Kayaking, beauty parlour, sunset

Morning lunch and early afternoon was spent kayaking on the swan river. Very chilled out with picnic. Nice breeze.
Didn't see any dolphins but loads of jelly fish. I was thinking I don't want to capsize here, however I later found out from some locals that they don't sting! Even the big ones.
Not sure when I'll have the nerve to test that.
Back at the house the girls opened their beauty parlour. You can see the happy customers in the pic.
At 7pm the Bones went to Cottesloe beach for the sunset and ice cream.
Very nice, amazingly warm.
Loads of people having Sunday bbqs and chilling out.
Kids played 'risk' with the waves.
We're now all packed (mostly) for Rottnest island.
We'll be there for 2 nights. No wifi so will do mega blog when we get back.
That's providing we don't bump into the blue ringed octopus. It only has to touch your skin and you're on your way out. No anti-venom. It's been spotted swimming in the lagoons. Apparently they're very rare and you'd be lucky to see one. Personally I'd be happy not seeing any.

Beach, pool, river

Today the Bones went to Cottesloe beach. Quite busy as it was Saturday, quite nice when there's lots of other people the sharks have to eat first before they get to us shore huggers.
The waves here were really good as they can get pretty big for the kids and they break right near the beach. Lots of boogie boarding today.
Sandwiches on the beach in the sun tent - what a nice view to have eating lunch.
Got back to the car to discover we'd run over a nail and we had a complete flat.
Interesting experience changing the wheel at 1pm. Slightly hot and thirsty work.
Still, all the watching of F1 clearly paid off and we were on our way in a jiffy.
Back home for some more pool time and daddy kip time.
This evening we ordered take away pizza to eat down by swan river. Pizza, beer and bubbles. Lovely jubbly.
The kids had a night swim in the pool and they're now all in bed.
Tomorrow I think we're off kayaking on the swan river. Will hopefully see some dolphins.

WA Mint and Maritime Museum

27th
Today the Bones ventured out on their own into Perth to the WA mint.
It was a very good and interesting tour. I was pleasantly surprised as I wasn't sure how they would make shed loads of cash and gold (that isn't yours) interesting.
Interesting fact learnt - after several years of use with several furnaces the smelting room walls and ceiling were cleaned of dust. They recovered 285,000 dollars worth of gold in the dust.
I'm thinking of donating a lung to medical research to see how much I breathed in!
After the mint and a quick meander around the shopping mall we went to the Swan Tower. We didn't meet up with Aprils bell ringing friends buddy so we'll go again another time.
In the evening we went around to a friends house for a lovely BBQ and the kids put on a dance show. Top day.
28th
Today we went to the Maritime Museum. It was really good. Lots of things for the kids to try their hands at and I especially enjoyed the military section upstairs. Lots of submarine stuff and canoes that the special forces used - cool.
Me and Hugie then went out to the big submarine. See pic. Very imposing. They normally do tours inside the sub but because its so hot here the temp inside the sub is apparently about 56C. Hence the tours are off.
We then went to cicerellos in Fremantle for Fish and Chips. It's very famous but has really become mass production for shed loads of tourists. You can get better fish and chips elsewhere for less. Glad we did it though. In fact the best bit is a canoe hanging from the ceiling with a massive bite out of it by a great white shark - the canoeist survived to tell the tale.
It was then an afternoon at the local park and in the pool playing water polo.
Starting to sound boring but another great day.

Boxing Day

Kids could have stayed in bed a bit longer but not too bad.
Forecast was for a hot day and it didn't disappoint.
Apparently this is going to be the hottest week in Perth since 1910.
The only disadvantage with this is you can't really go out and do anything between 10-3.
It's been a very lazy day. Kids in the pool and adults in the shade.
We did watch the film Red Dog this afternoon. This film is a national treasure or a least a Western Australia treasure. Good film. It is to WA citizens what the Full Monty is to Sheffield citizens (ish).
Some more friends came around this evening.
Ak on the BBQ and Auntie Delia on the buffet. A very nice evening.
Today was also the day Hugo decided to inflict multiple injuries upon himself. They include:
- scraping his back on the wall (minor chaffing)
- throwing a toy plane into a bush and retrieving. Said bush contained very scary spider web. Not strictly an injury but daddy aged a couple of years.
- being launched backwards out of the trampoline entrance, performing single reverse summersault down ladder and landing on the floor. (Underarm chaffing from ladder)
- slipping over in the toilet on wet floor (sore butt)
- walking into toilet door on exit (bruised forehead)
[at this point we thought best to get the young man safe in bed]
- just before bed mummy rubs wrong butt cream onto sore ring - ouch!

