Tasmania

We headed down to Tasmania on Thursday morning and the flight, whilst short, was a gong show!  Elly was all over the place and just being crazy. David kept telling everyone throughout our stay in Tassie that on the flight over to Perth they wanted to sit as far away from us as possible so they didn't have to listen to Elly cry!  We were picked up at the airport by Keith and Dawn (who Jill has known for ages!) and their granddaughter Isla, and we went and picked up our rental van.  Charlie was thrilled to have a little friend to play with while we were there!  The next morning we headed off bright and early to Wineglass Bay.  Little did we know the only way to get there was to hike in.... well we weren't prepared nearly enough and didn't get there early enough, so we ended up just going to the lookout and then back down to a different beach.  Travelling with kids is hard!  Charlie and Elly didn't even make it up to the lookout, they stopped just short and we took shifts going up!

A little bathroom break on our way

The wildlife was friendly 

Charlie loved exploring on the rock

Rock wallaby up at the Wineglass Bay lookout

The famous Wineglass Bay - one of the top 10 beaches in the world (or so I've heard...) 

After the hike we stopped off at this cool lighthouse!  Andrew, David and I were the only ones who made the little trek but it was so worth it!  GREAT views

We stopped and got fish & chips on the way home and ate them at a little park near this beach, it was so nice!

These two love to have fun!!

Saturday we headed to the famous Salamanca Markets, which didn't take ay pictures at!  I was too busy looking at all the stalls...  Then Saturday afternoon Andrew stayed at home with the kids while the rest of us went to a musical of Pride and Prejudice - it was entertaining!  Sunday we went to church then went to a Christmas concert in the evening.  Monday was a fun day - we drove out to Richmond, where there is the second oldest bridge in Australia, and underneath?  Lots of ducks to feed!  Charlie loved it!  It was a quaint old town and very touristy with lots of little shops to look in.  I found some Australian animal finger puppets which I was SO excited about!  I'm trying to make sure we have lots of aussie things for our kids to remember our time here when we eventually move back to Canada, and finger puppets are nice and small!!

                              

                                            Painting cookies - Andrew's favourite Christmas tradition from his childhood 

Feeding the ducks - the big white one was Charlie's favourite! (Although I don't think that's a duck...!)

The view from the peoples house we were staying at - Spectacular!

We left Tuesday evening so we had the morning to play!  We went to a beach 5 mins away from the Sayers house and it was so nice!  Not busy at all with nice gentle waves for the kids to chase (it was too cold for swimming!) and lots of sand to dig in.  There was a guy fishing down the beach which Charlie was just fascinated with!  Every time he'd cast Charlie would run around saying "he's casting! He's casting!" It was such a nice relaxing way to end our stay in Tassie!

The (Parents) Cahoon in Oz

Andrew's parents arrived on a Friday morning, and with the huge time change we asked them if they wanted to go back to our place and relax or have a really full day (and stay awake) and then crash at night - they went for option two!  So we picked them up to the airport and headed to the Glasshouse Mountains where we enjoyed the great view and did a little hike.  Then we went over to Caloundra to the beach.  It was a little cold and threatening to rain, but I actually thought it was great beach weather!! Charlie and Elly had a blast, Charlie with digging in the dirt and Elly sitting on the shore and letting the waves crash into her!  Then we went to the park for a bit and then over to Costco for some most delicious BBQ chicken pizza (it really it the best pizza in the world) and to do a bit of shopping.  We ended up getting home at around 8:30 and we were all exhausted!  I'm impressed Andrew's parents lasted so long!

We were given a Christmas tree when we first moved here and this is the first Christmas we've gotten to set it up!  It is quite ghetto and bare, but oh well!  Once you turn off the light and turn on the Christmas tree lights it looks great!

Charlie and Elly being spontaneously cute - luckily Papa caught it on camera!

Love this action shot of Elly falling (she didn't even cry - and she fell a lot on this hike in the Glasshouse Mountains!) 

These kids are beach babies!

My mom filled up a suitcase and the Cahoons brought it for us!

We went out to Wivenhoe Dam one day and got meat pies, chocolate eclairs and apple turnovers on the way!  

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary - we got there too late - the kangaroos were too full to eat our food... So Charlie decided it was a good idea to place leaves and sticks on this guy for a blanket for his afternoon nap!

This was actually taken a couple of weeks ago!  Charlie watched a bunch of kids sitting on Santas lap and getting their picture taken and he seemed to think it was just fine!  When it came to our turn - heck no he wasn't going over there!!!  I tried to carry him and he was crying and holding on to the pole.  While this was happening Elly was screaming her head off while Andrew was trying to hand her to Santa!  It obviously wasn't going to happen with the kids alone so we jumped in there!  Hahaha I'm completely shocked we got one this good!
  HoHoHo Merry Christmas!

Yeah, we're poor!  Our tree topper consists of an angel made out of paper plates and a plastic cup on the back to hold it in place!  Oh, and some glitter glue

End of School 2016

Andrew finished school mid-January, so we got him around a little bit more!  He still spent a lot of time studying, but the hours weren't as long.  Playgroups were winding up for the year and we had to start getting ready for Christmas and the arrival of the parents Cahoon!

We hadn't gone in Charlie's sand tent for a while and grass had grown through!  He thought that was pretty cool

Charlie's trains had outgrown the house, so we moved them to the garage for better layout options!

We bought seasons passes to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary since our Tuesday playgroup is cancelled for next year, we're going to need something to keep us entertained!

Decorating the tree

You can buy food to feed the kangaroos, neither Charlie nor Elly were scared of them which was great!

Elly tried to climb into the water trough - in her defence it was a hot day!

Elly has a new-found love of dressing up!

Decorating trees at playgroup!

 

You cant really tell but Elly has shoes on and then sandles!

making some ornaments for the tree

At the last playgroup the kids got presents (books)

We went to the Bunnings family Christmas party and Elly and Charlie had a blast!!  It was in the car park so Elly was filthy afterwards!