Fall Mid-Semester Break (Part One)

During Andrews two week semester break I had a goal of doing something fun every day!  I think we managed to do just that!

On Tuesday we went to the little free zoo!  Charlie and I have been before but it was Andrews first time!  He was slightly impressed...

Also on Tuesday we went to a movie (gotta love cheap Tuesdays!)  We saw Divergent which I actually LOVED!

Wednesday we went to Inala to get delicious food that Diana took me to get a while back - it was CLOSED!!!!

Luckily in the same shopping complex there was a similar place!

DELICIOUS - its a rice vermicelli bowl with spring rolls and beef and veggies and peanuts and mint and a delicious sauce!  So good and well worth the drive!

For dessert we got this tricolour drink that has jellies and kidney beans and ice and sweet coconut milk and peanuts - ok it sounds weird but it is SO GOOD!!!

Thursday we went on a picnic to the Kholo Botanical Gardens which were so beautiful and peaceful!  They are right on the bank of the Brisbane River but all the way out of the city!

And despite it being school holidays (for not only uni but also regular school too) they were EMPTY!  We had the place to ourselves!

There was a cute little rainforest walk by a little creek!  So nice...

On Friday we went to Wivenhoe Dam which is only about a 30 minute drive from our house.  It was a gorgeous day for a picnic and a swim!  It wasn't crowded at all and we were so excited to find this place!

Wivenhoe Dam!

Charlie enjoying some lake water!  It was a little chilly but nice once you got used to it!

Picnic!

Saturday we didn't really do anything exciting....  just relaxing!  After all out little adventures we needed time to recuperate and get groceries! 

Ready for church!  Easter Sunday in skinny jeans....

Family photo - Charlie was not impressed!

Easter Sunday dinner - balsamic and rosemary lamb shank, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, glazed carrots and funeral potatoes - clearly I need some work on my food photos!!!

                           

Well that is week one!  Stay tuned for part two!  (It's a little more exciting!)

Two weeks of nothing...

Well as the title indicates, I don't have much to write!  The week before last Charlie and I mostly stayed in because I was sick with a nasty cold! We went on a little drive out into the country to try and find a few recreation areas... they involved winding gravel roads that went through streams.... we never made it to the end because I got chicken and didn't want to get caught in a stream in the middle of nowhere with Charlie! 

Love the little "mountains" in the distance!

We went to the grocery store and for walks with Andrew when he came home from school but that's about it!

Last week we mostly stayed home as well, with the exception of a few trips to the grocery store and the Mum and Baby movie we went to with the Teodos - it was Captain America which was such a good movie!!

Ooh and I did make some delicious food (see photos below)!  Since a picture speaks a thousand words and I don't have many words to type, here are a bunch of photos from the last 2 weeks...

TUMMY TIME!

Fish tacos with homemade tortillas and a "green salsa" consisting of cucumber, avocado, celery, lime juice, salt and pepper (it was a creation and actually turned out really well!)

Homemade pizza!  With italian sausage, potato, alfredo sauce, tomatoes and onion

This is one of my favourites - homemade naan bread, greek chicken and homemade tzatziki (we actually had tomato and lettuce on here too, but it was all gone by the time I got to this picture the next day...) 

Charlie is fascinated with my water bottle!  He tries to eat it/drink from it

Getting down from out apartment

Out for a walk at Limestone Park!

Charlie asleep in his little nest

Little tooth!

The Wheel

Well this post is overdue!  In my defence our internet is really slow and every time I try to upload pictures the computer freezes and it won't upload!  So I have tried writing this post I think 3 times in the past few days!

Last friday Andrew had the day off so we took the train into downtown Brisbane to lodge his application for citizenship.  Unfortunately when we got there they told us that you could only apply by mail or in person if you live in TASMANIA...!  I was not impressed because I clearly recalled reading on their website to bring original documents with you when you lodge your application and blah blah blah....  Well I looked it up again and I will admit that I was wrong and it said that in a different place - just not for citizenship by decent!  So Andrew had to go get more things certified and I mailed it off on Tuesday.  It said you would hear back from them in 14 days so hopefully it goes through!

On the train!  

Despite not being able to lodge the application we still had some fun things planned for that day in Brisbane!  I have a little thing for buying Groupons... and so friday was a Groupon day!

First we headed to get some frozen yogurt

Charlie tried his first frozen yogurt!  He liked it we think...

Next we headed across the river into the Southbank Precinct!  I had bought a groupon for the Wheel of Brisbane!  It always looked so exciting whenever I saw it... and it wasn't...  Well it was ok, but even at half price ($15 for both of us) it was still really expensive!  You only get 4 rotations or 10-12 minutes on the wheel (we actually got 5 rotations - probably because it wasn't busy - woo hoo!)  You can't see too much of the city because all of the buildings are way taller than the wheel, but you do get a nice view of the river and southbank area.

Our destination in the distance

Waiting to get on the wheel

Family picture on the wheel!  It was air-conditioned in the little cabins - so nice!

After the Wheel we walked over to the swimming area.  We went though a neat Japanese Pagoda-garden on the way.

Here is a funny story:  I went in the water with Charlie, but Charlie didn't last long because it was kinda chilly.  So Andrew sat out with him on a large wooden bench type thing (see below picture) and they had a little nap.  So they were kinda like in the picture below but Andrew was laid back and Charlie was in his knew crook with his little sun hat covering his eyes.  I swam around for a bit and then I eventually looked up and saw a bunch of people crowding around Andrew and Charlie taking pictures!  I could hear them talking about how cute it was and one lady even went and got her friend to come over and look!  They were really cute together.... Anyways, I got out because I wanted to go take a picture too, but by the time I was out Charlie was all squirming around and awake - DARN!  I told Andrew about the spectacle they were causing and he said while he was "sleeping" he could hear people walking past and saying how cute they were...hahaha!  I dried off and got this picture - not good enough!  So I went over to this man whom I had seen taking a picture of them while they were sleeping (that sounds creepy) and asked him if he could email me the picture.  He was from Italy and backpacking around and said he didn't know when he would get the chance, but that he would!  We're still waiting and I highly doubt the picture will ever come....  

After swimming we went off on a wild goose chase trying to find this burger place I had boughten a groupon for - SO HARD TO FIND!  But we did find it eventually and it wasn't very good...  but the street it was on was kinda funky and cool.  There were a bunch of hostels nearby and it reminded me of my backpacking days.

This past week has been fairly rainy which has been nice!  It's kept our apartment nice and cool.  I went and borrowed a bunch of stamps and punches from the bishops wife, Diana, and have enjoyed being creative!  We also went over to their house for dinner on Friday night and it was delicious - and nice to not have to cook!  

Also Charlie turned 6 months old!  He's been an exceptionally happy baby lately - giggling and playing with toys.  His favourite is playing with mom and dad though!  He loves it when we act like dogs and growl at him or pant and "bite" him.  Its quite entertaining for both us and Charlie!  

Charlie is getting so old!  Where have the last 6 months gone?!

Mt. Coot-tha and More!

So this week was a pretty good week!  On Monday Charlie and I went to the mom+baby movie at the mall (As a side note I got made fun of this week for saying the mall instead of "the shops")  "Tracks" was playing, which is about this girl who walks across the Australian desert to the Indian Ocean with some camels and her dog.  It was a pretty ok movie except for the part when her dog ate poison and she had to shoot it to put it out of its misery.... that was sad.  Sorry for spoiling but I figure none of you who read my blog will ever see it since I think its just an over here movie....  I could be wrong though and in that case - sorry!  

Tuesday Charlie and I walked to the Denmark Hill Conservation area.  Its quite a nice park with lots of pathways and a dinosaur area because they found fossils there.

Wednesday Charlie and I drove over to Booval Fair.... a fair you might say?  Like a carnival?  Nope, it's just another area of shops...  I try and get around to air-conditioned places on the really hot days!  We also booked our flights home on Wednesday!  I'm really excited to go home and have everyone see Charlie - he's getting so big!  Also, my sister Sarah is moving back from Philly with her family around the same time, so we'll get to see them and their new baby!  I let Charlie naw on my nectarine for a bit and he LOVED it!!!  Here are some pictures recounting the event:

After the deliciousness of the nectarine I tried to give him some rice cereal....

But he didn't like it nearly as much as the nectarine!!!

He's turned into a little food monster!!!

Thursday Charlie and I went to the library (another air-conditioned place!) to rent some movies.  The DVD player in our TV didn't work when we tried it, which was so sad.... however we mentioned that to the Teodos and they said they had an extra DVD player laying around which they gave to us.  It was so nice of them and now we can get movies to watch from the library!  YAY!  We also went over to the mall to look for wedding decorations - I love weddings and am so sad I'm not closer to help out more!

Friday Diana from church invited me to go to a Stampin' Up class to make some things.  She was so nice and came and picked Charlie and I up (I'm still too scared to drive on the highway here!) and took us to the class.  We made 3 cards and decorated a cute little box.  It was really fun to do something like that - it's been a while - I miss my craft stuff at home!!!  Then she took me out for lunch to this Vietnamese place and we got this bowl thing that had noodles and pork and spring rolls and some prawn type thing, along with salad stuff like bean sprouts and lettuce and carrot and then it had this delicious sauce and peanuts too!  IT WAS AMAZING and I have been thinking about it often since that day... sounds strange but its true!  And we also got this dessert thing with tapioca and coconut milk and bananas and some other things that I don't know.... cassava maybe?  And this drink which I totally judged when she told me what was in it!  So it has these jelly things, coconut milk, ice, kidney beans, peanuts and some other things too - I think I may have seen sunflower seeds in it as well...?  It was so nice of her and it was so fun!!!  Also on Friday we got in the mail the things from home we need to apply for Andrews citizenship!  YAY!  So I think we're heading downtown this Friday to try and get all the paperwork in.  I hope things work out for us there....

Saturday was a fun day too!  I got out alone to do some grocery shopping which was really nice!  Then we headed towards Brisbane with the Teodos to go see the Brisbane Botanical Gardens and Mt. Coot-tha lookout.  The gardens are so massive - we didn't even see half of them in the few hours we had.  

SPIDER - this is the only kind I've seen so far

Andrew and Charlie with Raymond, Holly and Jakob

The Mt.Coot-tha lookout was really neat!  You could see the city, surrounds, river and all the way to the ocean.

After our outing, Charlie and I went to the R.S March 17 party.  It was nice to visit and celebrate the 172 anniversary of the Relief Society!

I can't believe how far behind I get on this blog!  It's already Tuesday... but we'll save this week for the next blog and finish off with a few more Charlie pictures!

Charlie hoarding his toys!

I LOVE THIS BOY!!!