Holiday Snaps

Back from our short break and wish we could turn around and go back!Dave at Putt Putt golf, this was really fun and took waaayyy longer than I had thought. We bought 3 games and had to go back to do the third.

These pics are all from Dreamworld. Which all of us, adults and kids, thought was heaps better than Movie World.

Amelia escaping!

Dave breaking out

Wes is a wanted man!

Me and Amelia on the vintage cars, Amelia is driving.

The Claw

I could not watch after taking this photo!

Wes and Amelia on the Madagascar ride

Gingerbread Man Glider

Ick! Not one for me.

Wes sporting his new sunglasses.

Dave helping the lifesaver out at White Water World.

It was such a fantastic four days and a well needed break away from the norm.

Hospital and Holidays!

January has been very eventful in this household so far, not in all good ways either.

I had a three day stay in hospital in the middle of the month due to an inflammed gall bladder which will now have to come out sometime in the next few months. The pain was really awful and not something I want to repeat so I am on a no fat diet so my gall bladder doesn't have to work too hard. On the good side I had just started Weight Watchers so that fits in well with the eating plan - got to find a bright side!

Thankfully I got to spend some of my daughter's 7th Birthday at home with her after being released in the evening. She had her birthday on the Saturday at the locat RSM club which you paid per child and everything was done for you. I wouldn't do that again as I think I could do just as well for a lot less money but it turned out to be a blessing as I was in no shape to host a birthday party for 10 girls.

Then we headed off on holidays to Coffs Harbour on the NSW mid north coast. It was relaxing and fun but it rained the WHOLE time one day we had over 100 mm!! It started raining about 90 mins after leaving home and stopped when we were about 60kms away from home on the way back. AND its raining here now.

View from our balconey

We did get to have fun though. We went to the Pet Porpoise Pool, Solitary Islands aquarium, ice skating at the Big Banana, bowling and luckily the place we were staying had an indoor pool and games rooms so we took full advantage of that too. We did miss out on a few outdoor activities I had had planned but you got to work with what you got.

Sadly we all have to go back to work or school on Monday. Holidays just aren't long enough are they?

Shopping

Last weekend Dave and I plus another couple went to Toowoomba for my birthday weekend. My parents watched the kids and we left after work. Had a lush dinner at Warwick and got there at about 10.30 pm. Saturday was a great day and I was NOT very frugal at all but I have tried very hard to justify all of my purchases!!!!

I bought a pair of Summer shoes, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a few metres of material for my quilt (yes applique pics are coming but I have a son who keeps using my camera batteries in his XBox controllers!) and this is the exxy one - a $70 shirt. Its a really really nice shirt and I love it. However I know I didnt NEED it but I wanted it bad! I will definately wear it to death come Spring. It was not a frugal purchase but I love it.

Toowoomba is a really nice city and I am thinking of going back with the kids as I think its only a couple of hours to BrisVegas from there and you can catch the train in there too.

Holiday NSW

This may seem like a big travel ad but what the hey! The first day we had a short hop to Gunnedah where we stayed with my sister. She had made cheesecake slice - there was none left after we had gone!

We headed off to Coonabarabran. Went to Siding Springs observatory which has a exhibit and a view platform of the telescope, its massive. That night we went to Tenby Observatory which was excellent, we got to see Saturn, rings and four of its moons. We also got to see a heap of other starry things and while freezing I would recommed anyone to go.

We went to Forbes next, it is a real country town. I think its how they have retained the old stile buildings that really gives it a great feel. We stayed at a great cabin which was overlooking a weir on the Lachlan river. On the way there we stopped at the Parkes radiotelescope, which is where the movie The Dish was set and was about. It was really good and totally free!

Forbes

Lachlan River

The Dish at Parkes

The Fam at The Dish

The next night we stopped at Yass and there was lovely scenery on the way. It was a pretty cold and windy day so we didnt end up visiting the Cowra Japanese Gardens as we had hoped.

On the way to Yass

Then it was onto the snow! One word - AWESOME!

On the Tubes

Sledding slopes

Snow angel

Wes and Ewan making a snowman

Us

The Chairlift we rode up on

We stayed for three nights and then headed to Bowral and the International Cricket Hall of Fame which, for Dave and I, was really good. For the kids, even if they are into cricket, they have heaps of interactive touch screens, games and things to try.

We did stop at Cooma on the way to Bowral at the SnowyHydro discovery centre. This is also free and we spent about 2 hours there, it is informative and tells the story of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme which was a huge engineering success.

Then is was two stops til home. One at Newcastle to visit a friend and the other at Macksville to visit Dave's parents.

It was so hard to come home, though my dodgy mattress feels gorgeous after a heap of strange ones. Sadly back to work on Monday.

2834 Kilometres

Hi, We are back after a really fabulous holiday. I have some great photos and a whole spiel on some great places to go in New South Wales. Will post tomorrow!

Long Weekend Roundup

Here are some of my photo's from the weekend. I have heaps more but Blogger is REALLY slow tonight!
Wes on the shovel, getting all the weeds out from where the cucmbers and zucchinis were growing.

Wes posing on the shovel now!
Zucchini Pickles - bit orangey cause i grapped paprika instead of tumeric but only added a teaspoon but it changed the colour but not the taste!
Out they came - my long giving zucchini and cucumbers. I got 2 cucumbers of the vine the day I pulled it out - what a good vine!

Pear Chutney - gave my niece a jar and she was into it about 5 seconds later!

Here we are at McIntyre Falls, you can only see a little of Wes' blue shirt as he tried to scoot out of the photo and just Megs back and bum!

The rocks were just as gorgeous as the falls - maybe more so.

Dave's scones (rather what was left after we had a massive pig on them) he made these this morning for Megan on her way home.

Bellingen

Last Thursday we headed off to Bellingen. It is a cute little town with a very big cafe scene and some nice shops. This is the view from the cabin we were staying in 4 kms out of Bellingen. The dairy cows would wander across the river for milking and at 5 in the afternoon the ducks would land on the river and then head home by all walking in a line. It was very funny to see. We went to the Butterfly Farm and it was better than I remembered. The last time we had been there Wes had been 6 years old. This time Amelia is 6!

And three very beautiful and extremely rare butterflies.

We stopped in at the Honey Place at Urunga on the way to visiting Dave's parents in Macksville for a couple of hours on Saturday.

This is Marilyn the pig and Amelia was so keen to feed her our scraps that she was encouraging us not to eat all our lunch or dinner!

We bought Dave's muesli for only $7.50 a kg from Kombu and I went in and saw a Carman Miranda tea cosy, a bit smaller than the one I made Megs and the purse I made Aunty Wilma for Christmas last year. Obviously I am a lot more hip than I knew!