Christmas..

We had a lovely Christmas day. The children woke us up at 4:50am, super excited for the day...

Nicholas in a calm moment..

Summer...

and AJ when he opened his ipod touch...

Summer also received an ipod touch and they have been running through our monthly internet allowance to the point that we had to disconnect the Wi-Fi until the next billing cycle so that we can have a little left to do our stuff on the net.

My brother and sister-in-law visited for a few hours on Christmas morning which was really lovely. We played, ate, went to the beach and had a really cruisy day. No stress. Full of joy though, and simple pleasures.

Happy Holidays!

I have a stack of Christmas cards on my desk but have not gotten around to writing on any of them. What on earth have I been doing?!!

Cary is coming home tomorrow!!!!! He will be here until May.

In case I don't get the cards written and sent...please know that I wish everyone a very happy and joy-full holiday season.

Happy 12th Birthday!

What a happy day she had...

markets, phone calls, gifts, chocolate, ice cream, fish n chips for lunch:

home made american-style pumpkin pie for her b/day cake (as per her request):


visitors, playing at the beach, watching movies and eating pizza.

Yeah, an excellent day for this 12 year old!

Happy Birthday Sunshine Girl!

Road trip photos..

AJ at "Captain Thunderbolts" cave:

Beautiful country sunset:

'Helping' cousin Katie and Uncle Bob set up their new pool. It turned into a very fun water fight for all, including those of us out of the pool, but some water did manage to stay in the pool so it could fill up:


On our way from my sister's place to my Mum's place, AJ saw a sign for a small chocolate factory. Which we just had to investigate. The kids enjoyed the free samples but the factory itself was not actually producing anything at the time. The best thing about the stop was the fantastic little museum just next door. The gentleman on duty there was very happy to explain different pieces to the kids and even encouraged them to play with the things!!!!!! They wrote with old pens that needed to be dipped in ink, they tapped messages in morse code and they particularly loved playing with the old telephone exchange in the photo below. This exchange was used in the town of Bagnoo at the post office. It opened in 1928 with one subscriber and was used for 50 years. The museum had two other telephones set up around the place that were connected to the exchange and the kids had a blast calling each other on the old phones.

On a drive with my Mum, we stopped for a play at Rainbow Beach. It was a bit crowded though - must have been 3 people on the beach at the time (!).

The boys loved the spider web...Nicholas climbed all the way to the top too.

There is this lovely big grassy hill in the town where my Mum lives:

which is great fun to run and roll down:

View from the top of the hill at sunset:

And now we are back home, safe and sound. The kids and the car all traveled well. We are getting back into our rhythm here, always on the lookout for new adventures and detours along the way!

Misc.photos

Gifts in our garden:

Bushland beauty:

Beach magic: