Bournda Island walk

We went for a walk out to Bournda Island this morning to check out the massive swells that have been hitting our coast for a few days.  There were a few brave surfers out, and many dolphins too.

Jack, Josie and Rich decided to walk all the way home along the beach (.... thats them on the beach).  I had to go back and grab the car from Bournda carpark.

Learn to surf morning

On Richard's first day off from teaching others to surf in 8 days, what did we decide to do together - yep, we decided it was time Richard taught us to surf!  So off we went to Merimbula Main Beach, I managed to get a couple of waves right into the beach (no photo evidence, apparently Richard was too far away), Jackson also did really well and caught a wave all the way in, Josie was happy sticking to boogie boarding.

Lovely morning at the beach.

The Rice cousins

Andrew brought Sam and Lucas down to visit at the beginning of the holidays, now it was Will and Jacob's turn.

We had a great jam-packed few days, that nearly had all the kids fall asleep at the table when we went out to dinner last night.  We spent the first morning at Merimbula Main Beach, catching some waves and building big sand forts, then the arvo at home.  Then yesterday it was more surfing and sand fort building at Pambula Main Beach and getting caught out by the king tide which nearly washed all our stuff away, hot chips at the Broken Ore cafe, then onto the kids mountain bike race at Mandeni followed by a play on the jumping pillow, water golf, then onto Club Sapphire for dinner last night.

Andrew and the boys left first thing this morning, I think they needed to go home for a rest!

 Grandad giving Josie a helping hand into the mountain bike race transition area

 Jackson in a tussle with the boy in the red top

 Jackson came 2nd in the kids mountain bike race!!  He did so well, and his prize was a bottle cage and new grip holders from the local bike shop.

All lined up for some water golf action

Beach cool off

Jack, Josie and I went for a long bike ride the other morning, we then stopped at Spencer Park beach on the way home for a lovely cool off in the water.

After dinner walk to Dolphin Cove

Veggies!

Our veggie patch is doing well, here is a selection of veggies we harvested this morning.  Yum.

Our caravan

This is our new project, a 1979 Wayfarer caravan!  We just bought it locally and intend on restoring her to her former glory.  She will live in our backyard for the kids to play in, guests to stay in, and as she is roadworthy every now and again we may take her away somewhere.  Very exciting!!

Road trip part 2 - Canberra

We left Sydney on the Sunday and drove to Murrambateman (just north of Canberra) to spend some time with the cousins and also to see some Canberra sights.  We had three days in Canberra, we went to the tunnel park, Questacon, a new Canberra park and the pod playground, as well as hanging out on the Rice Ranch - oh and Josie and I also went to the Disney Princess Show at the AIS.

Questacon

New Canberra park

Cousin time at the Rice Ranch

 Disney Princess Show

 Pod Playground

Road trip part 1 - Sydney

With Richard working most of the school holidays teaching surfing for Coastlife, I decided to take Jackson and Josie up to Sydney and then onto Canberra for some city sights.

We arrived at our motel in south Sydney on Friday night, then on Saturday we got two trains up to Circular Quay, then onto a ferry and across to Taronga Zoo.  We then spent about 6 hours wandering around the zoo, seeing all the animals and we also managed to catch a seal show, a bird show and a dinosaur talk.  We then got the Sky Safari back down to the ferry, then caught two more trains back to the motel, where we jumped in the motel pool after our super long day!

First time they had seen the harbour bridge

First ferry ride

Elephants

Giraffe

 Zoo train driven by Mario

 Seal show

 T-Rex

 Bird show - what a location!

 Sky Safari back to the ferry

 Ferry back to Circular Quay

Another day, another beach

Happy New Year

Our New Years Day tradition of breakfast and SUP'ing at Spencer Park beach continues...