More photos...

I have a new toy to play with. A day before our camping trip, Mark went out and bought me a decent camera. Yay!!! I can't tell you how excited I was when I held it in my hands. I was getting sooo frustrated with the Digital (point and shoot basically) Olympus. Never again will I be swayed to go down that path....*shudder*!

So, drum roll please.... My new toy is .... A Nikon D80!!! Woo Hoo! And now all I have to do is work out how to use it. Lol!!

Here are a few of my favourite shots from our camping holiday. The place we went to, had such a beautiful setting, that I couldn't ask for a better reason to practice! I took over 300 photos. Not a bad average per day, considering I could have taken many more! hehehe...

Thanks for looking.

Do we go camping again?...

Warning! This is a long post with heaps of photos...

Let's start from the beginning. We hadn't really put a lot of planning into the trip. We decided that we would get together with our neighbours and go camping, only about three weeks ago. In reality, we thought, "What could go wrong?" I mean, they go camping every second to third weekend. Our neighbours are really experienced at doing this sort of thing, and they've wanted us to go with them for ages now. So... why not. Surely nothing could go wrong. *insert a grin here - now that it's over!*

So, off we went. All excited about the adventure before us.

We went to a beautiful place up in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Stunning scenery all the way there and back. Bush camping was going to be great (and it was too, minus one or two little incidents!)

After a two hour trip, that include a slight detour to the Sunshine Coast, we got to our destination, with the kids managing to squeeze in a few, are we there yet's. You now, in that whiny tone of voice. Done deliberately after their father started them off with it!!!

We were fortunate enough that our lovely neighbours had a camper trailer for us to borrow, while they used their fully equipped caravan. No sleeping in tents for us first timers. (I truly think we may have been spoiled, but I'm still glad for the opportunity! LOL!!)

We set up house in fantastic time. Flip a lid here, shake a canvas there and hey presto...that's where you're living for the next three days. Not bad. And nice and roomy inside too.

So now it was time to explore our gorgeous surrounds. We set up quite near to the access point to the National Park's walks and trails. The particular walk we followed, went along the edge of the nearby creek through the valley. Nothing could go wrong by following a path...right? Tell that to Liam. As the kids excitedly skipped through the bush and raced along the path, (there were five kids in all), I cautiously yelled to them to slow down before one of them tripped and fell down the five metre embankment to the river below. I was just being an overly protective Mum...right? These kids were carefully watching their steps. Well, most of them were.

Liam lost his shoe. Don't ask how that happened. I have no idea. So, he decide to follow his shoe down the slope. Except, unlike his shoe, which stopped halfway down the slope, Liam kept going...and going. Just as his legs hit the water, he grabbed hold of a tree branch over-hanging the deeper water and held on tight. Actually, he held on like it was the last thing he was ever going to do. Panic set in!

Okay, so what do I do? After just warning them too about the slippery path! I reluctantly handed the camera over to Mark as I then scramble down to get him. Sorry, no photo of this incident either! (I haven't really got my "taking-photo-for-future-scrapping" head on in these situations!!) But I rescued him and we continued on our way.

We walked the rest of the circuit relatively unharmed. Even Ethan managed to walk around without complaint and we came across some lovely photo opportunities too.

As we got back to camp we noticed a goanna wandering the grounds, looking for scraps of food. I lifted Ethan up to show him the "big lizard" and warn him about trying to catch it. Well, what else would little boys try to do?

We managed only one step forward before it decided we were a threat and charged aggressively toward us. Poor Ethan and Liam both got quite a scare. But did I want to pack up and go home? Nooooo. Nothing else could go wrong. At least I kept telling myself that! LOL!!

That night at dinner, we had just been discussing something about meals and throwing up. Again, I don't know why that conversation came up. I have to learn to stop saying things I don't want to happen. Because surely enough, Ethan starts coughing. And that coughing led to... You guessed it. Throwing up on his plate. Sorry about the visual. I don't have a photo of that either.

The next day we woke to beautiful weather and we'd had a comfortable night's sleep. Couldn't ask for more. We put yesterday's mishaps behind us and had a good laugh! The kids wanted to ride their bikes and there was plenty of room for them to do so. And off they went.

We did some more exploring around the area...

And the kids did some more bike riding until... Tahlia's accident. See post below.