He's now fast asleep.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - HOT

After a fantastic week down south we spent the last morning at the house relaxing. Well the kids relaxed in the spa and the adults packed.
We had a great lunch at Artizen cafe in dunsborough - top food.
Then 3 hours drive back to Perth.
The rest of the day was preparation for the next day - the kids were very excited.

Christmas Day.
Even 8 hours ahead of the uk Santa really is magic, delivering presents into stockings before the first risers at 5:30am!
We could tell it was going to be hot as it was 31C at 9am.
We headed off to the beach where it was packed and pretty festive in terms of headwear.
It was now super hot and the sea was cool - so was the beer.
After a couple of hours we were ready to head back when our avid shark checker (Aunti Lau Lau) saw something in the water about 4 metres from the shore.
A fin!
Nooooooo we all said.
But there it was, a fin in the surf. It was small but enough to draw a crowd and surf rescue.
Ak was convinced it was a dolphin at which point Flo donned goggles and waded in.
Surf rescue said it wasn't a dolphin at which point Flo waded out, a bit quicker.
We surmised it was a small reef shark and left - all very exciting.

Back for BBQ Xmas lunch of chicken and beef satay.

Lunch was excellent and the rest of the day was spent in the pool, watching E.T. and entertaining some more friends in the evening.

Kids all in bed now, am sat outside writing this and it's still 30c.
Hope kids have a lie-in.

Big dinner big waves

It was our last day, so we went on an adventure walk in the morning. Whilst we were walking down the road we spotted what looked like a big snake hole but it was actually a rabbit hole, I was a bit disappointed! Arthur was carrying a bucket and when we came to a bug we would catch it and put it in the bucket. We caught a black and red bug, and spotty grasshopper.
It came to lunch time, we went to another posh restaurant, half the kids had steak and the others half had fish and chips. After lunch we went to Yallingyup, there were some very big waves there.
We went jumping over waves and till... Well no one believes me but I'm sure you will, here goes, I was letting a wave carry me in and I had landed on the sand and I felt something really painful gripped my middle finger. As quick as a flash I pulled my hand out the water and it was the quickest glimpse I took and I knew what it was I shook my hand and ran out the water screaming. And I must admit I'm very good at screaming when I want to scream. It was a ...... Crab, but not any crab a big one and it nipped me!

Horse riding

By April

Today we went horse riding it was really fun, but my bum was a bit sore after! We went with aunty Lau Lau, no other adults came.
Aunty Lau Lau's horse was called Bonnie, Flo's horse was called Eddie, Maia's horse was called Thanee, April's horse was called Flea, Arthur's horse was called Lavender.
It was a really bumpy ride we all started of in one big group but after a little bit of mega bumpy riding we split into two groups. One group was walking and the other group was going of trotting at a bit of a faster speed. We carried on walking, because aunty Lau Lau was a bit scared, but I don't blame her, because our horses were tied to a rope being pulled along by the leader but aunty Lau Lau had to steer her horse all by herself! After horse riding we all went in the SPA and this part is for Oscar: guess what when I looked over the side of the really hot pool, called a SPA I saw a 12 inch lizard, it was as black as ever and had a really dark blue stripe going down his spine, I screamed and ducked under the water! When we got out of the SPA we saw 4 kangaroos jumping across the garden 3 really big ones and one joey, a joey is a little baby kangaroo. They were all just hopping across the garden it was amazing! After the kangaroos we had dinner, for dinner we had pizza, I had 2 slices, yes you think that is hardly anything but they were really thick, my flavours were one pepperoni and one ham and pineapple.

Caves

By April

Today we went to sea the mammoth cave. It was wicked we got head phones and well is was like a little phone but with a number keyboard. We had to walk round the cave and every now and again we would come past a sign saying a number, and we would have to type it in the phone thing and through the ear muffs would come some information, but not any information about the cave the information would match where you were standing. For example I typed in a number and it would tell me some information and then it would say look to the left you might sea a crocodile shaped pice of rock, it did say that when we were walking!

