Woops.... I think she's picking up on how to order someone around.....

Yesterday morning I was sitting in my room, at the desk (Rob was still in bed)....

Jade came in and had been talking for a little bit - then she says....

"Come on Mommy, it's breakfast time!"

"ok" (and I stayed sitting)

"Come ON Mommy!"

"Ok"

"1..... 2.....3.....4.....5.......6" (I stop counting at 3)

(I still didn't move)

*hrmpf!* then she walked over to where I was sitting - grabbed my hand and towed me out of the room... (well - as well as a 2.5yr old can tow!)

Trial - Scrubby Creek - 27th July

Today we had another trials comp, this time a local one - so we only had to travel about 40mins to get there....

Jade's at a great age... the last three Gladstone trials we've actually gone out when they've been looking at and setting up sections.... not necessarily helping... although - I did help with a couple of sections this time around.... but Jade loves running up and down the creeks and picking up various sticks and pretending to either drum or pretending to fish.... either way - she finds things to amuse herself.....

Now that she's a little older - she doesn't get bored and cranky within 2hrs like she used to - so we managed to spend nearly all of the trial down in the creek today - so we got to see Rob and Greg ride a few sections (as well as, of course, Dad, Frank and Shayne!)....

At this point Jade is playing "The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round!" with two sticks...

Greg waiting to ride.....

Rob also waiting to ride... (don't think anything of his big tummy... he's supporting me in pregnancy!! -- Gonna sort him out once we've had the baby and things can get back to normal around the household....)

Jade and Darcy on their Oset's... I think Jade was quite impressed that there was another kid with the same bike there.... Darcy is 7 - but he's really small... so Jade is nearly bigger than him - although - he's had a recent growth spurt... so he's a bit taller... but I think Jade weighs more because Darcy is a string bean!!

Thumbs up for Osets!!!!!

We turned up the speed on Jade's bike, as the speed that we had set was just a bit too slow for her - and she was getting stuck up on a few things... unfortunately, Rob turned up the speed a little more (ok - a lot more) than he'd thought he did.... and Jade took off riding towards Dad and didn't let go of the throttle... Dad managed to stop her - but then he was knocked over.... (Sorry again Dad!!!!)

After this, Dad decided to tie a rope onto the back of Jade's bike, therefore if she did speed up too much - you can just pull on the rope to hold her back.... So, this now looks like you're taking her for a walk... but it gives her a chance to get used to the speed without killing anyone else... (or attempting it.... Sorry again Dad!!!!)

We finally left around 3:45pm... Jade hadn't had a day sleep at all.. (too many exciting things happening)... so she zonked in the car after about the first 5mins of the trip home.. so she got some sleep.... (and then was in bed at her usual 7:30pm time....)

There is just something so cute about a sleeping baby in the car....

Happy Birthday Wobz - 37!

Rob's actual birthday was 23rd... but - he only got home that night... So, not really a night to have people over as all he wanted to do was to relax a bit and have a reasonably early night....

Mom and Dad did come over that night to wish Rob a happy birthday and to have a cup of coffee (and Greg's a coffee drinker now too... did I mention that???)...

Anyway, so last night we had the usual suspects (Mom, Dad, Frank & Shayne) over, as well as Damian, Jaime & Xander (I guess these days, they're usual suspects too!)... was just a simple BBQ as well as Damian and Jaime (joint effort) made Rob a Black Forest cake (on Rob's demand!)....



Unfortunately, our plate set - only has 8 plates... do the Math - and you'll work out that we didn't have enough "big people" plates for Greg... so he had to use one of Jade's plastic plates for dinner.... and a plastic bowl for dessert....

When he was having dinner, he was able to use normal knives and forks - because we had more than 8 of each of those (the set has 8 big forks and 8 slightly smaller forks - etc...).... so he didn't feel too bad...

