Christmas Vacation (Part II)

So many pictures...Here are pictures from our visit to the rainforest and the Kuranda village.  We went up to the village via the Skyrail and came back via an old steam engine.  It was a fabulous way to spend Christmas Eve, almost took our mind off the fact that it was soooo hot.

Strolling along the sky walk thru the rainforest.

View of the steam engine from the sky walk.

Our "duck boat" ride through the rainforest.

Lounging with roos

Making friends

Cute koala and her baby

Loving these roos

Getting ready for our train ride - Jamie is SOOO excited.

The excitement of the day has finally taken its toll.

Christmas away from home, even our home in the desert, presents some unusual challenges.  Like where is the chimney for Santa? (we left a window open) Where is the tree?  (thanks Robin for the great idea) What about stockings? (we'll use Aussie Santa Sacks instead).  The thing about Christmas is it comes even without all the trimmings.  The kids were excited, got lots of fun presents from generous friends and family, and we even had our roast beast.

Reading stories with Grump before bed.

Our "Tree"

Christmas morning - playing our new game - Hungry Hungry Hippos

So many buttons to push

Christmas Day at the beach - with bubbles

Hanging in the little bit of shade we can find

Digging in the sand - does it get any better?

Smile?

I think it needs to be a little deeper.

Excavator did a very good job.

A little Christmas dip.

Gathered for our feast.

Christmas Vacation (Part I)

Once again, we were fortunate to have a visit from Gran and Grump, so we made the most of it by visiting the Eastern Coast of Australia.  We spent a week in Port Douglas (north of Cairns) and a week in Surfers Paradise (south of Brisbane).

While in Port Douglas, we visited a wildlife park and held koalas; swam with the fishes at the Great Barrier Reef; visited the oldest rainforest in the world; and celebrated Christmas.  And that was only in the first 5 days...

Grump, Braden and Gavin walking thru Port Douglas

Gran and the koala

Jamie, Mommy and a koala

The boys petting a wallaby

Grump holding a red-tailed cockatoo.

Mommy got pretty seasick while snorkelling, but she did get this pretty picture...

Some pretty clown fish next to a giant clam.

Grump snorkelling

Jamie, Daddy and Mommy snorkelling

Grump and Gran on the boat at the Great Barrier Reef

Braden overlooking the rainforest from the Sky Rail

Mommy and Gavin on the Skyrail 

Jamie Gavin and Daddy on the Skyrail

Gran & Grump on the Skyrail

Everybody on the Skyrail (doesn't Jamie look like a cardboard cutout?)

See next post for the rest of the pictures...

Christmas - Aussie Style

Today we had Ian's work Christmas Party.  One of the advantages to having Christmas during the summer is we get to have a pool party for the kids.  Unfortunately, there are only two of us and three kids. So someone was usually out of the water, but all had a great time.

This is what I got when I asked him to smile for the camera.

Blowing bubbles.

Whee!!!!!!!!!!

11.11.11

There seem to be quite a few "mothers of multiples" here in Alice Springs, enough so that we have formed a little Twins Club.  We got together on November 11 to celebrate and lots of fun playing with all the kids.  There were about 10 families there (about half the number of the club) and we had lots of fun playing.  We even got a page in the local paper.

Christmas came early

Jamie wrote a letter (drew pictures) to Santa asking for a new red bike, a purple dump truck and a red excavator.  Since Santa has so much on his plate trying to get ready for Christmas, he asked Gran and Grump to help out.

Today when Jamie woke up from his nap there was a shiny red bike waiting outside his door.  He was so excited!

I think his brothers were having just as much fun watching and playing outside...