The Xmas tree is up,

and the boys are counting down to Xmas, yesterday, the boys stayed home and we went shopping for a new tree, as our white one has now turned yellow after being up in the garage roof. It's a black one, and is really pretty, much to my disgust, I got a brochure in the mail after I came home, that said Xmas trees are 1/2 price on Thursday from the place that we bought it at.
Today Cody stayed home, as he still has a cough, we were talking about the Xmas play that Cody is doing at school, and about the Three Wise Men, Olie said "Who are the Three Wise Men, are they in the army? I asked them both if they knew what the meaning of Christmas is, and Cody says, "I know", and I said what, and he goes - "It's chocolates and presents". So it was a trip to the library this morning to find a book about Xmas, so after getting home and reading bits to them, we come to the page about Jesus, and Olie says "Jesusssss" - that's a naughty word, and they're both saying "Jesus Christ" and giggling away. Anyway, after a few giggles, I think they know a wee bit more about the celebration of Christmas:)
We have the caravan listed on Trade Me, now and have 34 watchers at the moment, so hopefully we will get a bidder by the weekend, and we will be off camping in our tents at Xmas.
No bites on the rental on Trade Me at the moment, things are very slow at the moment, after Xmas we are going to list it with Alan at Harcourts, which should get us a lot more coverage, interest rates have come down again, so that's promising.

Well we are

all back into normal routine again after our holiday. After much thought over the last 6-12mths, we have finally decided over the last couple of weeks that we are going to make the big move to Oz - to the Sunshine Coast. The rental is now on the market, so we will see how that goes. I have started listing the odd thing on TM, so it is not such a huge job at the end, we will probably take pretty much all the big stuff with us, but there are lots of smaller things that need to be sold. All pretty exciting really, I've hooked up with a family on the net from the West Coast that are going next year too, so it's good talking to others, that are at the same stage as us, and sounds like we will have a few people we can get together with for BBQ's when we first get there. There seems to be a few people we know that are heading over there too, so its all good.

Boo hooo, last day

today, before we fly home tomorrow. We headed of early this morning to the Eumundi markets, it is huge, I had a lovely foot massage, we only got around some of the market - the boys were more interested in playing at the park that was at the market, had lunch in Eumundi, and ended off going on another big drive to Maleny, nice wee old town with lots of old historic buildings. We stopped at another park for the boys - really fantastic park near the motorway, it had lots of unusual things to play on there. We were back at our holiday park by 3.30pm today - the earliest we have been back since we have been here, Grant and boys are in the pool here, it is lovely and warm, and it's the first time we have used it, as we have been too busy at the beach etc, I'm going to head off and have a swim myself in a minute. Gorgeous day here again today, we are really going to miss the beautiful weather, I hope it's warm when we get home. We will be heading off early tomorrow morning back to the Gold Coast, we will have plenty of time hopefully if we leave early, then we can find a park or shopping centre for the kids to play at before we have to get to the airport. Will try and get some photos of our holiday on here over the weekend, or early next week.

Fantastic day

again today. We ended up heading to the Bellingham Maze, we had great fun there, they had a big hedge maze and other puzzles you could do, plus a great bird avairy, and then headed to Coolum Beach, it was beautiful there, we spent ages in the water, then watched the people at the skateboard park. We have just finished having tea at Sizzler, and now have very full tummies. Tomorrow morning we are going to head off to the Eumundi Markets.

Hi Graeme,

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you - hope you have a great day!!!!!!

Feels like it's going

to be a very hot one today, the boys are having breakfast and then it's off to the beach, and a look around a place called Buderim.

We headed off

this morning and did a bit of shopping, and had an early lunch at one of the local plazas, soooo many shops and choices of everything, lots of places for the kids to play at the shopping centres too, after that we went to AuzzieWorld, we all had a great time, it was a really quiet day there - hardly anybody was there, so the kids had the rides all to themselves, excellent value for money, the kids just jumped from one ride to the next without having to wait, and went on all the rides heaps and heaps of times. For tea we went to the beach and cooked up a BBQ, it gets dark early here, but all the eating areas are all really well lit up, we cooked up some prawns and chicken kebabs, the great thing is there are public bbq's everywhere, and they are all free, they are cleaned by the council every day, so the kids could play in the playground by the beach and swim. People are out strolling and exercising along the beach all night, the beach's have exercise equipment staggered along them, so you can run and have a gym workout at the same time. Better go and take these boys to the playground before bedtime.

