Photo Challenge - EMOTIONS

This photo is of my sister at a Christmas party a few years back. Some of the group had been dragged out of the audience by Santa to do silly things. It was really funny, as you can see :-)

This photo was taken on our recent holiday. Tegan and I visited Dracula's Haunted House in Surfers Paradise. It was fun, though I wouldn't say it was scary. Mind you, Tegan held my hand the entire time. At the very end, there was a shark movie and you could tell that the screen was split and that something would jump through it. We were waiting, thinking "A shark is going to jump out at us" when the platform we were standing on dropped suddenly and THEN the shark jumped out. And you get a silly photo like the one above...LOL.

Check out the post on the theme parks that I went to on my holidays (just below this). There are some great emotions there too, but I didn't want to post the photos twice :-)

Visit Brenda's Photo Challenge for more EMOTION photos.

My Holidays (Part 5) - Gold Coast Theme Parks

A picture is worth a thousand words.
We had GREAT FUN at Dreamworld and White Water World!

My Holidays (Part 4) - Gold Coast

We spent the next part of our holiday at the Gold Coast. We stayed at a great park, Treasure Island, though we had some fun trying to get the trailer level before we could set up. The kids really enjoyed the pools, water slide, putt putt golf and the buggies!

Tegan and I visited Dracula's Haunted House in the city centre - five floors of props and scary rooms. Tegan didn't let go of my hand the entire time. It was fun, but after all those horror movies that I've watched, it wasn't that scary. Watch out for a great photo that I'm going to put in the next Brenda's Photo Challenge from here - it's absolutely hilarious...LOL!

We spent two days at Dreamworld and White Water World. What a great time riding all the rides. Shelby was unsure of a lot of them - we'd queue up for ages and she would be apprehensive, but she had a fantastic time on them. The water rides were amazing - I spent most of my time screaming on them though :-) We ended up spending a small fortune on photos of us all on the rides - they will all be in another post, so make sure that you check them out. The tigers were fascinating - we were lucky enough to see a cub being walked on a leash and at one of the shows we were treated to the white tiger showing off.

We also caught up with a few friends. Mark and Janaya had moved up to the Gold Coast earlier this year with their family, and we saw them most days that we were there and also enjoyed dinner with them at their place, and going out with them to dinner a couple of times. We also caught up with other friends, Mick and Jenni and their girls, and we all went out on Mark's boat one day to try our hand at fishing. No fish, but a great time :-)

A very hectic, but fun, five days.

Sky Watch Friday

We were away on holidays for three weeks recently and stayed in Port Macquarie for a few days. Our cabin overlooked the mouth of the river; we had a magnificent view and were treated to some spectacular skies. This shot is one of my favourites. I took it while my DH and I were walking along the esplanade into town for a drink.

For more Skywatch Friday photos visit here.

Wordless Wednesday - Mmmff!!

For more Wordless Wednesday participants, visit here.

My Holidays (Part 3) - Tenterfield area

We camped in a national park about half an hour out of Tenterfield for three days and did quite a bit of exploring in the area. We also found time to relax and have fun. This was a real bush camp - long drop loo ( fancy hole in the ground with a toilet on top) and no shower (just the river). The quiet and the wildlife was definitely worth it though!

We found still more waterfalls in this area, though they were smaller and some of them were remarkably accessible, with lots of swimming swimming holes in the area. Every afternoon we came back to camp and walked the minute or two to the small river behind our camp area and enjoyed playing on the rock ledges and in the water. Of course, I pulled out a book to read (you can check out my other blog, Abundant Books, to see what I read). There was also a waterhole where there were platypus, although we weren't lucky enough to spot them.

We went on a great hike to view the single, largest exposed granite boulder in the southern hemisphere. It was a good hike up and the return track was incredibly steep - would not have liked to walk up that way.

Every evening we were gifted with delightful visitors. Small wallabies came nosing around our campsite. As you can see, they were fairly curious and not afraid to come close if we stayed still. The second night mum came too and she also had a joey in her pouch. You could see it moving around and she even stuck her nose in her pouch to lick the baby, but it wouldn't come out. The were delightful animals and made the camp even more special.

We were also visited by a possum, that liked to eat in the large tree above where we parked the car. The last night that we were there it came bolting out of the tree, almost ran over Shelby's toes where she was sitting and enjoying the campfire and scooted off into the darkness. Shelby was frightened and excited. A great finish to a great campsite.

Stay tuned for more adventures!!

My Holidays (Part 2) - Armidale Area

We spent three nights in the Armidale area. We stayed at Uralla, well known locally for Captain Thunderbolt, one of our bushrangers. It was surprising cold here as it is quite high altitude-wise, so we had to go shopping for more winter clothes :-) A girl can always find an excuse to buy more clothes ...lol.

