Blue mountains etc

Some gorgeous shots of the Blue Mountains, we were lucky enough to have a stunning, clear day when we visited on our wee holiday to Australia. We went to visit family and surprised my lovely SIL for her 30th birthday. She just thought my MIL was coming to visit for ten days but it was her hubby's brilliant idea that Tessa, Ian and I come too and surprise her. And boy was she surprised it was so fun and we had a lovely time.



The famous three sisters, rock formation.


We went to this really great wildlife 45mins south of Wollongong. Where you could buy bags of animal food and feed quite a range of the animals, from goats and emus to kangaroos and alpacas.

Tessa was fascinated, and really enjoyed the kangaroos which were tame enough to get up close and personal. Here she is with her Uncle and Aunty feeding this friendly and hungry kangaroo.

We also stayed two nights in Sydney at Darling Harbour and did the tourist things like go on the ferry to manly beach and have their famous fish n chips. We went to the opera house and had a look, it really is quite stunning architecture. I really enjoyed the restaurants we had Italian the first night and Spanish the second night for the birthday dinner, the Tapas were very popular.
Were very lucky to get home as the very disruptive ash cloud arrived as we were about to fly home.

Away

We got away for a much needed break a couple of weekends ago. To Rotorua, it was cold and wet the whole time, but it was bliss to just relax and spend some time together. As you can see Tessa really enjoyed it, especially chasing mummy with the camera. We got a room with a spa bath mmm it was great soaking and Tessa had great fun splashing us.

I got to go to some yarn shops and spotlight, which we don't have here. It was great I spent far to much but it was so much fun. I was like a kid in a candy shop, heaven.
I even splashed out and bought some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK to knit Tessa a cardi design that has been rattling around in my head. The yarn is so soft I can't wait to cast on, I must hurry up finish some of what I have on the needles at the moment

photos

Some more photos from our trip to whangarei.



A somewhat blurry photo of Phoebe the gorgeous family Jack Russell. She kept moving around so the photo just dosen't do her justice or show her vibrant personality. Tessa and Phoebe hit it off straight away, Phoebe didn't even mind the excited wacking and earpulling. Such a sweet little dog. Tessa loves animals and didn't even mind when her Gran's cairn terrior Poppy wanted to give her a kiss, woops. A real farm girl she is turning out to be, hehe.

One of the many pretty daylilies in Aunty Linda's lovely garden, this was my favourite.

The awesome swing set that they built themselves, very study and will last forever.

And the huge sandpit, with a shade sail over top for cooler sandpit fun in summer. They have a lovely home with lots of great stuff for kids to get outside and play, I hope we can steal a few ideas for Tessa gets bigger.

we are back!!!

Tessa and I went for a lovely holiday to Whangarei last week. To introduce Tessa to some of the family. It was really nice to catch up with everyone. Tessa was fine for her first plane ride and even fell asleep on the way home.



Here is my favourite photo, a gorgeous photo of Tessa and her great grandfather. She loved having a cuddle and really enjoyed playing a neat tapping game.

Some more photos of Tessa and granddad.

A family photo of four generations, Aunty Linda, me, granddad and Tessa.

A photo with with my cousin Tyler holding Tessa. My camera wasn't taking the best photos at the time hopefully I can get better photos from the others cameras.

Thank you for having us Linda, Shane, Tyler and Kaleb we really enjoyed.