Brisbane Trip Day 21: Brisbane

It was another quiet morning at home. The kids gradually woke from their various beds (they all seem to have settled into their own spot, after all the bed switching over the first few nights). I spent some time on the computer and then curled up on the couch with my iPad, then we watched some movies as the kids emerged - Chasing Liberty, and When We First Met. We started I, Robot then people kept getting distracted so we paused it for later. Lots more chatting, making and eating dehydrated food, cups of tea, Roblox, Minecraft, playing with the kittens. I transferred Caitlin's phone to a new plan so she has unlimited calls - will make contacting her friends (and us) a lot easier.

In the afternoon the older girls were going to dancing. I felt like going out as well so was keen to take the boys to a river or lake or somewhere and have my friend meet us there with Caitlin. No one wanted to go and I was tempted to talk them into it, when one of the girls suggested I take them to dancing. This worked for everyone - all the other kids were able to stay home, my friend had a night off the drive to dancing, and I got to go out and explore.

We left around 2pm (I took her car because we were picking up some other girls and there wasn't really room for people I didn't know in my messy car). I love talking to these girls, they are interesting and informed and curious. We picked up the other girls and I dropped them all at dancing and then I had about 3 hours to do whatever I liked. I kept driving along the road that dancing was on and found an information centre. I popped in and said I had 3 hours to kill, what kind of things were there to do and they looked at me like that was the hardest question they'd ever been asked. They suggested a couple of picnic areas but warned me that they might be a bit isolated and creepy at this time of day. We had a bit of a chat and they gave me a map. I wandered a little around the park where I was (Pine River) - the playground was amazing - and wanted to go down to the river but it seemed to be blocked by a DiscGolf course. I drove further north towards Petrie and saw a BCF, so went in to buy a replacement cord for my car fridge (it's only been 2 weeks since it stopped working...). I drove up to the river, traffic was heavy but flowing. The first park I went to didn't feel inviting, so I drove over to the other side of the river. There was a guy standing in a gazebo and I felt uncomfortable walking past him so I walked the other way, under the railway line and alongside a football field. There were occasional places to stop and look at the river, some cool mangroves and 2 bridges to walk under. It did feel isolated so I didn't linger - I did take some cool photos though. The river wasn't super pretty, it was nice though.

I headed back down the road to a big shopping centre (Strathpine). I wandered around for a while, browsed a book shop, then realised I needed to eat. I had a chicken burrito from Zambreros which was delicious. I was heading to Aldi to buy a cheap drink when I walked past a massage place -they did a 20 minute foot massage for $25 and my feet have been SO sore on this trip - so I treated myself and it was amazing. So relaxing and nurturing, I'm so glad I did it. Walking felt much easier afterwards, and I was quite relaxed and happy. I browsed in Aldi, bought and ice coffee, wandered around a bit more and went to Big W to get more charging cables for our devices. It was nearly time to get the girls so I went back to the car (and could now play my music because I could charge my phone and not risk running out of battery). On the way back I stopped at an electrical store to try to find a charging cable for our multi-USB box, they didn't have what I needed but had some suggestions for me to try. I arrived at dancing and read in the car until the girls came out. We had another great chat on the way home.

Back at the house I joined my friend in the bedroom watching tv again and the girls all ended up with us as well, talking about our days and lots of other things. We watched The Revenant while we talked (and played with kittens) - it got pretty intense, certainly not a relaxing movie but so well made and acted. The boys were still playing Roblox and the girls wandered off to watch various things on Netflix (Caitlin and one of the girls are watching Brooklyn 9-9, the other has been watching Married At First Sight). Amelie and I went to bed and she watched youtube videos for a while and I played on my iPad until I was ready to sleep.

