Weekend Conference in Melbourne

My word cloud about the Ultrasound conference I attended on the weekend.

Flights Booked!!

I'm taking the plunge.....while Andy is going to the UK in mid June for 2 weeks I've decided to travel to Perth for a week. We'll be in Perth from 8th til the 16th June. The solo 4.5 hour flight with 2 little people starting at 7.30pm at night could be interesting...to say the least I am a little nervous!

A Clean Bathroom?

This is what happens when you ask Andy to clean the bathroom!

Downward Dog

That's Katy's newest trick! For those who don't know what I'm talking about, downward dog is a yoga move that involves being in a crawling position on all fours then straightening out ones legs, pushing your head down and bottom into the air. More recently she has pulled herself up into standing especially when watching the bath fill with water however she doesn't have the strength to stay there very long. I'm sure the little leather shoes she received today as an early birthday present are safe from being worn out!

Banksias at the Botanical Gardens

After our coles shop this morning we made a snap decision to go to the botanical gardens. In the pram we walked around looking at all the flowers. There weren't too many pretty flowers to see but there were heaps of banksias. So we began a game of spotting banksias and then touching the ones we could reach. The variety was impressive and they all felt different. Our walk finished at the cafe for lunch before coming home to unpack the shopping.

Weekend around Mittagong

The family ventured out for an orienteering weekend near Mittagong. Saturday's middle distance race was at Wattle Ridge - typical Sydney sandstone eucalypt spur/gully terrain. It was challenging both physically and navigationally due to the dense forest meaning poor visibility along with complex rock features. The course made me realise how rusty and unfit I have become. Andy on the other hand enjoyed the tough conditions and was pleased to claim a few scalps!

Saturday night we joined up with Cath, Eoin, Aoife, Carolyn and Morten in Mittagong. We were lucky to get a tent site at the same caravan park as Cath & co due to a cancellation. After setting up the tents and having showers we headed out for dinner ending up at an indian restaurant. Not our first choice but the curries were delicious.

It was pretty cold on Saturday night in our tents - Andy & Ella in one and Katy & I in the other but we had brought enough warm bedding and coped just fine. Katy made it through to 5.30am before demanding some milk!

Sunday we drove to Belanglo Forest for the long distance event. Unfortunately the map for the elites was poorly printed so that the small rock features were not visible. This created confusion as the control circles seemed to be around nothing on the map but had boulder, cliff, high point descriptions. Combine this with a course that was too long with the first water control after 90mins meant that Andy wasn't too happy.

While Andy was on his epic run Ella, Katy and I had our own adventure on the blue course. I decided to take the pram (for Katy) and the backpack (for Ella). At number 2 we had to move off the track for a Murray's bus! At this point we saw Andy punch his first control too. Between controls 3 & 4 we had a taped route which turned out to be through pretty thick bush. Not ideal for a pram but nevertheless with lots of pushing we made it through. In hindsight it probably would have been easier if I put Katy into the backpack, folded up the pram and carried it through. At control 6 we encountered some noisy motorbikes (Ella wasn't too impressed). We completed the 1.7km course in 39mins coming 2nd (out of 2).

The rest of the morning was spent warming up (did you notice Ella has a pair of tracky pants as she thought it was too cold for a skirt too) then mostly playing with Max and Aoife while waiting for Andy to finish which he did taking a total of 2.5hrs!

Shade Sail

After organising quotes for our shade sail in February - it's finally been installed all ready for the searing winter sun! We're happy with the result and can't wait for summer to test it out....

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was spent orienteering at Timbertops just past Bungendore. While Andy, Ella and Katy joined up with the rest of the cousins on the blue course I set off around the shortest hard course. An enjoyable run although slow. I then ran the blue course backwards to find the gang of cousins finishing their picnic. Andy went off to do a course and I completed the blue course with the kids (although Ella and Katy dnf as they cut the corner to catch up with the others and missed out a few controls.)

The day ended with Sandra and Dave joining us for a beautiful roast dinner cooked by Andy.

And just for the record as you can see in the photo below Ella's grevillea tree is doing really well and is now taller than Ella!

The Gruffalo - Up Close and Personal

Today Ella and I ventured to the Street Theatre to watch The Gruffalo. We nearly didn't make it there as the clutch in the car got stuck on the way. Luckily Nana saved the day and managed to get us to the theatre on time leaving the car on the side of the road to sort out later.

Now I wasn't really sure how Ella was going to cope and had images of her being too scared in the dark and of the Gruffalo. The performance was very entertaining even for the adults in the audience and cleverly produced with only 3 actors. The kids were encouraged to participate too. Ella sat on my lap for the majority of the 50min performance and on 2 occasions wanted to go home however I managed to persuade her to stay.

Finally the Gruffalo made his first appearance - and wasn't too scary looking. That was until he was chased off the stage by the mouse and headed up the aisle towards us! Unfortunately as Ella was on my lap her seat (the one next to the aisle) was free and the Gruffalo was looking for somewhere to hide which happened to be - yes you guessed correctly - in Ella's free seat. Well poor Ella (and the little boy in the row in front of us) nearly had a cow. There were tears in her eyes as she was telling me that she didn't like the Gruffalo and almost squashing the person in the seat next to us trying to get as far away from this creature! Luckily he didn't hang around too long and returned back to the stage to finish the story.

So it was a positive experience and probably on the limit of what Ella could cope with in regards to the length and the scariness. As for the car the NRMA came out to confirm it was the clutch cable and organised a truck to tow it to the mechanics. A job for Monday....

Yes winter is coming...

We returned from the coast to find the Pistachio tree in the front garden preparing for winter! Hence the front lawn is covered in lots of leaves in array of yellows, oranges and reds. It looks so beautiful and is lots of fun to play in too!