Trials Morning....

We headed out this morning to go on a trials practice ride.... we went and rode sections that were set from last weekends Trials (which we all missed except for Mom (who doesn't actually ride)) - Dad and Frank were down in Brisbane at a trial - and obviously we were in the car on our way back from Sydney.....

I was riding the B-Grade lines - which makes me wonder whether I should go up to B-Grade and just accept that I'll never have a 1st place trophy - but would at least be riding more challenging lines.... I'll have to think about it a bit more first....

I had to leave Jade at home with Rob (who was working) because she had a temp... I put it down to issues because of the teeth - but she has a red throat also... so here's hoping she gets better overnight....

Blake loved this property - "throw rocks into water - splash - yay!"

I really do have bush kids :)

Dad showing us all how it's done.... (and haven't we ALL missed seeing those pretty pink pants?)

*Splash* Yay!!

"I'm just looking after your bike Mum, honest...."

I think we found the culprit for the "Ooooh" face!

Melissa's partner Christian came out to give it a go.... he was surprisingly good!

Now we just need to convince him to ride more frequently....

Tooth #16!!!

Blake cut tooth #16 today - so now he has all of his teeth except for the 2nd year molars.... so hopefully I'll have a couple of months break before those ones start causing him grief....

He was in a much better mood this afternoon than he has been in ages.... so here's hoping he sleeps all night and lets me get a decent rest :)

Jade's Baby-Adult tooth progress......

Jade's been playing more and more with her wobbly tooth - still being the one off to the right (her right) of the two middle teeth which would be assumed to come out first....

(pic taken yesterday)

You can see it's gone a bit of a grey colour - and her middle baby teeth are also wobbly and are nearly ready to come out too... but the wobbly tooth is hanging in by only the smallest of amounts - so I imagine it'll be out in the next day or two hopefully....

Her gum is really red under the wobbly tooth - so as much as she says it isn't hurting - I imagine there's got to be some level of discomfort there....

ANZAC Day 2010

I had big plans to take Jade to the Dawn Service yesterday - my alarm was set for 4:30 (AM - yes - I did check that when I set it! Beats the alarm that didn't go off last week because I'd done the PM setting)....

Anyway, I was up with Blake twice during the night - so when the alarm went off - I nearly cried.... Way too exhausted to get up.... (Blake got up at 5... so I may as well have just got up!)

Anyway......

Rob agreed to take Jade to the 11am session... and I took Blake around to Mom and Dad's place to spend the morning.... Rob and Jade came over after the service was finished....

From Mom and Dad's place - we saw the F-111 go overhead, so when Jade got back I asked her if she saw the plane.... "There was NO plane! IT WAS A JET!" Gotta love being corrected by a 4yr old!

ahh - the concentration....

The hair is quickly curling again......

Jade back from ANZAC Service

Poser! eheh - he didn't know I got the photo...

Blake's day with Gran and Grandpa......

Frank has been wanting to go see "How to train your Dragon" in 3D and wanted Jade and I to go with him... so with us heading down to Sydney - plans had to be put on hold..... So, this weekend we decided to go....

Gladstone Cinemas don't do 3D yet - so we had to go to Rocky to see it... Rob took Jade to gymnastics and then dropped her at Mom and Dad's place where I was already with Blake...

Didn't want it to be a drop'n'run thing with Blake....

((Video))

This was before we left ...

Blake was making funny faces and then making sure everyone got to see.....

Jade loved the movie.... she wore her 3D glasses the entire movie and even put them up on the top of her head like you would normal sunnies when the movie finished - it was so cute.... :)

While we were away - this was Blake's day.....

SEA GULL FEEDING AT THE MARINA

Chilling with Grandpa

With Grandpa's Sunnies....

Then it was back to Gran and Grandpa's for Lawn mower fun.... Blake decided that Lawn Mowers were just as good as bikes for getting around the back yard... (it wasn't running!)

After his sleep it was then time for ice-cream.....

mucky ice-creamy puggle.....

BEST DAY EVER FOR A 17MONTH OLD! :)

Jade's first adult tooth.....

Tuesday afternoon (20th April) I asked Jade to show me her teeth.... with the fact that she's had a couple of infections because of the tooth she cracked a year or so ago - I've been keeping an eye on it - especially if she's acting a bit out of character.... as she's not a child to ever complain about being sick or being sore - I could see that the gum was indeed a bit swollen again..... but then I had a closer look.....

Jade has cut her first adult tooth - before losing any baby teeth.... (and it looks HUGE) - the Dentist had said after our last visit that her baby teeth would come out soon and at that point (just before our Sydney trip) - she had 3 wobbly teeth....

