Well it's been a long time since our last blog and we both cant believe its already February! It seems like we have been busy travelling here, there and everywhere. Here's a look at what we've been up to...
HAT HEAD
2 weeks before Christmas we left the Central Coast (after spending 5 weeks working there) and headed north to Hat Head. There we both spent just over a week madly doing a bunch of maintenance on my parents holiday house. However, we did one evening knock off work before dinner and head down to the beach for some much needed R&R. My mum had also arrived in Hat Head by this stage...
ahhh paradise!
As we were all sitting down enjoying the splendid view, mum suggested that all that was needed to make it totally perfect would be some dolphins to swim past...
5 minutes later, look what God brought along....
Another stunning sunset whilst in HH...
A couple of times while we were working a wasp dragged a large Huntsman past us...
he must have been hungry!
The day we left HH we needed to mow the lawn... too bad it was pouring rain... Geoff perservered.
HAWKS NEST for CHRISTMAS
We spent Christmas in Hawks Nest with Geoff's growing family - 15 in total now.
One of the gorgeous new additions... Ben and Sarah's daughter Honor.
Geoff's dad Tony enjoying some of his Christmas gifts...
Guess who has a new hobby? My brother-in-law Jacko made this for me for Christmas. So excited.
On Christmas day, we jumped into our car to head to Church and 'Ol Conrad Cruiser just wouldn't start. We decided to worry about that another day and jumped in someone else's car. A few days later it still wouldn't start. It was a Ford Falcon to the rescue who towed us out onto level ground and after pumping the fuel pump, Conrad roared to life. Weird.
Walking to the beach from the holiday house...
We celebrated Geoff's Birthday on December 28th. Knowing his love for pavlova and lemon butter, I knew I couldn't go wrong making him a Lemon Butter Pavlova... yum
Geoff's new fandankle golf shoes - also a hit...
and a highly appropriate card from sister Cath...
Maeve and Grace thought trying on my wetsuits was great fun...
Golf was a seemingly ever-present part of the Hawks Nest holiday, much to the delight, nay disgust possibly, of the female family members. The finale of the near-daily golf games was an 18 hole Championship round. I managed to capture the action (if we can call it that) on the last hole...
NB. A week before going to Hawks Nest a man was killed by lightning playing on this same course.
Ben was a very happy winner! Good one Ben! Unfortunately we ran out of time to find a players jacket to seal the win, so below was all I could find at late notice - Ben didn't seem to mind..
NEW YEARS EVE in DUNGOG
All the Adams left Hawks Nest on Friday (New Years Eve) and Geoff and I just looked at each other and wondered where we would go! We decided to head to Geoff's parent place at Dungog for the night. The next morning we were surprised to find a 'new addition' to the front verandah. While we sat around at the table eating breakfast, Geoff's dad made up a sign for the front gate...
Thankfully his owners found him later that day.
SYDNEY
From Dungog we headed to Sydney and spent a day in the city just for fun...
A very cool wall (or so we thought) in the city...
Geoff, his brothers and dad all spent a day at the Cricket in Sydney while we were down there too. They were super pumped as their ticket seat numbers were AA so they unfortunately assumed that meant they were in the front row. Row 27 wasn't quite the same.
HAT HEAD
Sometime in early January we headed back up to Hat Head to spend a week with my family for a late christmas get-together. Little Hunter is the new addition to our family... so cute
I think he really liked the bib I made him for Christmas...
Every year at HH the young boys who stay across the road from us love to play cricket. This year Geoff couldn't resist and it wasn't long before he was batting!?
One late afternoon as they were again playing cricket I overheard a conversation that went something like this...
Geoff - "Right boys, I'm going to bowl an in-swinging-yorker now"
Silence. Then a huge uproar of cheering.
Boys (in a high chipmunk-like voice) - "Awwww Geoff! You can bowl ANYTHING!"
No wonder Geoff liked playing with them so much! Not long after this Geoff was batting...
Boys - "Awwww Geoff! You bat just like Shane Watson!"
Pic below is Geoff's new fan club who lovingly followed him around daily.
My fam relaxing on the front verandah...
It has become tradition in HH to play volleyball at christmas time. This year we also invited some of the neighbours to join in. It was a great way to get to know them and also have lots of fun.
My sisters and I take our volleyball very seriously. I think we may have scared some of the neighbours when they first saw us but it didn't take long for them to relax once they saw us play!
For days we all couldn't work out what the horrific smell was out the front of the house...
Yes, Geoff and I had done some beach combing.
Danielle and I in serious need of some black gold...
While we were in Hawks Nest poor little 18 month old Jude had a bad cough which was later diagnosed as Whopping Cough. Very unfortunately I also caught it and was not feeling great while in HH. Combine that with bad weather and 'voila' my new surfboard lovingly received some artwork...
We also decided to try our hand at Bass fishing as the ocean was too rough to fish. It was surprisingly great fun especially pulling in this 50cm bass. A random cicada floated past the boat while we were fishing so I grabbed it and put a hook in it - that's how I caught this bass. Geoff decided it was great fun catching live cicada's in the tree's overhanging the river too.
Check out the video at the end of this blog entry.
ENGAGEMENT PARTY
We then whizzed back to Newcastle for Geoff's sister Cath and Dave's Engagement Party...
The Adams Family
Little Jude looking suave...
With Geoff's parents and brother Ben..
HAT HEAD again
We then drove back up to Hat Head to spend a week soaking up paradise all by ourselves...
One day we drove along the beach to Crescent Head...
Our friends Doug and liz came up for the weekend too.
We went for a drive on the beach again this time to South West Rocks...
On Sunday we all hiked around the headland of HH. It was hot but stunning. We were also completely amazed to see someone swim past the HH point, out to sea a few hundred metres and then turn south and kept on swimming towards Crescent Head! Crazy! You wouldn't catch us doing that!!
What is it with Geoff - Golf courses - and animals!? Check out the tree next to him.
A scene like this makes Geoff kinda nervous after his encounter with killer skippy on a golf course a few years back now - it made the front page of the local newspaper.
So after a great holiday with friends and family, we returned to Port Macquarie a couple weeks ago to pack our new camper trailer and get ready to head south for another round of Aussie adventures. The day before we left as we were packing up the camper I accidently cut the top of my foot on some sharp metal on the camper. OUCH! Dr Geoff patched me up...
Sorry if this grosses you out but this is my foot 5 days later... finally starting to heal
So excitedly on Wednesday 2nd February 2011 we were all packed and ready and left Port Macquarie.
Geoff had to jump on his own this time as my foot was too sore!
We spent a couple of days with Geoffs parents in Dungog, then headed to Newcastle as I had my yearly post-op check up with the surgeon on Friday there. After this appointment we were planning to keep on going south but our plans have changed! Again! I have a small issue that the surgeon can only fix in hospital so he was kind enough to book me in at Belmont Hospital for next friday 11th feb. Its only a small procedure that will just be day surgery but it means we need to obviously hang around for that. So we decided to leave the camper and boat in Newcastle and head back up to Port Macquarie and work for a few days while we wait. We are definately getting very good a being flexible! Will keep you posted.
