August Highlights

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Kevin took the above photos of the seacliff bridge but they are so stunning I wanted to share them with you all. August was such a bad month with my continued recovery from a lung infection, and various other ailments.

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Athena participated in GISHWES – a worldwide fundraiser – and made all the healthy females of the family get dressed up as men.

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My Dad celebrated his 70th Birthday with family and friends.

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Christy was sick again and home from school for a few days.

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I finally got to do some more organising of my scrapbook area and actually did some crafting.

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Robin Williams left us.

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I had THE best muffin I’ve had – unfortunately it wasn’t local – though maybe that’s a good thing :-).

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Our local woolworths got some great new trolleys.

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I started to feel a bit better and was able to head out on a few easy, slow walks with the dogs.

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Kevin took Athena & her friend up to Sydney to see some YouTubers. Afterwards they dined at Lord of the Fries – love the name.

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I received the most gorgeous gift from a friend, most of it handmade.

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I was motivated by watching some minimalism videos to take on a major declutter of my wardrobe and vanity (video to come).

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We had some more power problems and had have pizza by candlelight.

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It was time to buy our season passes to the local water park. Seemed rather odd doing so on such a cold, wet day.

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And at the very end of the month, just a week before our trip to Queensland, Christy hurt her foot doing hurdles at school. Thankfully, an x-ray showed so fracture or break.

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Dad’s 70th Birthday Lunch

On Sunday we celebrated my Dad’s 70th Birthday with lunch at the Anchorage Restuarant in the Boat Harbour Hotel.

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It’s been a long time family favourite and many, many special occasions have been celebrated here.

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Not only is the food always fabulous, but so is the view – esp. on a lovely sunny day.

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I had soup…

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and cheese souffle (lovely but rather rich)…

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There were  speeches. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling that great, so Athena said some words on behalf of our family. This is Dad’s brother, my uncle Brian.

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and Dad’s Uncle John…

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We took the opportunity to take some family photos.

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Then came dessert – which was DELICIOUS..

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and cake…

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Granny was especially happy to get a photo with ALL of her current grandchildren (there are another 2 currently in progress :-)).

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and Kevin couldn’t resist getting a photo of our two “specials” :-).

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On the way home we stopped to admire the full moon rising over the lake…

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and a lovely Winters sunset…

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A trip to the Opera House

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On Sunday we headed up to Sydney to the Opera House. As you can see we had the most splendid day for it. Luckily the day didn’t require much beyond a bit of walking, and taking it slowly I was able to manage ok.

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We had lunch sitting outside with the view of the Harbour Bridge. It was a little chilly in the shade so we were appreciative of the blankets provided. Christy had the best lunch – a kids afternoon tea!! We were all rather jealous.

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I had the minestrone soup – last time we were here  I had vegetable soup – and it was rather yummy.

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Then it was time to head inside the Opera House.

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stopping, of course, to take some photos…

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The reason for todays visit…

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a presentation by National Georgraphic photographer, David Doubilet.

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We took the girls along this time (Athena wasn’t keen to be photographed) and while it was good, he wasn’t as a good a storyteller as the last one we’d been to, Paul Nicklen.

July Highlights

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July started with 2 weeks of Winter school holidays, which meant we had LOTS of kids over and had 5 sleepovers in a row!!!

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Christy and I also had a few outings with the dogs…

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Unfortunately I got really sick after the first week of school holidays, with what turned out (we think) to be a lung infection. Which meant lots of time on the couch with my pups.

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Good thing I had the Tour de France to watch for a few hours every day or when I was in too much pain to sleep…

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This years start in Yorkshire was amazing….

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especially as they showed places like that we had visited back in 2010.

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July also included numerous ct scans, blood tests and visits to the lung specialist….IMG_9784.jpg

and snugly puppies…

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One morning Kevin sent me a photo of Bailey lying on bed (as he’s taken to doing after I leave in the morning), so I sent him a photo of Rosie lying on the couch with me :-).

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Finally, July, mid-Winter here in Australia, saw some amazing weather. One day we actually got to 25C.

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