Bic C and Grandma go to Tangalooma

Day one of C and grandma's visit to Brisbane was a trip to Tangalooma.  They had a ball.  Really, how could they not when it starts with more vehicles! 

First they went sand boarding. I'm told that they were shaking sand out of their hair for hours and hours afterwards!  

They relaxed for a bit

And in the evening they were front of the line to feed the wild dolphins that come in to the resort.

Big C took great joy in telling me how a seagull actually swooped down and stole the first fish that he was given to feed the dolphins with!

Of course, the second the dolphin feeding was done,  he was off to the beach to build and build and build in the sand.

Big C and Grandma go to Brisbane

Grandma and Big C left Mudgee Monday morning to catch their flights to Brisbane.

Anyone who knows Big C would know that the transportation to any destination is as big a part of the trip as the actual destination.

Below he is gazing down on Sydney

Here's our boy posing with the limousine drive that picked the up in Brisbane.  I wish I could have seen his face when he saw that car!

This is the view from the balcony of their appartement.

They ate dinner with this awesome view.

I've never been this far away from one of my children.  I'm just so glad to see that he is having a ball!!!

The Wine Tour

Shhhhh.  This post is for quiet reading.  Yesterday was the wine tour that my friend Joan and I put together. Joan volunteered her day to drive us around.

We started at 10am at Robert Oatley.    

We then moved to Bunnamagoo

Followed by Peter Van Gent

A "sure, why not" decision found us at Rosby. They didn't have a "cellar door" so much as a picnic table outside that we sampled at.  No whites here, but some yummy reds.

It is about this point in the day that things start to get fuzzy for me...

We stopped for lunch and tasting at Di Lusso. The service was so atrocious that we sat down for lunch at 1 and our pizzas finally arrived at 2:37.

 

I would be lying if I said that I remember taking this photo. I didn't think there were any photos from Di Lusso...as it turns out, I took quite a few!

Mom quite enjoyed this sign outside of Botobolar.

We sampled at Botobolar and chatted with the owner who is an American from Chicago and therfore sounds similar to us!

Last stop was Robert Stein.

We had a great day tasting the local wines and supporting the economy by buying some.

I know that I went to bed at 6:30pm. I can't speak for Dave or my mom, but I am reasonably confident that my mother was the one to put the kids to bed...

A Long Weekend Day In Mudgee

We started off the day with beautiful coffees from Outside the Square Cafe then headed for the local markets.  We got to same wines, cheeses, jams, salami...you name it, we sampled it.

We dropped the boys off at home and started grandma off with her first real cellar door experience in Australia. 

 Of course, true to our recent form,  we found a place with some great wines for an awesome price!  Might as well continue to support the local economy don't you know...

 We snacked on a gorgeous cheese that grandma and Monkey had selected at the markets...

 ...and then enjoyed a delicious meal cooked by grandma.

I sat in my new place at the table...one of the leftover chairs that no one else was using.

Well That's Cheesy!

As we get more settled, we are noticing more things about our surroundings. I recently went for a run and found a cellar door (wine tasting place) really close to our house.  It's been there the whole time, but I've only just noticed it.

We enjoy "old cheddar".  In Canada that is what it is called. It is cheddar cheese that has been aged, the name is very logical.  In the first weeks that we were here we found "tasty cheddar".  It's okay, not great, but okay.  Now that my mom is here she wanted to make macaroni and cheese for the boys. She needed strong cheese.  For the first time we took a good look at the cheeses.

This is what we found:

 "Strong and bitey".  I laughed pretty hard and yet I freely admit that even though they obviously let a 4 year old name the cheese, it's the most accurate name I have ever seen!!

 Here they are, enjoying the strong and bitey macaroni and cheese. I suspect I'll get my seat at the table back in July...

The Athletic Carnival

Today was the boy's athletic carnival.  Big C tried out for the 200m race a few weeks ago.  Monkey qualified just by having made it to the zone festival for cross country.

Here are grandma and big C after his race.  He ran his heart out.

 Here is Monkey getting ready for his race.

 And here they are post race.  Both boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  The day was pretty cold, but grandma happily did a couple of coffee (hot chocolate and cookie) runs.

How nice that we could share this event with her in person.

The Eagle Has Landed

Mom was supposed to come in February. Instead, she opted to break her pelvis and skip the whole thing.

Finally, she has arrived

 Here Monkey is pointing to her plane.  HER PLANE!!!

 He has missed her so much!!

You can see her getting off the plane!

Then the longest 90 seconds for her to appear in person.

 

She isn't even permitted to go and wash her hands for dinner without having a boy attached to her.

