a trip to rottnest

sam swears that her main draw card to want to visit perth was to see a quokka. i distinctly remember when she told me she was obsessed with quokkas and seeing one and i responded with, "what? they are eveywhere at rottnest. but i have lived in perth more or less my entire life and have never been there." and then it was decided. we would go to rottnest!

issue: new born baby. cannot swim, or cycle with said baby.

resolution: bus tour. no swimming, no cycling - this time around. another rottnest trip will need to be made at some stage in the future. 

so. we booked our rottnest day, for sam's last full day in perth. i practiced tying the baby carrier, got a big hat and lots of suncream ready - and prayed that alex would make it through a long day without any major issues.

murphys law. things with a newborn will never go smoothly. we are literally about to walk out of the house and alex hurls all over the place. we drive as fast as is legally possible, but we can see there is no way we will make our ferry. i called them on the way there and it was no issue at all, we were just moved to the next ferry. easy! so we had a poke around in fremantle for a few minutes, bought some vanilla slice (i don't know what the hell this girl has been up to on previous visits to australia, but seriously, what the hell kind of person hasn't tried vanilla slice?!) visited elizabeths bookstore (best bookstore ever!) and then headed on down to the ferry terminal. right on time. day is back on track. 

by the way. how cute are the cranes at the port. i love that they look like dinosaurs.

i actually loved the ferry ride across to rottnest. a quick half hour ride... alex got comfortable in his carrier and went off to sleep straight away. i took that as a good sign that the day was going to go well.

and it did! what a beautiful place we have right on our doorstep! this is the view from the top point on the island where the cannons were set up. there is a tour of the tunnels that was included in our day long bus tour, but alex woke up right as it began, so feed number one for the day was at the top, as the rest of our group went exploring. 

i would absolutely recommend the tour we did. our bus drove around the entire island and our (very knowledgeable) tour guide told us everything cool there was to know about the island and even answered all the random questions people (including myself) had about other things we passed.

including the little rottnest island cemetery, which of course, i had questions about. fun fact: you can no longer be buried there, which i expected.

there was amazing, perfect beaches all the way around and i was just blown away by the beauty of it all. i absolutely want to go back and i can now see why everyone raves about it.

i mean, seriously. look at the views. 

and the colour of the water

it's all so pretty!

the lighthouse was gorgeous too, i will absolutely be climbing that next time.

we had such a good day. little alex slept the day away, only waking up one other time (he had another feed and went straight back to sleep) until we were just about back at fremantle. the day certainly got better, what an angel child!

and sam got to see her precious quokkas, so the day was absolutely worth it

unfortunately they weren't playing as nice as instagram claims they should be, but she did get a few pics with them and a lot of them.

they are super adorable. it certainly is tempting to scoop one up and sneak them home

our last pic before jumping on the ferry to go back home (in which you can see baby alex neatly tucked away and snoozing in)... what an incredible day it was! thanks for coming all the way to perth to drag me to rottnest sam. it was totally worth it! ♥

church in northam with a kangaroo

i think i could quite safely say that today was another highlight for sams time in australia, getting to cuddle a baby kangaroo at church!

we headed off for church in northam as a friend of mum and dads in their branch is raising a baby kangaroo that was separated from its mother. she (as you can see highlighted here) was chuffed beyond belief getting to have cuddles to her hearts content without the standard wildlife park staff hovering hahaha.

mads got in on the action too and was loving it

while doug did what i really wanted to do and had a snooze in the corner with baby. ♥

mundaring weir

after a lazy morning, we decided to do something different this afternoon and take sam to visit the mundaring weir and show off the awesome pipeline that takes fresh water to the goldfields. it's a really cool place to see... except not so much today... boo.

we discovered on arrival that the walk across the actual weir was being fixed up, so we were left having to look from the sides, which wasn't quite as cool as walking across the top of the actual dam, but it's still awesome to see. 

there is so much amazing history in wa, and the story of the kalgoorlie pipeline is one of my favourites, you can read more about it here 

plus, on the other side of this concrete...

there is a beautiful view! i'll have to make sure to take the kids back to look once the walk is open again, it's so awesome to see!

mundaring weir fail haha. thank goodness the drive is pretty. 

a day in freo

today we went off to one of my favourite places in the world - fremantle. i couldn't possibly have let sam come to perth and not shown off my precious freo! of course first stop was the prison. the tours have changed since i last went, so i found myself learning lots of new information on our way around, whilst trying to keep joseph in check and feeding baby a along the way. sam must think she's in a madhouse.