Brisbane Trip Day 20: Brisbane

None of us had any plans for today, nowhere to be at any particular time, and it was quite pleasant to know we could take our time over getting up or doing whatever we wanted to do. I spent a while on the computer and chatting to my friend and the kids. As the big girls got up they decided they wanted to go shopping, so in the late morning my friend dropped them at the shopping centre in Ipswich. She came back and we kept chatting, she was dehydrating a heap of food so we sat in the kitchen while she did that. The other kids played Roblox and Minecraft and Amelie played Pokemon a bit on her DS. As usual there was also playing with kittens when they were in sight. The girls rang and asked if they could catch the train to Redbank, which we said was fine. I did a little bit of organising of our stuff so that it won't be too hard to pack up when we leave, and started to think about how much longer we'll stay. My friend and I spent some more time laying on the bed and watching TV, and we both ended up having a nap in the late afternoon. Another friend of hers called around for a little while. I'd just woken from my nap when the girls surprised us by walking in the door - they'd caught the train and bus home themselves - we were pretty impressed that they navigated the public transport system on their own, the other girls had never done it before and Caitlin doesn't know Brisbane at all. They were pretty proud of themselves, although very very tired.

The boys and Amelie spent some time outside playing on the trampoline and with water balloons. The big girls decided to put up the roof top tent on the bus, but it had lots of ants in it so they decided not to sleep there. The boys played in it and on the bus for a while. My friend and I moved out to the lounge room to watch the big TV while the kids were all busy. We ate dinner and the boys played xbox in the bedroom for a while, and the big girls watched netflix in another room - by the end of the evening all the kids were on the lounge with us. Another very relaxing and very fun day - we're all feeling good and really loving spending time with this wonderful family.

Brisbane Trip Day 16: Brisbane

3 of our hosts had dancing all day today, so they left the house with their mum around 6.30am. Amelie and I were up not long after that, and the other kids woke later in the morning. We had a very much needed, very relaxing day. I spent a long time on my computer, catching up on my blog and email and Facebook, and sorting photos, tidying up my hard drive and so on. The kids watched Netflix movies and TV, played Xbox games and iPad games. Lots of Minecraft and Terraria and watching YouTube videos. And of course a fair bit of time was spent playing with the kittens. One of the boys stayed home with us, and he had a couple of friends come over, the boys all played on the trampoline and in the trees for a little while. It was hot and very sticky, so we all tried to sit or lie under fans and keep a little bit cool. Late in the afternoon Caitlin walked down to the shops. It was too late for the op shops but she bought herself a drink and snack and walked back. The other kids and my friend were back late evening, and we spent more time chatting and watching movies (Hotel Transylvania 2). The kids have been rotating who gets the good bed in the lounge room - they've sorted out sleeping partners (Amelie with the oldest girl, Caitlin with the other girl, their 2 boys together, and Liam on a single sofa bed). It was the boys' turn on the good bed, and the some of the girls were going to sleep on the air mattress. It kept going down though and one of the boys discovered if he threw his body down on it, Amelie (who was rested there) would fly up into the air. That led to about half an hour of tossing people up in the air from the air mattress, it was a lot of fun to watch! (and definitely the most energetic part of the day for us). We all drifted off to bed eventually.

Brisbane Trip Day 3: Newcastle

I was up first and headed out for a walk. I ended up alongside the Swansea Channel, which was looking hazy and glowy in the early morning sunlight. I sat at a table near the water and did some writing then took some photos, and walked home feeling very happy and refreshed.

Swansea Channel

We had a very lovely lazy morning at the house. The older girls chatted and watched Netflix, Liam watched Dr Who, the younger two played on the trampoline and in the pool in the back yard and with their stuffed toys. The adults pottered around and did bits and pieces and spent time reading and playing games. We had bacon and eggs for breakfast and BLTs and party pies for lunch, it was all very relaxing and enjoyable.

After lunch I took the 3 oldest girls back down to Blacksmiths beach. We swam in the corner near the breakwall where the currents are not as strong. The waves were big, but not rough, they weren’t dumping at all. We swam for nearly 2 hours and it was a lot of fun. I haven’t swum in surf like that for a very long time and it was perfect.