We saw so many magnificent waterfalls - there is an area near here known as Waterfall Way. Each was different for some reason, and all were beautiful. We also splurged on some very nice wine from Petersen's winery (well worth a visit).

There is also some very pretty architecture in the area, as evidenced by this gorgeous old church that is still used once a month and this really unusual shearing shed.

Stay tuned for more holiday adventures!!

ABC'S of HOMEMAKING.......

I found this on Brenda's blog and she found it somewhere else. A great little exercise :-) Give it a go.

A ~Aprons--y/n If y, what does your favourite look like?
My favourite is a pretty floral, full apron with ruffles on the bottom. Oh, I don't use it :-)

B ~ Baking--Favorite thing to bake?
I love baking hummingbird cake (banana and pineapple) and baked cheesecake with honeycomb and toffee folded through it. Yummy!!

C ~ Clothes line?
I have one (a Hills Hoist) and I do use it a lot. An Aussie invented the Hills Hoist!

D ~ Donuts--Have you ever made them?
Never made them - why would I when I can buy Krispy Kremes?!

E ~ Everyday--One homemaking thing you do everyday?
Cook dinner. How does something that you love turn into a chore - do it every day!

F ~ Freezer--Do you have a separate deep freeze?
No. I have an upside-down fridge/freezer with the freezer on the bottom. Usually only has frozen herbs, ice cream and ice in it, oh, and a few bits of extra chicken and frozen left-overs.

G ~ Garbage Disposer?
No. We use bins and recycle and compost where we can.

H ~ Handbook--What is your favorite homemaking resource?
My cookbooks.

I ~ Ironing--Love it or Hate it? Or hate it but love the results?
HATE it! The only thing ironed in our house are my husbands' clothes. He still doesn't accept that he should iron them, when his are the only things ironed in the house. Grr!

J ~ Junk Drawer--y/n? Where is it?
Two drawers in the kitchen and the little shelf under the coffee table. The hubbie just leaves his junk everywhere :-(

K ~ Kitchen--color and decorating scheme.
Timber cupboards (strinybark eucalyptus) and cream bench tops - country style. And chickens everywhere (figurines, plates, egg cups, nick-nacks, candle holders) - about 50 at the moment.

L ~ Love--what is your favorite part of homemaking?
I love cooking food for friends and setting the table to make it look all pretty and special.

M ~ Mop--y/n?
No. We vacuum.

N ~ Nylons--machine or hand wash?
Can't even remember the last time I wore them. Used to put them in a lingerie bag in teh washing machine.

O ~ Oven--do you use the window or open the oven to check?
Both. Have to sticky-beak all the time.

P ~ Pizza--What do you put on yours?
Pepperoni, chilli, tomato, capsicum, mushrooms. And thin crust.

Q ~ Quiet--What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
Watch some television. Read.

R ~ Recipe Card Box--y/n? What does it look like?
I have a pretty little hand made book with a silk gerbera on the front that I put my favourite recipes in and dozens of recipe books that I'm always thumbing through for ideas.

S ~ Style of house--What style is your house?
Brick house, with the garage and laundry underneath. A corner block, so most of our yard is at the side of our house. Nothing special to look at, but country shabby chic inside. Home :-)

T ~Tablecloths or Place mats?
Always pretty, old tablecloths that are hand-embroidered and in lovely whites and pastels. I often layer them.

U ~ Under the kitchen sink--organized or toxic wasteland?
Just the bins and washing up things. Fairly organised, even if it gets a bit smelly.

V ~ Vacuum--How many times per week?
Usually once a week. I pay my oldest daughter to do it, so it's not up to my standards but she's earning money, learning how to keep a house reasonably tidy and, most importantly, I don't have to do it :-)

W ~ Wash--How many loads of laundry do you do per week?
I usually wash twice a week, 3-4 loads each time.

X's--Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off?
Never.

Y ~ Yard--y/n? Who does what?
My hubbie mows - our yard slopes a fair bit. I love to weed and potter occasionally in the backyard.

ZZZ's ~ what is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed?
Turn off the lights, lock the doors.

My Holidays (Part 1) - The Wildflowers

My family and I recently spent three weeks traveling around north-east NSW and south-east Queensland. To make my blog more manageable I'm going to break my trip into themes or topics. Otherwise, this entry would be absolutely, ridiculously long:-)

We traveled through the granite belt for a few days (Tenterfield and surrounding areas) and, being spring, saw some beautiful wildflowers. We are certainly blessed with magnificent wildflowers here in Australia.

I hope that you enjoy the photos. Most of them were taken along a particular 4wheel-drive track and we kept stopping so that I could jump out and take photos. Good thing the family was patient with me...LOL.











More to come about my trip in the coming days!