Wilson's Promanatory- Victoria's national park!

Since it is summer we took a few days to drive two house south to Wilsons Prom. If you look on a map it is as far south as you can get directly above Tasmania. We went on a beautiful day and as you can see the drive was stunning!

Wilsons Prom is a national park, so once we were inside it was pure nature. The kids had a fabulous time swimming around and exploring!

When the sun started to set we headed over to "squeaky beach" Squeaky beach earned its name from the noise it makes when you walk on the sand. The sand is very white and pure and it squeaks because of the high concentration of silica in the sand.

I wanted a picture with Thomas but he kept trying to do a super hero pose, so here I am holding his hands down :-)

Now he is "kissing me" but really he is trying to strangle me-

Miss Olivia

Our whole family! The sunset was beautiful- I wish we were all in decent clothes and not camping as we could have had a Christmas card photo for 2013 all ready to go!

Stanford!

While driving to our camp spot we spotted a wombat- we pulled over to chase it down... but it got away!

In the morning we woke up to this beautiful patch of country- we set our tent up in the dark so we had no idea what we were next too!

 

On our way home we stopped by a dairy farm for breakfast...it was SO YUMMY- we also got to pet the animals (Mary let a goat escape...but Stan got her back in before the staff realized what had happened) I love the outdoors, and another successful camping trip!

New Years Eve!

For New Years Eve we drove 45 minutes south to the Mornington peninsula. We spent the day on the beach and in the evening we got pizza and ice cream and waited for it to get dark. It doesn't get dark until 9:00 pm as it is summer over here.

To kill some time Olivia took up bridge jumping with this 11 year old boy...Olivia had some moves :-)

Mary jumped from the lower platform!

Here in the bigger cities, the fireworks are set off at two different times. There is a 9:00 firework display for families with children and then a midnight firework display for those willing to go the distance. We read in the newspaper that if you drive out to the peninsula you can see all three sets of fireworks set off over the city. Since it was our first new years in Melbourne we took the advice and drove down.

Unfortunately we needed binoculars to see the fireworks from this far away. After the 9:00 display we jumped in our car and headed back to the city. We got home in time for the midnight fireworks (our house is 20 minutes outside the city) and could see the fireworks from our bedroom window perfectly. This just goes to show you don't need to drive far away when paradise is sitting on your back door!

Either way, we had a fabulous time--here is a picture of the Melbourne 2013 fireworks--complements of the internet :-)

Christmas Day!

Christmas Morning!  The kids woke up around 7:00 am and after breakfast we 

Eggnog and french toast!

Thomas was on the "naughty list" so he only got one gift...a transformer from Santa :-)

Mary and Olivia were on the "maybe list" and did very well!

Here is my gift from Olivia, a beautiful poem that she wrote at school for me :-)

Littlest Pet Shops...we cannot get enough

Thank goodness for grandparents who sent Thomas a few gifts

Mary with a new coat- thanks Grandma & Grandpa

some more gifts from grandparents :)

Uncle Dan & Aunt Katie gave Olivia a Science game

Books!

Clothes

And more toys from grandparents...Thomas you lucky boy!

Stan finally got a toaster- the only thing he wanted all year! 

Each kid got another kid a gift this year. With only three kids, there is no need to draw names out of a hat! Here is an egg that Mary got Olivia. The kids were so excited to put their gifts for each other under the tree.

Awe- we love this Christmas book!

After Christmas we went over to a really good friends house (Suzanne Whitmarsh) for Christmas lunch. Suzanne is very classy so we had the full spread of china dishes outside on the veranda overlooking the pool and palm trees. The food was divine and as always I can learn a thing or two from Suzanne about how to host a great party! Sadly there are no pictures!

 Merry Christmas and a happy new year!