Water

Our first objective of the morning was to eat.  Our deal included, possibly, a buffet breakfast each morning.  Yum, yum.  Well, until we went downstairs.

Not that it was bad.  Don’t get me wrong.  It was ok.  But the plates were hot.  I’m talking scalding hot.  Since Lilly skipped the poached eggs and veal and pork something she went to the fruit.  And got a bunch of fruit.  Remember the hot plate?  Fruit on hot plate doesn’t do so well. 

I did try the poached egg and it was good on an English Muffin.  There was rice, hash browns and bacon (but not crispy bacon and it is much more fatty).  There were lots of different breads.  Not too bad but just not great.  Oh well, we’ll try again tomorrow.

Back to our room to let our food digest and get our swimsuits on.  We headed down to the pool and spent about an hour playing in the kiddie pool, the big pool which was over 1.5 metres deep in some spots, and the alligator slide.  Ok, I’m guessing it was a crocodile slide since they don’t have alligators here, but no one would know.  Adlai love it all!  Lilly just wanted to do everything a hundred times.

We went back to our room to get a quick lunch and put Adlai down for a nap.  He needed a major sleep.  We even had Lilly lay down and she fell asleep.  Score!  I may have fallen asleep after reading in the sunshine for a little bit.

Next stop was dessert!  Really I needed to get to a place with internet access and we noticed that one of the ice cream places said they had fast service.  It was not fast and the ice cream wasn’t especially good.  While we sitting there waiting for something to happy with the internet they got a delivery of fresh ice cream and a lot more flavors.  Grrr.

I think I’ve talked about food throughout the entire post but up next was dinner!  We had already planned to get Indian but first we had a quick play in the ocean.  We bought some sand toys when we got up here and let the kids have a go.  Lilly got pretty wet and Adlai got his toes wet.  He did pretty well for being in the massive ocean with waves.

So then we went and ordered our Indian and took it back to our hotel.  We got buttered chicken as that has become a favorite and guess who liked it the most?

Take a guess.

No, really, it’s not that difficult.

Showers for everyone!  And bed.  Adlai decided that he didn’t need sleep.  There must have been something in the food because he was wired and didn’t go to bed until 10ish.  We finally put him in his pack-n-play and just turned out the lights.  He jumped up and cried for a long time.  Finally he gave up and laid down and fell to sleep immediately.  We weren’t about to try to watch a show or anything.  We just went to sleep then too.

The Resort that Wanted to be Better Than it Was

We had set the alarms for 8 but no one was sleeping much past 6:00.  Between the cold that Seth and Adlai have, the fan not helping for a few hours while we lay in pools of sweat and then making us very cold, and Lilly having to go to the bathroom, we were just done.  I will say I was happy that Lilly went to the bathroom because that meant something was going through her.  In fact the first words out of her mouth were “what’s for breakfast?”

Seth and Lilly left a little after 8:30 to go back to the airport to get the car we had ‘hired’.  Adlai was very upset that he was getting left behind so I took him out for a walk.  Turns out the resort had a nice pool with a little slide.  I put Adlai’s feet in the water and he loved it.  By the end of the walk I had to take his shorts off and change his diaper.  He fell asleep while I changed his diaper.  Poor kid was exhausted!

Meanwhile, at the airport, Seth was there early so the lady put in our car to get it prepped and told Seth it would take 30 minutes.  Seth came back 30 minutes later and someone had given his car away!  But it worked in our favor, we ended up with a Kluger.  And boy was I glad we did because I may have mentioned we have a lot of stuff!  Plus we did a little shopping for diapers and some groceries.   If we had received the original car, we may have had to make two trips to our resort destination.

So after a little shopping and picking up flyers for ideas of what to do, we headed to our resort.  This was a deal we had gotten on LivingSocial or one of those Groupon type deals.  We’ve done these before and have had great experiences.  Well, you are bound to have a flop eventually.  And I’m not complaining too much.  BUT, when Seth went to check in, they didn’t have our reservation.  They had it and then it was cancelled.  They also didn’t have too much info on the reservation as to what we got as part of the deal.  I’m going to have to have a chat with them and get some answers.  I don’t want to be charged with a bunch of extras at the end. 

Anyway, so we spent the day unpacking our car.  It took ages since there wasn’t a parking lot close to our building.  And no lift.  (I won’t complain about that one because the lady checking in after us was wondering why she got a handicap room on the second floor and how she was going to get her wheelcheer bound child up and down the steps.) 

We put Adlai down for a quick nap and then went for a walk along the Esplanade.  We were looking for dinner we could all agree on.  I’ll start by saying that never happened.  But, I did see someone I know!!  Lilly had passed someone and said “that looks like Kate.”  Well, if it had been Kate she would have stopped and said hello.  Then Lilly said “that looks like Kerry.”  I turned and said, yes that is Kerry and kept going.  Well duh, it was someone I work with at the school!  I said hello and laughed at the coincidence as I didn’t realize she was going to be in the same area over the holidays.

