Hello From The Road............

Hi All

I have a reason for not blogging as I have had no service.

Bruce, Robbie, Cassie,William and myself have been on the road to met up

with some special people.

We headed out to Carnarvon National Park.

We went up and David, Karen and Mason came down.

What a great few days we had, eating, hiking, eating more hiking

some of us went swimming then more eating...hahaha it's camping lots of eating going on.

No camp  food here, David cooked the roast, then we had potato bake fresh beans

and carrots, corn.

But we did do more than eat.......

We went on some great hikes, it is so cool and beautiful in the gorge.

Some people (Cassie) needed a little bit more of a hand than others.

To get into the high places, well worth the the pulling and pushing to get up there

(I'm talking about myself now :)

Even Mason enjoyed his rock climbing and tree walking. He was such a good little man running and walking most of the way and went where we went.

We found the swimming hole and the boys went swimming, it was so cold I wasn't going in. 

After all that swimming and walking Mason crashed up on his Dads shoulders,

and yes he slept like that while we walked back.

So that's what we have been up to over the last week of Spring holidays.

I hope you have enjoyed your break those of you with school age children..

Blessings to All

Mandy

Holiday Update....

Hi all back again,

Sorry It has been so long between posts but boy have we been busy....

We left Charters Towers on Easter Monday and travelled through to Lucinda, which is only about 140kms north of Townsville.

Below is a picture of the 6km long Bulk sugar jetty. It is the worlds largest bulk sugar jetty. Lucinda it self is a small town of around 500 people. Good fishing to be had there as well .So we were told as the boys didn't catch a thing.

 

 

We spent 3 nights there then on the road again, we stopped in at the Big Gumboot at Tully and surprise it was raining.

Tully has a average rainfall of 4 metres a year so no surprise it was raining.

 

 

below(The Big Gumboot Tully)

 

Then it was through Innisfail (below) which has amazing Art Deco buildings all through out the town, below you can see the water tower in the distance.

We stayed just out of Innisfail at Flying Fish point, again not many fish....But lovely spot.

 

 

Paronella Park

This has been the high light of my holiday so far you should have a look at the link for your self.

www.paronellapark.com.au

 

 

 

 

 

 

This amazing garden was built by Jose Paronella in 1930, and been through floods, Cyclones and fire and yet still parts of it are still standing today. I just might be showing you a lot more photos at a later date...

 

 

On the way home from Paronella Park we stopped at a winery called Murdering Point Winery.

Had a few taste testing there and bought a few wines, ports and liquors....Still some left....hahahaha

 

From Flying Fish point we headed to Cairns......

More of that later.

 

I have had the BEST holiday travelling with my family. Well 5 out of 7 of them. The babies have been so good and I have had LOTS of Grandma time with them.

Above L-R) Karen, David and Mason. Damien, Chloe and Harrison.

These guys have all gone home now along with Cassie (below)

 

 

So its just me Bruce Robbie and William for the next week. Been a long time since I was the only girl. I will post again if I survive the trip with these boys.arggggggg BOYS, fighting and punching and skateboarding and....................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Holiday.....

We have been on the road since Good Friday. This road trip is a family affair.

We drove to Charters Towers and had Easter there with David, Karen and Mason, Chloe and Damien drove up the day before with Harrison.

Then it was back on the road again to camp and fish at Lucinda.

We had a good set up too.

We spent 3 nights here fishing and relaxing, then onto Flying Fish point.

Tomorrow we drive up to Cairns.

Just a quick blog to say Hello and let you know where I am.

Hope to blog again soon.

A very belated Happy Easter to every one.

Blessings

Mandy

Camping.....

This is what I woke up to Saturday morning....

The mist was rising and the sun was coming up over the Dam....

 

We spent the week end camping at Cressbrook dam, took off Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday.....bliss...



William was up early fishing, this boy loves to fish more than any thing....Didn't get a bite all week end and still he kept trying..

 

I have never been camping out here before but we will be back a lot more as summer comes around as it is so beautiful and only an hours drive from home...

 

Lots of wild life on our walks.

 

And the girls did a lot of laying around and sleeping and talking, as girls do.

 

 

 

We all had a wonderfull family camping  trip, our reason this time is because this beautiful girl is leaving me in 2 weeks.....

 

Alanah is going back to Canada on the 2nd October this time for 2 years....Alanah wanted to go camping one last time before she left. You can keep up with Alanah on her blog  www.alanahincanada.blogspot.com

 

I am going to miss this daughter in so many ways, Alanah and I work together every day so I know I am going to miss her here at work..I will miss the way she gets sooooo cranky for no reason haha, I will even miss the way she teases and annoys her other sisters.....

