A day at the Zoo!

Hi y'all!

On Monday we had such a fun day trip to the Zoo with Papa and Granny (or Bunny, as Jaimeson says Granny! So cute!) I hadn't been to Taronga Zoo for about 12 years, and same for Mum and Dad I think, so it was a fun day out for all of us, not just Jaimeson!
We asked Jaimeson what he was excited to see at the Zoo, and he said Chickens, Cows and Sheep. LOL! I think we could have just gone on a drive in the country! (We bypassed the boring animals like that, and only went for the exotic animals at the zoo! Cos they do have a farmyard section!)

We caught the train into Circular Quay where we met up with Papa and Bunny, had a coffee, then caught the Ferry across the Harbour to Taronga. This is totally HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. It's such a beautiful trip across the harbour, there was a P&O ship in at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, the sun was shining and the view from the ferry is so beautiful. 
Here we are outside the Historic Entrance to "Taronga Zoological Park". Self-taken, of course! Once you get off the ferry there is a bus waiting to take you up to the Zoo's main entrance, or if you have a pre-bought Zoo ticket, you can go straight on the Sky Safari Gondolas up to the top.

So we're inside!! Commence Animal picture bombardment!!

Aligators: can you see 2 of them basking in the sunlight on that sandy patch back there? Jaimeson is pointing out a concrete one at the front of the enclosure!






And a crocodile! Steve Irwin would be proud of Jaimeson & Papa! Check out their Croc-wrangling skills!

 One of my favourites were these Mountain Goats, who have the most spectacular view of the Harbour Bridge as they perch on the side of their rocky mountain! They are so agile and just pop up the top like they're walking on flat ground!

I really loved the Giraffes! You forget just how tall they really are! Imagine being an explorer in Africa, and coming across them for the first time. They are so amazing! They came up quite close, cos it was feeding time, and we got a good look at them!



Bunny and Papa bought Jaimeson a gorgeous soft little Giraffe at the Zoo and he has taken it to bed every night this week & read it stories and watched Nemo with it. I think he likes Giraffes too! (Or Daraffe as he calls them!)

An action shot from walking around the Zoo, and a nice Photobomb by Willy! The sun came out half way around the Zoo and so we stripped down layers cos it was a gorgeous warm day! Perfect for the Zoo!

Next it was on to the Big Cats trail, where it seems the Big Cats are quite lazy! Bunny & Jaimeson are checking out the sleeping Bengal Tigers here.

And here is Will, Jaimeson & Papa admiring the sleeping Lion! LOL! I wanted to see some action! We were quite lucky on our trip around the zoo, to see many of the animals being fed at the exact time we came upon their enclosures. Like the Chimpanzees, the goats, the Giraffes & the Elephants.


Talking about Elephants... here they are!! They are definitely one of my favourite animals at the Zoo! Aren't they just so gorgeous! And there were so many of them! At least 7 Indian Elephants in this enclosure, plus they have the Male elsewhere. Maybe he causes too much shenanigans if left with his herd of women {tongue in cheek!}
Jaimeson loved the elephants too & kept "Brrrrrr-ing!" with his arm up in the air, mimicking the elephants! It was their feeding time too, so was fun to watch them get peanuts out of the big tubes the keepers threw down to them. Some of them banged it on the ground (much to Jaimeson's delight) and some rolled it along to get the peanuts to fall out. Thoroughly entertaining either way!

Further down the big hill we came to the Sea Life exhibits. There were plenty of seals and penguins & we sat down to watch the Seal Show, which I highly recommend! It was awesome! We got there nice & early and got a seat in the second row, with a fantastic view & we only got a little bit splashed during the show! I know Jaimeson loved the seal show too, cos he had a chip in one hand and a muesli bar in the other, and he didn't eat either of them for the whole 20mins of the show, he was mesmerized! How awesome is this jumping seal! What a cool pic too {high five!}

Next we went on to the Penguins, where you can watch them from under the water through a big glass window. On the way out there was this skylight over the walkway, then I saw a penguin flit past, and I realised it was another window on the roof and the penguins swam over the top of us at breakneck speed (man they are quick!) This has to be the best view of penguins EVER! And such a surprise, when I thought it was only a skylight!!

