A short break

About 6 weeks ago we had a week off, and went away for a little holiday. (took me a while to sort the pictures)

First we went to Canberra (That’s the capital city of Australia for my USA friends!). It’s about 5 hours drive south of here, and inland a bit.

We stayed in a hotel with a nice little 2 bedroom apartment. The boys were thrilled to sleep in real beds for the first time in their life. They are still in toddler beds at home. The slept brilliantly, and nobody fell out!!

Ethan winking again. It’s his latest trademark!

Ben

Riding their bikes in the hotel room. Typical boys!

 

We visited the Royal Australian Mint (aka money factory to the boys). We saw a machine tip a large barrel of blank coins into a counting machine. The boys though the ‘money factory robot’ was great!

Outside the Mint with the coins they made.

We also visited Cockington Green. It’s a model village with little people, houses, trains and plants. It’s very cute and the boys loved it.

This was their favourite train, as there was a button you could push to make the train drive around the lake and back to the station. Very popular with little boys.

A model of workmen fixing the road. Also popular with little boys who love construction!

We also got to take a ride on this steam train around the little village. The boys loved it!

Ben, reading the map.

Model aliens!

More buttons to press to make things move!

And more trains to control Windmills too!!

 

Our next stop was Questacon. It’s a hands on science museum in Canberra. There are many rooms, filled with many interesting things to look at and manipulate and experiment with. The boys had a wonderful time running around and experimenting and looking at all the different things.

Mummy and Ethan in a plane

Boys try out the aeroplane seats. Wouldn’t you love to have that much space and legroom on a plane!!

Hovercraft type chair

The had a wonderful time experimenting with everything…..

There was handles to turn

Wheels to peddle (if your legs were long enough)

Balls to roll

Buttons to push

Wheels to turn

Handles to pull

Shadows to make

Balls to throw

And finally the younger child play area. It was the last room. I think they plan it that way, or you would never get your preschooler out of there. There was cars, building supplies, toy kitchen, water play, a climbing maze, holes to peek into with lights and all sorts of fun experimental and play things.

Both boys enjoyed the water play section the most.

We had a great afternoon at Questacon. If you’re ever in Canberra, we recommend it!

 

After a few busy days in Canberra we headed 3 hours further south.

Of course we stopped at many parks along the way…

Our final destination was the snow! The boys had never been to the snow before, and were very excited the day we told them we were going!!

Tracie with Ben(red) and Ethan(blue)

We stayed at the snow for about 4-5 hours and we were all ready to go home. It was fantastic! I did not take the big camera out of the car for long, as I wanted to just enjoy the day and not be stuck behind a camera. I did take the following few photos with my phone, so please excuse the quality.

Our first attempt at a snowman!

Our second snowman! Ethan hugging the snowman. A split second later the whole snow man fell apart. It was too funny! Lunch time! 

We went sledding, built 2 snowmen and had a wonderful fun family day at the snow.

We all slept well that night!

Ethan in his pull out sofa style bed. He called it his “fancy bed” and was so happy about sleeping in a fancy bed. This is the first night he slept without a dummy.

 

Ben – his last night with a dummy.

We had a wonderful week away, though like all weeks away, it has flown by way too fast. We are now looking forward to our next big trip.

Our plans are to visit America in early/mid 2012.

We are saving our money and planning our trip!