Another fabulous phrase that you hear CONSTANTLY in Australia. No Worries!
Well, we're now in the home stretch of blog posts! ha Only 2 more posts concerning my weekly adventures.
Sunday, Dec. 6th-Today was a sleep-in day...Gab slept until 7am! ha
-P & K have been busy bees today. Pete's family is coming over for Gab's birthday dinner. He was going a little overboard on things, but K seems to have reigned him in! ha There are salads and cupcakes everywhere.
-P's family came over for a late lunch...it was mass chaos! So much fun! :) His dad, Ray. His mom, Carol. His mom's mom "nan", Josie. His sister, Rebecca. His brother-in-law, Kurt. His nephew, Stewart. His niece, Adelaide. It made for a full house, but one full of love and laughter! Gab seemed to enjoy herself. She wasn't too sure of her birthday cupcake. It was funny to watch her hesitation. ;)
Gab trying to figure out her cupcake
the family-Bec, Kurt, Josie, Carol, Ray
more family - Stewie, Karissa, Gab, Pete
-After all the presents were opened, everyone cleared out and we cleaned up.
-To finish the evening, P & K & I watched the other 2 movies we had hired. The Hangover and Four Holidays. You must see them if you haven't! You will not stop laughing!! ha Four Holidays is such a sweet movie too. I've added them to my list of "need to own."
Monday, Dec. 7th-Today after Gab's morning nap we had to head to the doctor's office. Miss G had to get her 1 year needles (shots are what we would say in the states). I sat in the waiting room while P & K went back with G. I could hear Gab scream all the way out front! K didn't take it so well, so it was a good thing Daddy P was there to help hold her down. It probably wouldn't have been so bad, but she had to get 3 shots and she twisted her leg on the 3rd one, so it didn't go in straight.
-It was a quiet day after that...just taking it easy. Miss G not only had to deal with needles, but it appears she has a few more teeth preparing to make their grand entrance. Needless to say, she hasn't been feeling all that great. Do you blame her?!? :p
-I did manage to make it down the beach today! It was a short 1/2 mile walk from P & K's house. If that was all the farther I lived from the beach...I'd be there all the time! ha
beach :)
-Dinner was Bombay Chicken. Yum! If you've never had it, it's chicken stuffed with cream cheese and ham. Quite delicious. Add in a bunch of fresh veggies (another thing I loved about staying with P & K!) and you've got yourself a fabulous and quick dinner.
Tuesday, Dec. 8th-Happy 28th Birthday Karissa (aka Peanut)!!
-In honor of the birthday girl, I treated K & G to lunch at The Dome. It was a beautiful day for eating at the cafe near the waterfront. After lunch, we decided to take a short stroll around Marlston area. The homes in this area are really beautiful and they all have a great view!
-In the evening, Pete had planned a surprise night out for Karissa. Of course, the one flaw in his plan was not telling her until he was getting out of the shower that she needed to change! hahaha Such a man. I kept waiting and waiting for him to say something so she could get ready, but nope...nothing like last minute. ;) Pete's mum, Carol, came over and P ordered us a pizza for dinner. So Carol and I enjoyed an evening in chatting about everything under the sun (literally) while Pete took Karissa out to a nice little restaurant in Bunbury. They enjoyed swordfish for dinner and returned home to a quiet house!
Wednesday, Dec. 9th-This morning K & I are doing laundry and packing things up to spend a few nights in Dunsborough. Pete's Nan owns a house just off the beach so that is where we are headed! :)
-Dunsborough is only an hour drive from Bunbury...although it took us a little longer via a stop in Busselton.
-Nan & Pop's house is straight out of the 70's! Furniture and all! ha It was fabulous. It's a neat house and everything has been taken care of so well. The house definitely reminds me of my grandparent's homes growing up.
Nan's house
me on the beach in Dunny
-During Gab's afternoon nap, I took a stroll along the beach and then decided to walk into town. The house is really perfectly located! It's a stone's throw from the beach and a short 5 minute walk into the city center.
-After P got off work and made the trek to join us, we played with Gab and then had dinner once she was in bed for the night.
