Australia day...... a snapshot of our evening.....

I don't know if I've mentioned before but Brian has a great view

of Perth CBD from his office window......

and so we decided to hang out there last night to watch the

Skyworks firework display to celebrate Australia Day.....

we got there just as the sun was going down and enjoyed

some fearless pilots doing tricks in biplanes......

bonker lonkers if you ask me.....

a helicopter flew an enormous Australian flag over the city

a few times until the light levels got lower.....

 and lower.....

and lower.....

finally, at 8pm it was time for the fireworks to begin

and for 30 solid minutes they popped and banged and whizzed....

it was magnificent.....

what a lovely way to end our Australia Day here in Perth.....

summer holidaying.....

last week we went on a little summer road trip and we decided, this time round, 

that we would book to stay at a couple of farms en route.....

peace, quiet, lots of animals and some fab scenery to boot -

what's not to love.....

we drove south from Perth to a town on the coast called Denmark..... 

a few kilometres further along the south coast highway and 

we found ourselves at the first of our farm stay destinations.... 

we were met by a {rather huge} flock of sheep,

a mob of kangaroos,

a couple of alpacas,

a tiny pony,

a friendly lizard

and a sky full of birds.....

my favourite animal here had to be the baby kangaroos......

they are, like most baby animals, very cute indeed.....

this little fella decided to come and investigate who we were

{with his mum of course} when we arrived at the farm.....

 and this lizard was very bold, coming out of his leafy hiding spot 

{just off the veranda of the cottage} 

before following us around to the front door and coming inside for a visit......

there was so much space for us all to explore and enjoy......

Evie sped off with Brian to a make believe world in the woods

and Isaac, inspired by this man, decided to spend some

time trying his hand at stacking rocks.....

at one point he was bitten by an unknown something hiding under a stone

which was a bit unnerving but he kept at it..... 

this was his first stack.....

but I think this was my favourite stack.....

not the tallest one of our holiday but definitely has the 

'goodness-me-how-does-that-stay-up-then' 

factor for me.....

our first day out was filled with a driving tour around the local food-y businesses 

and this beautiful house was the first stop of the day......

Swiss Annie's Chocolate shop...... 

with it's beautiful wrap-around veranda where we sampled the chocolate

and had morning tea looking out onto the sublime gardens..... 

after we had been fortified by plenty of yumminess we headed off to a toffee making place

{which also provided us with some very scrummy samples}

and then on to a cheese factory

{where we made a little purchase for lunchtime}..... 

we drove past this idyllic country cottage and I had to take a photo..... 

it made me swoon at how delightful it looked.....

I love the weatherboard cottages here and I have very fond memories of our

time living in one in Ballarat, complete with its corrugated tin roof......

I especially loved the noise it made when it rained.....

we popped into a local berry farm and then headed back to town to 

grab a couple more bits and bobs to add to our picnic and then

went to sit by the river to eat lunch.....

as always happens when we find ourselves near water

Evie took the plunge and spent a happy half hour

{along with Brian, who can never resist his daughters

pleas to join her in some fun water exploits}..... 

you can just about make them both out in the photo below

floating around on their backs admiring that beautiful blue sky..... 

 the following day we popped down to a nearby beach {Ocean Beach}

but it was so windy that we got a bit sandblasted -

however there is always time for a bit of treasure hunting......

 next day was a bit overcast and we decided that we would take

the opportunity to go to the giant tingle tree forest and have a little

wander along the tree top walk...... 

 this is something that we have done before when we lived in Victoria but this

tree top walk was way more bouncy and that was quite off putting for

the male members of our family who don't really like the

whole 'walking-way-up-in-the-air-on-a-walkway-that-you-can-see-through' thing..... 

{Isaac is over there trying to rapidly get to the end of the walk.....}

 we also did an 'on-the-ground' exploration {far more pleasant for some}

and saw some GIANT trees which had obviously 

survived through some of the bush fires that happen so

regularly in the summer months here in WA...... 

 we had our obligatory stop at a beach on the way home

{my choice this time - Green Pools and Elephant Rocks}

Evie is in there having a bit of a snorkel {this is Green Pools} 

but unfortunately  because of the cloud cover the colours aren't 

quite as intensely blue and green as they would normally be..... 

 then we walked from here, along a  little coastal path, to see Elephant Rocks......

and, by jingo, I think it does look like there are a couple of elephants

sat down there on the beach..... 

the actual entrance to the beach is fab.....

a narrow gap between two enormous rocks leads you

onto a small but very beautiful beach..... 

