Sunday night dinner for Eryn's Birthday

I enjoyed today - no nausea and I was able to enjoy our family dinner tonight at Leah's home for Eryn's birthday. Eryn turned 11 on Friday. John made a sweet shop cake for her which we all enjoyed with icecream.

The holidays in Pix

We had a great Christmas with everyone here including Andrew & Callie, Thomas and Jack. We went to Southbank on Christmas Eve and into the city to see the tree in King George Square





Christmas day was fun with the Thomas and Jack at home to receive presents - they enjoyed opening them. Afterwards, we went to Stephen's home for a fabulous lunch.





On Monday the 28th December we had the special experience of being at Sarah's Baptism. Our special Sarah had a lovely baptism day as she was baptised into the church. We enjoyed some refreshments afterwards including a cake made by grandpa.




We had Will's first birthday party last Saturday - he will be one on the 18th.






Other great times with friends and family.

Our Trip continued

We had a lovely time on our trip. After we left Canberra we went to Thredbo Village and stayed in a lovely chalet there. Our purpose was to climb Kusiosko. We set out on Tuesday morning up the chair lift and then another 500 metres to where the walk started. This first bit was quite hard going as it was steep stairs from there it was a metal boardwalk another 2 km to the Summit View. You could see Mt Kusiosko from here. This is as far as I got!!I found the walk quite difficult - so I only made it to 'almost the top of Australia'!! It was so lovely to be there. The sky was clear and it was quite and I enjoyed the peacefulness of it. John went on a furthere 2 km and I waited for him at the Summit View. I did enjoy the downhill walk back.

From Threadbo we went on to Bowral in the South Highlands. This is a favourite spot of mine. It is lovely here. We both enjoyed the shopping!! It is a lovely village with lots of great eating places and shops.

We headed off from Bowral to Bathurst along a very windy and dusty road that lead to the Wombeyan Caves. These caves had interesting formations and weere in a very spot. We also went to the oldest mining town in Australia Sofarla where gold was first discovered. This was a very quaint village which at one time had housed 40,000people.


We headed to Bathurst where we drove the Panorma View track. The view is amazing from the top. After Bathurst we were on our way home and spent the next night in Armadale. We stopped in Tenterfield to see Margaret and Dennis and had a great visit with them.

We stopped in the Stanthorpe area to stock up on our olives and olive oil and then it was home. We had a great time.

A trip to the High Country

John and I left Brisbane on Friday and travelled down the Newell Highway to Canberra arriving late Saturday afternoon. We spent some time in Canberra enjoying Lake Burley Griffin, the War Memorial and the National Museum. We took off this morning down to Threadbo. On the way down to Canberra we saw endless fields of wheat and barley and beatuful golden colour. Many harvesters were out trying to get the harvest in. It was an amazing site to behold. We also veered off to Young to get some cherries. This area is very fertile and beautiful.

A Great Weekend

We have had a great weekend. John and I went on a little adventure driving up to Border Rangers National Park on Friday to check out a campsite. It was a lovely drive on the Lions Road - we saw two wedgetail eagles on the side of the road. I have never seen them that close up before. We also stopped at a lookout and heard lots of bellbirds. We ended up driving back up via the coast so it ended up a lot of driving.

Friday night we went up to Warrigal Road State School for the disco where Ethan was performing with his class. He was dressed up as spiderman and did a great dance!

Yesterday, was Roachedale State School fete where Eryn was playing her flute in the junior band. The music was great!

Today, was Father's day - a special time to remember fathers and celebrate the great father's in our family. So many great and awsome dads.

We also enjoyed Addison Ivy Phillips' blessing. It was great that so many family came out for the occasion.

A very lovely weekend!!

The Q150 Train Adventure

John and I went to Stanthorpe this weekend with Alan & Leslie so that John and Alan could ride the Q150 train from Stanthrope to Warwick on Saturday afternoon. We had a great time. We went to Stanthorpe, Warwick and Wallangara stations when the train arrived and left. There were bands and singing and stalls and flags. It was all quite an event. At Warwick they even re enacted the 'egging incident' about when Billie Hughes the Prime Minister of Australia alighted from a train at Warwick station in 1917 two young brothers 'egged' him. They were obviously were not supported of conscription! The Prime Minister wanted the local police to arrest the two brothers but they wouldn't. So, when we got to Wallangara he telegraphed Canberra that he wanted a federal constabilary. This was the beginning of the Federal Police....put Warwick on the map!

While we were in Stanthorpe on Friday night we enjoyed the Italian buffet at Anna's restuarant.

Graduation - I savoured the moment!

Tuesday night I had the thrill of going to my graduation for my Bachelor of Adult Education and Training. It was fun to done the gown and board and sit with all the other graduates. Sometimes study can be a long haul when you are trying to meet the deadlines of assignments but overall it is a great experience and I enjoyed the learning.

It was great that Eryn and Emma could come. John and Eil and Kara and Will also were there and the rest of the family were there in spirit.

I did enjoy the pagentry and tradition of the ceremony and I definitely tried to savour the moment. It will probably never happen again - it is amazing it happened at all.