After the Sea Life area we caught the Sky Safari gondolas up to the top of the Zoo, then back down again, to take advantage of the cool view! It's a great way to fly over the exhibits, and also a fantastic view of the city from up there! It's included in the Zoo entry fee, so try it!



And you get a cool view of the Elephants! There's our little gondola's shadow too!

Back on the Ferry to Circular Quay, an Ice Cream then on the train back home again. Look how big Lentil pokes out after a day of walking around the Zoo! That's a big Bump!!


Wow, what a wonderful day it was! Jaimeosn totally crashed out on the Train on the way home, he was spent! But we had a fabulous day, and I really enjoyed Taronga Zoo! It's definitely easy to get around, with great paths and boardwalks & super easy with a stroller/pram. The only thing I recommend doing is taking your own packed lunch. We took sandwiches and I was so happy about that, cos food inside the Zoo is astronomically expensive (even more than Disneyland!!)
We also had a coupon for 25% off from the Entertainment Book, which saved Will & I $11 each on our tickets (Jaimeson was already free).
Thanks for coming with us Papa & Bunny! We had a wonderful day!!
:) C

Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary!

Hi y'all!
Wednesday last week marked our 3rd Wedding Anniversary! Boy has that time flown!

Happy Anniversary Willy!!
So, as per our little tradition, we headed into the city for lunch and a little shop around.
We caught the train in, which is always fun for Jaimeson (he's train OBSESSED!)

 

This is his "I can see the train coming!" face.
This year we had lunch at Nick's Bar and Grill at King St Wharf, cos our usual fave "I'm Angus" was being renovated. They're both in the Entertainment Book, so it's awesome value!

Did I mention I love Ribs?
And Onion Rings? YUMMO!

Will loves Ribs more, apparently! Look at the size of that rack!!
Then we went to ride the Monorail from the Aquarium stop, all the way around the Loop to the city centre.

Did you know the Monorail is shutting?? I had only heard rumours, but I asked the station attendant and it shuts on June 30! How sad is that?! It's always been a fun thing to ride, with a nice view above the city streets, and now it's getting taken away. I am sad!

We might make another special trip to the city before the end of June just to ride the Mono again, cos Jai really loved it.
We had a wonderful day out in the city, and we were especially stuffed after lunch!

So, Happy 3rd Anniversary Willy! What a fun and busy 3 years it's been! I Love You!
:) C

A day out in Our City

Hi Y'all!
I realised I got so caught up in posting about my December Daily and Project Life, that I didn't share a little "Touristas in our Own City" outing Will, Jaimeson and I had just before New Year's! We took advantage of the $2.50 Sunday Funday pass (unlimited bus, train and ferry rides around Sydney all day sunday, as long as you have a child with you).
Jaimeson LOVES public transport (must be in his blood from all the Public Transport (PT) I've had to catch over the years. LOL! I am known as the PT queen- even overseas I find it no probs to be on PT. I'd be awesome in the Amazing Race!) so we knew he'd love  an adventure to the city!
We started out walking to our local Train station.

Jai got so excited when he saw his first train for the day!

 We parked him next to the door on the train so he had the best view through the windows! He loved it and kept pointing out all the other "tickas!" going past. He got more excited when we reminded him he was actually ON A TRAIN! {giggles}

We caught the train in to Circular Quay and had a coffee while marvelling at the "Radiance of the Sea" the giant ocean liner that was docked at the OVerseas Passenger Terminal.

We had a look through the Rocks Markets too, they haven't really changed much over the years. Except they're a bit bigger now. It's worth taking visitors to I think, they're quite nice!

 Then back to admire the Radiance of the Sea again, and play peek-a-boo through the holes in the New Year's crowd control fencing!

And a fun little play with the giant arrow at the Museum of Contemporary Art! How cool is it?!