So, we've now given her full permission to play with her teeth all the time to try to get them out.... the wobbliest of the lot is not one of the two middle ones... but the one on the right of her middle teeth... (well - left in the photo....)

Trike Fun.....

Monday - 19th April 2010

Dad put a bar through the front wheel of the trike.... Blake thinks this is fantastic - he puts his feet up and he gets pushed forwards and backwards on the bike on the verandah... so we changed the location and Dad tied a tie-down to it so that he could drag Blake around the back yard.... Jade picked up on how it worked really quickly - but Blake seemed to enjoy throwing himself off it sideways more than actually staying on.....

Sydney Trip - Day 10 - The Big Drive Home......

We got up at 3:42am Sunday morning.... I know this time exactly because I'd set my alarm for 3:30am...

We had a pretty crappy night - well - I had a pretty crappy night - cause the people in the cabin next to us had been up til nearly 2am laughing and joking around.... we're not used to having a cabin that backs onto another one like that - so their noise was coming straight in our window - and me with my "super-sonic-mummy ears" - all noises bug me if I'm trying to sleep.....

Rob slept really well - which was good - he got to do the first part of the drive :)

All we had to do when we got up was load the kids into the car and then pack up Blake's cot and grab Jade's bedding and we were off.....

Both kids woke as we put them in the car - so we figured it wasn't worth battling the "go to sleep you can watch DVD's later.... so we got Jade's headphones on and started Thomas for Blake.... Blake found Jade's old set of headphones (the ones that weren't working) - and he put them on.... I'm sure he was wondering why she bothers wearing them as you can't hear the show as well with them on.... but he kept them on for about half an hour....

You'll have to excuse the photo... it was taken with the iPhone and it was 4am... not a lot of outside light.....

We left the kids in their PJ's and got them into their clothes when we stopped for Breakfast at Gunnedah.... (455km into the trip)

From Gunnedah we drove straight to Goondiwindi and stopped for lunch (322km) ... it was 2pm when we stopped and we didn't leave til 3pm.... we did lose track of time, but there were no complaints from the kids about getting back in the car - so it was worth it.....

Goondiwindi to Taroom (353km) - we stopped to change drivers and empty passengers... then I drove from Taroom to Banana (153km) - then because it was dark and Rob's done a lot of driving in the area - we decided it was best to switch there else I'd be taking corners slower because I don't know whether they turn sharply - etc..... plus Rob knew where there were long straight stretches safe for overtaking etc.... So Rob did the drive back to Gladstone from Banana (166km)....

We got home just after 10pm and put the kids straight to bed.....

Blake didn't have a fantastic night... he spent the entire night coughing.... but we're still glad that we did the trip straight instead of breaking it into 2 days - cause on Monday - the kids did NOT want to go in the car - AT ALL.....

(we did however, head down to Mom and Dad's... but they weren't happy at first about getting in the car)

Sydney Trip - Day 9 - Afternoon to end......

We left Yum Cha around 1pm and figured we had 2hrs before we had to meet up with Jason, Chris & Jo (and their kids)... we hoped that this time would be used by Blake to have a sleep.... we were wrong... apparently 30mins in the car was more than enough in the morning.....

We ended up heading to Southgate (AGAIN) - because we had to get Jade some headphones for the trip home... (we'd forgotten to get them the day before.... which was the initial reason for the trip there).....

We thought we were running late for the play centre as we arrived just after 3pm (we headed straight there from Southgate).... but, we were first.... :)

Jason arrived just before 4pm... and Chris and Jo arrived just after 4pm... the place was open til 5:30 - so we didn't figure it was an issue....

Unfortunately, they started shutting down around 5pm as all the "party" people had left.... turning off the jumping castle - etc.... it was a good time to be there because the bigger kids weren't around......

It was great for the kids cause they could just go play and there were heaps of new and exciting things to do..... the best thing about the centre was that they had a sectioned off area for kids 1-4... so they weren't being trampled by older pushy kids.....

From left to right: Micah, Jo, Caitlin & Chris

Me & Jase :)

overtired..... poor little Puggle....

With the play centre being shut down - we left there at about 5:10 and headed back to Sans Souci.... We got back at just after 5:30... Bill came and brought us dinner and we sat around and ate, then started the final pack up....

Lara dropped over to visit before she had to head into the city for dinner.... it was so great to see her, even if we were having to chat while packing.... :)

We were in bed just after 8:30pm and hoped for a good night sleep......

Hopefully next trip to Sydney will be a bit better organised and we can catch up with more people... Rob didn't end up seeing his friends as the night he'd organised to do it was the night he was really sick....