Mother duck and her baby ducklings

You won't believe what we saw yesterday!!!
I heard a commotion out the front with the Miner Birds, assuming they were squawking at a dog I went to investigate. What I was confronted with was.....a mother duck and her baby ducklings ambling across the school oval. Of course it was a shock and then reality hit in. She was going to have to cross the main road. Now this road is not a main main road but nevertheless, its certainly busy. She aimed herself straight for it and once out of the school grounds was on a mission. I was feeling extremely sick in the stomach. Firstly, how did she come to being at the school in the first place. Yes, the river is not very far away but she would have had to cross the road the first time. Stupid women.
I was mortified, and convinced that all would not be well. So much so, I did contemplate stopping traffic and possibly getting hit whilst doing so. As fate would have it, she and her ducklings did cross safely and were last seen, waddling across another oval in the general direction of the river. Why does stuff like that happen to me. Was I supposed to help her? Is someone teaching me a lesson? I don't know.
Once I had calmed down, I continued to think about it. Casually asking Brad, "Where was the dad?" to Brads reply "At the pub, where he is supposed to be" If you know my husband, you know that he was only joking but he did answer the question quite quickly.
Anyway, I'm glad that all ended well because I'm not sure I would have been able to walk past the accident scene when on my way to the bus stop for work.

Holiday continued

From Halls Gap we drove into Melbourne and stayed at Braybrook. This side of Melbourne. We had more people to see including Dave Doyle (another Mad Max freak) and Steve and Kerry and their kids who we hadn't seen for years. The kids liked their next cubby house and were still content to ride in the car and obviously play with other peoples toys. Catching up with the guys and being updated where everyone was at was good.

Next stop, Aunty Fonas and Uncle Snots. But we had to visit the Melbourne aquarium first. Ewan thought it was great. We saw everything you could imagine, sharks, stingrays, Nemos and Dories, sea horses and jelly fish. The tunnel was a really good way to see them interact with other sealife semi naturally and of course there is a shop to buy a tonne of stuff after. Yes, we bought stuff. How could you not.

Melbourne Aquarium

We had lunch in at the Crown Casino and then were off to Fiona's. We cramped their style and actually stayed with them for 2 nights. Little Phoenix wasn't too well but she handled it really well and by the time we left, thought she had an older brother and younger sister. She was right into the whole sibling thing. Good luck with that Fiona.

Well that was it for our Melbourne Holiday, we were on our way back home, in two stages this time and not 3 as previously. I for one was not necessarily looking forward to this. We stopped at Ballarat for one night and caught up with a friend I met at BT. She has two gorgeous girls and this was the first time I had met either of them. We went for tea and returned to our last cubby house. (cabin at the caravan park).

Next day we set off, without a plan but a lot of humour. Thankfully we didn't need to use it. The kids were awesome. Ewan was content to watch for hours and hours the DVD player and Alicia watched the DVD player, slpt, played on the equipment after lunch, watched the DVD player and slept. How cool was that. Even Brad had a break from driving and sat in the back watching Batman Begins.

All in all, it was a fabulous holiday, one Ewan won't forget in a hurry, especially when he hears the word Melbourne. We should do it again soon, even if it is a shorter trip. We all bonded and actually relaxed. Everyone had their part of the holiday fulfilled and there were no grumble bums. I'm sure Brad will say this too. I will post more photos on flicked, so make sure that you check that out aswell.

More Photos from Melbourne Trip

Bouncy Pillow

Mt William

Deer and Echidna on the way to Silverband Falls

At Silverband Falls

Photos from Melbourne trip

McKenzie Falls

Reid Lookout

Boroka Lookout

We've been Away

You won't believe this, but we have been away on a family holiday.
This was our first family holiday ever (with Alicia) and the kids were great. We went to Melbourne via a few places first. I will recommend that you buy an incar DVD player first, if you intend to drive for long distances. The best $300 bucks we've sent for ages. So......
Firstly we went to Horsham via Bordertown and the white kangaroos. Ewan thought they were cool and a little weird. Alicia was just excited to be out of the car.