 We had icecream at Circular Quay while listening to the whitest Aboriginal guy ever, play some pretty funky didgeridoo music with a dance beat background. It was actually quite cool!

Hey look, I found my Ferry!! I've always taken a pic in front of this ferry when I've seen it, since I was a little girl, visiting the big city from the country and thinking how cool it was that there was a ferry with my name on it!

Then it was on to the Rivercat Ferry, back up the Parramatta River to Meadowbank. Look Mum! A GIANT ship!

Jai is very well travelled for a 1.5year old! So this wasn't his first ferry at all! He still loved going outside with Daddy and feeling the wind in his hair!

He was most excited to see the Cranes for loading cargo on Cockatoo Island, he kept saying "Ticka Toot toot!" and then I remembered there is Cranky the Crane on Thomas and that's who he was pointing to. He saw Cranky! What a clever boy!

Off the Ferry at Meadowbank, then we walked up to the train station and caught a train to Strathfield, changed and caught and another train back home.

What an Adventure! We had an awesome day! And for $5 for the three of us, what a bargain!
:) C

Happy Australia Day!!

Happy Australia Day everyone!! I wanted to post yesterday but I was out AAAAALLLLLLLLL day! Alicia and I didn't get to go on one of the Ferries in the Annual Australia Day Ferry Race this year, but we still made the trek into the city in our matching Aussie singlets with flags in tow! We ate a delicious breakfast at The Rocks Cafe (I recommend the Pancakes- so fluffy and perfect- and Alicia recommends the Mushroom Crepe with Creme Fraiche. It was fantastic she said!) then we walked around the foreshore, through the Rocks Markets and watched the Ferries cross the finish line under the Harbour Bridge (I think the Giant Samsung Rubber Ducky won this year!). Seeing as we would usually be enjoying a champagne on the Ferry we couldn't let our Annual Harbour Champagne pass us by, so we went to Cruise Bar at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, Circular Quay for a cool refreshing glass. It was delicious! I so enjoyed hanging out in the city, chatting with my sis and celebrating our country! We toasted to Captain Cook on a job well done {wink}. He beat those pesky Frenchmen (if my memory serves me right) by a mere breeze, otherwise we would have all been saying Cei la vie yesterday instead of Happy Australia Day!
I also had an Australia Day BBQ last night so there was more celebrating to be done! We played Wii all night which was hillarious! Someone decided the Dance game was heaps better if you had back up dancers, and watching Will doing his version of Aerobics moves had me in stitches! Thankfully my camera has a video function so I can relive the moment over and over. I know what I'll be watching if I have a stressful day at work!
I hope you got out there and Celebrated our Lucky Country!

:) C

P.s. The Obligatory pic of the "Charlotte" ferry that I always seem to get when I'm in the city!

Happy New Year!! Bring on 2009!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

I hope you managed to get out there and party.. guess what?! We saw the fireworks!! We were sitting around at work (for like 1.5hrs doing nothing) waiting for out last delivery to come (due at 9:30pm, but went AWOL) and we begged and pleaded to be let go.. I think our manager was scared the crew were going to riot (not far off the truth!) and he let us go!! So at 11pm Will and I jumped in the car and raced off to Gladesville to try to see the Fireworks. We drove around for 30mins trying to find a carpark but the place was PACKED!! We eventually did a dodgy park (if you're a Policeman reading this, our park was completely legitimate and within the boundaries of the law) and RRAAANNN to the Burns Bay Bridge and made it with about 2 mins to spare! Even though the Fireworks were a fair way away and we had the Butt view (everything is angled out to the harbour and not the west!) it was still so pretty, heaps of beautiful colours, MASSIVE bursts and the ones that hang in the air for ages... soo beautiful! The greenies musn't have been happy with the smoke though cos by the end it obscured half the fireworks from us and we couldn't see the city any more!!

Here comes some exciting news too... I'm going to make a New Year's Resolution!! WHOA!! I've never made one before so I hope this is one I am going to stick to!!