Unfortunately, when I got around to getting out tea spoons for people to eat cake with.... I was back to the predicament of only having a set of 8... so guess what Greg had to use??? one of Jade's baby spoon's!!!! (And he chose the pink one... the other two options were green ones - which Jade and Xander ended up using).... I had to get a photo of this! Poor Greg!!!

Oh, and Greg got a haircut (finally) - and went away from the mohawk look and now just has a weird messy chop chop kinda cut... but it can be left down to look slightly more normal.... (I don't get it... but he's happy!)

Last weekend... Preparation for Trials comp.....

Last weekend, Jade and I headed out to Scrubby creek with Mom and Dad, Frank and Shayne and some other of the trials club members to start preparing for this weekend's trials competition...

The basic idea was to clear some of the area for cars to park, as well clear out areas to set the actual sections.... Jade loves bush walking - so it's always a great thing to go and help out with... (not that I think we're actually much help - but I did help with chosing some of the lower grade lines to ride... better than not helping at all I guess :) )

Anyway, we took Jade's oset with us... which came out of the van - and went back in... she was more interested in going on Grandpa's motorbike with him.... (I guess this way she gets to do more exciting things (and Grandpa doesn't fall off... so that's always a bonus!)....

Helmet and Gloves on - ready to go!

On the Bike... still ready to go!
This is how cold it was out there... it was after 8am - and it was foggy! (and this is QLD - it's not supposed to get foggy up here!)

Concentrating....

Figure 8's and standing up...

Yes, even I got on the bike for a second... (not that I did any real riding... I'm not THAT silly at this point of the pregnancy!)

Jade on her Oset

Jade on her Oset, and she's having a ball. We're around the back of Callemondah Dam. Jade has a bit of a ride around, meets up with some Geese, and has a bit of a tumble, but she gets straight back on.

She's loving her new bike 8)

For the non-Australian viewers, the bird you hear as Jade is just starting to go up the hill before the bridge (2:43) is a Kookaburra. I was also riding a pushbike myself, so it's not the the worlds steadiest cam shot - Sorry! 8)





This one is a couple of minutes later, after she's turned around and we're heading back. She gets a bit distracted by people coming towards her and runs into a tree. Wups!



--Rob

Jade's first solo ride on a motorbike.....

As most of you would know, Jade has been riding on motorbikes since she was 10months old... but always on a bike with other people.... Now she's at the point where she feels she needs to do the riding for herself....

So, being the great parents that we are... *cough* we went and bought her an electric trials bike... Today was the first chance we had to get her onto the bike, as it only came home on Monday night and by yesterday afternoon the battery hadn't been on charge more than 12hrs - so we didn't dare let her ride it yesterday....

Today was the first time she saw the motorbike in real life as well... (she'd seen photos)

At first we weren't sure whether she'd change her mind about riding the bike herself - sometimes she's all talk and very little action.... as can be seen in the first video....

We then got Jade outside to check out the bike, she wasn't 100% of what to make of it at first....

Surprisingly though, she finished her icy pole and then said "ok, now I can ride my trials bike!!!" and it was all we could do to get her gear on as quickly as possible. (Unfortunately her motorbike helmet hasn't arrived yet, so she's going to have to wear her bicycle helmet for the next couple of days). But she loves her new gloves!

Then it was all systems go.... or maybe not...

Ok, she was fine with it after that... she rode it around Mom and Dad's back yard for over an hour - probably close to an hour and a half before she agreed that we were allowed to put it away... These vids don't show her riding as she was towards the end... But they'll have to do for now.. Rob's still editing the film from the video camera (these were filmed on his mobile phone).

Greg's new BMX!!!

Greg decided last week that he wanted to start playing around on a BMX at Skate Park (just down the road)...

Given that he's working (and that we'd already bought him a decent Mountain Bike in December) he knew that this purchase was to be made with his hard earned cash....

We went into the store today to organise to lay-by him a bike, and Mat let us take it home and just pay it off as if it were lay-by'd....

So, as you can imagine, Greg is over the moon... we got home from the bike shop just before 11am... and he got home at 5:30.... (complete with grazes from falling off.... but he's still happy)....

