We found Ricks old scout jumper today while having a big sort out of things. Toby thought he would try it on for size ...

It was a perfect fit!

Just need a photo of Tricky in it at the same age to compare.

Hard to believe Rick was once that size .....

Kerrie

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Sophie turns eleven

The photos seem to have landed themselves all out of order here so this is a bit of a jumbled update.

The main news is that Sophie had her eleventh birthday on Thursday, however it all started the Saturday beforehand with a party at the local ice skating rink. The boys were not game to party with the girls so took off for a bit of car racing . While they were out doing laps in Grouch with other car fans Sophie and ten friends tackled the ice .....

Rick and Toby on the track

The party is started

Sophie with her besties ...

more cars ...

Sophie and the gorgeous Ella at the family lunch the following Saturday (today) to continue the celebrations

Me and Ella. She is such a happy wee thing. She was all rugged up for the cold today in her winter party dress and tights ... just delicious.

Kerrie

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Mothers Day

A great day today - tea and newspaper in bed followed up by a full cooked brekkie, a drive up to the Sunshine Coast hinterland, a relaxing bush walk with the Knights at our favourite park and a buffet lunch at our favourite local. Just how a weekend should be!

Group photo at the start of the walk

Tricky took the opportunity to wear his new hiking boots to try and wear them in (he had a few blisters after last weeks effort). If anyone has any tips on how to stop them squeaking please let us know.

All the boys together

Liam and Rick horsing around

Ok well lets just sit on Dad ....

I'm back!!

Once again it has been a long time between posts and a catch up is well overdue. There has been a lot happening over the last few months but rather than waffle on now I'll put a whole lot of pictures in and put waffle around them.

The gorgeous Ella with the lovely Sophie who is very pleased to have another female cousin at last

Toby turned nine in April, and we were lucky enough to have Mum over here as well to help us celebrate. Heres some of the boys checking out the birthday cards

Meanwhile the girls congregated for a bit of a photo opportunity

There was lots of cake and silliness going on ...

Meanwhile Ella continued being gorgeous

Mum left that night and after dropping her off at the airport we went to Hogsies at Toby's request. He consented to a photo with Dad but drew the line at posing with the big pink hog that was walking around the restaurant ....

Here's the girls on the other side of the table

For the first week of the school holidays we were lucky enough to have the use of Ange and Zanes place up at Twin Waters which was a very welcome escape from Brisbane. The weather wasn't flash but that didn't stop us from getting out and about. Thats Sophie in the orange top about to leap off the trampoline.

Despite a distinct lack of wind between the ferocious storms sailing was a popular activity

As well as the obligatory posing every time a camera was within sight!

Zero wind did not deter Sophie from having a go at wind surfing ... who needs wind anyway when Dad is there to lend a helping hand

Sophie got brave and decided to tackle the trapeze one afternoon...

She told me that right about at this point her hands became strangely sweaty and her legs felt a bit trembly

Off in full flight on the practice run ...

Legs over ....

and reach ....

And then the real thing

contact ...

holding on for dear life ...

and phew, we all relaxed considerably

She even got a certificate for completing it. I think I should have got a certificate for watching it.

Over the several long weekends we have had, we have done a fair amount of hiking. This particular walk was on Labour Day, and is in Cunningham's Gap south of Brisbane. It was a 10km hike up to the top of a very big hill and back down again. Interestingly this was the only walk we have ever done where we have seen snakes on the track ... which made for a few heart-stopping moments. The vote was then unanimous that Rick walked out the front making lots of noise with his boots ...

At the top of Mount Mitchell - there was only a very small area to stand on, with sheer cliff faces on three sides. Some of us got trembly legs when we looked at just how high we were ... Sophie for some reason was absolutely fearless and could not understand why she couldn't just walk to the edge and look over.

Very sheer drop to Ricks left

The views were awesome and pretty much 360 degrees

Then it was back down again, blessed relief for the legs!

Well that's all for now, hope everyone is well.

Kerrie

Flood cleanup

After days of being stuck inside because of the rain we decided to get out and about and have a walk on the beach at Sandgate. We were so not prepared for what we were confronted with when we got out of the car. After having watched endless footage on TV of the unfolding dramas in the city area affected by flood, we didn't stop to think where all of the debris that we had seen flowing down the Brisbane River had gone. We found the answer for some of - the once lovely Sandgate foreshore.

Cleanup was in progress and obviously had been for some time, but the devastation was still very evident. We took a short walk and a few photos which we thought you might find interesting given our time living out there, but the smell was pretty bad and the debris was full dangerous things that we weren't sure were dead or not (ie stonefish, snakes, toads ...)

One of the first things we came across was this watertank - I can only imagine how far this thing has travelled over the last few days

There were trucks coming every couple of minutes to take debris away

We saw LOTS of these things - very poisonous apparently so we kept well clear

Also I lost count of the number of pumpkins we saw ... I guess someones vege shop or truck of veg got washed out

I think this was previously a pontoon on the Brisbane river in the city

More pontoon

Yet another piece of pontoon or boardwalk or whatever it was

And some more ...

I kid you not I was watching footage of the Brisbane river in the city and actually saw this (or at least one exactly like it) flow under the Gateway Bridge

There were bulldozers ...

The water is just pure mud - like Sophie so eloquently put it - this place looks like a dump

The smell emanating from this was overwhelmingly bad

Sophie and I surveying the mess in disbelief

All this is nothing though in comparison to what thousands of people not far from us are going back home to now. Whole suburbs have been wiped out and are just a heaving mess of mud and debris, and people are literally standing with just the clothes on their backs and little else.

We feel so lucky to have escaped the flood waters at our place and feel the pain of those who weren't so lucky.

Rick has registered to go and help clean up peoples homes over the weekend and I can't begin to imagine the sights he will be seeing.

Back soon with another update

Kerrie

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