We finally settled on fish and chips and headed back to our hotel.  We won’t eat at that place again, the portion was very small and not well cooked.  Afterwards we went for a quick swim.  We were the only ones at the pool and it was dark but the kids loved it.  Hopefully I’ll get a picture of the pool this week. 

Here is a sign that was posted on the beach.  How many people want to go swimming now?

Let's Go on a Holiday

Hey, did I mention that we were going on a holiday?  Here is how it all started . . .

We aren’t the most efficient packers.  We always take far too much stuff.  Don’t get me wrong, we make an effort to use it ALL.  It won’t go to waste.  BUT we do have lots of luggage.  Oh, and we might wait until the last minute to do all the packing.  I did get most of the laundry done ahead of time.  Without a dryer I needed to be a little organized.

We all woke up nice and early and started packing right away.  After breakfast.   6 hours later, we were almost on our way out the door.  Adlai decided to take a nap.  He’s a good napper but we were talking 4 hours and we finally had to wake him up.  At least I got a lot more done than if he had been following me around everywhere.  And then there was Lilly.  She kept laying down in the middle of the hall.  She wasn’t feeling all that great but just told us her tummy hurt.  I was pretty sure she was exhausted from all the running around we have done in the last couple of weeks and just needed a good break.

Between the 4 of us we had 3 suitcases, a pack-n-play, a hockey-gear-sized-bag, and 4 carry-ons.  And a stroller.  Quite ridiculous.

So we got on the first flight without any hassles.  Yeah, Adlai’s first plane ride!

 

Although it looked like it, Adlai does not have a bag over his face.  Those were his headphones that he 'took apart'.

And within a matter minutes, Lilly’s first experience with the puke bag.  (Can I say that all her experience with the puke bucket in the car has paid off?)  Needless to say over the course of the 5 hours we were in the air, she used about 10 bags and another 2 as we got off each one.  That was not a pleasant experience but Lilly was a trooper.  She tried to sleep and drink but, well, you can guess what happened each time.

We finally arrived in Cairns at about 10:20 at night.  Adlai fell asleep as we were landing.  He didn’t do too bad.  He had a couple of meltdowns but nothing long and torturous. 

We had to wait for a Maxi-taxi as our luggage would not fit in small vehicles that they called taxis.  We went our 3 kms to our “resort”.  Since we had a late check-in time we were given a code to a safe and inside the safe was our key and room number.   As we walked to our room I noticed a couple of open doors with toilets.  I discovered why this place was so cheap!  It was more like a backpackers hostel with a shared toilet/shower!  Probably not the biggest deal but then again, the cockroach didn’t help my impression!

What we do when Lilly is at School

Don't tell Lilly but Adlai likes her bean bag.  And her water bottle.  I've probably posted this before though.

Here's a new one for a good chuckle.  Excuse his unsnapped pants, he likes them that way.

Olivia!

While I was have a scrapbooking day, Seth took the kids into the city to see Olivia.  I believe she had a princess party which was why Lilly is wearing the extra dress (which happens to be an old dance costume of mine).  I hear it was a good time.

Don't tell Seth I told you but he got on the wrong train coming home.  Needless to say he was on the train for a very, very long time.  And Adlai didn't have a NUK.  I think it got pretty ugly there for a while.  But when I picked them up at the station he was sleeping very peacefully. 

Baby Elephants

We went into the city for a shopping trip today.  Really we wanted to get Lilly some runners and/or school shoes.  We did get some runners but Lilly will have to use those as her school shoes for the rest of the year.  I just couldn't find any black ones that were school appropriate.

On our walk back from the shops we ran into one of these elephants.

They are scattered around the city in celebration of the 150th year of the Melbourne Zoo.  Unfortunately they are so scattered around that I haven't seen too many of them.  AND they are only going to be out for another month.  We don't get out and about enough to see them.  Oh well.

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day is celebrated in September.  I'm going with the first Sunday of the month.

My plan was to take the family to a hedge maze but we got a call before we left from some friends who had a similar idea only their maze was closer.

Ha!  Their maze was also closed.  For a year.  But we drove around for another 45 minutes and finally just decided to go a restaurant since we couldn't find a park with a bbq.  The establishment we found was clearly the only place to eat as it was packed and they laughed when we asked for a table for 8ish.  But they squeezed us in and told us we only had an hour.

Afterwards (finishing well before our kick out time), we headed to a park to let the kids play.  I had bought cake for our anniversary so we shared that.

 Seth hanging with the boy:
 

The girls are way on the other side of this field.  That's not Seth running towards them.  

Yeah Us!

We did have an anniversary.  10 years!  We finally found someone to watch the kids for a few hours so we could have dinner together.  

