Girraween National Park - 1st Camping Trip!

Ok!!! It took forever but I finally went thru all our camping pictures!! Sorry but this is going to be a loooooooong post! There were too many pictures to pick from so I'm afraid that I'm posting a lot!

We went on our first camping trip last weekend. It was excellent. A great park with lots of wildlife and perfect hiking. Thanks to Clo for organizing everything!! I'll try not to write too much as there are a lot of pics to see!

The park is about 3hrs southwest of Brisbane. It's inland so more cold than Brisbane. It was about 3degrees in the evening/early morning so quite chilly! We hope to do some more fall/winter camping but I need to get us some warmer clothes.

Let's begin...Great wildlife. The kangaroos come right out of the woods. Pretty cool.

Can't go camping without the guitars!

Rej was on water duty in the morning...trying to warm everyone up with tea, coffee, and hot choclate!

Our campsite.

Kookaburra...they sound like a freakin' gorilla!! No joke. You should hear these birds!

Having a little bite to eat before we start our hike.

Shamus and Breagha hangin' out in their new camping chairs. Breagha was quite needy for Mommy over the weekend so I'm not sure if she just really isn't going to be a fan of camping or she's just "a mommy's girl"!!

More nature...beautiful parrots. I'm not sure what type they were but I love the red. I didn't pick the best pictures of them but they are a very bright red.

Hiking...
The hiking at Girraween was super. Great trails and beautiful scenery. The rocks were sooooo huge. We don't know how the rocks got in the positions they were in but I really have to do some research and find out!

Sorry the pics aren't really in order. It took a while to sort them out so I was getting confused by the time it came to post them all!

Amy and Dan...they've been in Australia for 4 years...from England...Dan works with Darryl.

Stopping for lunch. Check out the rock on top of the bigger rock. Crazy. How'd it get there?

Steve and Cari hangin' out.

Whhhooooh! All this hiking has Breagha exhausted! Yeah, the hike was about 4 hours so I think Darryl and I did pretty awesome carrying the kids in the backpacks. They were getting heavy near the end of it!!

If I just shift my weight, I know I can move this thing!

Dad, you got it all wrong! Try it like this!

The view from the top! It was well worth it. Amazing.

The girls having a little break!

Climbing up....

And now to get back down!

Gives you an idea of how big the rocks are. That's little Darryl.

Group photo please!! Shamus did quite well. He walked a fair bit of the hike and had great time with everyone. He's really getting comfortable and enjoys hanging with the guys.

The hike was super and I can't wait to go back. We were all getting a bit tired at the end of the trek and couldn't wait to get back to the campsite for a nice drink!!! :)

More kangaroos when we got back. And see the joey in the pouch? Pretty cool. He's having a little bite to eat too!

A possum. He was having dinner too! The wildlife didn't seem at all shy with us and the birds were quite aggressive! Stealing food off the picnic table and right off the BBQ! Stole Steve's toast!

Putting the boys to work...Darryl and Dan doing the supper dishes.

Sunday morning...the kids having a snack before we get ready to head out.

And a quick game of frisbee with Dan. Poor Dan - he did a lot of running as Shamus tends to be a bit off with his frisbee direction!

...We stopped in Stanthorpe to check out the local market and have lunch...

And as soon as we pulled into this park we all got excited at the beautiful tree in front of us! Again...looks like a maple tree from home. I really need to find out what type of tree this is as it's the only one that we've seen that changes colour for autumn.

A quick bite to eat in the park.

Then we stopped off at a winery on the way back. It was mine and Darryl's first time at a winery so we had to pick up a couple of bottles of red wine.

Taste testing!

So, we had a pretty great weekend!! Everything went so well and I can't wait to get camping again. We were pretty warm in the tent...sleeping...but the evening and mornings were cold so I need to do some winter clothes shopping!

Roma St. Parkland

So, last week was quite busy. The kids and I have a pretty busy "playdate" life during the day. Which is great. Mostly moms from Darryl's company. And one Aussie that I met a couple of weeks after we arrived...we usually hook up once a week. We also got to one of the Museums in South Bank last week. It was realllyyy excellent! We didn't get to see everything so I really want to get back there soon and take Darryl with us.

Darryl's been working a lot lately as they have a deadline coming up. So, he worked over the weekend but we did manage to slip in some family time. We went to Roma Street Parkland. Very nice. We went on Sunday and damn it was windy!! I think it was the first time we all had to dress warmly. The wind was quite cold. Kind of like a fall day at home...sunny but still chilly.

The park is really beautiful.....

I thought this pic was really cute.

These trees were really cool....looked like a giant pineapple!! The trunk of the tree is super big.

Ahhh, the closest I'm going to get to a Canadian Autumn in a while!! This tree really looked like a Maple Leaf tree and the leaves were changing colours...which you don't get here. There's not really a Fall here. So, I was really excited when I saw it!

Of course a day isn't complete without stopping at the playground. I really like that all the parks/gardens here have playgrounds. There's always something for the kids. And of course there are BBQ's and picnic tables. And everyone just drinks openly. I've asked a few Aussies if drinking in public places is legal. It isn't...but the cops are very laid back about it. As long as people aren't out of control, don't break any bottles...that sort of thing...the cops just let them be. So, there's always drinking at the Parks.

Breagha is still obsessed with the swings. She'd sit on them all day I'm sure!

So, we really enjoy Roma St. Parkland. It was very nice.

Just wanted to add these...

I took this pic last week...when the kids and I went to South Bank. I didn't realize how tall Shamus was getting. Thought this was a cute pic!!

Shamus is still in love with the movie "CARS". Asked me to take a picture of his Cars...all from the movie of course.

And Miss B got her very own potty on the weekend! She was pretty excited about it, had to strip off the diaper, but has no interest in actually using it yet!
She's been telling us when "something's about to happen" but doesn't want to get rid of the diaper. So, we're hoping that the potty will win her over. I don't know...she's so darn stubborn that I think this battle may be a tough one!!!

We go camping this weekend! Can't wait but it's going to be really cold. It's about 20 during the day but the mornings and evenings are getting quite cool. So, it will be like camping in Sep/Oct at home. Pretty chilly!!!