Dinosaurs, Kangaroos and the Easter Bunny

Kids playing around at the Telegraph Station

I guess when you find out that your time in Alice is coming to an end your "to do" list gets quite large.  Two families that are our very good friends are heading back to the USA soon, so this week was jam packed! These are the highlights but I did not even include the dinner out, the paint & sip party and the happy hour - goodness it was a tiring week!

We began our week at the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit at our local museum. There were about 12 robotic dinos, while the exhibit was small the kids enjoyed it - not very often we see dinosaurs in Alice Springs!  We then popped into the Natural History museum for a quick look followed by lunch at the Gillen Club so the kids could play.  We are lucky the weather has cooled off, we are averaging 80 and sunny during the day and about 55 at night - this of course began after our 4 days of rain which caused our dry river bed to become a river again at least for a day.

The Todd River flowing at sunset

Thursday was our highlight of the week, we visited the Kangaroo sanctuary.  You may or may not have seen the documentary on the BBC, I know it has played in England and the USA - here is the link for the preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyJp_Sg1M_c
The sanctuary is about 10 minutes outside of Alice - after a short bus ride we were there and then our group was greeted by Brolga himself.  Of course Cheyenne had no idea who he was but the small group of English tourists that were on our bus acted like he was one of the Beatles.  We were almost immediately given little joeys to hold while on our tour - such a treat!  We walked over to a fenced area where we were introduced to Roger, the alpha male kangaroo - honestly the largest, most muscular kangaroo I have seen.  When Brolga steps into his space, Roger stands up and puffs up his shoulders and looks ready to fight - Brolga is 6'7" and Roger stood almost that tall.  Jake enjoyed Brolga teasing him, he kept telling Jake that Roger likes to chase boys that run - needless to say, Jake walked at an average pace.  The tour lasted about 2 and a half hours, we saw some amazing kangaroos in a natural setting as well as an incredible outback sunset.

Roger

After the egg hunt.

Easter Sunday was spent with some great friends and an amazing spread of food.  My goodness we have all become such good cooks here, maybe you all were before but I know I have improved.  I made cinnamon rolls from scratch which I am not sure I would have ever done before, not when "popping" the can is so easy.  So good and gooey, might become a new holiday tradition.  The kids enjoyed the Easter Egg Hunt, not sure we needed any more candy though!  The evening finished at a friend's birthday party - I love that most of these parties involve a group of kids who have never met running around for hours outside - I am thrilled they get to experience this freedom - of course the highlight for them was the water balloon toss, such a simple game but so much fun!