The stop didn't last long but no sooner were we back in the car, that we were out again getting photos of the 'Welcome to Victoria' sign. Boy parents can be slightly annoying. Little did we know that it was going to be the norm (getting in and out of the car because we had to see every lookout of course)

We got to Horsham okay and we had a meal at the local pub with some people Brad knew from the Mad Max forum. Yes, I know. As it turns out, he is one of the DJ's for the local radio

station. So Brad was happy to be talking Mad Max. I can't show you the picture we took because it involves two of the males in this family, kicking back, watching tv from the lounge with only their jocks on. Disgusting to say the least. You wouldn't catch Alicia and myself in such a predicament. Typical males.

Anyway, the first stop the next day was at McKenzie Falls, we were on our way to Halls Gap in the Grampians. We only walked half way down the falls but got a very good taste of what they were like. See photo in next blog. Next stop, Reid Lookout, where we had to fend for ourselves because a huge group of senior citzs happened to turn up the exact time we did. There were beautiful views for almost 360 degrees. It was a little bit sad to see where the fire had been and it came really close to Halls Gap. See photo in next blog. Next stop, Boroka Lookout. By this time, the kids and myself were a little bit over the whole landscape thing and just wanted to get to the next place. But we perserved and the wait for Halls Gap was worth it. See photo in next blog. The cabin was cool and the next best thing to an incar DVD is a giant pillow that can fit a lot of people and is really funny especially if there are a lot of big people bouncing and little people on it because they go flying like little birds in all different directions. It was hilarous. We were lucky enough to have a similar experience in Ballarat. We all went kangaroo hunting that night. We saw one kangaroo that didn't prepare us for the next nights delights. We just had to get through the next day first and that was an understatement as it turns out.

We visited Mt William because the lady on reception said that that is where the best views are and the path to the top was bitumen which meant that you can take the pram. Awesome. Sounds like something we could do. So we drove and drove, which then lead us to the turn off, so we continued to drive and drive and finally reached a car park. Cool. The sign said something like 2km to the top. Again sounds like something we could do. How wrong we were. The steepness was out of control. It had to be at least at a 35 degree angle. For 2km. Brad a I took it in turns to push the pram and piggy back Ewan. He did walk for a little bit but .... not much. Thank god there were little gecko things to look at and ponder for a second because this walk was turning into a battle of the wills. I couldn't get the image of the Neuschwenstein out of my head. And for those who don't that, its the castle that King Ludwig had built and to get to it, its about a 30min walk at a 45 degree angle. Hard on the way up, but harder on the way down. Well at least we can say that we did it, not that the kids will remember which means we will have to do it again one day but hopefully not dragging or pushing someone up. See photo in next blog. Yes the views were awesome but seriously there should be an easier way. There is a plaque at the top stating that Major Mitchell somone climbed this mountain in 1836. My first thought was, 'Why?' my second was, 'Bet you couldn't do this with kids' We did have a fairly pleasant walk to the Silverband Falls and thankfully came across a deer and an echidna which broke up the walk. The Falls themselves were only really tiny and seemed to go underground but the water was nice. We walked back and the deer and echidna were still there so we stopped again. It was pretty hot that day and we were all ready for a rest. One of the coolest things happened that night. We went for an icecream in the main street and came across a kangaroo in the main street whilst driving. It was a very casual fella and acted liked it hopped amongst traffic every day. That was cool. I think we saw the same one a little later on when we went for a walk down the main street. Brad and Ewan were able to get to a couple of metres away before it started to get gittery. I think Ewan thought this was great. Certainly something that doesn't happen every day. Halls Gap was beautiful and we had a really good time there. We will be back.

Stay tuned, there is more to come about the fabulous holiday.