Christmas Day 2012.

Merry Christmas dear blog readers. (I know there is at least one! Hello Aunty Connie!) I hope you all had a lovely day yesterday. It started very early in this house with the girls up at 5.00 already having tackled their stocking and standing by our bed side at 5.15 asking when they can open whats under the tree. I stretched them out till 6am!

They got totally spoilt of course. New clothes, bathers, craft stuff and the winner was new scooters!

We then chatted on the phone to family over the other side of Australia then packed some drinks and snacks and headed out in the boat. We went to our favourite destination, Sandy Beach, a 30 minute boat ride up the river. Its a popular spot but for the whole three hours nobody was there which was fantastic! We put the gazebo up, had a coffee, had some gingerbread and fruit mince pies, went for a swim, watched the grey clouds roll over the range in front of us. It was beautiful, very lucky and thankful to be here for Christmas Day.

This is my greatest gift though. The affection these two girls show towards each other is heartwarming. For all the yelling at them and nagging I do throughout the year, no more or less than any other parent I am sure, and here they are with grins as wide as the watermelon slices they are eating. Life is good.

And then when we thought it couldn't get any better, we had dinner at friends which included prawns and two red claw that Daz caught from the Lake the day before. Merry Christmas!

Conratulations Grace!

Well the school year has ended. We have had the final school assembley and guess who picked up the Art Award for Middle Primary? Yes, our little Gracie Lou! She nearly fell off her chair when her name was called out. Well done Grace, we are very proud of you.

Happy 8th Birthday Milly!

 Wow, amother year has flown by and my baby is a year older! Milly turned 8 on Thursday. This photo sums her up pretty well. You like to wear pretty dresses like a young lady. You still carry Berry your teddy with you when you are tired and we are going out a night. You like to pull funny crazy faces at the camera like your Dad. And you like to apply your learning knowledge outside the classroom as seen here, demonstrating how a tsunami is made with your icecream!

Nanny Chook and Grandad were still in town for the occassion and we went out for tea at the Pumphouse to celebrate.

Dad snapped a decent photo of the four of us for a change! Happy birthday Milly!! We love you heaps!

Our Trip to Cape Lequeve.

 We have looked foward to this holiday for over a year. Daz purchased himself a dingy just for the trip!

We went to Cape Lequeve which is right on the tip of the Dampier Peninsula, 220km north of Broome. Famous for its red cliffs on the beach on the Western side.

And its endless perfect beaches on the other side of the Peninsula.

We spent our days at the beach. The girls went boogie boarding.

I got to try out the underwater feature of my new camera.

Daz got to practise putting the boat in the water....

And then bringing it back in 5 hours later when the tide had gone out. Massive 12 metre tides in this part of the world, these two photos were taken from the same spot.

There was some fishing involved but no keepers. We did have an amazing experience of a pod of about 6 dolphins swimming and jumping in front of the boat on the second last day. That was so cool!

On the way home we stopped in at Beagle Bay to look at the chuch built by the Missionaries which is decorated with pearl shells and other shells.

It was a great break, very relaxing. A lovely part of Australia which not many people have managed to visit. Now just nine more weeks till our next holiday!

Milly the Maths Super Star!

We have a very enthaustic and lovely GIRN (Getting It Right in Numeracy) teacher at school. She is inspiring all these budding mathematicians! Every week there is a magic number and the students have to do on an A3 sheet of paper all the ways they can come up with that number. And then the best are awarded a certificate and get to have the Mrs Marshall Maths Trophy on their desk for the week!! Guess who won this week? Miss Milly! Go Milly!!

Book Week 2012

This year for Book Week Parade at school we went for a Roald Dahl theme as he is such a well loved author in our house! Grace went as a walking wonka bar and Milly as the an himself, Mr Willy Wonka. They both looked awesome,

Faction Carnival!

It is that time of the year again, Faction Carnival time! I made Grace and Daz an "I am the Lord of Ord" Tshirt. Milly choose not to wear one! Wonder why?? No ribbons this year. Milly has just survived four days of a gastro bug going around town. This was her first day back at school for the week.

 

Here is Grace giving the zig zag throwing relay a go. We are in the faction Ord, blue. We won the carnival by one point which was fantastic but just a little bit suspicious as the red faction has dominated winning for the last eight years.... But everyone cheered when the winner was announced, we were all happy the red faction was second for a change. Its been a big two weeks, Daz away on school camp, Milly sick, Daz away in Perth for four days, Faction Carnival.... am looking foward to a nice boring school week this week.