 and the sun decided to put his hat on for a bit of a photo opportunity.....

we swam {Evie}, dug channels {Isaac}, climbed huge rocks {Brian} and paddled {me}

 and when we were all quite finished we climbed back up, 

took a last look back at the little bay and then headed home to the farm for our last 

evening in the lovely little town of Denmark...... 

  the next morning it was time to head off on the second leg of our holiday

driving from Denmark on the south coast around to Margaret River 

on the west coast which we had been told was a lovely little place to explore..... 

just look at the state of our poor car....

there really is no point trying to clean it when it is dry and hot

because the roads are so dusty and we had to drive on a number of unsealed 

roads which meant clouds of dust everywhere.....

 by lunch time we had arrived in beautiful Hamelin Bay

and after eating a quick picnic lunch 

{it was so hot by lunch time and we couldn't find any shade under which to 

sit so 'quick' was definitely what we all wanted lunch to be} 

we headed down to the beach just in time to

see some sting rays enjoying the warm shallow water in the bay......

after watching them for quite a while

{and taking about a 1000 photos cause I can't help myself} 

we continued on and got to our second farm stay cottage later on in the afternoon - 

just in time for a quick dip in the river to cool off before dinner....

here's Evie trying to decide if she should jump right in.....

or should she take her time?.....

oh, what the heck....... 

there was also a rope swing on the other side of the river that 

Evie and Brian had great fun playing on....... 

there was lots of screaming, especially when Evie got to that 

moment when she let go of the rope and there was no turning back.....

there were the most beautiful horses in the paddock on the way to and from the

river and Evie made sure that she spent a little while making friends with them.....

next morning it was back to the paddock for an early morning stroke before having another swim.......

a lazy day followed {with more exploring and swimming}

and then, for dinner, there was a trip to Colonial, a local brewery 

that makes delicious pizza and has a great Friday night vibe....

and then, as always happens, it was time to head home....

on our way we decided to stop in Busselton for an ice cream.....

Evie couldn't resist the look of the beautiful blue water at the end of the jetty......

so she partook in a little spot of jetty jumping.....

 what a fantastic holiday we had.....

time away making memories together which is what

all the best holidays are about....

a little bit of filling in.....

I started writing this blog when we found out that we were

going to be moving to Oz {for the first time} nearly 7 years ago now.....

I wanted to keep a record of things that we did and to be able to 

share it with family and friends whilst we were so far away from them.....

I actually really enjoy browsing through the old posts now and again,

reminding myself of the adventures and everyday happenings that have been

part of our family life over the last seven years and I am so glad 

that I have kept up posting, even though the posts are sometimes a little sparse.....

{like last year..... three posts for the whole year.....!}

it is like a family journal that we can dip into whenever we wish

 and we can remind ourselves of the journey we are {and have been} on.....

I don't like that I was so lax in recording events last year, so I 

have decided that over the next few weeks I will add in a few posts

about things we did and back date them so they fall in the right places

through the year......

I like to think that, when I am old and the children have left home

and perhaps have homes and families of their own,

that I will be able to sit down and enjoy an hour or two browsing through

this space, remembering the adventures we shared as they were growing up.....

and I look forward to so many more adventures with them in the years that lie ahead....

family days......

we had a little jaunt to Shoalwater Marine Park 

this afternoon, which is about a one hour

drive south of where we live, near the city of Rockingham......

Evie did her sea kayaking adventure here a few weeks ago

with the emergency service cadets from school, so I thought

we could go and have a little gander at where she had been....

the photo below was taken from the beach looking out towards Penguin Island.....

you can catch a ferry from the jetty over to the island but

we just stayed on the beach today as we didn't arrive until mid afternoon

and the ferries stop running fairly early.....

I wasn't up for getting stranded on the island for the night.....

Isaac decided to stay on the beach but Evie {as always} wanted to venture into

the water with her snorkel and mask and see if she could see

any interesting creatures in the sea grass

{that's what all the dark patches are that you can see in the water}.....

on the far right of the photo below is Seal Island

which was also part of Evie's kayaking adventure but which

you are not allowed to land on.....

apparently she saw a ton of seals there on the day she visited.....

Brian joined Evie for the expedition to the sea grasses

to see what they could see....

I, as always, took the photos and paddled.....

{the water was actually pretty warm as it is in a sheltered bay area}

we're off tomorrow on a holiday-away-from-home to the south coast of WA

and are looking forward to exploring that part of the state a little bit......

hopefully there will be lots of photos to share when we return.....