Our routine way of life

We have settled into a real routine now and I must say I'm loving it. No appointments or committments other than those we choose to make. Lots of free time to play or do absolutely nothing at all! Chris is loving his job and the kids seem to enjoy school most days. All in all life is wonderful for the Stevenson family and every day I am grateful that we have the opportunity to be on this exciting adventure that is our life.

We are now counting down our time here in Mirani, having heard only this week that the "crush" (or cane season) will be finished by the end of October, if not sooner. We had a look at the map this morning, one of my favourite things to do, to plan our move across to Darwin and I'm getting so excited now! Have been on the phone to Caz and she thinks we would be better to stay at her place in the bus rather than spend all our money on site fees at a caravan park for 6 months. No arguments there, but I don't think she realises how BIG we actually are. Waiting for some photos of her driveway to see if taking down the front fence will give us enough room to actually get up the drive. Luckily she wants a new front fence anyway, so Chris is the man for the job!
My beautiful children with Laura's new "puppy".
Had a visit to the skate park last week, just up the road from where we live. As you can see Will was a natural (as long as he didn't go near any ramps!), then he hit the deck pretty quickly, but to his credit he got back up and tried again, and again...and again! Glad to report there were no major injuries, despite all the crashes, but I had the ambulance ready on speed dial, just in case.

Laura and Chris found a safer(?!!) way to go down the ramps which was just as exciting and with only half as many spills.

I captured this special moment while the kids were getting ready for bed one night. Both of them crammed into Laura's bed reading a story. Awww, cute hey?
Yes, I know this photo is a bit blurry, I didn't realise the night setting had to be still for a few seconds before it took the shot. But ignoring my lousy camera skills I still think it looks amazing! This is the cane field out the back of the caravan park which had been cut that day and was being burnt off to remove all the rubbish.

We went to the beach at Dolphin Heads on Chris' last days off. The tide was out and had left a couple of big "puddles" so the kids jumped in for a dip on their boogey boards. The poor things didn't realise the rocks at the bottom were really sharp and they came out with cuts and scrapes all over their hands and legs. Lucky for them there were no sharks in the puddle!
The kids were more careful climbing around these rocks looking for "treasures".

The fisherman, waiting for that elusive fish, which just won't come!!!

So today Chris is off to the river to try his hand at some lure fishing instead. Then tomorrow he hopes to go out in a boat with a bloke from his work to try for a barra. You have to give the man credit, despite his crappy track record since we left Colac, he just refuses to give in. I have the freezer emptied in the hope that tomorrow night it will be full of barra fillets. And I have all of my fingers and toes crossed too!

I will finish off with some very exciting news...just heard yesterday that Tanya, Elliott and the kids are going to come up here for a short visit before we leave Mirani. Haven't heard actual dates yet but I'm already making plans and getting things organised. I can't help it, I'm an organiser, that's what I do! It will be after the pool here has opened and if yesterday's weather in Colac is anything to go by, they will be thrilled just to lay by the pool for the 4 days, soaking up the beautiful rays. Ah, the serenity!

Bosco and Sawyer

I should have put these photos on weeks ago, but better late than never. These are some good friends (the Edward's family) who have now left Mirani caravan park and are making their way back home to Victoria, via Darwin!! They live not too far from us (at Torquay) so we will catch up with them in 2010-11 when we get back that way. We need to see how large the LEGO collection has grown by then!

Laura and her buddy Bosco.

Laura on the swing with Sawyer.

Lance is here playing soccer with Will and Bosco on the grass out the back of our site (if you can call it grass!) Not surprisingly they were all exhausted when they had finished.

The kids have made a quite a few friends lately which has been wonderful for them. They met some great kids, Marc and... I'm sorry to say I don't know how to spell the young girl's name, but then only got to play for 1/2 a day because the family had to move on to Airlie Beach. This week they have made friends with Zac and Allan who come up regularly with their Mum (from Burpengary) to visit their Grandparents who live here in the park. Even tho' they are leaving tomorrow, they will be back in a month or so to visit again, so the kids will look forward to that. The boys are the same age as our kids and they get along really well. It's nice to see them playing with new friends, they haven't really had a chance to meet other kids until now and I know they get sick of each other at times. At the moment (just to prove me wrong) they are outside eating lunch in a cubbie they've made from old blankets and towels draped over chairs. They are behaving like the best of friends and I am going to have my lunch, put my feet up, and see how long it lasts...

Good times...

These first few photos are to finish off my last entry, which I was too lazy to do! While Don and Bett were still up here we went for a drive to the local dam. The boys threw a few lures (but no bites) and we then all enjoyed a lovely bag of nibbles and finger food, which also served as lunch. The kids had a great time getting their feet wet and as you can see the weather was lovely.

Bett relaxing by the dam, with Chris giving Will a few pointers in the background.

Now back to the latest news...This weekend Chris and I took the kids for a lovely Sunday drive to Finch Hatton to go to the local market. Chris had heard the advertisement for it on the radio while he was working and thought it might be nice. Unfortunately, when we got there, there wasn't a soul in sight. No markets, no stalls, nothing! Maybe Stevo needs better ventilation in his tractor, perhaps the exhaust fumes are getting in?!! Luckily it was a beautiful day so we weren't fussed and decided to head over to Sarina for a walk on the beach. On the way we stopped at Cattle Creek for this next photo opportunity. It's a very rocky bottomed creek, but Stevo wasn't interested, no good fishing spots!!

We jumped back in little Jimny and continued on towards Sarina, but along the way we passed a sideshow. I wanted to walk on the beach, but as we live in a democratic world I was outvoted 3 to 1 and we went to the show. We brought lunch and the kids had a ball on the blowup slides, dodgem cars and running around in the enormous worm. We even got lucky by coming in as the lady on the ticket booth was packing up, so we didn't have to pay, yippee! Saved heaps $$!! By the time we were done we were too tired to do anything but head for home, thinking we might stop to have a quick look in a bric-a-brac store in Mackay for a few things we wanted...forgetting that Mackay doesn't have Sunday trading. Bummer, foiled again! Someone did not want us to spend our money that day, how lucky were we?!!

Laura having a blast and Will waiting patiently for his turn.