March - Yanchep, Cottesloe and Marine Discovery Centre (we get around)

Well we started of March with a lovely walk around Lake McNess at Yanchep, the first time Marcus had walked that far so very pleased.  Twas a lovely cool day and we even saw some Roo's on the grass before we set off.

The boys enjoyed climbing on logs and for once we actually got some photos of the four of us (and of Anna by her self!)

We had a fun morning out with friends at the Cottesloe Sculptures by the Sea, which if you remember i blogged about last year as well...How quickly the time has flown!  Twas a lovely day and the boys all enjoyed themselves.

We also went to the Marine Discovery Centre where the boys got to stroke sharks, catch magnetic fish and have their face painted.  All in all just what you want at the age of two and four!

 See the black and white Bamboo shark? cool ain't it?

 Finley the diver

 How Daddy should go out dressed most of the time!

 This is when we sneak off and leave Mummy in a brass hat...

 Finley had an octopus and Marcus got a SHARK

A cool Trigger Fish that was fascinated by Marcus...and vis versa.

Right up to date.

Bring on England 

YAY

February 2013 - Finley starts School, Birthdays and Mum and Jon visit :)

February was busy!

Finley started school :)

 And looks great in his school uniform

And Marcus wanted to be the same and go to school with Finley!

Finley is loving school and his teacher says he is doing well and towards the top of the class :) proud parent moment!

The boys are becoming good friends and playing more together...and are both posers!

Mum and Jon came for a week or so and we all had a great time.  Jon and I went to the cricket (AUS v WI, ODI) and Mum Anna and boys had a nice day together doing fun stuff :)

In February we also partook in a surprise birthday party for one of our friends and all clubebd together to buy her a kayack.  The look on her face was priceless.  Happy Days

New Year and January

Right, Time to catch up before we fly back to the UK for a 4 week Holiday :) CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Well this is going to be a whistle stop tour of January so we can get the pictures up and show people what we were doing but not a lot else, so for those of you who read for my skilful and witty prose...sorry.

New Years eve we went to Whiteman Park with friends and played in the paddling pool there.  All had fun and Daddy got a little burnt (bad Daddy).

We then went to a friends for the evening and again went swimming...this time Daddy kept his t-shirt on, didn't want to scare the Ladies.  Finley also decided that he could swim without floties...that's good I hear you say...yes it is...except when he just takes them off and jumps in while you are the other side of the pool!  But all credit to him he swam happily to the side and continued to jump and swim for the next 15mins!

November to December was fairly quiet...or rather we just forgot the camera whenever we went anywhere!

Well, still trying to catch up and I reckon I can get to into 2013 with this blog...at least I shall try.

November was ridiculously busy for me at work and I spent a great deal of time away from home generally up north in Karratha, Port Hedland or Darwin and then a trip inland to Merriden.  The work can be summed up as very hot, humid and long.  The mangrove work in Darwin was especially hard with temperatures up in the high 30'C and 95% humidity in the actual mangroves.  Within a few mins of getting in there you were drenched and you stayed that way for the next 8 hours of work!  Hard but much fun.  Unfortunately the mangrove work has now moved up to be run out of Darwin so no more fun in the mangroves for me :(

While I was away Anna was starting to suffer with toothache, which unfortunately turned out to be her three remaining wisdom tooth moving and one in particular impacting the lower gum.  Not fun for her especially looking after the boys by herself.  So she ended up in late November going for an op to have three wisdom teeth removed.  Not fun for her, thankfully I was home to help (or at least make sure she didn't take to many tablets!).  The op was a success and all three came out, two in several pieces when they had to crack the teeth to remove them.  She recovered fairly well and after a few weeks she was back onto quite solid food.  Unfortunately, I cooked dinner one night...and...broke her jaw.   It wasn't my fault honest!  It was the chip I tell you! But seriously she was eating a chip and I heard the jaw break from 2m away.  Not fun for me, but I suspect worse for her.

Still, after more painkillers and anti-biotics she pulled through enough so I didn't have to mash her Christmas dinner.

