kalgoorlie crawl

 

i've never been in love with kalgoorlie... but i have to admit we had a blast when we were there last weekend. on the first saturday of the month they have the st barbara's day parade (she's the patron saint of mining and you can read up on her here... she's actually pretty interesting) and it happened to be while we were there.

 

 

huge pieces of mining equipment, bigger than you can even fathom and other local floats make their way down the street (quite frequently cracking the pavement even though their streets are twice as wide as a normal street - no lies, they were built that way so that the camel trains could turn around all those years ago - you need to see this one day - it's incredible!) while everyone watches, cheers and waits for the people in the parade to throw lollies to them. 

 

 

 

this was the final piece of mining equipment to make it's way down hannan street - it was so huge - i can't even explain it - and this photo certainly doesn't do it justice, but the tyres themselves were about twice my height!!

 

 

maddie had the best time, watching and munching on the lollies, from her daddy's arms after being carried on to the main street on his shoulders. watching them together makes me so so happy. i can hardly describe how full my heart is when i see them.

 

mum and dad got to spend the whole weekend from thursday night through to monday with madeline, which is the longest they've ever had with her... i know they enjoyed every minute of it and i am sure she did too. i only wish we lived closer!

 

after the parade we had fish and chips in a local park with the fam, and as you call know, no day with the goodlets is complete without a picture of laura and i like this! ahh, i am sure we will regret these one day!

 

we discovered this koala in the park! what a freaking cutie!

 

doug and laura also decided to break out their best modelling poses for me, i could barely hold the camera still i was laughing so hard! love them both!

 

 

we also after all these years took the night tour around kalgoorlie - and it was so freaking interesting! i found out all this crazy stuff that i hadn't even imagined, including the fact that this beautiful building has been finished with real gold! the local community raised the money required to have the top done a few years back. it looks incredible!

 

it made me a little sad to be honest, as it will probably be the last time we trek out there, donna and the kids are moving to perth as of january (laura has already spent the last year here boarding with pam while she started high school) while jared continues to work dido (drive in drive out) for a few more years. kalgoorlie has served them well and i know they've loved every minute...

 

 

so long kal! it's been gold!

 

ben is 8

 

over the weekend, my adorable nephew ben turned 8! doug, maddie and i made the trip to kalgoorlie, along with my parents to be there for his baptism. it was such a fun family weekend and i was so stoked to spend some time with them all and be there for such a special occasion.

 

ben is such an absolute joy to know, he has been blessed with a caring and giving personality and a wicked sense of fun - i mean c'mon - check out those facials!! hahaha. i am so glad he is a part of our family.

 

in our church, we are not baptised as infants (although we do receive a name and a blessing at a very young age, from a father or another important man in the child's life, involving inspired words.) but have the opportunity to chose at age 8 to be baptised and officially join the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. it's so wonderful to watch the children make that choice and to see them so excited on their special baptism day. ben was no exception, raring to go from the minute we arrived on friday afternoon.

 

i managed to get some beautiful pictures of my nieces and nephews (jared david, grace, emma kate, laura & benjamin l to r) and couldn't resist sharing! i am a very proud aunty and i love them all so very much.

 



 

jared (my old brother) donna and the kids

 

♥♥♥

ben and his dad before his baptism

road tripppppppp!!

doug, maddie and i set off yesterday for our first long road trip since miss madeline was born. off to kal! 6 hours... poor maddie. after breakfast at mum and dad's (where maddie took great care to point out that the milk was not right...) we set off and started the drive

at our stop in merredin maddie decided she was going to have a drive...

beep beeeeeeep - get outta my way!!

 

and apparently wasn't too interested in what i was offering for lunch - and decided to eat her toes instead. mmmmmm. i love jam. toe jam. tasty.

the road to kal is long. very long. and at some points - you can see the road ahead for ages and ages. it's like it will never end. but eventually you make it. we arrived safe and sound and surprised the heck out of jared and donna before moving to rob and biancas to stay. stay tuned for more adventures! ♥

kalgoorlie and more

we have a visitor!

my gorgeous father in law stephen is here to stay with us...

steve posing with a stuffed lion at the kalgoorlie museum

he arrived on thursday night and on friday morning (early...) we took off for a trek to kalgoorlie. i am so proud of myself
- i drove the entire way!!!
but of course, stops are mandatory, and if you time it well enough on a friday morning you can get all four of the
op-shops in on the way...
which we did :)

cunderin, kellerberrin, merredin and southern cross. mmmm bliss

steve was particulary interested in hearing the story of c y o'connor as we drove, about the contribution he made to the goldfields with that amazing engineering feat we know as the goldfields pipeline. i must confess - it's pretty awesome to see following the highway the entire way to kal.

we spent some time with jared and donna and the kids (big shout to laura for so kindly giving up her bed for doug and i!) and looked at the mining museums and town sights like the paddy statue and the mount charlotte resevoir (the end of the pipeline) before heading back to perth sunday afternoon - for a roast dinner at mums and a night there.

mount charlotte- where the pipe-line ends...

and today we went to the other end - the mundaring weir to see the start. i have to admit i am intruiged - looks like i'll be going off to read up on old c y.

mundaring weir - the start of the pipeline

but it's great to have him here... lots of fun to be had!

off on an adventure!

early sunday morning, saying goodbye to the goodlets of kalgoorlie as nonna, aunty jade and laura take off on a week long adventure to melbourne!!!

mum and dad and kids wave goodbye...

laura raring to go!!

5 hours of this most of the way to perth...

so making your own fun is mandatory!

can't wait, can't wait!!!
:)

i'll be back in a week to tell you all about it!
xxx

benny boy @ soccer

and with saturday arrived the cutest thing i have ever seen...
our ben playing soccer! adorable!
his team wooped some ass against the private school kiddies...
and won with ben scoring all but one of the four goals.

maybe we have the next beckham in kal!!

laura turns 12

friday the 13th saw mum, dad and i making the trek up to kal to go to miss laura's 12th birthday. in honour of black friday - guests had to enter the house under a ladder, wear black or inside out clothes and dance under a pile of open umbrellas whilst eating black cats and spiders. yum.

"put your hands up, they're playing my song..."
there's a party in the g-o-o-d-l-e-t house :)

blowing out the candles and making sure to touch the bottom when cutting for extra bad luck!

opening bucketloads of awesome gifts!

i think we can quite safely assume that friday the 13th wasn't unlucky for laura!

happy birthday missie!
xxx