Cousins at the beach

When we got back I jumped in the pool with the little girls, it was a great way to wash off all the salt and feel refreshed. The bigger girls joined us after a while and then everyone went back to hanging out and relaxing in their own way.

After dinner I took the 2 older cousins and my 3 kids down to the jetty at Pelican. The 4 older kids immediately headed out on to the jetty and jumped in – they jumped from the jetty itself and from the top of the pylons. It wasn’t a big jump – only a couple of metres from the top of the pylons, but it was fun. I decided to give it a go (just from the jetty) and it took me a long time to work up the courage. I eventually jumped and I did find it quite scary. Amelie jumped in after me – I was so impressed because she was obviously very scared but had decided she wanted to do it. She took way less time than me to work up to it. The current was quite strong so once in the water we had to swim hard to the shore to avoid being taken under the jetty. Amelie and I both jumped a second time then she’d had enough. I wanted to do it a 3^rd because it usually takes 3 times before I stop being terrified – I was still nervous but this time I managed to keep my eyes open as I jumped! After that I was happy to just take photos of the big kids as they jumped in various combinations.

Back at the house we said goodbye to the youngest cousin as she was going back to her Mum’s. I popped down to the shops to get a few urgent supplies and we watched the Winter Olympics for a while. The girls were allowed to stay up a little later than usual as we were here, once they went to bed Caitlin and Liam watched a couple of shows on Netflix then joined Amelie and I in the tent.

Half-lap Day 97: Perth

We had a very warm night’s sleep in the house, and the kids were all comfortable in their cousin’s room. When we got up the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics was on, so we sat and started to watch some of that. I did a bit of work on the computer, and came back out to watch the athletes enter the stadium. By this stage all the kids were awake, and we discussed why some of the countries seemed to be coming out in the wrong order – they were using the Portuguese names so for example Germany came out with the ‘A’ countries.

We had breakfast, which went fairly smoothly considering there were 8 people in the house. The rest of the morning was spent watching and talking about the Opening Ceremony, playing outside with a basketball or badminton or the dog, and just hanging around enjoying having nothing much to do.  I had a lovely hot shower and then we all had hot chips and dimsims for lunch – their regular Saturday lunch and they were happy to include us. (It’s worked out quite nicely that we are here over a weekend, so we can all hang out together. It wasn’t planned, just the way our timing worked).

In the afternoon I tried to catch up a bit more on my blogging and my photos, a fairly big job. We haven’t really had a rest day over the past couple of weeks and it means I haven’t had much time to spend on anything other than getting us to places, making sure everyone is fed and happy, and enjoying the amazing things we’ve been seeing.

It rained for most of the early afternoon. The kids played Cluedo and Monopoly and other games, and the adults chatted and watched the football and drank cups of tea and coffee. I caught up on my washing. Tony’s cousin’s wife made cupcakes, and we had them for afternoon tea – very tasty. The rain had eased a bit so everyone except for me went down to the park with the dog. They took a football and had a play and enjoyed their afternoon. I enjoyed some time by myself. 

In the evening we watched Olympics and the kids played more games. We had curried sausages for dinner which were very tasty. The kids made some Music.ly videos after dinner, some of them were hilarious. It was raining again, quite heavily now, and we were very grateful to be inside a warm, dry house rather than somewhere in our tent.

The kids went to bed when their cousin did, and I read a few chapters of Inheritance to them. LiAM wasn’t very sleepy so got back up and watched the cycling road race with us for a while, then we all eventually headed to bed. I think all the tea and coffee I had drunk throughout the day, and possibly having a quiet day where I wasn’t rushing around, meant that I wasn’t sleepy either, so it was late before I went to bed, although I felt quite relaxed and rested. 

Sydney Trip -> Day 11 and 12 - going home

Wednesday morning we got up and I started to organise all our stuff for the trip home. We'd kept it pretty organised so I was able to gather it all together, then take everything out of the car and repack it fairly leisurely over the course of the morning. The girls made cupcakes, then all the kids played a 'Capture the Flag' type game outside for ages. We were ready to go by midday, by which time it was pouring rain with strong winds, so we decided to wait until the storm had passed (luckily there was no rain when I had all our stuff on the ground next to the car!)

