Look who's walking!

WASO concert

A few weeks ago I saw an ad in the paper for a WASO (West Australian Symphony Orchestra) Kids Cushion Concert. It said the orchestra would demonstrate its instruments through classical excerpts and familiar songs. Fifty minutes of fun including "have-a-go" on the instruments.

Sounded like fun, so I asked Ingrid if she'd be interested in coming along and of course she was, so off we went to Perth to give our kids some culture. It was well worth it and the girls thought it was great!

on the train to Perth

the orchestra

This was the 'MC' lady and she was great!
So energetic and really got the kids involved

Olivia and Courtney getting into it

the percussion man showing off all his instruments

Not really Devon's cup of tea...

Olivia the Drummer!

trying out the cello...

...and the violin


Afterwards we had lunch in the park and the kids let off some steam

Ingrid got this shot of the girls :-)
They were giving each other such a big hug they
nearly lost their balance and fell in the water!

ANZAC Day

Over here we have an ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) day public holiday when we remember all those men and women who fought, served and died in wars gone past. The actual date is 25th of April, so seeing as it fell on a Sunday this year, the holiday was on the Monday, giving us a long weekend. We made the most of it and went down to Albany to meet our new nephew Ezra (from Glenn and Leonie) and to just have a relaxing weekend away. We didn't do anything patriotic like go to the dawn service (we had our own dawn service with Devon once again...) but we did do a bit of 4WD and fishing and thus showed our appreciation for the freedom we can enjoy in this beautiful country of ours :-)

Glenn and Leonie were hoping to present Ezra for baptism on Sunday morning, but Saturday night he suddenly became very unwell with a high temperature. He ended up being admitted into hospital and after a variety of tests were done, they still couldn't find the reason for his temperature and seeing as they couldn't really get it down, they decided to fly him up to the kids hospital in Perth. Bit of a scare for everyone! Thankfully after 5 days of being on antibiotics he was fine and they could head back home.

So, here are some pics from our weekend...

~Saturday~

Thankfully we popped in at Glenn and Leonie on Saturday morning,
so we still managed to meet Ezra - isn't he gorgeous!

After lunch we headed down to Dingo's Beach with Ed and Evette,
who had also come down for the weekend.
Just look at the beautiful weather we had!

I did hook up a salmon and after trying to reel it in for what seemed
like forever, I got it in quite close so Rod tried grabbing the line to
help me, but of course the fish spat the hooks and swam off :-(
-still good for an adrenaline rush-

4 amigos together again

Rod got a decent sized herring

~Sunday~

having fun on the see-saw at Nan and Pop's - where we stayed

Fritz with his son Samuel

love this kid!
He took his first steps on this weekend too!!!

~Monday~
We went to Dingo's in the morning with Ed and Evette again,
but had no luck with the fish this time.

us...

them...
Gives you a bit of an idea of the scenery you drive by
before heading down the steep track to the beach

Esperance

Today is a big day...Justin and Annette's wedding!!!

I was awake at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep so I thought I may as well finish off this post that has been sitting around for who knows how long!

So here are the rest of the photos from the holiday we took at the end of last year...and a few notes about our holiday...

Esperance: 28 December2009 - 8 January 2010

• Esperance has the most whitest beaches and amazing colour water (which is also very cold!) - it is just sooo pretty there!
  
• we experienced 2 very hot days - the second day we were there it was 42C, and we thought that was bad... a week later we had a day of 47C!!! Now that is a heat I've never felt before. And it was still 40C at 9pm! Not much sleeping happened that night.
  

• generally it's pretty windy in Esperance, they don't have wind farm there for nothing! But Ed and Evette (who we went with), have been there twice before and they said this time was definitely the windiest. We had to go out early to the beach, because the wind picks up around 10am and then it's not so pleasant to be there.

• Devon was a bit of a nightmare when it came to the sleeping department...The first few nights he slept till about 4/4:30am and wouldn't want to go back to sleep unless I fed him. But as the week went by, he woke up earlier and earlier and then it'd take a bit to get him back to sleep. And if he woke up around 3/3:30, he'd be a wake again at 5am and not want a bar of going back to sleep, so Rod ended up taking him for a walk every morning at 5! Sometimes he slept again, other times he didn't. So, even though this sounds ungrateful, it really wasn't such a relaxing holiday.
  

• Ed and Evette were the best company to have along. They have two kids as well, Tegan who is 3 1/2 and Corey who is 1 1/2, - good playmates for Olivia and Devon.

On the road again... we left around 6am and arrived
around 3pm and the kids were champs in the car!



our usual setup on the beach

Ed and Evette took their clam shells and play pen which
was so handy to have on the beach

Evette and Corey
Tegan and Olivia playing hairdressers and 'eyebrow ladies' in our camper

We were going to use this box as a cot, but of course he could pull himself up to stand
by this time, making it not so safe.
He did fall out of it once...luckily onto the couch first and then the floor.

another beach, another day

Rod and Ed trying their hand at some fishing but got nothing

amazing sand dunes there

Ed stuck on a ridge...

trusty Patrol will pull the Prado out

New Years Eve with my uncle and aunt who also happened
to be in Esperance at the time, but in a different caravan park

aaaww, he loves me :-)

now doesn't that just look like a piece of Paradise?
Surely this will convince you to come visit us Marian!


roo on the beach

Olivia and Tegan playing happily

Corey bear

another day, another beach...

Rod going for an early morning dip

out for brekky one morning

Ed and Evette

girls enjoying their breakfast

nothing beats vegemite toast, hey Corey!

on our last day, I took Devon for a walk and
got to see this sunrise

having a stop at a little country town on the way to Albany

Olivia just had to have a swing :-)