Welcome to Australia Grandma!

Questacon road trip - the home edition

Some of you may recall our fabulous family visit to Questacon not so long ago. 

Well,  it turns out that the good folks at Questacon have a traveling 'circus' ,so named because of the massive truck that they roam around in, to visit rural areas and their schools/communities.  

This week it was Mudgee's turn.

They had been to Dave's school and he boys' school yesterday, but tonight they held a huge show in the nearby outdoors centre (read big metal structure with a huge open door). 

The boys,  all three, we're delighted. 

We arrived shortly after the show started and Big 's first stop was to get a photo beside the massive truck.

We checked out the first show on fluids (mostly gases which are fluids by the way) where he showed off how to float a ping-pong ball on a hairdryer. 

Then the Tim the Toolman Taylor-ed it.

Nice work with the leaf blower.  I'll be sure to pick one up or at least rent from a weekend from Home Depot to try this out. 

From there we largely avoided the shows and checked out all of the exhibits.  Both boys were quite excited about having a turn on the centripedal force machine (aka the one man merri-go-round).

Other big highlights included the  Pythagoras water proof,  the handball cannon,  selfie battery and the plastic tube piano that you could hear all through the building.  His two favourite by far however were the burst of light shadow machine (Big C invited Saje in for this one) and finally the PVC ball maze. You could shift around the pieces on magnets and make a variety of combinations to get the ball to any finish your creativity put to mind.

 Big C easily spent more than half an hour here and would easily be there if we didn't need to leave from the cold and late hour. I think that Big C and I will be building this as a gift for him after we return to our Canadian home. 

Thank you again Questacon for getting our boys even more excited about science. 

PS - my personal favourite part of the night was arriving home to have Monkey comment 'those were pretty neat,  but I liked the things that you did at our birthday parties better. Thanks daddy.'

It's Winter!

Apparently June 1 is the first day of winter.  I tried to explain to a local that in North America we transition from one season to the next on the solstice.  She had as hard a time understanding the logic in that as Dave had in understanding how it can be a new season if it isn't the shortest or longest day of the year.

So what does winter look like here?  It looks the same as every other time of year.  There is no snow.  So I got woke up this morning and the house felt COLD. I called out to ask Dave what temperature it was inside.  The reply?  Fourteen degrees.  FOURTEEN.  In Canada if it was ever 14 degrees inside my house I would immediately have the furnace checked. Here that just means that the toilet seat is going to be even colder than normal.

So I finally got out of bed and it was -1.5 degrees outside.  What does that mean?  Two/three things.

1-There is a significant amount of frost on the car (if you are not familiar with my thoughts on this, go here)
2-There is no water in the house.  Not no hot water, THERE IS NO WATER.  The water intake is frozen and you just have to wait to it to thaw before there is any water in the house.
3-There will definitely be no snakes today.

So I set a fire. I fed the children.  I pulled some clothes on OVER my PJs because there was no way that I was getting even a little bit naked in a 14 degree house.  I poured water on the windshield (I'm so Australian!), and I drove the children to school.

I had to convince myself that I was not the only person in the same boat.  Most people in town would also be bringing their children to school without brushing their teeth (or washing their hands).  We all live like this.  It is as though the Australians collectively feel that if we ignore winter it will go away.

Luckily it is sunny today, so I am sitting in the gorgeous bay window like any cat you have even met and working there for the day.  It is very possible that I am solar powered.  The house is beautifully set up with lots of big windows to let the sun in and it is over 18 degrees in here now.

Here's the current problem.  It is almost 2pm and I am still in the PJ/clothing combo.  I am going for a run tonight at 6.  It seems rather pointless to shower now....

Quotes Heard Around the WB house

SJ walks in to the kitchen in running tights

Dave: "did you go cycling this morning?"

SJ: "no, running, why?"

Dave: "they just looked like padded shorts from the back"

***************

Dave: "please explain to me why you refuse to use the clothes pins on the clothes"

SJ: "they are too time consuming"

Dave: "but the clothes blow of the line"

SJ: "only some of them"

Dave: (exasperated) "yes, but for every load of laundry you hang I must pick up at least 2-5 articles of clothing from the ground and they don't get dry on the ground!"

SJ: "Only 2-5 out of an entire load? I'd say that I have a pretty solid track record of keeping most of the clothes on the line then.  I'll be sure to keep up the good work."

********************

Monkey: "mommy, are you heavier now than when we arrived?"

SJ: "I don't think so, why?"

Monkey: "daddy said that you guys are heavier now because your 'wine to exercise' ratio has changed"