Hijinks in Hyden

So did ya guess where my 'teaser' photo was from??,

It was on top of Wave rock near Hyden about 5 hours south east from us, Jamie and I woke up at "stupid o'clock" or 3am in regular time, but we left home at around 5ish, we drove along for an hour or so to arrive at one of favourite places, York, for a BBQ breakfast.  I was hoping for a shot of the sunrise, but after an almost 20min wait at a a train crossing, we couldn't get to the ideal spot in time :(

So a  breakfast of fried egg sangas and a stretching of the legs (and voices!!) at our fav. park, before we set off again for Hyden.

You see Samuel and Lily
 warming their hands over the BBQ's? :)

About 20 mins out from York, Sophie decided she wasn't fussed on breakfast, and decided to bring it up...all over her and her car seat...urk! So  in freezing temperatures, we had to strip poor ol' Sophie down to her nappy and Claire's (thankfully!) spare coat,  the rest of the drive was uneventful and we arrived in Hyden, and found a cute little boutique with beautiful clothes, but with jumpers at$50 a pop, a bit overpriced for our purposes!, around the corner was a huge 2nd hand, shop and i was able to get 2 outfits  and a 'designer' shirt i will post to Baby Jack all for $5, 10x better value yeah  ;)

So onto Wave Rock we went...

From another angle

Jamie took the three biggies around the long way, while the little girls and i took the short cut.
See the crest of the hill in the background?, they went further than that around the 'back', The girls and i walked across the 'front'. there was a 'bridge' along the length that they walked along holding hands the entire time (soooo cute!) then they found some 'fool's gold' and busily searched for some loose pieces

Also all over the rock (granite) face were these little clumps of moss and lichen, they were beautiful little bursts of colour, all over the the brown, brown, brown surroundings.

On top of the 'wave' were a clump (?) of rocks/boulders,( amazing how landscapes are formed!)
So while we waited for Jamie and the rest of the crew to get back we did some climbing and had a bit of fun.

see, they are "stopping" the boulder from rolling away ;P

Poser     :D

When Jamie and Co. caught up we had some more climbing and fun.

Heh heh heh "Daddy's rock...... Clairebear's Rock"

"parrot rock"

And just some proof, that i was actually there :)

 After that we headed across the road where we took in the Toy Soldier Museum/display.

I can't remember the name, but a local bloke over 30(?) odd years has collected all these tin soldiers, over 6000 of them!     

They have been set up into all their different wars/time periods, along with some copies of historic newspaper headlines relating to them.  The display was "in progress" so their were incomplete displays, and a bit of a hodge-podge, but i think we would definitely visit again, if we ever explore this area again - easily a 2 day trip to explore properly.

In the same building was a lace museum, a wildflower display and entry to a wildlife park/farm along with some other local history displays. Tempers were fraying at this point in time, so we decided it was best to discover it all another time.

So heading home we drove through Corrigin where, always on the lookout for "big things" we saw this...

Corrigin is, it seems, famous for "Dog in a Ute"   a fundraising gathering of Australia's icons of, you guessed it, Dogs in Utes . A huge record number of 1527 Aussies gathered on 13 April 2002 to smash Victoria's previous attempt of 797 in 2000.

After a quick photo op. we were off on our way again, until somewhere along the way, Sophie again decided to remind us of what she'd eaten for lunch... double urk! We think she may have been getting carsick, so have re-arranged the truck to have her sitting in the front with Jamie and I. ( Samuel was none too happy with that arrangement let me tell you :D oh well. )

So with our obligatory purchases...

 that was our day trip to Hyden and the famous Wave Rock, perhaps i might  be more prompt in letting you in our adventures a little earlier next time??  We can only hope :D

OXOXoxoxoxoxox

BJslkcs

Sooo Slack, so very very slack

Oh dear shame on me, so much to report yet so far behind, i hope all is forgiven by the end of the post ;D


so sometime waaaaay back in May, i left off with the revelations of our blocked drainage What a joy that was.... NOT!

I left it for a few days hoping and praying it wasn't the children's fault....that is still undecided, so after a weekend of sinks and toilets not emptying i gave in and called the real estate, as it had started causing trouble in the kitchen.


Can you imagine that with about
 4 inches of filthy water?? I can!



So Tuesday rolls around, and the plumber turns up, to save me from my woes,  and after being interrogated by the children on the various tools of his profession, he proceeded to unblock the offending drains



the girls fleeing a
possible poo sighting

 



So it turns out, it has been a problem before, as the pipes have been dug up already, and the kitchen was involved because it runs under the house and junctions with the laundry,toilet and bathroom, the plumber says there is a defect in the pipes he 'felt' when he put the grabby/pusher thingy through the pipes, i.e. a tight corner where there should not be one. one last note on the plumbing woes of this house, the dish washer has  died also....did i tell you i'm moving when the lease runs out??? they ARE replacing the DW though...in JULY! *sigh*

A very quick update, as it's been too long for a blow-by-blow account for me to remember, (i'm sure they are not that interesting any way??)

So Mum and Steve came over we did lots of stuff, spent too much money, oh yes and played heaps on their new iTouch/iPod thingy, i soooo badly want one for all the neat apps for school-stuff. AWESOME!, plus it would give the nintendo DS a break too (i'll have to post about that one day...)

So fast forward to June, Jamie has F.I.N.A.L.L.Y been given the go ahead for Barrow Island

He is home at the present moment for inductions and training, and for now, we are a 'normal' family again, with Daddy driving to work....AND coming home the SAME day ;D. That's right you read correctly, i have relinquished my precious Truck to my one and only. If i hadn't we would have had 6am wake up calls to drive him from hither to yonder. 'Serena' our trusty  GPS, will (had better!) do her job helping navigate the unfamiliar terrain.

Also, we have had some excursions and continue with our regular Homeschool group,

Most recently (but a while ago now) we took in the Naturaliste Marine Discovery Centre with a friend who lives 'down the street'

Samuel and his 'mini-me' ~J~

sooo cute tail dress ups :)

Yeah i dunno what else i was going to say as i was interrupted for a few days about this post so it's all gone again.....

So here are some more random photos from our week *ahem* month...



Lily's collection of pandas continues to multiply,
37 at last count i think???
Can you believe those two biggies, came from a charity store!

Claire's insisted upon outfit
to the park the other day.



Sophie "doing school"

Kaytie's 2nd lost tooth with a 3rd on the way.

And last of all, a teaser for what we did the other day, wonder if you'll guess????

Time to sign off as the V8 racing is finished,

and I'm being not so subtly glared at by a particular big person who happens to be doing the washing.......

OXOXoxoxoxoxox

BJslkcs