January 2008

Jan 08. Happy New Year to everyone!

We had a lovely week and bit in Dunsborough in early Jan. Jasper had an absolute ball, splashing at the beach each day, walks in the stroller, floating in the inflatable dinghy, rides on the bike and a hike in the back pack to Meelup. We also went to a few playgrounds, Simmos icecream and he had his first ride in Pop's boat (so did Maddy) and they both proved to be old sea dogs already.

In the dinghy. Feeding the animals at Simmos.

Driving pops boat. The boys on the boat. Cheezels and I'm not sharing!

Maddy the sea dog keeping cool. Sean, and his boat crew. At Castle Rock Beach.

Sean & I did a hot, sweaty 2 hr hike from the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse back to Meelup Beach. We had previously done the Dunsborough to Meelup section on several occasions, including this holiday with Jasper in the backpack. So we thought we'd see if we could go right from the top of the Cape. Maddy came too and proved very adept at the rock climbing parts, but loved the beach walks much better.

On Jan 5, we went to the Southbound Festival in Busselton, along with 20,000+ other people - and had a great time! It was really well organised for such a huge crowd, with no real long waits for drinks or toilets. Bands we enjoyed included Goyte (awesome), Mattafix, Augie March, Kings of Leon (really awesome) and the headliner Groove Armada - fantastic. The DJ area called Coconut Grove was a really cool outdoor setting with loads of white beach sand as the dance floor and coconut palms everywhere and Sharif Galal and Micha had the crowd grooving for the rest of the night. We got there at 2:30 pm and arrived home about 11:45 pm - not a bad effort for being 6mth pregnant.

Sean, Lou, Cruiky, Bec and Matt - headed for Southbound

December 07

Christmas parties for Jasper

While December is usually the month of holiday and year end parties, there wasn't much on the social calendar for unfortunately. Jasper's December calendar however was very busy - what a life these kids have!

We choose a nice Christmas tree from a tree farm on the way home from Bunbury and Jasper "helped" Daddy cut it down. At 9ft, it was almost too tall for our living room, and we had to move the breakfast table and chairs into the other room to give it it's own corner.

Lou, Maddy and tree. Jasper, Sean and tree. Jasper in tree cart

We finished up his swimming class for the year, had a farewell dinner with good friends the Paganuccis who moved back to California, attended Jasper's playgroup Xmas party, his Blue Gum Day Care Christmas party and also went to Sean's company's family Christmas party at Adventure World. Even Maddy had a dogs Christmas party at her favourite dog park. Pics all posted below.

In Santas chair, Adventure World. With Mum Playgroup Xmas party. I've got Santa's bell

At Playgroup Xmas party. At Blue Gum Xmas Party. Collecting gift from Santa by myself.

Melissa with Olivia and Jasper. Melissa with Beth

Skinny dipping with Olivia in our backyard

Dogs Xmas party. Maddy dressed up. Sean & his little creatures at the dogs Xmas party

We enjoyed a yummy Christmas dinner at Melissa's house with the mums, hubbys and kids from my little Mum's group.

However I did score an early Christmas gift when I won tix to see Chris Isaak and the Divinyls in concert on Dec 22. Kaz and Guy kindly baby sat Jasper for us, and Chris Isaak did not disappoint as usual.

Xmas Day and Boxing Day - hot, hot, hot

Jasper & Mum at beach Xmas day. Jasper's new gift. Testing out the new trike

Our Christmas tree which survived Jasper pulling the whole lot down.

Christmas day was a very hot 42 C (106 F) and Boxing Day was even worse at 44 C (111 F) and therefore the days were largely spent indoors in the air conditioning.

After an hour or so at the dog beach in the morning, we came home and hosted Christmas lunch at our place with mum and dad, brother Matt and Aunt Colleen and Uncle Vinko joining us. Sean cooked turkey on the BBQ and we had lobster, prawns, ham, salads, pavlova, fresh fruit salad and rocky road ice cream for dessert.

Christmas lunch

We played Dirty Santa and everyone seemed to end up with a gift they liked - I think. Sean was especially happy to get the final "steal" on the screwdriver set.

We ventured out to the pool at about 5pm and spent the rest of the evening there cooling off. Sean and I had spent a lot of weekends doing work around our pool area and it finally is coming together and looks pretty good. We're trying to achieve a tropical look, which is not easy with Perth's hot, hot summers and my water-mising ways.

Pool area. The Runkle Resort. Jasper's favourite thing - the hose.

Boxing day was a bit more of the same, with everyone enjoying a long afternoon nap. Jasper spent the two days pretty much naked and with the garden hose as he sprayed everyone and had fun pushing Sean in the pool.

Dec 29 we headed off to the family beach house in Dunsborough for 9 nights of getaway. And first on the agenda was a delectable lunch at Clairault Winery with Kirsten and Chuck (and no toddlers!) on Dec 30.

Dec 31 was a quiet one, with sunset drinks on the beach in Dunsborough with Kaz, Guy, Sonia, Dan and kids. And then a BBQ dinner with the same crew that evening. Mum and dad looked after Jasper and had a nice NYE with him dancing around the living and entertaining them.