush back to America due to a death in the family, but we decided to still go on our trip.  So when we pulled up, the tour group out front saw JD, 2 women with wedding rings and 5 boys pile out – we laughed as we realized that Heather and I looked like sister wives with JD at the head of the household.  If we were not already getting enough looks, one of Heather’s twins who is 23 months old calls everyone mama, so him calling the two of us mama all weekend did not help.

Glen Helen Gorge

Dillon loving it!

On Sunday morning JD decided to take the boys on a helicopter ride, it was an open air copter and they took a tour of Glen Helen Gorge, Ormiston Gorge and the Finke River.  This time it was me that chickened out, which Jake promptly told me, “You better go next time or you will be disappointed in yourself”, I wonder where he has heard that!  Dillon had so much fun that when Heather’s son got nervous and decided not to go, he went a second time – I think he was even more excited the second time around.  We might have a future helicopter pilot on our hands.  I am amazed that just 2 short years ago they were afraid to go on so many of the rides at Disney, now they are riding in a helicopter without a door.

Getting ready for the flight

We left Glen Helen and went to Ormiston Gorge on the way back to Alice.  Ormiston Gorge is featured in my Australia’s Amazing Places book. I wish my pictures could show how beautiful it really was, when we arrived the sunlight was shimmering on the water – it was amazing.  We had a picnic and let the boys play for a while, it was wonderful to have a spot where the kids could play so freely.  The next few hours consisted of throwing rocks in the water, running in the sand and climbing on the enormous rocks.  We actually thought we did pretty well that only 2 of the 5 boys fell in the freezing water!  They were so wiped out my boys actually fell asleep on the drive home.  I am really looking forward to more getaways like this, this country is so beautiful I want to see as much of it as I can!

The mountains are over 300 meters high, just beautiful!

Yes, those specs are the boys on the rocks