fun fact #1 fremantle prison only closed in 1991, basically coming down to the fact that the cells didn't have running water and it would have cost a fortune to fit it. 

inside the more modern block. this is the first time i've been on a tour that goes in here... all the others covered the older areas.

front view of the prison as the tour ends and you walk back to the front gates. the large piece on the right is the chapel. 

chapel view from the front

fun fact #2 the video clip for the acdc song jailbreak was shot in the chapel.

i love the prison and learning more about it. you can learn way more about it here. what a cool place to explore.

of course a visit to fremantle is not complete without visiting the markets. although they aren't nearly as fun these days as they seemed to me as a child (but really what is these days?!) they are still amazing, full of awesome food, colours, displays and just a cool atmosphere. i don't think they'll ever close.

we wandered down to the fishing boat harbour a bit later in the day, to get some fish and chips for lunch. (also a freo must!) we love this funky freo sign and decided to get some more pics with it (last set can be found here, along with the reason we love it haha)

me: joseph come and have a photo with this heart.

joseph: no

me: aunty dom will love it

joseph: (runs over) okay!

oh that kid. the cutest, but the actual worst.

one last walk back to the car past the bon scott statue and then out of freo we went

fun fact #3 in my early days working at the funeral home, i was rostered on to assist with a funeral at fremantle cemetery. i was wandering back to the main gate, when i was stopped by a couple who asked me where they might locate bon scott. before i continue yes, i had heard of acdc, but really only knew their music and definitely not the names of any members of the band. i said, "does he work here?" they lost it laughing and said, "noooo, he was the lead singer of acdc, he's dead and his ashes are buried here." me: ohhhhhhhhhhh. i have since learned the location of his ashes and where the bon scott memorial entrance to the fremantle cemetery is... but oh did doug and i have a laugh about that. he still brings it up occasionally and we'll have another giggle. 

we made one more stop on the way home up west coast highway... at cottesloe beach. it was the perfect afternoon, beautiful outside - and sam loved having a wander while joseph had a play and i fed alex yet again...

here's our pommy girl loving the late afternoon sunshine and the beach.

i hope she's loving her stay here. it's amazing finally getting to know her. ♥

the blue boathouse, kings park and the swan view tunnel

i am truly trying to pack as much into each day as i can while sam is holidaying with us. so today we set off on an adventure that lasted us the entire day. after the kids were safely packed off to school again, we headed for perth city! off to kings park (of course, who doesn't take overseas visitors to kings park?!) but first off, a stop at the blue boat house on crawley bay. you can read about it's history here. it's always had a firm place in my heart, doug and i even had some of our wedding photos taken by it all those years ago. 

it's so pretty, i couldn't resist showing her. i was just hoping the whole time that she didn't think i was a total weirdo,

but judging by the smile on her face in this pic, i'd say she liked it just fine. 

next stop, the top of perth - kings park. baby alex was dying for a feed by then, so we dropped sam off to do the tree top walk while we went and found a shady spot to sit at the pioneer womens memorial.

 i was talking to mum on the phone for a few minutes while he lay on the lawn and oh my word, we were fully being stalked by magpies! poor alex was completely unaware, while those black and white beaky fowls circled him waiting for an in. until i yelled at them, threw a wipes container and clapped my hands a few times. i must have looked like a freaking fool, but i swear they were plotting to have him for lunch. not on my watch mate!

we stopped off for some pics of the perth skyline from the front of the park...

(views for dayssss)

before heading back to ellenbrook for school pick up. damn kids. 

after school was off to the old swan view train tunnel in the john forrest national park. i love the bushy walk out to the tunnel with its gorgeous views (because really, this right here is australia!)

and the tunnel itself is amazing too. (you can read here about why it was closed off.) it's design and old style are super cool and i love going on to look at it.

this little dude wasn't too impressed with the situation, and skulked about a bit, refusing to go in, while sam and maddie had a look around. what a cute angry face he has!

cuddles with mum helped a little, and he was happy to wait until they were done so we could walk back.

what a gorgeous view huh!

highlight of my day though, had to be taking sam to have her very first golden gaytime. only the best australian icecream ever (if you haven't tried one yet, there is something wrong with you and you should immediately) whose name has somehow survived possible banning and stayed strong as an aussie icon. they are delicious!

cheers sam! here's to the best time you'll ever have in australia haha!