Avon Descent

On Saturday, 2nd of August, we headed off to the little town of Toodyay, about an hours drive inland, to check out the Avon Descent, a kayak river race. We've had heaps of rain so far this winter so the river was very full which made for some interesting watching. Last year the competitors had to carry their kayaks at some points in the river because there wasn't enough water, this year they had to close a section because there was too much water and it was too rough - so they still had to carry their boats! They also had a food festival there so we tried out some 'special' sausage on a bun with sauce and onions - mmm , it was yummy!

watching the action from the bridge

lots of competitors coming through

our view from the back of the ute

Having morning smoko on the back of the ute

Olivia and Rod watching the action

another competitor

the delicious sausages we tried

Every Woman Expo

Last Saturday Tineke organised for a bunch of girls to go check out the Every Woman Expo that was on in Perth. Wow! What a variety of stalls they had promoting all sorts of things that are meant to make a woman's life so much better and enjoyable...massage, on-line nappy suppliers, photographers, weight loss solutions, tanning, cooking ideas, lotions and potions for your body, detox machines, fashion etc etc! Very interesting of course... I'm surprised Tin hasn't heard yet that she's won a competition - she entered pretty much every one that was free! Here are some some pics...

Tin having a free makeup trial

Charlene's turn

Olivia was fascinated by this lady having a massage

ok, time for some wine tasting...

Charlene having a go on the wii fit - she had to knock
soccer balls away by moving her head

Tin having a go

All us girls: back - Rose, Heidi, Jessica, Olivia and me
Front - Charlene and Tin

On the way home again - she was so good for me the whole day!

Random shots...

YAY! Look Aunty Marian, it fits!

Our Indoor Soccer Team: back - Sarah, Diana, Tineke, me
Front - Charlene and Annette

Olivia with two of her Albany cousins, Hannah and Lauren -
playing on the keyboard at Pop and Nanna's house

Fritz and Viv on Samuel' s baptism

One of Olivia's favourite past times - playing with her play dough

Naomi, Olivia and Chanel

Meeting 'Elisa Bruning' daughter of my cousin Marleen

mmm, she doesn't seem to like Olivia's kisses

Our Veggie Garden

At the beginning of March we planted our veggie garden again and it has just been great! We put in seedings of silverbeet, capsicum (peppers for you Canadians), and tomatoes and seeds of carrots, beans, lettuce and cucumbers and, as you can see from the pics, it didn't take long for them to take off and start producing fruit. The tomatoes were the most amazing. We have tried growing them twice before and nothing happened, but this time we have so many I can even give some to my family and neighbours! So, for the last couple of weeks all the stuff that goes on Rod's salad sandwiches to work every day have come out of our very own garden :-) It is very rewarding.

Beginning of March

about a month later...

nice bunch of tomatoes

silverbeet

ripe tomatoes

delicious beans

crunchy cucumbers

Off to Perth

Just a couple of pics from a few weeks ago when we went to the city by train. Olivia sat so quietly the whole way there, it was quite funny! She thought it was pretty cool though :-) and was a bit more lively on the way home.

Enjoying a cuppa while the sun was out

Foundation Day long weekend

We had a great long weekend last weekend. Saturday Rod worked on Marcel's car at Dad and Mum's, so later in the morning, after I had done some baking for Sunday, Olivia and I went there too. Mum wanted help with her intro, so I gave her a hand editing it. It was perfect weather to be inside seeing as we had rain and thunderstorms throughout the day. It's been a while since we've had a good storm here so it was very welcomed! Sunday night we had a Ed&Evette, Andrew&Marleen, Ali and Chris around and played Pictionary - always great if you want a good laugh! Lots of sunshine was forecast for Monday so we arranged to go to Long Pt with Ed and Evette and it turned out to be every bit as good as was expected! Not much else can beat relaxing on the beach, soaking up the sunshine, and just doing absolutely nothing! And to top it all off, Rod's persistence at fishing paid off when he landed a nice big salmon! You know what meat we had with our vegies that night :-)

Enjoying morning coffee - yummy apple cake from Ed's mum

Olivia chillin' - this is how Rod likes to sit in his chair too!

Olivia and Tegan having fun in the sand

Gorgeous Tegan

Rod pulling in his salmon

The smile says it all!