Later that afternoon, after the earlier drama of "the" accident, we had all recovered enough to persevere with our camping holiday. At this point however, I have to admit, it was getting hard for me to understand why people do this on a regular basis. No offense to the camper's out there reading this. This was our first family camping expedition! It wasn't suppose to be like this! To take my mind off the events that had occurred so far, our neighbours took pity on me and took us to this stunning location.

The water here was crystal clear. An amazing colour that couldn't really be captured on film. It was a nice respite from the chaos at the camp site! LOL!!

The only thing was...The water was freezing!! Here are the kids tentatively trying out the depths.

I love the way they are all holding their arms up, like it was going to make a difference!!

So, the day that had started off nice, and had a rough part in the middle, ended on a lovely note.

The next morning after another comfortable night's sleep, although it was also a little bit cooler after the first, (but that could have been due to Mark stealing the blankets in the middle of the night. Don't deny it. You did!!), we woke to... you guess it. Disaster!!


Some (let me put the words down while clenching my teeth) low-life, stole our tow bar off the back of our vehicle. I mean, here we are... a long way from most places that are open on a Sunday, with a camper trailer, that we have to find a way of getting home with. WHO does that sort of thing!!!


Thanks goes to our neighbour's wonderful father, who made the trip up to the hinterland to bring his tow bar and helped us out immensely! Mwah, mwah! Thanks again Peter.


Nothing else could surely go wrong now...right? I mean, we were at the end of our three day, restful break!!
At least we're at the point where we can laugh about it. Will we go camping again? Well, we are talking about it. Maybe we've shaken out all the gremlins from the machine with this one trip and it will be smooth sailing from now on? Surely we're owed that much!! LOL!! Perhaps we will go to the beach next time... Hmmmm. Might have to think this one through just a little bit more!


Thank goodness for the scenic route home!

We survived, BARELY...

Okay. Let me start by saying, it was a great week-end. Apart from several incidents. I'll leave you with this for now...

...and finish off tomorrow. Let's just say the photo would have been so much more dramatic, showing the blood pouring down her face, with Tahlia unable to open her eye because of it and the accompaniment of screaming from halfway across the camp site. The photo would have been great...if I had been able to recover enough to take it. Instead, I went into shock over Tahlia ploughing head first into the gravel drive...off her bike...in front of a car...gashing open her head...and probably requiring two or three stitches, that is now too late to get. It would have been great and very dramatic. But I wasn't thinking like a scrapper. I was her Mum and the photo barely shows what the fuss was about.

That was just one incident and NOT even the first!!!! I think we needed a bit more luck! More to share tomorrow.

It's all about survival...

We're off camping today. For the first time as a family. Yep. It's gonna be all about survival. Hope to be back here on Monday with plenty of incidents to report! Wish us luck!

Science Centre...

Today, I was crazy enough to volunteer for the annual Grade Three excursion to the Science Centre! Crazy certainly seems to be a fitting word. With a bus load of children, loud enough to let the Centre know we were coming, ... from 50km away, we started toward the city.

One hour later (and one thumping headache), we arrived to find the Science Centre already packed to the rafters with another school. This was all good except for the rushing around from one display to the next... and then being pushed out the doors by friendly but efficient Science Centre staff, two hours after we arrived. I think I should of snuck out of excursion duties, and headed next door to the Craft Fair! Lol!

Anyway, Tahlia and I had a good time regardless. We had some Mother/Daughter time with eight other young ladies from her class!

This is what we got up too. I can't show everything because I'd have to show the faces of other children. And I don't like doing that without their parents' consent.

This was one of my favourite things. I think these are sooo cool!

Tahlia had a go at riding the bike and seeing how the skeleton works while doing it. You can see (very faintly) the skeleton in the glass box beside her.

She also liked the illusions area. A lot of the kids had heaps of fun in this section.

And then of coarse there was lunch outside...

After this big day, I wonder if we might have been better off across the road, at the Craft Fair. I'm pretty sure I know where I wished I could have been! I'm sure nobody would have missed one little group of children....

Create...

Just briefly, before the huge thunderstorm heading our way hits, I wanted to share these two layouts.

Firstly this one...

A very quick page completed for last week's challenge at the Boxx. Journalling says "How can u...cry foul one moment and be best friends in the next..." I have a lot of squabbling going on between these two at the moment. Very superficial but enough to drive me crazy!!!! This layout was also the weekly winner.

