days five and six

I don't recall doing anything on Wednesday. Well, we did make our daily trip into the laundromat to dry laundry. It rained all that first week and we only had 3 outfits each so I needed to keep up with the laundry.And Nathan found ways of amusing himself. He loved to put all the drinks on that mat. We were afraid he was going to roll them down the ramp. And he enjoyed watching Boz on my laptop.
On Thursday we took the kids to a shop in town called The Crystal Caves. We got to put on hardhats with lights and go look at these rooms that had been made to look like caves with crystals and fossils all through them. The pictures don't really convey how cool everything looked because you can't see it well without a flash and the flash washes everything out. The star of the show was the HUGE amethyst geode. The girls loved it.

days three and four

On Monday we went to visit Gallo Dairyland with the Blackmans. We saw them making chocolate and making cheese. There was an animal nursery and one of the calves decided to try eating Catie's jacket. They also had a viewing area so you could watch them milk all 270 cows. They milk at 3:00pm so Josh and the girls didn't get back to see that until the day before we left to come home. No pictures of that though. =( That night the kids and Dave and Grandpa played a round of Mexican Train Dominoes. The next morning the Blackmans packed up in the rain and left to go on up to the tip of Australia. Nathan loved having Asher and the other boys around. He constantly wanted Asher to hold him. The rest of our day consisted of playing around the house and taking laundry to the laundromat to be dried. woo hoo! exciting stuff =)

Day two

Josh set the alarm for 2:00am. We were packed and on the road by 2:33, ready for our 13 hour trip. First sunrise we've seen in a long time. =) After 13 rather uneventful but long hours we arrived in Atherton. Nate got straight out of the car and headed straight for the tractor. I can't find a pic of the house but it was a small old house that we all fit into nice and cozily. I don't think we took pics of the end to end beds either. It was good to see Grandma and Grandpa even though we've seen them fairly recently. Our friends the Blackmans showed up later that afternoon as a stop on their way up to the northern tip of Australia. Thankfully they were camping so Gwen didn't have to find them beds too. =)

Day one

On Saturday the 24th we left Hervey Bay and drove 5 hours north to Rockhampton. We stopped at the Rockhampton Botanical Gardens and Zoo. Nate likes to watch The Zoo on tv so we thought he'd enjoy his first visit to see some animals. And it was free so win/win. The little koala in the enclosure was so active. He kept running back and forth and getting as close as he could to people. We enjoyed the time there before heading to where we stayed for the night.

how to start?

it's late Sunday night and we've been home for just about 24 hours. I don't even know where to start with all the photos and everything. You might just get a day by day accounting of what we did and see the photos. However, there are hundreds of photos so not sure that would work. Anyway, can't think much tonight so will just leave you with some of the names that caught my eye as we travelled for just under 4200k.

• Alligator Creek--all 4 of them that we saw
• The "Tree Creeks" Apple Tree Creek, Cherry Tree Creek, Cabbage Tree Creek, Fig Tree Creek, Plum Tree Creek
• The "Mile Creeks" 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 and 14 mile creeks. Yes, Mom, I saw a Five Mile Creek!! Just not THE Five Mile Creek
  
• Nathan Street
• The town of Brandon (tried to take photos of it for my nephew but by the time I had the camera ready the town was gone.)
• Two roads called Gentle Annie Road

There were lots of interesting places and names but those caught my attention for various reasons. Anyway, I'll start posting photos tomorrow.

another sneak peek

Sneaky Peek

a few photos from our time in Atherton. Lots more to come when we get home =)