kings park in the holidays

we are so so lucky to live where we do. surrounded by amazing weather all year round, awesome things to do (and so many of them are free!), beautiful things to see and gorgeous parklands. after our morning at the subiaco library, we took the kids over to kings park for a picnic, a play and a bit of a stroll.

we headed out over the path towards the treetop walk, because in all these years we have never done it... and now i seriously regret not going to look at it sooner, it is a-ma-zing. seriously, look at these views. kings park is situated above perth city, looking down from west perth and has views for dayssss.

like this one, of my favourite building in perth, the old swan brewery. i seriously wanted to have our wedding reception here, but it was wayyyy out of our price range.

everyone looking super excited about todays adventure haha

more views of perth city from the path down to the treetop walk

so, here is what we were walking around on: a walkway built to be amongst the tops of the trees and then a suspended glass and steel arched bridge that reaches the highest point. it's all completely pram accessible, so it was easy to get through.

some of the beautiful bush on display as we walked about

a rare picture of doug and i 

and all of us in the water garden rotunda at the base of the treetop walk. joseph looks like he has had enough, while alex was overexcited.

we had the best family day we have had in forever, nothing to worry about - just time with all of us together, having fun.

perth, we love you!

a day with the cousins at caversham wildlife park

aaron and his family visiting from queensland called for lots of family time and today we all met up at caversham wildlife park (inside whiteman park, just a 10 minute drive from our house). our little monkeys had a great time together and spent the day running, yelling and giggling at full speed. i love to see them together and wish time and time again that they lived closer so we could do this all the time.

first things first, silly photos by the dozen are a must!

the kids loooooved the farm show and sat in awe (you'd truly think that it was the first time mine had seen it and that they hadn't seen it multiple times and one of them just a few weeks back haha) as the dogs rounded up sheep, the sheep was shorn, the lambs were fed and the whip was cracked about. love it... it's so much fun for them to watch! 

meanwhile, doug missed the show for the second time as baby alex had a nap outside in his arms. it seems to be his favourite place to nap.

maddie went and hung out with the rabbits and the guinea pigs. she is convinced we neeeeed one or the other and asks me on a regular basis if we can get one. i tell you what, it will not be a rabbit. i am still scarred from the angry white one we had when i was in primary school. they might be cute, but they get annnngry.

this little babe enjoyed his day as his siblings and cousins clucked over him as they ran past the pram. he is just so loved and with that cute little face it's easy to see why.

maddie and grandad stopping for a picture together. we are so lucky to have this awesome man in our lives... he was the best dad and is now an amazing grandad too!

katja looks completely horrified in this pic, because she is not a fan of snakes. not at all... and jonas decided along with aaron that they needed to hold one and she needed to get in on the action. i don't think felix is really convinced either judging by how far away he is standing.

how cute is this baby! oh we love him. our other kids ran off with my parents and we had a lovely time pretending for 5 minutes that we only had one to worry about.

we stopped halfway for lunch in the picnic area and had a cake for jonas who celebrated his 5th birthday last week. you can see how chuffed he is with his cake. he is the funniest!

maddie loved spending time with the kids, she dotes on felix (and has since he was a tiny baby) and insisted on picking him up and cuddling him "like a koala!" they were so adorable!

we went into the farmyard area this time, which i hadn't actually seen in previous visits and madeline fell in love with this little lamb. i can't blame her, he was very cute! i'm so glad to have these lovely parks local so the kids can experience all the farm things that i took for granted in my childhood.

before we left for the day we managed to get some fun photos of us adults, thanks to madeline who is a little too familiar with using my camera. i love this one of all of us crazies together. i'm so lucky to have the family i do.

and one of nanna and grandad and their walking grandchildren. so cute! i love them all to bits! ♥

caversham wildlife park - take two

a photo with my little joey alex ♥

we spent the day at caversham wildlife park on saturday, after receiving a very kind invitation from the senior missionaries in mum and dads branch. they had their daughter and grandson here visiting from florida and seeing as he is just about the same age as madeline, they thought we would be good company. they were indeed right, the entire day was an absolute hoot and we had the best time!

first up was the farm show, (which we missed when sam was here from london) and my goodness did we love it! (sorry sam, you seriously lucked on this one - first stop next time hey!) the kids were captivated as the presenters showed how to round up sheep (on a horse with a sheepdog!), swing a billy (prep your tea in a tin can for drinking), crack a stockwhip (i have decided that this needs to be my hidden talent and absolutely want to learn), feed lambs (which daxton got chosen to do and oh my goodness was he chuffed!)

and shear sheep! i haven't seen it done since i was probably madelines age (maybe even josephs?) and i loved it! in fact i loved all of it! what a super cool show for kids to get to see. i highly recommend it for anyone that's visiting - and people who live here!

maddie and the sheep. (i love them mum!) i made dad laugh so hard, when the lambs came out to be bottle fed, i turned around and said, "oh daddy, please can we get one?" dad: no. there were plenty of baby lambs around at our house and friends house and to be honest, they are as painful as a human baby, needing constant attention. i know why he was unamused by my question, but at least he laughed.

i got to milk a cow too! it was pretty cool to do... but reminded me yet again why i don't actually like to drink milk. awkward... check me out, though... milking a cow!

here's our little squad of kids posing together. this made me laugh so hard, poor alex has no idea what's going on and madeline can barely get her head through the hole.

the kids went into the wombat area (which has all kinds of animals, not just wombats) to check out the kookaburra (i loooove them!) and

the possum, watched closely by an old friend of mine luke who works at caversham wildlife park. 

before we headed over to the koalas. the koalas at caversham are amazing! you can watch them just chilling in the branches around the sides...

or get really up close and personal with them. you can't actually hold them, but you can pat them, stroke their fur...

and take selfies with them, which kirsten and i decided to do. he doesn't look that excited about hanging out with us does he? haha.

after a stop off for lunch, which involved a stack more laughs when this clown got hold of grandads hat and decided to wear it with his...

we went to visit the kangaroos. they are so tame and placid here. you can pet them, they eat out of your hands, they just love being around people. definitely a far cry from the ones at mum and dads that scoot the second they see you coming, unless of course they are trying to jump out in front of your car!

my babies. we really did have a fun day!

joseph with "this biiiig kangaroo!"

doug had a good old yarn with dad too... i'm so lucky that doug and i both like each others parents so much. it's certainly made life much easier over the years. i love seeing them laughing together at each others bad jokes. 

it was clearly a hard day for this little one... i think he spent most of the day asleep in the pram, 

but managed to pose for this photo with his daddy at one stage. aren't they the cutest?!

after we were all wildlife-d out, we moved across the road to the water playground by the cafe and the kids spent some time swimming about and cooling off. we are seriously so lucky with all the amazing parks and playgrounds we have around us. whiteman park itself is free (caversham wildlife park is located inside of whiteman park) to get into and there is so much to see and so many places to play and explore. i just love where we live.

we had the best day today with the adams' and their family. seriously, so blessed! ♥

western power in the country

i have spies... everywhere! a friend of mine sent me these sneaky snaps today of the western power boys working out in the country town of york. unfortunately doug isn't actually in the shot, but it is so good that i wanted to share it anyway! the awesome bright colours (just looking at it makes me feel hot...) and their set up is really cool to look at. 

my husband is amazing, working hard to provide for us, rain, hail or shine!

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! ♥