It came to lunch time ohhhh time for another nice meal!
April had: tomato pasta with basil. Flo had: the same as April. Maia had: chicken and chips.
Arthur had: the same as Maia. Hugo had: fish and chips. Thea had: the same as Hugo.
My meal was really yummy I loved it. When it came to pudding I had chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce with two strawberries on the top, I ate it all! But when it came to mummy's pudding I tried some of the chilly chocolate sauce I did NOT like it, it was not like real chocolate!

By daddy
Thought a special mention and picture of the best steak I've ever had in my life. The rest got polished off. Truly unbelievable. Spectacular vineyard, can't believe how lucky we are.

BBQ

By April

Great day today, we all went to the same beach we went to yesterday called Meelup. We tried to build a swimming pool but it all collapsed. So we were going to start another one but it was time to go home...BOO HOO! But me and Dad had a great time crabbing, we spotted a huge crab which I think should have been cooked on a plate in front of someone very hungry!!! And guess what it even had a stripe of purple under his big nippers, and to be honest if we did catch him he wouldn't have fit in the bucket we had, it wasn't a big bucket it was one of the little ones you can buy. For lunch the dads went and got some sausages from the beach BBQ the mums had planned we would do this so they bought some hot dog rolls the day before,we had a new tube of ketchup and we all had a hot dog, they were GREAT!

After the fun time at the beach we went crazy golfing it was really fun but we crept on having to dodge grass hopers they were all over the court and path... I only squished one, UGH!!

Arthur got:60. Dell got:49. Flo got:66. April got:70. Laura got:63. Maia got:60

Yes you look at those scores and think there really bad but no look at this. There were 18 holes so it took a wile! Before the golfing we all had ice-cream and me and Maia stood right next to a big emu, a big sign said that the Emu ate ice cream but he didn't eat mine!



By Flo

Helo 2s I hope you are having a nice time.I hope you are listening Isaac to Mr Shelley! The favourite part of my day today was ... Swimming in the sea.

Love Flo

The fun beaches!!

We went to two beaches today ... YEAH (!) we all had loads of fun! On the second beach me and Maia made a, well it started of as a water catcher but as it got bigger it turned into o little swimming pool! But not for us it turned out to be for the little CHOW CHOW who belonged to the people next to us! He was soooo cute he kept on jumping up at us as wanting us to tickle his tummy and scratch his ear! By April. The paragraph underneath is by Maia.

Lunch,

Me and April both had Chicken and chips.
Thea, Hugo and all the adults had fish and chips.
Flo and Jakob both shared a Margarita pizza. All adults said that the pizza would have been really big that's why they shared but when they got it it was tiny! Flo was NOT happy because she was starving but in the end it was really thick so she left half a slice at the end! me and Maia also went body boarding it was great there were loads of big waves to!

By daddy
Amazing day. We caught big pink crab that made Aprils sand pool it's home. We were also one bay down from where a great white was swimming 10 metres from the beach - cheeky blighter.
No one seems to stressed about it. The helicopter spotters keep an eye on it.

Sheep and wine - baaaaahhhhhhh

What a day! Waking up this morning was the first time we had seen the house we were staying in in the light. Fantastic. See pics.
We then went to a sheep shearing shed. All the kids enjoyed feeding and holding the lambs.
Then off to Wills domain which is a vineyard. The most amazing views, wine and food.
Back to the house where the kids then spent 3 hours turning into prunes in the spa.
And then not forgetting! A kangaroo bounced through the garden. A really big one! Will look small in the photos but very cool.

Big Kangaroo in the garden

Dunsborough hosts the bones and aklils

Although over the jet lag still can't really get heads around day, dates, and how long we've been here.
We had full day yesterday but we landed yesterday at 3am. So today is first full day.
See photos. I'm much happier than I look. (Amazing lunch)
We had a lazy breakfast and then went to a beach in Perth for coffee and paddle.
Afternoon back at the house/pool and then in cars to drive down south.
We're now in the middle of nowhere in an amazing house - we're very lucky.
Stars are so bright it's unbelievable. Going to have to download the iPad star gazing app.