My second layout is for Stuck?!

I am experimenting with a few different things at the moment. My friend Elise uses a lot of distressing in her work and I thought that I would give it a go. I'm not sure that it shows too well here in the photo, but it certainly started to be distressing for me, as I started cutting the paper...and discovered that I didn't know what I was doing! Lol!! Oh well. Live and learn.

Thanks for looking.

Create...

Here are two layouts that I have completed this week. The first one, "Dancing Queen" was in response to a challenge at ScrapTherapy. Only I was a week too late...oh well! LOL!

Layout Out For Publication!!!

It was fun to put together and I'm quite happy with the end result. The second layout is for the sketch blog, Stuck?! I really liked this simple photo of Ethan playing in the sandpit. He enjoys it so much that, at times, it is really hard to get him out of there!

Thanks for looking.

Found...

I found a little bit of Spring in our garden today... In between the icy showers of rain and the shy showing of sunlight. There's plenty of colour coming our way...

Liam's sunflower seedlings...

One of the agapanthus plants my Dad bought for me...

The wisteria climbing over the arbour... I am eagerly waiting for signs of flowers appearing on this one...

Our lone white flowering "Geisha Girl" shrub, in a hedge of purple ones...

And busy feet, ready to run away and play...

Hey!...

Check this out...

My layout above, is the Project of the Week over at ScrapTherapy! It was the second lovely surprise for me this week! Head on over there, especially if you like challenges thrown your way!!

Day three of rain here...but we're not complaining! Greenest drought on record! hehehe...

Create...

Oh no! Now I have trouble on my hands! Tahlia has really started getting into scrapping! None of my supplies are going to be safe! And anyone who scraps will tell you, that every single piece of scrappable material lying around, will get used....some day...eventually...well, maybe. But the fact of the matter is, now I REALLY have to guard my stuff!! Lol!

So yesterday afternoon, we sat down together and had a girly, mother-daughter scrapping session. This is what she came up with...

note from Tahlia: This is my layout that I got help with from my Mummy. We drew a sketch together then cut the papers out and glued them down. I chose the words and flowers and Mummy gave me a pink bracket. Then I added the ballet dress and shoes. I wanted to scrap this photo because it is about me getting ready for ballet, which is what I really love to do. TFL.

And I completed this layout for the weekly challenge at The Boxx...

A teal, orange and cream colour scheme on white cardstock, although some of the orange stuff has photographed yellow! Ethan was being cheeky and stuck his dirty feet up in the air and told me to look at his ten piggies! I thought this was very funny as it came quite out of the blue and it's moments like this that scream out to be scrapped!

A lovely surprise...

A dear friend of mine, (met through my hubby, but I have stolen her!), has sent me a very nice surprise in the mail. I love "happy mail" and especially the kind that comes from England!!!

Seeing as how my "family" blog has gone very scrappy... Lorraine very kindly sent me this....

Her SIL Angie is on the design team for this magazine and right in the middle of it, is a layout featuring Lorraine on her wedding day.

It was so lovely to get this in the post Lorraine. A very nice surprise indeed, so thank-you for thinking of me. Mark quite enjoyed seeing it too! And I have since devoured every page in the mag! Lol! Miss you. xx

Create...

Here are two new layouts that I have managed to finish this week. The first one follows the sketch at Stuck?!

And I finally got around to scrapping Liam in his "Rob the Robot" book week character...

Thanks for looking....I'm off to reorganise the house after school holidays! Lol!

For the love of reading...

This young lady is a prolific reader. She just loves to read. And has done so before she started going to pre-school. The trouble with that is, there are no school readers available for her reading level in her classroom...or the junior school for that matter. So we compensate by going to the local library where she can have her choice of wonderful reading material. We have also organised with her teacher to have access to the grades 6 & 7 section of the school library.

It's wonderful to see her spending some quiet time with the written word....even on the school holidays!

Watermelon...

I love the sparkle in his eyes! The pure enjoyment of eating something he wasn't allowed to touch, not so long ago. Thankfully he has overcome that allergy. Because I don't know how much longer I would have been able to hold out on him! Lol! Besides...Ethan and I are the only ones who really appreciate this fruit, in this household.