Hanging with Julia!

 

Look who we rubbed shoulders with this morning! Australia's Prime Minister, Ms Julia Gillard.

She is up this way doing a two day whirlwind tour. We couldn't miss the opportunity to go down to the local park this morning, watch her plant a tree and say hello. I helped the girls make a quick sign to attract her attention and it worked! Half way through the planting, her media man came over and asked if she had seen the sign Grace was holding. I said she had made eye contact and he said he would make sure she came and said hello. She was very friendly, shook the girls hands and asked them their names. I took the first photo and then she suggested that maybe I would like to be in the next shot. All very exciting!

Ahoy Captain!

 

Look! I have a piece of paper that says I can drive a boat now!
Daz now has to share the boat when we take it out!

Lovely Litchfield.

 

School holidays here and we decided to visit Litchfield Park across the border in the Northern Territory. All our previous trips to Darwin have just been a rush to get to the shops and movies but this trip we decided to meet up with Darren's folks in the sleepy hollow that is Batchelor, make that our base and do a mix of Litchfield sights and shopping! Above is Wangi Falls. So nice we visited it twice! The water was crystal clear.

  

Tolmer Falls was seen from the viewing platform as see that little black hole at the bottom of the falls? Home to several colonies of rare Ghost Bats and Orange Horseshoe Bats apparantly.

Our favourite spot though was a place called Buley Rockhole. A series of waterfalls and rock-holes were you could wander down away from everyone else and find your own little pool. Which was good cause guess who forgot to pack their bathers??! It was cold when we left Kununurra! Didn't think we'd be swimming in the dry season!

Just had to include this photo. Now we know were the girls and Daz get their camera face from!

The other big attraction at Litchfield is Florence Falls. It was very busy here.

The park is also famous for these Magnetic Termite Mounds. The mounds are aligned north to south to minimise the exposure to the sun.

In typical Aussie fashion, we had to take the shots of child trying to push over giant termite mound.

 

And also the shot of the whole family in front of the termite mound.

We also visited Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin.

They had a great reptile display, including this water monitor that was itching to get out of his enclosure.

And lots and lots of crocodiles including this one who was the same length as our boat, 4.9 metres!

Lake Argyle Swim 2012

Remember last year, the Lake Argyle Swim, here? Well this weekend we did it all again! Only one new member of the team. Here they are driving away from the boat ramp. Good luck!

  And then 3 hours and 15 minutes later, here they are, not far from the finish line! They finished the 10kms in 3 hours and 30 minutes, they shaved 16 minutes off last years time.

And over the line they go!

Flying the team flag proudly as they are coming back into the boat ramp.

All smiles but looking a bit tired.

 

I made Daz change out of his Dockers shirt once he had finished he could wear the "I survived the Lake Argyle Swim" tshirt with pride! The fourth swimmer, Mr D is still out on the boat.

Well done Daddy! Hope you had fun Daz because next year you are driving the boat while I do the swim! Two years of standing on the land watching is enough, my turn now!

Zebedee Springs and the Pentacost River.

We are in school holidays at the moment and have had a lazy few days at home. Yesterday we decided to get out the house and went for a dip at Zebedee Springs at El Questro. Its a thermal springs, the water is like a bath. Camera perched on a rock, auto timer on, quick!!It was great too as when we pulled in the carpark there was only 3 other cars and as we walked up the trail two groups were walking down. So we had the place practiacally to ourselves, another few weeks and it will be full of tourists!

Milly photo bombing Grace. Matilda has a grin like her father!

Waterfalls! Work that camera Grace! Then after we were all refreshed, back in the car and down to the Pentacost River.

On the way we stopped for a family snap in front of the impressive Cockburn Ranges.

Spot the crazy fisherman? Daz wanted to perfect his cast net throw.

We caught absolutely nothing. Grace pulled in a catfish which was immediately unhocked and thrown back. Cat fish are yucky! Daz had one that got away..... This one was undersize and was thrown back in as soon as this photo was taken. There was lots of "Hurry up and take the photo!!!!" from Daz. Milly was just happy to get a fish, she didn't mind not keeping it. We went home and had takeaway Chinese for tea!