 

This is the second time Alanah has gone over to Canada, hmmmm what do you Canadians have that we don't?

 

 

Congratulations Jess and Lachlan...

What a wonderful week end we had celebrating my eldest daughter's Engagement to her child hood sweat heart Lachlan.

 The Surprise party was in Roma. Lachlans sister Tameka organized it all, and it was a wonderful surprise for them as they had no idea at all.

Alanah got the engagement cake for them and it was carefully brought out from Toowoomba.

Good friends Danielle and Ashley also came out, along with friends and family on both sides.

As you can imagine there was the usual family photo taking but they all look like this,

....us all gooing over Grace.

 I am so proud of Jess and Lach, they have  there whole life ahead of them and each other to share it with. They love Roma and are very happy out there, in the end that's all you want as a Mother is for your children to be happy.

 We stayed in the caravan park for the night as we wanted to try out the new pop top van.....We learnt to set it all up( in the pouring rain) not many dramas where had. We need to do a few things before we head up to Davids in 2 weeks though. It was a great opportunity to have a run and see what we needed to do.

and one last photo of Grace in her swing.

It was a very big week end, 10 hours of driving....It was worth it though to see the look on Jess and Lachlans faces....

Guess what ????I have the inter net back on at home(happy dance) so I will be able to check up on what you have all been up to...Early night for me tonight after yoga with my computer and my blog list...

Gee my life is exciting hahahaha

Blessings

Mandy

Camping at the Bunya Mountains.......

This is the view I woke up to for the last 2 mornings... Yep I'm back from camping and YES we loved it..The tall spear shaped trees are the Bunya Nut trees....

We tried to go for a horse and cart ride but it was all booked up, may-be next time???

There were plenty of wallabies to look at, they were every where, around the tent and even around the shops....

Yes there were shops!!!!!and yes we did a little shopping...

Look at these faces would you, William wasn't to sure about the birds, and Robbie had put bird seed in the girls hair so they kept landing on there heads....Lots of screaming and laughing all around...

here is our camp site, nothing flash but we loved it and it did the job..The tent was so big but didn't take long to put up at all. Most of the people had gone home so it wasn't busy at all. There were hot showers there to Deb!!!!!Electric bar-b-ques so we cooked on them a bit....there was even a camp kitchen with sinks to do our washing up so we weren't really roughing it, all the comforts of home......I have to say though it was COLD and WINDY I'm talking icy cold but we just rugged up and went for long bush walks...

Here is a Morton Bay fig tree that is so big the path goes through it...As you can see we didn't need warm clothing while walking as it was so sheltered in among the trees...

Here are the children standing in front of a Bunya Nut Pine tree you can see how wide it is....

When we got to the top you looked out over all the grass hills and here you could see all the little chalet on the mountains. All the houses here looked like something you would expect to see on the Alpine slops minus the snow of course.

There were so many water falls on the walks we went on, only they were all dry...Our country badly needs rain even here in the rain forest areas..

This little place we saw on the way out, it is so cute isn't it, a real old Aussie house...

I hope you enjoyed the photos, tomorrow it is back to the work shop...I havn't heard any-thing yet about the people that are looking at it so please continue to up hold this in your prayers...

Blessings Mandy

A camping I will go.....

Hi all ......sorry it has been so long in between blogs..I have plenty of photos to show only they will not download from the camera.....There has been plenty of activity going on here. My fence is all completed and is now dog proof thanks to my wonderful handy man....The tomatoes are planted and looking good....I only worked 2 days this week as my Mum came for a visit, I new she was coming Wednesday....what I didn't know was she was staying until today(Friday) We have had a lovely time, we went to the Quilt show in Toowoomba,walked through some wonderful gardens and took the boys to the model train display...It is so nice to play the tourist in your hometown.....

But the biggest news of all is......

We are going camping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am taking the four youngest children to the Bunya Mtns camping for three days...I can't really explain why, it is just something I know we need to do....My 2 boys have never been camping as Greg hated it with a passion, he preferred to stay in a unit somewhere which is very nice...But I have always loved to camp I was brought up camping...So I have bought a tent and all the gear I need and on Sunday we are off camping...There are a lot of walks and sites to see at the Bunyas so we are all so excited about going....I know it will be good for the children as it will take there minds of things........

I will have lots to tell you when I get back....Enjoy your week-end and may all your dreams come true.....

Mandy