adelaide road trip part 2 - the Great Ocean Road

On our way to Melbourne from Adelaide we drove part of the Great Ocean Road. I would have liked to do the whole thing but the kids were cranky and we just wanted to get to melbourne. WE did visit the 12 apostles and other rocks around that area which I just loved. They just looked amazing and much better then any picture can capture. I would definately love to go back there again without kids or when they are a little older and spend more time walking around

ADelaide Road trip part 1

A few weeks ago matt and I and the two little boys took a last minute trip to ADelaide to buy a new car. It was zacks first plane ride so he was really excited and he was really good for the first leg of the flight. but from melbourne to Adelaide he pretty much sat on my legs a cried.(wont be taking him again in a hurry!) I had never been to Adelaide so I was excited to see it. WE were only planning a few hours there after we had the car but I figured I could see a little. I think by the time we had picked up our new car I was pretty happy that i had seen enough of ADelaide....it was much nicer in my imagination! However it was nice to see and the beach was lovely. We also got to visit haighs chocolate factory, unfortunately we did not buy enough chcocolate but we have learnt for next time!. we also got to have a quick visit with our sis inlaw Lisa and meet her beautiful little girl Isabelle and introduce Zack and sam to her as they had never met her before. It was great catching up as we hadnt seen her in about 5 years.unfortunately we were too busy catching up that i forgot to get a photo.

WE also had a quick drive by the Adelaide temple ( and ate our maccas in the carpark). before heading off in our new car to Mount Gambier where we were spending the night. Mount Gambier was pretty ordinary but we did love visiting the blue lake. I had never heard about it before until just before our trip but it was pretty cool.

My Grandpa

Back in Early June my Grandpa passed away. He had advanced dementia so while it was a sad day knowing he was no longer with us in any way , it was also nice to know he had been relieved from living in his dementia world. he No longer remembered us and that in itself was very hard to watch. Grandpas Funeral was a lovely day of catching up with family that I hadnt seen in a while...some a long time. especially all my Docking Cousins. He was So loved by his grandkids with all but 2 of his grandkids able to be there. It still doesnt seem real that he is no longer apart of this world. It was a lovely funeral ( as lovely as they can be) with much of the family taking part in both big and little ways.

Turning 3

Zack turned 3 back in April. It was the first birthday that he was really excited about. He didnt care about presents but he did care about his cake and going to higs breath ( which is something we do on each persons birthday in our family). Zack is obsessed with higs breath he is always asking to go and counting down until the next birthday. we didnt do a party but he had a great day at home and loved going to collect his cake from my mums sister who makes cakes for a living ( i didnt have it in me to make a cake this year). he chose Thomas and I was glad that she made it and not me. it looked fantastic and Zack was very pleased. He had an awesome time at Hogs breath being super excited the entire time. however after hogs breath we had both grandparents come up after for cake and he just crashed. Happy zack turned into grumpy zack , not even wanting to blow out his candles ( his big brothers had to help!). It was just too much for him! but he had a great day and he still talks about it 4 months later!

Sam's Blessing Day

Its been so long and some of these catch up post will be a little out of order as Sams blessing took place before his surgery..if I had blogged about it at the time I would have remembered if it was march or april :) But a photo memory of the day i do have of those who assisted in his blessing.

catching up again...april 16th 2012

OUr c Finding time to update the blog is so hard. Zack gets into everything so I cant take my eyes off him for a minute or who knows what he will be destroying...hopefully with all the kids home today they are keeping some sort of an eye on him. trying to catch up as this is sort of a family journal. April 16 2012 was one of the longest and scariest days of my life...sending my baby in for surgery. None of my kids have had surgery except Sam. This was his second ( his first was when he was 3 weeks old) but this was a biggie. He was having a pyleplasty on his left kidney. basically cutting the connection of the ureter to the kidney. cutting out the blocked bit and reattaching. It was meant to be 2-3 hours however is was more like 3-4 hours long. Iw as so worried that something might go wrong, he may not wake up or that they would botch his circumcison which he was having at the same time.. since none of my others have been circumcised I was quite stressed about it but his surgeon had insisted it was neccessary with his kidney problems. His surgery went well and then we started a very long 8 days in hospital. But as it is in Hobart there were certainly plenty of familier faces both staff and patients to help make the time go a little faster. Hwoever we were certainly relieved when his drain finally came out and we were allowed to go home. Thankfully since then he hasnt had any problems. His kidneys are still screwed but the surgery has hopefully stopped any further damage to the kidneys. were are still waiting to hear about his 3 month post surgery test results but I am hopeful that kidney function hasnt got any worse in that kidney..the right kidney who knows. that one is certainly harder to fix and may not be worth fixing since its already low functioning.