Day 4- divide and conquer

Dave reporting here.

Today the boys seemed to want very different things. Big C was up at the crack of dawn and had his heart set on being at he beach all day. No worries. Saje was up to the task and with her lawn chair in tow,  the two were set for a day of warmth and sunshine.  

 Here is the buoy that Big C discovered on the beach first thing this morning. He buried the base in the sand to see what would come of it when the tide came in.

 Monkey meanwhile wanted an uninterrupted day at the Waterpark.  No worries. Monkey and I packed up and headed to whitewater world.

 It was a bit overcast,  but hat didn't stop us from 17 straight waterslides in a row without waiting. We broke 1500 stairs and decided to call it. We headed for he theme park proper after a late lunch and caught a few rides. Oddly there were actually lineups! We braved tailspin and got some serious spins going.
Everyone had a great day at heir own pace.

Expect the Unexpected-Queensland Family Holiday Day 3

This morning started rainy, so we waited until 11 to hit the park.

This child thinks he has chosen the souvenir he would like to bring home from this trip (we tell them the whole time that they can pickeep one thing.  It saves endless requests to buy everything they see.  At every request they are told that they can choose that item at the end of the week if they would still like it)

BigC does not like roller coasters. He never has. Suddenly he agreed to go on Escape from Madagascar. And much to his surprise, he quite liked it.

So suddenly he looked over at the tallest roller coaster in the place and announced that he wanted to try it.  Ummmm, okay.  So we went.  He picked the 5th row the first time.

It was starting to rain, so we went again.  This time he wanted the front row.  Who is this kid?

It poured rain when we went out that second time.  As you can see from the "after" photo we got SOAKED.  Doesn't matter though, it was a lot of fun.

Dave here - Earlier in the day this had been the scene as Monkey and Dave hit up 'Buzz Saw' - here is the view as we watched the group in front of us ascend and then hang inverted. It was a pretty awesome rode and got two thumbs up from Monkey.

In the neighboring wild west themed area Monkey posed for his prison photos - he totally had his game face on.

Big C, however, awoke this morning determined to make this his beach day. Here he was out with his dad at 730 while the other two slept in - happily playing with the truck from our accommodation. 

And then here we were again at the beach once we returned home from Dreamworld

The current challenge for Big C is to build a ditch from the ocean across a sandbar and into the nearby lagoon before the tide comes in. He worked at it for over an hour and a half as the sun set and the drizzle fell. He was super pleased with the result.

Tomorrow, weather pending, we plan  to spend a quiet day at the beach....stay tuned to see how that plays out.

Queensland Holiday Day Two

We proudly opened the park for the second day in a row. 

Day 2!!

 We caught some highlights (motorcycles, zombie Lazer tag) and thenMonkey took me on the Tower of Terror II. He and Dave have now done it multiple times, but he really wanted to show it to me. Lucky me.  I got run up a tower at about a million km/h and then dropped straight down, face first. Splendid.

 We caught the tail end of a really cool tiger show.

We hen headed to a different theme park, this time White Water World, a (you guessed it) water slide park.  Here is a photo of dry boys...

 ...and here are soaking wet tired boys.

They had a blast!  The park was all but deserted as the locals would find today's 21 degree weather to be fairly chilly (it's winter here don't forget) but it is plenty warm for these Canadians!!

Tomorrow's weather is not looking very good.  It is supposed to rain all day...but only accumulate 3mm of rain...so we are hoping for a mildish day with some rainy periods so that we can go to Dreamworld and be the only ones there!

DreamWorld Day 1 from Dave's point of view

Today marked our first day of 'winter' vacation in gorgeous, sunny Gold Coast, Australia. Saje has put together an AMAZING start to our adventure. 

Today we hit up Dream World just down the road from our awesome accommodations. Here I am hanging out with thr characters from Madagascar as we waited for the place to officially open (we arrived half an hour before the gates opened just to get organized and be the first ones into the park). 