After the storm we sadly said goodbye to our friends and the kittens. After 8 days in a small house, the 7 kids were still keen to be together for longer, and L and I felt the same way, so great to find a family we gel so well with.

We left a bit after 1pm and headed south. The rain came and went, and when we stopped for lunch in Sutton Forest it was windy and freezing cold. We hung out at McDonalds for an hour or so, then made it to Yass where I needed to get petrol - there was sleet being blown sideways in under the roof of the petrol station and I got saturated, I have never been so cold putting petrol in the car! I got the big kids an orange juice, and Millie a soft serve cone and myself a chai latte and we continued on in the rain. Everyone was feeling a bit sick by now - we'd all had sore throats and sniffly noses for a few days, and we kind of crashed once our holiday was over.

At Gundagai everyone had had enough of driving, so we checked into a cabin at the caravan park near the freeway. It was a much more deluxe cabin than the one we'd had on the way up, with 3 bunks, and everyone was very excited. We headed down to Woolworths to get food for dinner - and when I went to pay I realised I'd left my wallet in the cabin, so zipped back to get it and paid - the kids coped quite well with having to do the extra trip, and I had a moment where I thought I would get upset - then figured it didn't really matter, and I was fine.

The TV worked in this cabin so we watched TV while I cooked dinner, then headed to bed fairly easily and I read Eldest to everyone until I was too tired. I started the night with a bed to myself which was pretty exciting!

Millie came in part way through the night, and neither of us slept well. We were all up fairly early and none of us felt very well. We ate breakfast and packed up and the kids had a play in the playground, and we were on our way again by just after 9.30.

Listening to 'Toby Alone' on audio CD helped everyone pass the time easily, especially with our colds getting worse. Caitlin in particular had a high fever and felt quite miserable. We stopped at Glenrowan for petrol and got some fries and ice-cream from McDonalds. Millie chatted to some army ladies when we were at the toilet, and discovered that girls can join the army, which she liked the idea of.

On the way through Yea we stopped in at Mum and Dad's and spent a lovely few hours hanging out there - showing Grandad LiAM's coins, playing lego and animals, sharing stories about our holiday and what Grandma and Grandad had been up to, looking at changes to their furniture, eating some food. We left around 5pm and were finally home just before 6 - Tony was very happy to see us and everyone was very pleased to be back in our own house and looking forward to our own beds.

Ballarat Trip -> Day 2

Everyone slept quite well and stayed in their sleeping bags all night. I woke up and went to the kitchen for a cup of tea and realised that I hadn't bought my tea bags with me. I read my book for a while, and everyone else was up by about 8am. We had breakfast and the kids scooted around the park, played in the playground, jumped on the jumping pillow, watched some tv, while I got ready for our day. The park had a 4 seat pedal car for hire, so we had a go on that before we went out. Caitlin and LiAM were able to pedal when the ground was flat, it was much harder when going uphill though, so I walked behind them and pushed when necessary, and I did have a bit of a turn at pedalling as well. It was raining while we were pedalling and everyone we saw made a negative comment about the rain, but it didn't bother us.