Two little ladies discussing the catch of the day

Olivia's owies

On Saturday the nurse in me was called on duty when Olivia went for a rather nasty fall off a brick wall we have out the back. I was standing right next to her, talking to the neighbour when next minute she fell off, head first onto the concrete slabs - ouch! Thankfully she didn't have concussion or any other bad effects, except maybe a flatter nose (if that's possible ;-) and she was soon all happy chappy again.

The wall she fell off

Cheeky as always

a bit of a 'Rudolph' nose

Mother's Day

On Saturday afternoon I played soccer for Annette (she has been down with glandular fever...wonder who she got that from ;0), anyway, when I came home this beautiful surprise was waiting for me!
Thanks Olivia! You're the best kid a mother could ask for!

Fancy punched corners, a photo, punched out flowers, nice colouring in - I think I'll get Rod and Olivia to make cards for me in the future!

Camping...

Well, we couldn't have asked for a better night to go camping. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the stars were brilliant, the company was great and it was cold! And I mean freezing cold! We had Olivia's cot set up in our beach shelter so at least she wasn't exposed to the slight breeze and she was rugged up to the eyeballs with I don't know how many layers of clothing on! She went to sleep all right but as we were about to go to bed, she woke up and didn't want to go back in her cot...so guess where she ended up 'sleeping'?! On the back of the ute between Rod and me. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep because she likes to take over my mattress and pillow and space in general...oh well, I got to enjoy the stars a lot longer that night :-) The morning was just as magic as the night. Not a breath of wind, lots of warm sunshine, clear skies and pancakes and bacon and eggs for breakfast - yummy! Can't wait to do it all again!


Heading home...2 very tired girls


Olivia just had to try out Tegan's highchair


Whitehills Beach






Nothing better than playing in the sand

our campsite

Tegan and Olivia waiting while we set up camp

Sorry about the mixed up blog! I was adding photos using the 'add new element to page' option so then when I went to write a new post, it put the new post with the old ones, way down the page and I wanted the post above the recent photos I'd put on...oh well, if you get what I mean good for you, if you don't, I wouldn't worry. From now on I suppose I'll add photos using the 'new post option'.

So, what's new? Not much. I've got indoor soccer tonight at 6:30 - always look forward to that! Last week we had a cup round which is a bit like a finals game but more just for fun. And guess what?! Our team made it into the final game! We lost 2-1 but that didn't matter, we were just thrilled to get that far :-) That's one good thing about being on the bottom of the ladder - you can only go up!
Olivia's in one of her 'I'm not sleeping this afternoon' moods...
We're going camping at the beach on Friday night with Ed and Evette and Tegan! Should be fun...

So, after a busy but relaxing and wonderful 9 days away, we're back! And wow was it great to see Olivia again! I think seeing her leap out of my Dad's arms and into mine was the best part of the holiday! We had an excellent holiday though and got to see some of the most awesome and beautiful scenery on this planet of ours! It was also really special being there with most of the van der Schaaf family to witness Terry and Nynke's wedding. Pity the weather decided to turn sour and we had rain all of Friday and Saturday!

The Time Has Come...

Whoo hoo!!! We leave for New Zealand tonight!!! Can't wait! Except for the fact that we'll have to say bye to our dear Olivia for 9 days :-( I'm sure I won't cry b/c I'm not that sort of person, but I will definitely miss my little girl. Just checking out the forecast for while we're there and it looks like we're in for some cold weather...17C for the wedding day! You call that summer?! I've hardly had to think about winter clothes yet. Except for the other day, when out of the blue, we woke up to the sound of rain on our roof! I couldn't believe it! It just rained steadily the whole morning, eased up in the afternoon and then rained again at night! Of course I had to do my shopping that day; so here I go and dash outside in my jeans and thongs - I hate wearing closed shoes - put Olivia in the car quickly and promptly get sopping wet feet! Well, that's another thing I hate when it's cold, so yes, I ended up putting my closed shoes on... Cold, rainy weather is nice once in a while, so I'm sure we'll enjoy the cooler weather while we're in NZ. Especially when they forecast temps in the high 30s here for the rest of the week.
We bought a digital camera the other night so maybe you'll see some photos on here more frequently. I tried last week to put some on, but our computer is sooo slow, so guess what? We've bought a new computer too, a laptop actually, which hopefully goes 100x faster than this one. Hopefully it arrives today, b/c Rod wants to take it to NZ.
Anyway, I should finish packing my suitcase :-)