Charlies First Birthday

Charlie turned one while Aunt Amy was visiting!  I planned a little party for him down at the Riverheart Parklands, which is down by the Bremer River.  There are gas BBQs, picnic tables, a regular park and a splash park!  Charlie loves going to the splash park on the hot days.

The last of the monthly photos!

It was a "You Are My Sunshine" theme, so I tried to make everything yellow and orange.  

ghetto cake that was melting!

Amy had to try some kangaroo while she was visiting!

Charlie and his friend Jakob, they would feed each other - it was so cute!

Fun times at the splash park!

Cake smash time!

It took him a long time to get into it!

Yummy!

Oh these two!  So cute

Charlie got some really great presents!

Chalkboard stats from Charlie's first year!

I like this one because it looks like he is holding the sparkler!

My favourite part was the monthly pictures I printed out and strung along so you could see how much Charlie has changed in the first year of his life!  We sure love tho little guy and he's getting cuter by the day!

Byron Bay

Byron Bay is one of my favourite places in Australia!  It is SO pretty with the ocean and rolling hills.  The town itself is super cute and funky.  With heaps of shops and places to eat.  The lighthouse is my favourite though... I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

This bat was having a little nap right in front of our car!  The bats in Australia are really neat!  Every night at dusk there are thousands of them silhouetted against the dusky sky all flying in the same direction... and they are perfect halloween bats so their outlines are super neat

This is my favourite lighthouse ever.  Its so cute

too bad the person we got to take this picture cut off the top of the lighthouse... oh well!  We saw heaps of dolphins and a few whales!

Power Ranger Charlie!

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This is where my water camera got ruined, hence the blurry pictures.  Charlie loved playing in this little tidal pool.  See those little kids in the background?  He made a beeline for them every time and tried to tear down their wall they were making!  It was so funny (I'm sure the kids didn't think so.  And Charlie didn't think so every time we pulled him away...)

While I was changing Charlies diaper he managed to grab an oreo!  It was his first one ever and he loved it sand and all!

Just a week or so before we were there some man got attacked and killed by a shark!  Freaky

Dinner by the sea!  We're high class

Sunset by the beach

That little island in the background was the place used for the inspiration for the fish from finding Nemo!  (That sentence doesn't really make sense but I don't know how I want to say it!  Oh well...)

Around Ipswich and Brisbane

After the week of bumming by the beach, we were tired.  Ironic right?  Its supposed to be all relaxing...  but not with a baby!  That's one thing I've learned being a mom - its hard work at home and its even harder work when you're travelling!  But we had to show Amy a good time so all of our family would be jealous and want to come visit.... so we really tried to stay busy.  We hung around Ipswich and Brisbane a bit to give Amy an idea of our everyday life!

No week is complete in Ipswich without a trip to Riverlink (our mall) for some Sushi - Charlie LOVES sushi

And sometimes I need to bribe him with ice cream.... 

We rode our bikes to the library and then to the little free zoo in Queens Park

Amys first glimpse of Kangaroos!

Taking a little rest...

Mt. Coot-tha lookout, on a clear day you can see all of Brisbane and to the ocean

Hanging out with our cousin Elder Low (not hanging out, that seems like it is against the rules, we took them out for lunch)

Best meat pies and cream puffs ever!  

Wivenhoe Dam is only about 30 mins away!  Nice on a hot day for a little swim!

Aunt Amy Comes To Visit! - Sunshine Coast

For some reason I kept getting the day Amy was to be coming wrong.  I thought it was one day and then no it was the next and then no it was the next!  So I had booked us a condo in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast... but it was too early!  So despite having exams coming up I dragged Andrew out to the coast so we wouldn't waste some of our time in the condo!  The plan was to spend the weekend there and then I would go drop Andrew off so he could go to school and pick Amy up from the airport on the way out to the coast again!  Poor Charlie - he hates being in his car seat!

Charlie seriously loves the sound of the ocean!

Dad is so fun to play with at the beach!

This kid LOVES the sand (he's still a bit scared of the waves though)

I was trying to distract Charlie in the car, so I gave him a sealed ink pad... bad idea!  He opened it and ate it.  

Group shot while climbing to the Glasshouse Mountains lookout

Charlie checking out all the goods Grandma Shirley sent for him!

WELCOME TO AUSTRALIA AUNT AMY!

we love the beach and ocean

After much forcing Amy tried surfing!

A little drama shot of Charles

There is this cute little boardwalk and path that goes along the ocean, we walked it many times and down a little farther we saw some whales!  It was amazing there

I like the action shot of this bird in flight...

Fish and Chips while watching the sunset

Fun on the beach with Aunt Amy!

Our condo had a little pool!  Too bad it was freezing cold water!

Charlie was not impressed with the amount of stuff we packed around him!

On the way home we took the back roads and got to see some amazing scenery like this view of the Glasshouse Mountains!  Seriously it was all so beautiful I'm surprised I didn't crash us from all my swivel-necking

In the jungle!

We had a lot of fun on the sunshine coast and we were blessed with amazing weather.  Right as we were pulling away from our condo it started raining - LUCKY!  We ate tons of fish and chips (overdosed I'd say), got to boogie board and swim every day, saw really cool lighting storms over the ocean, saw whales, went for long walks by the ocean and saw whales!  And this was just the beginning of an action-packed month of fun!

And I thought I was far behind before? HA - The Calm Before the Storm

Well, I am now officially almost 3 months behind on the blog and have some serious catching up to do, since this is our family journal and I'm planning on getting it printed out at the end of the year!  (I did that with my last years blog and it was so awesome to have it in print form with all the pictures!)  

So I labeled this post "The Calm Before the Storm" in reference to the crazy lives we were leading while Aunt Amy came to visit, but that will be in a later post... Again, as it is with most of my catch up posts this is going to consist of a whole lotta pictures with a bit of commentary here and there!

Ipswich has AMAZING sunsets on a regular basis, and lucky for us - our regular route for our nightly walks includes a hill for optimal viewing of these sunsets!

We got a bike with a seat on the back for Charlie.  He wasn't sure of it all at first, but now he quite likes going for rides!  We usually go to and from the library on the bike and Charlie usually falls asleep on the way home!  I think he looks like a cute little mushroom head!

Bike riding!

Our ward had a karaoke activity and Andrew was super BRAVE and sang a song with our EQP (who got all dressed up for the occasion!)  It was very entertaining...

Best Dad Ever.  Charlie just adores his dad.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ANDREW!  For those of you who don't know, Fathers Day in Australia is in September, weird right?

Worst war wound yet - Charlie was trying to find Andrew (who was hiding behind the couch) and proceeded to just crawl off the edge of the couch landing on his head!!!  (He's usually way more careful but he was not this time and extremely fast!)  Andrew and I felt super SUPER bad, and like the worst parents ever!!!!  It's a nice goose egg eh?  But nothing a bottle and some tylenol couldn't fix!

Charlie Checking out his new shoes!  You can still see a bit of his goose egg in this one!