Around 11am we walked over to Sovereign Hill. It had stopped raining by now though was still overcast. We bought our tickets (valid for 2 consecutive days) and got the last 4 tickets to the next night's Sound and Light show. Luckily. It would have been incredibly disappointing to miss out on the show entirely. We wandered around to the main street, looking into mining shafts on the way, then checked out the Blacksmiths, the horses in the stables, and the lolly shop - deciding to buy our lollies on our way out rather than carrying them around all day. For now, we bought horse head lolly pops and chocolate frogs with crushed raspberry drops in them (one each). We explored the hotel, then while Caitlin and LiAM went to see the horses pulling the carriage, Millie and I popped in to the Mechanics Institute where she found a display of precious gems and stones which was fascinating. We joined the others and met and patted the horses, then wandered down to the Red Hill Mine, where we did a self-guided tour - the lights and voices are automated and led us through the mine, with holograms in places showing men digging for gold. It was well done and showed a pretty vivid picture of what it was like in the mines. Once above ground again we headed for the gold diggings. We sat on a log and ate our lunch, in between panning for gold in the creek. I'd done it before and had a vague recollection of how to do it but wasn't having much luck. The kids chatted to a European couple next to us who had found a bit. A guy came over after a while and helped me with my method (although he wasn't too critical for my liking) and after that I found several small pieces of gold. Very exciting. Once I'd figured out how to do it, LiAM lined up pans for me to work through and I usually found a couple of pieces in each pan. Another guy came over and asked if he could check the pans I'd finished, and he found a couple more pieces which he let me have.

Caitlin at the stables

Millie panning for gold

LiAM with a gold ingot worth $149,000

We wandered back up the hill, stopped in at the confectionary factory and sampled the raspberry drops and discovered that they sold really big jars of them, then went up to the gold mine and paid for  a guided tour. A quick toilet dash and then down into the mine with a group and a guide. We went underground through pitch darkness on an inclined tram - a bit scary and also quite exciting. This tour talked more about how they went about finding gold and how the mine was structured, and the differences between company and independent mining. The guide asked lots of questions which the kids usually answered, although many of his questions were more aimed at tricking the audience, which I didn't like. There was a seam of real gold that had been placed in the mine, that was quite cool to see. We went on a small train through tunnels to get to the exit tram - a little like riding in mine carts which had a nice minecraft flavour! Back up on the tram, then we climbed the tower above the mine shaft - but it was quite high and the wind was strong and everyone freaked out a little so we went back down. There was a line of mine carts at the base so the kids played in them for a while - Millie in particular had been excited all day at seeing mine carts and realising that they really do exist, they are not just a minecraft creation.

Mine carts!

From there we went and saw a demonstration of real gold being melted down and poured to make an ingot. It was quite interesting and exciting to see the process, then everyone got to hold it. The ingot weighed 3kg and was worth about $149,000 - it felt SO heavy because it was small and dense. The guy who poured it was chatting to us and discovered we lived on a vineyard and that the kids' dad makes wine, so he declared himself Caitlin's best friend and wanted her to come back with wine... We went into the shop and looked at lots of items made of gold, and bought a personalised gold coin for the kids' friend who loves rocks and minerals and gold and was having a birthday this week (we got his name and birthday engraved on it, and a wooden stand to keep it in).

Up to the candle making shop from there, where we purchased plain white candles and the kids were able to dip them into dye and colour them. It was an amazingly simple but effective process, using 3 vats of dye, to create a candle with 5 different bands of colour on it. LiAM played with the colours a bit more than that, the lady warned him that he'd get brown, but he was happy to add a 6th brown band and was pleased with his result. We went to the bowling alley next and all had a go at old fashioned 9 pin bowling - it was fun although the ball was a bit heavy for Millie to bowl very far. We wandered back down the main street and stopped to buy our massive jar of raspberry drops (and a couple more chocolate frogs). From there we meandered down the rest of the street and then headed back to the caravan park.

Candle Dipping

The kids played with the kids in the caravan next to us, on the jumping pillow and in front of our tent and caravan. One of the boys had just turned 5, and he and Millie played with all their soft toys together. I had a hot chocolate and read my book, then went to get dinner ready. The group we'd met the night before were having a party in the camp kitchen - at least 25 people - and they were too loud for LiAM and Millie so I heated up our leftovers and cooked some noodles and we ate back at our tent. It was getting a bit chilly so the kids ate wrapped up in blankets. We had a shower after tea, Caitlin went to the ladies and the rest of us used the family bathroom. We watched TV until the TV room closed then went back to the tent and read Eldest for a while.