October Catch Up, Part 2

During our trip there were plenty of visits to playgrounds around Brisbane to keep the kids happy. This day we were at the playground at Springfield Lakes where Callum got to pilot a spaceship of some kind.


On the 2nd to last day that my Mum and Nanna were in Brisbane we went for a drive to the coast to Manly Beach (yes! there is a Manly Beach in Brisbane, as well as the more famous one in Sydney, who knew??). There is a large playground at the beach that the kids had a good time on.



As a coincidence there was a small fair at Manly on the day we were there. Mum bought both kids pinwheels to play with, which were a spectacular success, and both kids had their first rides on a full sized merry-go-round.



On Mum and Nanna's last night in Brisbane there was time for some last minute present swapping. Callum unwrapped an early birthday present from his Aunty Shari and Alison unwrapped her birthday present from her Nandi (ie. my Mum).


Before Mum and Nanna left, there was one last opportunity for a visit to a playground (I told you there was a lot of playground action during this trip!). Ali's very dirty face is as a result of playing in the chip bark that covers the ground at many Australian playgrounds (don't ask, I have no idea why either).


Guess what we did the day after Mum and Nanna left? Yes! A playground trip!

The next day we went for a drive up to Mt Tamborine, where there just happened to be a brewery and a cheese factory - I was excited about one of these and Jen was excited about the other, can you guess which was which? We had a very nice lunch and I can highly recommend a stop if you are in the area and like good craft beer or locally made cheese!


After our big day exploring Mt Tamborine, we had a quieter day and hit Lollipops Play Cafe, which is essentially a giant indoor playground for kids with a cafe that serves drinks and food built in.



Later in the day, Shari was nice enough to babysit Callum so Jen and I could take the tour at the XXXX Brewery (that's pronounced 'four-ex' for those non-Australian's reading this). I have never been a big fan of these guys' beer, but the tour was actually pretty good and I even found a couple of beers during the tasting that were not too bad.

During the tour the guide asked the question "Does anyone know why it is called XXXX?", to which I quickly responded with "Because Queenslanders don't know how to spell beer!" which of course is the absolute correct response if you grew up in any state apart from Queensland. Apparently I was not the first smart-ass to give that response based on the "Oh please" look on his face. I still stand by it though.

OK, that's enough for this post. Believe it or not, we have almost 5 more days to cover in Australia.

October Catch Up, Part 1

The start of October had us landing in Brisbane bright and early on the 2nd. We were a little later arriving than planned as there was a problem with the airplane at the airport in Los Angeles so we were almost 90 minutes late taking off, of which they only made up about 20 minutes of during the whole flight.

We spent the first day unpacking and getting settled and watching with great interest as Callum and his younger cousin Alison figured out how to play nicely with each other. My Mum and Nanna had also flown up from Adelaide to stay with my sister, so it was a very full house. To be truthful, my Mum and Nanna booked their trip first and Jen and I just decided that that created a good opportunity to catch up with family, so that's when we booked our tickets.

The next day was Alison's 1st birthday party (the original reason for the trip up from Adelaide for my Mum and Nanna). There was quite a crowd in attendance, many of which were kids, so it was quite a busy day. The Princess theme of the party was heartily embraced by the host family.

My Mum stepped up again and made Alison's cake, which was in line with the Princess theme of the party.

Which Alison enjoyed eating later in the day.

Here is a good example of Callum and Alison playing together the day after the party.

Here is Callum having fun on a kids ride at the mall near Shari and Leon's house

And here is Uncle/Daddy Craig practicing the 2-kid balance, perhaps it is a skill that will come in handy in the future.

A couple of pics of us all playing at a nearby playground.


The next day we hit Australia Zoo, which is the zoo that Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin setup. So as you would expect there is a preponderance of crocodiles at the zoo, including this trained one that you can have your photo taken with.

And here is my Mum and Callum taking a break from looking at the animals.

Callum riding a turtle.

We had a quiet day the next day after our day with the crocodiles.

But the day after that we were back at it for some more Australian animal fun. This time myself, Jen, Callum and my Nanna visited Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

A peacock joined us for lunch while we were there.

And Callum got to pet a Wallaby (that's roughly a small Kanagaroo for those who don't know), and then both Callum and Jen fed a Kangaroo.


And that will do for this post. More to follow.

September Catch Up

The first weekend in September had us attending the (usually) annual Bennett Family Reunion, this year in sunny Lodi, California. So we spent some time at Jen's parents place and a day in Lodi catching up with everyone and of course, playing the mandatory bocce tournament. While up there, Callum did get to ride on Grandpa's tractor.



In the following week, Jen and I saw the Dave Matthews Band at The Greek Theatre up in LA. Surprisingly, this was my first concert at The Greek, which as it turns out is a fantastic place to watch a concert - the too and from the concert is a hassle though, parking and traffic etc. is horrible. After the concert, we decided to be adults and find a bar and have an after-concert drink. Which shouldn't be that hard when you think the road up to The Greek basically dumps you out into the Hollywood area. As it turns out, Hollywood is mostly an endless stream of grimy streets, prostitutes and crack dealers at that time on a Wednesday night. So we ended up buying a six-pack and taking it home to drink. Party animals!

On the 10th was my niece Alison's official 1st birthday.

On the 15th we had to rush up to the Australian Consulate to get Callum's Australian passport finally sorted out, because we booked tickets for a trip to Australia in October. I took this photo on the lawns outside the consulate. The composition of small little Callum and the giant lawn and building is cool (in my humble opinion!). Click on the photo to see it in full size.

We discovered that on the 3rd Sunday of the month there are free train rides at the OC Model Engineers park. And with Callum's current infatuation with Thomas the Tank Engine, it is was a no brainer to go and check it out. I took Callum by myself this first time and taking photos while actually riding on one of these trains was verboten, so I didn't actually manage to get a photo with either Callum or myself in it, but this photo should give you an idea. On each ride you do two loops of the park and it takes a good 10 minutes or so to get around as the park is quite large. Callum of course was physically bouncing and wiggling the entire time with sheer delight, I thought his head was going to pop right off.

Here is a gratuitous shot of Callum.

And one more for good measure, this time peeking in from the backyard.

The last week of September was basically consumed by getting ready to leave for Australia - you would think we would be well practiced at this by now, but apparently not. We took off on the night of the 30th and landed in Brisbane in the morning of the 2nd of October (because of the time difference, oh and the incredible length of the flight of course). This photo of Shari (my sister) and my niece Alison was literally taken while Jen, Callum and I were on the flight on the way to visit them.


The October update will be mostly consumed by the details of our trip, so stay tuned!