Today we

headed out on a 1hr canal cruise, we had good commentary and saw some amazing million dollar homes, including Steve Irwins launch and holiday home (pictured), the boys both were allowed to take turns at steering the boat, which they thought was pretty cool, the captain feeds the pelicans every day as he goes past, so they look out for him, they are amazing up so close. We hung around the wharf shopping centre for a couple of hours beforehand, and the kids played and we had an early lunch. Sonya - this afternoon we caught up with Caz and Kelvin at their house, we had a great time catching up with them and the kids had a swim, and then got to play the Buzz game on tv, and didn't want to go home, they also got to see a cane toad on their driveway when we left. I got some pics of their kids for you, so I will email them to you when we get home. We have got the boys to bed early tonight, hopefully Grant has got Ollie to sleep by the time I get back from typing this, as he was awake until 10 last night, probably wasn't the best idea letting him have cola at tea time lol. Well not many days left now, and so many things we would love to do. We are thinking of doing the AussieWorld tomorrow, maybe the maze on Tues and the Eumundi markets on Wed, with a swim at Noosa again afterwards. The kids haven't asked when we are going home even once yet, they are doing too much fun stuff - back to reality soon!

Another fantastic

day today, a little rain every now and then and thunder, but still warm. We hung round our cabin this morning, and headed out after 11.00am, we went and visited the Big Pineapple for the afternoon, it was great, we had a tour around the pineapple plantation in a little train, and then another tour around the Macademia forest and the boys had were able to crack open some nuts, they have also have a great animal park there, so the kids got to see things like kangaroos, koalas, goats, pigs, snakes, dingo's and lots more, and got to hand feed them too (not the dingo's). We were going to head back to Maroochydore too have a look around, but ended up on going on one of our wee drives, and decided to head out to Noosa - it is so beautiful, I haven't been there for years, and had forgotten how nice it is, we ended up going to the beach, and the kids and Grant ended up jumping in the sea in their clothes, it was perfect for swimming - beautiful and warm, and you could go out a fair way without it getting too deep, Cody just loved it jumping in all the waves up to his neck. We have just been to Maroochydore for Hungry Jacks for tea, the boys have gone back to the cabin, because a boy Cody was playing with at Hungry Jacks told him that the Toy Story movie is on at 7pm. Sonya - we are going to catch up with Kelvin and Caz in the next day or so, we are just waiting to hear back from them, Kelvin has just had some horrible tummy bug - so hopefully we avoid that one. If anyone trys to text us, we are unable to reply at the moment because we have both run out of money on our phones, and not sure whether we can top up here or not, will try and sort something out tomorrow.

Another great day here today

on the Sunshine Coast, we did a bit of grocery shopping this morning, and then headed off to see Aunty Jo at at Rose's in Beerwah, we got a bit lost - AGAIN, so took us a wee while to get there, we arrived a bit late, and they had gone out for lunch, so we found the Beerwah swimming pool and had a great afternoon there, we were given our own super warm swimming pool, because lots of school kids were using the rest of the pools, we all had a nice and relaxing afternoon, on the way back we came across Super Karts, which was massive, the boys both had a go, we headed back to Rose's and caught up with everyone, It's just about 8.00 oclock already here, and Grant is outside with a few others cooking up our BBQ tea. Will hopefully catch up Caz and Kelvin over the weekend.

We are now in the

Sunshine Coast, beautiful day again. Yesterday we spent the day at Movie World, the boys loved it - they liked it better than Dream World, unfortunately the Wild West part was closed, but there was still lots to do for the boys, the weather turned really horrible before we left, and got really cold. We have just arrived on the Sunshine Coast a couple of hours ago, and have just been out for tea along the waterfront, we haven't had time to explore much yet, but will get out and about tomorrow, there looks like there is lots to do here, we think we will go on a canal cruise, do a huge maze and go to the markets one day. On the way here we to stopped to see Tracy and her family, so it was great catching up with them, then we stopped at the Ettamoggah pub. Going to head back to our room shortly and put a movie on for the boys, and we will chill out and read our books.

