Goose

Appreciatin' some art.



Climbing. Of course !



Hangin'.

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Boochie & {her} camera ...

Alia took some great photos during our walk.
She's quite the little photographer when she wants to be ...

She doesn't take typical straight forward shots.



And she's not afraid to get down low and shoot from different angles.

Here's a few of her shots ... unedited.

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Dragon Fly ~ and more ...

I was trying to photograph dragon flies the other day on our walk but this is the only decent one that I got. The dragon fly is dead. And being eaten by a spider. Can you see it ? I was totally wishing I had a Nikon D-90 this day !! My little point and shoot shows it's limitations at times like this !!

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Sabba Hoo ?

My Dad ... affectionately know by his grandchildren as Sabba ... has always loved owls. Well, I don't actually know that he LOVES owls but he's always had a collection of owls for as long as I can remember. Consequently, whenever I see an owl, I think of him ! I saw this one when we went walking the other day.

Ps ... this owl is made out of wood.

Pss ... Sabba means grandfather in Hebrew.

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Lizardage ...

We went to the Botanic Gardens yesterday and had a bit of an explore. We walked for a couple of hours, took lots of photos, talked, marveled, laughed, cried (not really, it just seemed like what should come after laughed ...)

We had fun.

I have a ton of photos but I'll just post this one for you today.

Jono took it and I love it.

And a little video of a goanna we saw while we were walking ... He was a decent size ! I took a couple of photos but he was pretty camouflaged & that didn't work with my point and shoot !! He's hard(ish) to see in the video too but at least he's moving ... not so in the photos !

I'm glad it was a lizard (sure, a large scary looking lizard) and not a snake. There won't been any video footage if we ever see a snake ... unless of course, the camera turns itself on and records the inside of my pocket ! Seriously, snakes are not something I want to meet in the wild ! or on a plane ...

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{big day out}

Rory had work off today. The kids didn't have school. I took the day off to be with them !
What an amazing day it was too !
You all should know by now that we love bush walking.

We've been wanting to climb Mount Coolum ever since we got here but just haven't.

Today ... we did !!

We didn't check the clock when we
started
up the mountain
but we know it took us less than two hours
because
we know what time we left home
and we factored that into the time we finished.



Here's Rory checking out the view about 3/4 of the way up.



And the kids taking some photos.
I was taking photos of them and trying not to die.
Seriously, I knew I was unfit before we started up but sheesh ....



Good thing there were beautiful flowers along the way,
breathtaking views, and a family to walk with ... otherwise, I'd have turned back !





Getting to the top was such a sense of accomplishment.
And though I'd love to climb other mountains you will never find me
doing the big climbs because if the mountain has snow on it ... I'm OUT !



We got so dirty !!
On parts of the climb down, we had to sit on our bottoms and slide.
It was steep(ish) and quite slippery.
Still ... I preferred the going down over the going up !!



A portion of the view.
As Alia said "You can see the whole world from up here !"

How cool would that be ?



Trail Mix.



Note to self : Do not put choc chips in trail mix on hot day ...



Us ... at the top.



And on the way down ...
Do you see that fellow in blue ... in the photo above ?
He walked past us on our way down.
He was all decked out in climbing gear ... and had some sticks that looked like ski poles to me.
My guess is he was in his 60's.
I said to him "You're almost to the top."
And he said something that made me know this wasn't his first time.
I said as much and he answered "I try to climb this mountain once a week ..."

What an inspiration he is !



We were about 10 minutes from the bottom, on our way down, and Alia slipped.
She wasn't hurt badly, just grazed her knee.
But, of course, there were tears.
I told her to get a cuddle from Daddy (who was closer).
She did.
But the tears still persisted.
I told her to have a seat on a large rock so Daddy could pour water onto her knee.
But Jono sat down on the ground, pulled her onto his lap and said
"Here Alia, sit on me ..."

Rory and I looked at each other and just smiled.
We love our kindhearted boy !!



Here's a shot I took of the ocean on our way down.
I wish I could have taken hours and hours of photographs.
Maybe when I get a proper DSLR (and a bit more fitness), I'll do the climb by myself
so I can spend hours and hours taking photos !



And I just loved the way the same shot turned out when I was playing around with it in GIMP.



We topped off the outing with a trip to the beach.
The kids played in the park for a bit and then climbed the magnificent tree
that Rory and I were sprawled out under.
They had a bit of a play in the surf ... but not for too long ... it IS still winter here, folks !
We demolished shared three pieces of fish, a medium serve of calamari and chips too
before heading to the car to make the trip home.

We are all exhausted ... ready for a good nights sleep and back to work/school tomorrow !!

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{weekend}

We've just had the most amazing weekend ! We had the whole family here Saturday and Sunday. Half of them stayed 'til Monday. There were 9 adults and 5 kids staying in our new house and it was fabulous. All of the adults ( and the toddler ) were in rooms. The 4 bigger kids thought it was great that they got to 'camp' ... in the living room !!

We did spend some time in the outdoors ... just not in a tent ! We went bush walking through the rainforest on Sunday morning. We love bush walking and it was great to be able to do it with the rest of the family. Grandad's knees and Auntie Gina's 'due in three weeks' belly meant that they didn't come on the whole walk ... oh and Uncle Eddie and 20 month CJ neither. They turned around after the boardwalk and grabbed a coffee while the rest of us headed up to the waterfall and back. Grandma did come along. Not only was she able to do the whole walk, she got some great shots. Here's a beauty ...

In other news ... tonight should be Rory's last night working night shift ! Wooooo Hooooo ! Most of you don't even know he was doing night shift. I don't like to post stuff like that on my blog til after the fact. I'm just weird like that. He's been leaving the house between 9 and 9:30, SIX NIGHTS A WEEK, and getting home between 8:00 and 8:30 in the morning since the 19th of April !!! We are all so ready for it to be FINISHED !!! We have made the best of it but my goodness are we ready for 'normal' again !!

I'm pooped. I love visiting and hanging and talking and laughing and just being with family but when it's finished, I'm pooped !! I think tonight, I'm going to go watch some tv and finally get my knitting needles working again !! I haven't knitted since we moved in here ... I'm missing it.

I'll be round to visit everyone soon. I haven't even opened my google reader to see what you all have been up to ... I'm a bit scared at how many unread posts there will be after three days of not checking !! I'm not even going to look until tomorrow ...

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Mother's Day 2008

Another repost .......



What we did on Mother's Day was a choice my family left up to me.

I chose bush walking at a National Park.

Above is the view that greeted us when we arrived.

Isn't it stunning !?



The walk itself took about an hour.

An hour of peace.

Listening to the birds.

Discovering what there was to discover in the rain forest.

Enjoying each other's company.

The kids are very inquisitive and love trying to figure things out.

They are both very imaginative too.



We saw some cool looking trees.

Some of them are so tall !!



There are some truly magnificent things in nature.

Taking the time to get out and see them is something I highly recommend !

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