Between the end of work and Christmas itself we had a few trips out and about in Perth.  A trip to Yanchep was good but a little disappointing after telling Marcus he would see turtles and hearing nothing but 'TURTLE' for 30mins getting there, the lake was dry and no turtles in sight!  So we had a nice walk around the slightly pungent mud lake and even spotted a Roo (10 points if you can).

 Off for a pleasant walk

 Rock stars in the making!

I've made the picture bigger to help you.

We also found the Rio Tinto Nature scape in Kingspark and it is lots n lots of fun.  They have a river flowing through the park that the kids (and therefore adults) are encouraged to go into to splash, make dams, and generally have fun.  There are also things to climb on, build and see.  AND ITS FREE! Score!

 Building a dam

Mummy Paddling 

 I think he dropped something!

 There are fun towers to climbs and get the boys stuck up

 Or just generally trapped in steel cages...quick run away!

 Finally some quiet for water melon :)

Marcus address the troops, Finley Aten'shun!

Next it was Christmas :)

And it starts when the office closes on the 23rd December to the 8th January so we had a good break off to relax and recoup after several busy months.  Christmas Day itself was a lot of fun.  We had a family morning and lunch, and then met up with some friends in the afternoon at Trigg beach.  Finley was having a whale of a time jumping in the waves.

                                                        One of Anna's xmas pressie - a new dress :-)
So we have now got the 25th...not long and we will have have caught up :)

Hope you liked the pictures and brief run down on what we have been doing.

As promised more :)

Well I didn't get to Silat as I was rather knackered from a great game of squash on Thursday but that's getting ahead of my self.  As I was saying, Mum was here and we went to Busselton for a few days to relax, unwind and spend some time doing touristy things, like going down the famous Busselton Jetty.  Mum was fantastic and played with the boys while Anna and I went off and had a look round some vineyards and breweries by ourselves.  The first time that we had had a proper time together for many a month.

We stayed in a lovely little villa type thing and conveniently there was a nice little playground and as you can see the boys were loving playing and having picnics.

 Even though the weather looks sunny and warm, it...well it was sunny for the photo.  But we actually had sporadic heavy showers.  So heavy in fact that when we tried to go to the jetty walking (well running actually) we were soaked to the skin.  Me being British and being on holiday in Australia had decided to only  pack shorts...school boy error there! Anna and I had to go and buy jeans as we were so wet and had no cooler weather clothes...ach well, live n learn!

Despite the ahm, cooler temps and the clouds we still stoical headed to the beach (the onshore wind was so bad that the jetty train and underwater observatory was closed all three days we were there) complete with buckets n spades.

 Finley points the way!

 Such a poser!

We also went to an awesome reptile park and spent a few hours looking at turtles, monitor lizards, snakes and frogs.  As you can imagine with the boys love of all things reptilian, especially TURTLES, they had a great time.
I tried to feed Marcus to the monitor lizard but got stopped...

We got some great family shots and Mum loved having the boys show her all the animals.

We also went with Mum to the Perth Royal Show and boy was it a scorcher! Twas about 38'C but we managed most of the day got all the clues on the Yellow Brick Road (a route set up for the kiddies to follow doing different activities from planting lettuce to eating popcorn and smoothies), alas no Dorothy, tin men, scarecrows or Lions but plenty of animals, people and random stuff to keep everyone busy. Finley also found his calling in life...He'll have his digger licence next!

 

We tried gold panning but alas we didn't strike it lucky. 

Marcus got a hug from a friendly cow, you gotta feel for the dude in the  suit in 38'C!

They look so small and that is just a small dumper tyre!

But a good day was had by all.  Unfortunately Mum left a few days after that with much sadness but we knew she would be back soon.  To make matters worse I left for site the day after mum flew and I didn't return for many a week.  I left on the 2nd October and flew home for more than a day or two in early September   I wasn't a popular boy at that point.  The over time was nice though!

Next time I will bring you just about up to date with current...and then who knows i may even start predicting the future.