Wow, just checked

the ChCh weather, and see it is only going up to 16 degrees today, - that is the low here, going up to 27 I think. Sounds Brrrrrrr in ChCh.

Another gorgeous

day here, we are basically living in our togs. We have just finished lunch, and spent the morning at the Beach at Burleigh Heads, we are just having a lounge around day today, Cody is pretty tired, he is back at the room watching tv with Grant, Cody wants to have another BBQ tea tonight, because he and Olie have made a few friends at the playground there. They were playing with the other kids last night until 9pm, and having lots of running races. We are off to Movie World tomorrow, and then the morning after we will be off to the Sunshine Coast.

We have had an

awesome day at White Water World today, it was so much fun, the kids had a ball (and us), we got a bit lost on the way again - took a wrong turn off, so took us a while to get there. The kids loved the Nickalodeon area and Wiggles World, and also went down on one of the big tubes with Grant. It was lovely, hot and sunny all day. Went for a bit of a detour on the way home to look at the suburb Robina, which is really nice, had Red Rooster for tea, and got lost again on the way home lol. We didn't get home until 6.30pm. It's dark now, the boys have gone for a short play at the park, and then it will be off to bed. Tomorrow we are thinking of going to the beach or Movie World, we will decide in the morning.

Beautiful day here again.

The boys dropped me off at Pacific Fair this morning at 9.00am, and I have spent 3hrs wandering around, ended up only getting some shorts and a top, and some things for the boys, and Grant got himself some shorts when he picked me up. Bought the boys some Ben10 boxing gloves, and we had our first cut lip on the way home with them lol - Ollie gave cody a punch in the face, and the toy he was holding hit him on the lip - Ollie said to Cody "Maybe next time you should buy a Barbie instead". We've just had some lunch and are heading round to the pool and playground. The apartment we have here is great, it's bigger than our house we had down William Street lol. Oh and Keri it's even got an ironing board - I haven't found the iron yet, I am going to keep myself under control and not iron, though I did mop the floors and vacuum the 2nd day we were here. Fantastic weather today, it hasn't been too hot since we've been here, only probably up to the mid twenties. Hoping it will get a bit hotter soon, especially when we head up to the Sunshine Coast. Right better go and head over to that pool.

Today we spent the day

at Dreamworld, and now we are all KNACKERED!! The boys had heaps of fun, we sent them on a ride by themselves that I was too chicken to even go on, and they enjoyed it, we thought they might freak out. Tomorrow the boys are off to play mini golf, and I'm going to be dropped off at Pacific Fair - yayyyy, then we might head to the beach. We have just finished having pizza for tea at the restaurant here, and the boys haved headed off to play at the park with Grant. Better head off and look for them, then back to our room for some much needed zzzzzzzzzz.

Our first day,

and we are having a blast, this morning because of the time difference, Cody and I were awake at 4.50am watching TV. We got out really early, and were parked outside Pacific Fair at 7.00am - two hours to early lol. So we headed off to the market and got heaps of fresh fruit before heading off for a long drive, we had a nose around a sub division, and Grant sent me into what we thought was a show home, to ask for some plans, but it was a house that was being raffled off for some childrens hospital, so the lady sold me some tickets - and hopefully we are going to win a house on Friday lol. Grant just about got us run off the motorway by a large truck. The kids had a play at a park, and we just about got eaten by large ants. Headed to Pacific Fair on the way home and did some grocery shopping, I got a bit carried away in there, as there is so much to choose from, not just to or three salads to choose from, but about twenty - wow, there is such a great selection of everything here - the fridge and pantry looks pretty full here. The boys have spent the rest of the afternoon swimming - bit too cool for me. Better sign off my time is running out at this internet cafe. Will update photos later.

Only 2 more sleeps,

and we are off to Oz for two weeks, we are all really looking forward to it. The boys are back at school and kindy, after having a fairly quiet two weeks at home. We are all looking forward to some hot weather, lots of swimming, and the fun parks of course. We're spending one week on the Gold Coast and one week on the Sunshine Coast.

Here are some last pics that were taken of Tiddles, we had to have her put to sleep at home on Friday (10th October), as she has been getting more unwell every day, it was really sad, but she has had a good 18yrs with us.