Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve 2011
Spent the morning packing and cleaning before we needed to go cool off and enjoy the day.  For the afternoon we went to the esplanade to spend some time with friends.  The kids each invited their friends to join us at the lagoon.

Nice clean fan

cutting grass in December!

nice beanie

Zara & Hailey

Darby, Evie & Chelsea

In the bubble

Brody & Ryan

We stopped for one more cool treat!

treats in the CBD

After we got home and changed we went across the road to the neighbours.  The kids swam some more and we had some nibblies and drinks before going to the 5:30 mass at Holy Cross.  On the way home we drove past some Christmas lights, but without the snow it just wasn't the same.

Scott, Jason & Sue

Chill -axing

great view of the pool

Christmas lights

Back to the neighbours for tea(dinner), visiting and mango margaritas. 
Then home to put out oats for the reindeer, a snack for Santa and hang our stockings.  Had received some Rocky Mountain snow in the mail from Suzanne and decided to make it for Christmas.

oats on REAL snow

A little Aussie & Canadian snacks for Santa

No fireplace, but sure the big guy will still find them

Watched Santa tracker on line to see where he was before heading to bed.

Cable Park

Cable Park Dec. 22, 2011

Well I can now officially say that I have water skied, knee boarded or wake boarded every month of the year!!  Though I didn't ski today, I just couldn't bring myself to use those old wooden skis again and go so slow, too slow to slalom ski that's for sure.  I did wake board again and the kids also had fun playing on the water in December!

Darby

a temporary trade for the slalom ski

Brody wake boarding

now that's using your head!

Mom taking the corner

Hailey

2 hours of fun!  I guess this will have to last us now until the Cottage in May!

Tablelands Dec. 18 - 19, 2011

Tablelands Dec. 18-19, 2011 - One last time
Sunday
First stop once we were up the range was the Peanut Place for some of our favorite flavours of peanuts.  Brody discovered the warm peanuts this time.  Next stop was Malanda Dairy to get information for our adventures.  We made our way to Mt. Hypipamee National Park to see the Dinner Falls and the crater.  Brody had researched and picked this next stop.

Holy cow that's a big booger!

Follow my lead

Dinner Falls

Crater - long way down!

Stopped in Millaa Millaa for a yummy lunch of sandwiches and ham & pea soup before doing the waterfall circuit.   We checked out Millaa Millaa falls again as we had seen them back in January, still just as amazing.  Then it was Zillie Falls and finally Ellinjaa Falls.

Chai latte sitting outside!!

Cheers MATE!

one big log!

Zillie Falls

Ellinjaa Falls

Family photo opportunity

We followed the signs to the Cathedral Fig Tree.  This was similar to the Curtain Fig tree we showed guests, but yet very different.  There was a small section you could actually go into part of the tree.

reading about the fig tree

in the tree

Cathedral Fig Tree

We were in Crater National Park so we made a quick stop at Lake Barrine.  We made a longer stop at Lake Eacham to swim and relax at one of my favorite places that we have discovered while being in Oz.  We swam to the middle of the crater lake, then came back.  So peaceful and refreshing.

Lake Barrine

Middle of Lake Eacham

the water is so clear

Cindy in Heaven!

Floating competitions

After a stop at the platypus viewing station we made it to Atherton Big 4 Caravan park cabin #6.  Kids went for a swim before tea at the Barron Valley Hotel.  Another delicious meal and then back to our cabin for an early night.

Canadian Club in a can!

Cheers!

Atherton cabin #6

Barron Valley Hotel restaurant

Monday
3:30 AM came VERY early, gone by 4:00 and waiting at 4:30 in Mareeba for our pick up to go Hot Air Ballooning.  We drove out of town just a bit and watched them unload the 2 massive baskets & inflate the balloons.  Others arrived on a bus as we watched the sun rise.  We had 10 people in our balloon, we were up in the air by 5:45 am.  Very peaceful floating over the tablelands, except for the occasional blast of the warm burner.

waiting in the dark

starting to take shape

Almost ready

wait for us!

Almost ready to go for our early Christmas present.  Then we were up and away.

we're so tall!

ready for lift off

great views of the tablelands

Priceless Christmas gift

spotting kangaroos

Mango trees

It was a great way to see the Tablelands.  We actually had 2 flights, we landed after 30 minutes and the 5 other people got out and 3 more women got in.  I moved to the other side to balance out the basket.  Our second flight was a little longer as the winds changed just as we were coming in for a landing.  So up again to find a new landing spot.  We actually landed in a field that was full of kangaroos and as we got closer to landing they all hopped away.

Helping to pack up

ready to put the balloon back into the bag

getting all the air out

Another great adventure and a fantastic early Christmas present.  Back to our cabin for breakfast and a swim in the pool.

Where's Hailey?

skyping outdoors

Say hi to Cary

While the kids were swimming I skyped back home from the poolside.  Skype has been a great connection to family & friends back home during the past year.  Another great adventure comes to a close on the tablelands.