So, it's been a big bike day for us today....

Jade's new bike!!!

So, after the weekend of riding... Jade has now decided she's old enough for her own trials bike... Rob headed off to Brissy on his way home from Toowoomba today to pick up her electric trials bike.

It's an Oset Spider 16" - so it is small - although that photo doesn't make it look as small as it is... it makes no noise - but we're going to put a beeper or something onto the bike so that once she's more confident in riding she doesn't just take off on it while no one is looking...

Brooweena 2008

As most of you would know, every year we take off to Brooweena.... I think I started this blog after the event last year - so you can't go back to see pics....

Anyway, this year was different - smack didnt' make it up from Tassie and Pete didn't get his Jeep working (I think he piked because smack had piked!) and we had Greg along... (plus his school friend Stephen)....

When we arrived the boys were set on the task of setting the tent... Greg's getting reasonably good at this because he's put it up before when we've gone camping....

We had got up at 5am to leave the house by 6am (we actually managed to leave at 5:58! yay us!) Anyway, we pretty much dragged Jade outta bed - shoved a bit of yoghurt in her and put her in the car... we didn't bother with her hair... (as you can see below....)

Stephen attempting to look manly, or tough... or whatever... it didn't work!

Greg and Stephen hanging out before the riding began...

Dad had decided to start warming up the bikes... Jade had been so excited about this weekend because she was determined to go on the bikes... and until now, she's only gone for rides on the bike with me...

I guess she figured if she was going to get on a bike at all - she couldn't be picky on the rider...

Well, Grandpa quickly became her favourite person for the entire weekend - she went riding with him heaps... she was standing up (on the engine) - which only raised her butt about 1" above where she'd been sitting - but she was standing and that's the point....

Dad was taking her through sections and up and down gulleys and all kinds of things... this kid has potential.....

Jade is standing up here - but you can't see because Dad wasn't standing as well... (hopefully when Mom comes back with her camera - I can see if she has some better pics - because she took some pics on the Sunday with both of them standing)

After the boys headed off to start riding, Jade and I started to set up the beds in the tent... she was all excited to have her Princess Bed to sleep on... although it turned out to not be so fantastic as she just kept rolling off it all night - so I think I spent more time during the night putting her back up on the bed - we may have to look into another solution before our next camping expedition....

After we set up the beds we went to watch - and they were still on Section 1... Rob was riding Clubman - but because Greg had never ridden a twinshock bike (and my one at that) - we were a little reluctant to expect him to ride at a level that he would usually be reasonably happy.... He had a great time anyway, so I don't think it really bothered him.. and he won Novice... (we probably shouldn't mention that there were only two people riding Novice and the other one came up to about Greg's hip!!.... but shh!)

Unfortunately I didn't get a good action photo of Dad... so this is all I have :)

Rob...
Greg (concentrating so much that his tongue is hanging out!)

It took them til about 5:30pm to finish riding and get back to camp - and by that time it was nearly dark.... gotta love being out bush.... we set Rob up on his usual bbq duties...

Jade concentrating on the fire...

Dad all rugged up...

It was FREEZING there at night - but luckily ended up being a reasonably warm night.... it was bucketing down by about 11pm which is about the time that pretty much everyone decided it was bed time... I'd given up by about 10pm.. and Jade had gone to sleep at 6:30pm after going the entire day without a sleep and with all the excitement of motorbike riding)

Jade & Mom rugged up.... Jade had her Dora Beanie and Gloves....

And lastly.. the food cooking on the fire.....

Unfortunately, because the SLR is dead at the moment, the only camera I had to use was our old Nikon and it's just so slow in comparison to the SLR... so I got a bit frustrated...

Coupled with the fact that it rained all day Sunday - so going outside with the camera wasn't really an option I could be bothered with...

Jade happily watched Care Bears on the DVD player in the Prado while I packed up the tent and the boys were off riding... (typical huh???)