First day of school

Jackson had his first day of school today, starting in Kindergarten (called pre-primary or pre-school in other parts of the country) at Merimbula Primary today.  He was so excited this morning and thoroughly enjoyed his day.  I can't believe he is a big school boy now ....sniff sniff.

Grandad

Grandad (Dad) has been staying with us since mid December, and as usual, we have all thoroughly enjoyed having him stay with us and will be sad to see him go tomorrow.  Hurry back Grandad, we will miss you!

Arvo at Tura Beach

We went for a quick trip to North Tura Beach yesterday arvo, had a great time jumping in the sand and then burying ourselves in it!

The Rices came to stay

We had another short trip from Andrew and the boys, they left today.  We managed to pack their trip full of skatepark fun, mountain biking at Mandeni, jumping pillow, BBQ, fish and chips, bushwalking, rock climbing, and the beach.  I think all the kids (... and the adults) will sleep well tonight!

A few days in the mountains

We went to Jindabyne for 3 nights (which turned out to be 2 nights), getting back today.  We woke up to really warm temperatures on Friday and decided to head up to the mountain to seek some cooler temps, although it wasn't that much cooler.  When in Thredbo we got the chairlift up the mountain and did a little walk to see Mt Kosciuszko, before getting the chairlift back down again.  Then Rich, Jack and Josie went in search of some good mountain bike tracks, whilst Dad and I went to get a cool drink.  Then back to Jindabyne and to find a restaurant with air con!  This was all on the day that Sydney had the highest ever recorded temperature of 45.8oc and about 10km from Tura Beach a major fire was burning out of control.

Oh and the reason the 3 nights turned out to be 2, was that on the morning of the 3rd day we found some mice in the unit, which we thought lived in a room that was locked.  As Jindabyne is a winter resort the unit doesn't get used much in summer and the mice had moved in.  Josie found them first and immediately announced to Rich "I just saw a mouse in my room, and it has 5 legs!" (she included the tail!).  Needless to say, as soon as we saw it, I was packing my bags and announcing we were leaving!

Father and daughter walking in the mountains

Mt Kosciuszko is the one in the middle

Getting the chairlift down to Thredbo

Thredbo village

Dad followed us down on the chairlift

The Pambula Show

We went to the Pambula Show on Saturday, which had a combination of rides, farm animals, show jumping, wood cutting and markets.  Jack and Josie got to go on one ride each, well Jack by default got two as Josie wouldn't go on her ride by herself, and they also got to play in the SES boat.  Those days out are always good, but I always come away feeling I have been ripped off.  $5 EACH for the hook the fish out of the water game to win a crappy little fluffy toy - what???!!!!

Visitors

My Aunty and Uncle, Christine and Pete, came to stay with us for a few nights recently, they are from the UK but are in Sydney at the moment staying with my cousins in Bondi. We had a great time showing them around.

Haycocks Point

Another day, another trip to see another beach we haven't seen before.  This one is Haycock Point, just south of Pambula in the Ben Boyd National Park.  Lovely spot.  The kids enjoyed some rock climbing, Dad took plenty of pictures, Rich surfed and I swam.  On the way back we stopped at the newly opened 'Settlers Cottage' for a much needed milkshake.

The front page

This time Jackson, Josie and I ditched Richard and, along with a few friends, we made the front page of the Merimbula News Weekly!!  Taken at the fireworks on New Years Eve.

Nelsons Beach

We took a trip just north of Tathra today to check out a beach we haven't seen before in the Mimosa Rocks National Park.  Lovely spot with a surf beach and lagoon.

Happy New Year!!

We had a great time at the Merimbula Family Concert last night for New Years Eve. They had a band playing up until 9.30pm and then a fireworks display, which both Jack and Josie enjoyed as neither of them have seen fireworks before. We didn't get home until 10pm which was a super late night for the littlies, although they both slept in until gone 8am (partly owing to the fact that I put Jackson's bedside clock back 2 hours!!).  Happy New Year!