Thursday, Dec. 10th-Karissa, Gab, and I walked into town to have breakfast at a little cafe this morning. You could smell the freshly made pancakes when you walked through the front door. HEAVEN! ha I had pancakes with bananas. Karissa had pancakes with strawberries. Very good!
-K stayed home with G while she napped, so I decided to take advantage of the beach. I walked out onto the sandbar, which is really still part of the beach. The water never got higher than my knees! It was fabulous!!!! The sun was bright and hot, there was a nice breeze, and it wasn't too busy. :)
-We also went for a short drive to see some of the local scenery. K took me to see the Canal Rocks. There's a big tidal pool there and you see crabs crawl up on the rocks. We also saw a poisonous snake while there...yikes! :p Some nice gentlemen offered to take a group picture of us, but as you can see, it didn't turn out that well! ha
Canal Rocks...the tidal pool
we attempted a pic together! ha I'm tucking my hair, K is grabbing G's hand, and G is trying to touch my shirt (she loved the shiny vinyl horseshoe)
what a gorgeous view! lookout a little ways from the Rocks
-When Pete returned again after work, all of us walked into town to get groceries for dinner. I'm telling you, it's no wonder people flock to Dunsborough for weekend getaways! It is a super little town with a lovely beach.
*It's also no wonder that Pete's family keeps talking Nan into keeping the house despite unbelievable offers on the property! :p
Friday, Dec. 11th-Got an early start today. Making the drive back to Bunbury so that Gab can take her usual nap. She's not a fan of the porta-cot either! :p Poor thing, hopefully she gets a good rest in her own bed.
-On the way back home, K drove through Dalleyup so I could see a block of land they just sold and another they had for sale. Dalleyup is a community that is growing like weeds! It is pretty quickly becoming it's own city, it even has a school and doctor offices! ha
-Karissa had her Christmas lunch today with the bank (where she works), so I opted to check out the town on foot while she visited with co-workers. I walked around and bought a few last souvenirs. Then I made the hike up to the Lookout Tower so I can take some pictures of the surrounding area. It was tiresome getting up there, but so worth the view!!
a view up the tower from the middle level of the tower
view from the tower
-For dinner, we went to a local Chinese restaurant that everyone loves. It was very good! Authentic Chinese. :) Because I have such amazing friends that wouldn't let me pay for anything while I stayed with them, I insisted on them letting me treat and finally won out! ha
Saturday, Dec. 12th-Happy 25th Birthday Zachy Dale! Happy 2nd Birthday Toby!! :)
-Swim lessons today for Miss G...she seems to be doing much better with being dunked under the water. She's a cute lil fish! ha
-We were already packed up, so after swimming, we stopped for takeaway lunch at KFC and hit the road to Perth.
-After driving for 2 hours, we checked in to the apartment we had reserved. That is definitely the way to go if you are traveling with a little one! We had a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment for the night. Very convenient.
-While G napped, P took me to Garden City (one of the malls) to buy some chocolates from Darrell Lea's.
-That evening, we drove to Fremantle (aka Freo) for my last fish 'n chips at Cicerello's. Freo Wharf is an interesting place. P & K used to frequent this area when they lived in Perth.
sunset at Freo
Freo Wharf
-After dinner, we decided to take a walk into the main part of town and had gelare. Yum! We figured we had partially worked off the calories from dinner on the walk to get ice cream and worked off the ice cream on the way back to the car. hahaha Good thinking anyway! ;)
-We made it back to the apartment in time for Miss G to hit the hay, only about an hour later than normal.
-After G was in bed, P took me up to King's Park so I could see a different view of Perth. It was one of the spots K said I had to visit! I can see why!!! Wow, great view at night. The city was all lit up and it was just tolerable in the darkness. ha It had been about 100F that day, so night time brought relief to that heat.
view of Perth from King's Park at night
-I took some pictures and then we decided to drive through the city (one of the few times there wasn't mega amounts of traffic) to see a few other sights. During the drive I saw the newly renovated
St. Mary's Cathedral. Stunning! Wish I'd had time to see the inside of the church, but it was all over the news, so I did get to see a fair bit of it. Check out the website I linked if you have a chance.
