Kanga Banga!

The last couple of weeks have been filled with walks to the gym, tram ride adventures to a new and different part of the city (on my own with the 3 kiddos) and fun and challenging weekend adventures.  Oh, and we had a fun evening grilling out at the pool too.  

Since I haven't updated in a while, and I have so much to cover, I will not inundate with pics.  I need to be better about updating this thing on a weekly basis! (ok, I lied, there are a bunch of pictures.. just can't help it!)

Grilling night at the pool consisted of a Kangaroo sausage sizzle otherwise known as 'Kanga Bangas'.  Deliciously and surprisingly tasty.  Did not tell the kids what they were eating and they happily chomped their hotdogs all gone.  :)

My mission since I've been here it to see an actual kangaroo in the wild.  Not dead on the side of the road.  Seen plenty of those!  So every weekend, as we set off on our daily excursion, my eyes are peeled for that very important kangaroo sighting.

Saturday Feb 9th - Ballarat and the Sovereign Hills Gold town...  Located about 114 km west of the city.

The drive was particularly interesting as Devon took us on back country roads.  I'm talking single lane DIRT roads.  It was awesome!  And also a perfect haven for a kanga sighting.  But alas, none were seen.

Where are you Kangaroo??

Sovereign Hill in Ballarat is an outdoor gold rush mining museum.  It's similar to Fort Snelling in St. Paul but so much cooler.  The staff all wore costumes of the era, there were general stores, hotels, Boot makers, candy stores, coach rides, a real mine tour AND you could pan for gold.  So cool!

Panning for Gold!

Unfortunately we didn't strike it rich

Horse and Carriage rides

The Waterloo Store is having a sale!

The gold mine tour was the highlight of our visit to Sovereign Hill.  We took an actual 'Sleigh' down far into the ground and then toured the actual mine.  While down there, we road another little train to different caverns of the mine.  The kids LOVED it and so did Devon and I.

Waiting for the mine tour. Such a fun and tiring day we had!

Saturday Feb 16th - The Great Ocean Road.

Let me just preface this by saying that Isla went to bed after midnight on Friday because we were out with our Chicago friends while the boys stayed home with the babysitter.  Her and Bella had a fabulous time playing together, but that meant a very late night for all of us.

The drive was beautiful, but the kids made it hard to enjoy unfortunately.  They were not being great passengers the entire way so our trip was slow.  I wouldn't say it was unsuccessful by any means.  However we did not make it to the 12 apostles, which is what I was really hoping to see.

A stop along the way for lunch and we were greeted with a bunch of hungry cockatoos trying to eat our lunch!  These birds are beautiful but the make an awful loud screechy noise.  These are the ones I call the Pterodactyl birds.

Feeding them bread and almost getting their fingers chewed off

We drove onwards and the kids were whining about wanting to go swimming.  We happened to drive past this cute little inlet and stopped for a quick dip.  The kids loved romping around in the clear shallow water.

The kids found a friend to play with

We continued on the road after swimming and the kids fell asleep.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the beautiful ocean scenery and cliffs as we were winding around in the car and all the kids were crying or whining.  :(

Next stop was The Otway Fly Treetop Walk.  This was located deep within the Otway National Park rainforest.  This was the highlight of my day because...

WE SAW A KANGAROO!  Well, maybe a Wallaby.  But still AWESOME

Kids trying to get a closer look while it hopped away.

Now with my dreams fulfilled, I could enjoy the rest of my day!  :)

The treetop walk was a bit more than we bargained for.  The hike was long for the kids just getting to the steel structure which slowly ascended to the tops of the trees.  The walk there wasn't bad, as there was a lot of fun things to see AND it was down hill.

Starting our walk in the forest

Watch out for snakes!

Lots of dinosaurs

They were all yelling 'ROAR' at the top of their lungs.  Not embarrassing for me at all.

Entry to the tops of the trees

This was pretty amazing.  The pictures don't do it justice.

Going up, up, up

don't look down!

The tower steps to the tree canopy

Looking down from the tower

Hi Ian!

Walking down the stairs

Amongst the trees! 

Looking up at the structure

Ian pointing at the very tall trees

The tree is THIS BIG MOMMY!!

Nature.  Isla found a cicada that had shed it's skin.  

This was the end of our journey.  We had contemplated continuing on to the 12 apostles, but it was already 5 pm and the kids were tired and hungry.  Just the walk back up hill to the car was not an experience I would like to duplicate anytime soon.  We had dinner, then started our 3 hour journey back to Melbourne.  It was a loooong day, but super fun.  Oh, and Devon discovered that there is a Marathon in May along the great ocean road.  Guess who will be running that one??

One more day, and I am caught up!

Sunday Feb 17th - Wilsons Promontory.  About a 3.5 hour drive south east of Melbourne

What a pleasant surprise this trip was!  The drive was gorgeous.  We stopped at a random information rest stop and found it to be more than we bargained for.  It was a complete little old village with a train and shops, emus and ducks.  So fun!

TRAIN

Kids are in heaven

EMU

Ducks

Feeding the friendly ducks

Hello Emu

Watch out Devon...

Then on our way to Wilson Prom.  The only reason why we decided to visit this place was because of a recommendation from one of Devon's co-workers.  Seems like it's a nicely kept secret.  And so glad we were let in on it!

The walk to 'squeaky beach'

The Sand actually made a squeaky noise when you walked on it!  

So Gorgeous

Digging in the sand with the boys

Isla used this seaweed as a crown in her hair.  Yuck!

The sand was the finest and whitest I had seen.  The water was blue and pristine.  It was the perfect day and the kids had a blast.  It was definitely worth the long drive.  AND this time, we were smart and brought the iPad so there was NO fighting in the car.  Halleluia!!  What a great ending to an amazing weekend.

So that's the last two weeks in a nutshell.  Sorry to wait so long to update you guys and then bombard you with all this stuff in one post.  I will try to be better next time.

We are off to Fiji on Saturday so the next blog post won't be until the beginning of March.  SO EXCITED!!

Love you and miss you all!