Once in a Blue Moon

The moon was pretty cool.  I got one shot while we were waiting for the longest light ever on the way home from Lilly's gymnastics.  Can you see the above moon just to the upper left of the traffic light?

The rest are from a moving car.

I saw a moon.

What?  You don't see anything?

Oh, yeah, photography by Lilly.
With a small point and shoot.  As if that mattered, really.

Pieces and Parts

Adlai, like most kids, loves to look at himself after I take his picture.  He was fascinated when we where talking about body parts.  I happened to have the camera in my hand and took a few pictures to show him.  He kept sticking different parts in front of the camera.

Here is what we got (I won't name the parts because I'm pretty sure if you are reading this, you know the parts in the pictures):

Sorry mom, I just noticed that last picture has a bit of runny snot.  Snot, snot, snot.  Giggle.

Here/There/Where are You?

Every other year Lilly's school has a concert.  From what I've heard it would consist of the each class learning a song and dancing to it.  There may have been costumes involved.  But I wasn't there so I don't know how it actually went.

This year we had a parent obtain a grant to put on a special program.  She brought in artists and writers and the kids were given a huge role in making the play.  In the end the kids made lots of puppets and everyone had some sort of part in the play.

What was the story about?  Hmm . . .  aliens.  Exploring Earth.

The downfall of the way they performed.  You couldn't see too many of the kids.

Lilly is in the above picture.  She is on the right behind the screen with her 'butterfly' shadow puppet.

Overall it was very well done.  The whole school community was involved including parents.  Okay, I'm not sure that the office manager was involved.  No, wait a minute, she would have done ticket sales and answering questions from parents.  

What a Sweetie!

 Seth found a cupcake decorating class for me on Living Social.  It's sort of like Groupons I suppose.  I had fun.  And I may have purchased some fun toys to do some decorating.  They sucked me in to that one.  I even knew that was their ploy.  And I still fell for it.

Here are my practice cakes.  I'm not a professional.  Can you believe it?

 

We are a Book Household

Hey, we went to the library.  Again.  This time I took two children.  And got to read 18 words in my own book.  Brilliant.

I Might Be Lazy But I'm Not Sure

You'll have to excuse the lack of posts this month.  I seem to be busy but I'm not sure what I'm doing.  I have been working at the school one day a week but keep getting asked to do extra days which throws me off.  I am volunteering at the school as well helping with ESL students.

So anyway, some cuteness until we do something a little more exciting.

The Best Animal Shots Ever!

Made you look!

Hey, Adlai and I went to the zoo!  Surprise!  We don't do that often or anything.

He discovered a herd of elephants and insisted on sitting on each one.  I was going to get a picture of all of them but each time I stepped away he tried to slide down.  I think he was looking for the one that molded to his bottom the best.  The first one was the winner.



Next stop - orang-utans.  Adlai was able to get pretty close to this one.




Well, as close as a piece of glass will let you.

Of course he found the statues.  And was smitten by the baby.



 Adlai hugged it without any prompting.  Well, the first time anyway.



Adlai being adventurous.  Balancing on the block of cement that separates us from the animals!




Well, that and again, the piece of glass.

And because the last time I went to a zoo with my cousin we got a lot of shots of animals from the back, I figured she would appreciate one more.

Turn the Volume WAY Up

A Pick Me Up

Just cute.

Enough said.

A Week Summary

Monday - Decided to get in gear and went for a run before Seth went to work.  Came home to a cold shower (Seth's was warm).  Pilot light is out and will not light.  Not feeling all that great.

Tuesday - Lilly and I are both feeling ok, head to the pool to go for a swim and a hot shower.  Run into Lilly's classmate so we spend the day with her and the family.

Wednesday - I can't get out of bed.  But some dude in sweatpants came to fix the hot water heater.

Thursday - Hot shower but feeling under the weather.

Friday - Feel great but no hot water.  Happily host Mom's group since everyone is finally on the mend.

Needless to say I was not on the mend so much as just stabilized.  I got better and then worse and then better and much worse.  It wasn't pretty.  I do get better by the time August rolls around.

All I Want For Christmas is My . . .

Two

Front

Teeth!!!

A Normal Day

Pajama day at our house.

The kids played together.

Adlai just sat there really.

Lilly did all the work.

They both liked it.

A Not so Nice Holiday

Remember how I mentioned it was school holidays?  Lilly got sick.  This is what we have accomplished.  Although the poor guy is still naked.  But it's name is Hoppy.

A Monumental Post

This is my 400th post.  I feel like I should make it special.  But I got nothin'.  Except a lot of snot.  I could do a snot give away with all the snot in the house.

Ok, I won't.  Have a great day anyway!  

A Different Boy

Some more pictures of Adlai and his haircut without the snot bubbles.  Yes, there were snot bubbles in the last picture.  Are you going to check them out?