 Monkey was off like a shot on her velvet ropes were pulled aside and headed for 'tower of terror II'. Here he is at the entrance ( note: there was no one else even in sight)

 Here we are at the front of the line as we were about to board. It was totally worth rushing for.
We went 4 times in a row.
twice in the front, once in the back and once with our eyes closed.  All before 10:25.
 Here is how Monkey's hair ended up.
 Meanwhile, Saje and Big C were checking out the motorcycle speed ride. It's the Backlot stunt coaster of Drwamwored in that Big C would have gladly stayed there all day.

 Here they are with their 'game faces' on.

 After lunch Monkey and I headed for the rides with more action and speed while Saje and Big C opted for travel rides. Here is Monkey taking his turn at being in a goofy photo:

 After some very spinny rides, we noticed hat the Zombie Apocalypse ride was open,  so on we went. It was a very cool laser tag type of game, so cool that we grabbed the others and finished our day there.

We opened the place.
We closed the place.

It was a phenomenal start to our vacation.

Queensland Vacation Day One-Dreamworld

I am proud to say that we made it from park opening to park closing!  That's how it's done my friends!

Anyone who knows Monkey knows that my bestie Genevieve created a roller coaster loving boy a couple of years ago at Canada's Wonderland.  In fact, when he was not at all keen on spending a year abroad I got him convinced by watching YouTube videos of the roller coasters in Australia and promising him that he would get to ride them.  I'll let Dave write that post though since I was with the short one today :)

We hopped in our Micra (shown here in the garage at our hired apartment)

We totally all fit!!

We arrived at the park and sorted out our pre-purchased season's passes and Access2 card stuff and were still standing at the gate and ready to go 10 minutes before they opened.  BigC needed a bit of time to warm up in an unfamiliar place.  We quickly found a train that laps the park like at Disney World and we were off.

We walked around and he scoped out the rides.  He found a motorcycle ride that he felt met his criteria for roller coasters and we rode it about 10 times throughout the day.  We always rode on the exact same bikes.  Every time.  The ride staff were great and let us in first so he could get situated. So great!

We ran in to these jokers for lunch.

We sent Dave off to the grocery store to grab lunch supplies and we hit the antique car ride.  They each got to drive their own car on rails and loved it.

You should have seen this one grinning when he got to drive it by himself!

We hit my all time favourite ride, THE SWINGS!!! 

Stopped for a snack and this clown stopped and chatted us up.  Funny guy asked what part of the US we are from. Aussies keep asking that, the smart ones ask first if we are from Canada!

When you have a mom who does Spartan raves hydration at a theme park for the day is not a challenge. Families who Camelbak together, stay together.

Final ride of the day.  A family laser tag assault on zombies (Dave came first in points)

Home now sipping wine we imported from Mudgee and relaxing while the butter chicken simmers on the stove.

Dave's version of the day to come this afternoon.

The Journey is as Important as the Destination!

The journey to our vacation might as well be a fun part of the vacation as far as we are concerned! 

So we started with a road trip to the Blue Mountains where we parked Wanda.

 Then we hopped on the train to Sydney.

 Then we hopped on the subway to the stop before the airport (because there is a huge extra charge to get oft at the airport)

 And we walked 10 minutes to the airport.

 We caught our plane.

Then our shuttle bus to our rental car

I managed not to get a photo of the 4 us us and our luggage in our Nissan Micra, so you'll just need to take my word for it that it was a tight fit, but totally doable.

We are now settling in to our accommodation. The plan for tomorrow is Dreamworld. The forecast is for light rain. That can be the perfect day at a theme park as people often stay away on rainy days.

This Kid!

Today is the second last day of the term.  It is also a "mufti" day.  This is a day when the kids can go to school in their civvies. It is also the only day in the entire year where they can do so without paying a gold coin for the privilege. 

This kid has autism.  His school uniform represents routine and safety in the known for him.

  

He doesn't want any part of mufti day.  Bless this fabulous little guy. Proudly the only kid at school wearing his uniform.