Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Easter Camping

Our busy holidays continued. We dropped Grandad off at the airport on Good Friday. Returning home I packed the car for a weekend of camping. Andy arrived home on the Saturday morning from the US. A quick shower and repack of his bag before we left bound for Yarrangobilly.

Located in Kosciuszko National Park, Yarrangobilly Village campground is about 3 hours from Canberra via Cooma and Adaminaby. We arrived, mid afternoon spotting the two white cars with roof pods of our friends nicely parked adjacent to a huge pine tree.

The remaining daylight was spent setting up camp and exploring our surrounds. The area was a natural playground for the kids - a rocky outcrop complete with a few small caves! There was a bubbling creek plus a group of brumbies were nearby grazing too!

Campfire was lit, dinner enjoyed and marshmallows toasted. A great way to start the Easter long weekend!















Another Vegetable Garden First



Having never grown sweet potatoes between, I had no idea what to expect. Must say I was pretty pleased with our first harvest!




















Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Grandad's Autumn Holiday Program

Grandad's awesome Autumn Holiday Program was packed full of fun and excitement. 

On Monday, due to an unfavourable forecast, we went rock climbing. 


 


Tuesday saw Grandad take the girls to the movies where they watched the Smurfs: The Lost City. Grandad liked that one! 

By Wednesday Grandad needed a well deserved rest so the girls attended the school vacation care program whose theme for the day was building cubby houses. We headed out for dinner that night to Locale, a pizza/pasta place in Deakin which was very yummy.






Thursday, Grandad and the girls caught the bus to Belconnen where the Loritz Circus was performing. From all accounts, the show was a huge success.

Good Friday saw us drive about an hour south to Corin Forest. We had fun riding the bob sled before the Great Easter Egg Hunt began.  I rode with Katy who was too young to go by herself.





The crowd had swelled in the meantime and as we were hunting frogs in a nearby pond, we missed the start to the hunt. This resulted in Katy unable to find any eggs, while Ella manage to secure two eggs, only to give one to a little boy who didn't have any and the other to Katy. 

 

We decided to leave this beautiful but crowded spot and stop at Gibraltar Falls which we had past on our way up. It seems that others had this plan too and the carpark there was packed. I managed not to get stuck, scrap any other cars and find a spot to park. It was a short walk descending rocky stair to view the falls which have an impressive 50m drop. 






Then it was home again in time for Grandad to pack his bags, have a bite to eat before catching his plane back to Perth. We all had a lovely time creating many special memories.


Happy Birthday Pippa!

Pippa turned 13! The girls desperately wanted to have a party for her but I vetoed that one. Instead they each bought her a toy and took her for a special walk and play to the oval.

Beautiful Boulder

Andy visited Boulder recently for a 2 week work trip. We were kept abreast of his adventures which included mountain biking, climbing big hills with fellow colleagues and a run where he ran into a bear! I think there was some sort of work as well in there somewhere!




It looked cold over there, with the dusting of snow. Meanwhile here in Canberra, winter too was hinting of it's soon arrival. The heater having it's first christening for the season taking the evening chill off the house. The wood fire is still yet to be lit.

Grandad arrived soon after Andy had left to keep us all entertained. He watched Ella participate in the last SC-ORE event at Aranda, took the girls to school and attended the Little Aths season wind up. Our apple picking adventure was rained out on the Sunday. Instead we visited the secondhand bookshop and made cages to protect the veggies from the possums. Not back for the first few days!







Great Outdoors

Maggy and Midnight loved their new outdoor grassy experience. Safely tucked under the washing basket they could enjoy scratching in the lawn without fear of being attacked by magpies or running off. We also introduced the girls to Holly...again within the confines of their rabbit hutch. Poor Holly wasn't too sure about these little chicks taking over her space and made a lot of noise to let us know how unhappy she was about this. I think a few more rounds of getting to know each other may be in order!!







Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Autumn Bird Walk

Ella, Katy and I joined the Friends of Mt Painter on their Autumn Bird Walk. We were greeted with another picturesque Canberra Autumn morning. The walk was led by Nicki who spotted 28 different species in a few hours. One of the highlights was seeing the Scarlet Robin and the Speckled Warbler which are both on the vulnerable list. 





Stromlo Riding

We tested out our mountain biking skills at Stromlo on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. The girls and I explored the skills park while Andy was out and about. Both Katy and I decided we didn't have many skills while Ella was pushing her bike handling skills to the limit. Impressively she rode the logs, over and down the big hill before embarking on the seesaws. Unfortunately her body and pride were both damaged slightly when she fell off the 2nd hardest seesaw while it was coming down. It wasn't for long though as Andy arrived and she was keen to show him how she could do the easiest seesaw.




From there we scooted around the pump hills before returning to the carpark where Cath and Eoin (but no Aoife as she was busy at a play date) were waiting. Eoin peeled off to put his new mountain bike through it's paces, while Katy, Cath and I ambled our way around some of the easier tracks with Andy and Ella a fair way ahead. Katy was determined and very competent on this track.



Regrouping Cath and I left Andy with the tired girls and rode off on a short loop. The trails were nice and we found ourselves back before Eoin so we headed out on another different short loop. As the sun was getting quite low, we called it a day deciding to head for the Bolt Bar for a sundowner and hot chips! Really nice way to finish the afternoon.