Drum Roll Please.. {brmmmmmmm}

"I solemnly Resolute to reduce my Patterned Papers and Scrap stash by 20% by the end of 2009"....

WOW!! How Liberating!! I'm serious about this you realise and I've done the figures:

Here's the current number crunching...

Full Sheets of Patterned Papers: 269 (4.15kg on the kitchen scales!)

Scrap Stash: 2.35kg (I'm so not going to count these individually!)

So this means a reduction of 53.8 papers/0.83kg (oh no!) of full sheets and 0.47kg of scraps.

WHAT HAVE I DONE!!! How will I ever use up that many, not including new ones I buy... hmm.. I've got some serious crafting to do!

Have a great Public Holiday! I've got some creative plans for my day!

:) C

LO #2 from the weekend

This is the second layout I finished on my weekend with Yvette. I started out wanting it to be a 2 page LO but it just wasn't working for me, so I culled half the pics and stuck with these ones to make it a single page.
So the Yvette inspired bits on this page are the collage piece in the corner, I was just fiddling around with stuff and she pipes up "Oh, I like that!" I immediatly froze with my hands wavering over the page thinking...STOP! Don't change anything!! Lol! I love the little Maya Road bird Rub Ons, one is black for Will and one is white for me ;) LOL!!
Yvette also helped me sneakily make the letter "t" in the white rub ons cos I'd run out! You have no idea how easily a Z makes a T!! {chuckling slyly}. I love her little tiny kraft journalling spot too, they're new and you can find them in her Etsy store.
The journalling style was inspired by Mardi, I love her work and it was fun to have a new journalling style in my album! Although I'm still in love with Yvette's journalling spots, they are so cool!
So I am impressed with this LO too, it came together pretty easily and used lots of my new product from 2 peas! The Artisan shape is by Sassafras Lass and the Arrow is from Scenic Route.
Thanks for dropping by!
:) C

Getting Creative at Odd Times

Yep, the title sums me up at the moment. Last night I got home at midnight after a 12hr day, sat down at my desk and made this page in 45 mins, start to finish. And I mean from not knowing which pics I might scrap to putting it in my album! That is a total record for me :)
I initially bought this paper for cards (which I have only been doing lately cos usually cards get my scrappin offcuts or ones I end up not wanting to use for scrapbooking!!) but I just loved this Kaisercraft paper and when I put these pics on it, I knew it had to be. Kaiser are coming out with some awesome products, I love lots of their new papers! The black lace cardstock is from Art Stamps (2 sheets for $2.50 at the show, what a bargain), there are my fave AM thickers also, and the scallop journalling spot is from MM. Those cute tiny little wooden flowers I got from Art Stamps also for $1, they always seem to have cool little finds like that!
The pics are from our visit to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum (you might remember it from an earlier post). When I asked Will to pose with the cardboard cutouts he decided to "blend in" with them instead! I love these pics so much, they really make me smile! The lower pics are better looking IRL, its just now you can see a shadow of me in my giant fluffy dressing gown reflected in them as I took the pic! Lol.
Its eating out night at work tonight... yay my funnest night of the week! I spend all day deciding what to eat (what a thrilling work day I must have!!). I think it's decided we're having fish & chips tonight anyway- naughty!! {cheekily grinning} I can't wait!
I also have no OT tomorrow and neither does Will, so we might actually get to spend some time together hanging out.. WOW!! I love Fridays cos they mean Saturday is almost here... wait.. I can't get ahead of myself, I still gotta get through Thurs.. mmmm...... fish & chips!!
:) C

Touristas in our own City

Will and I celebrated the Queen's Birthday (Cheers Liz!) by spending the day in the city. It was a pretty gloomy day, we got sprinkled on almost all day, everywhere we walked. But we still had fun! I'm pooped now though.

I took my big camera in so we could really look like tourists. Lol! I wanted to take some cool arty kinda shots. I've been thinkin seriously about doing some kind of photography course, so I was checking out if I am worthy enough of a course, or if I should quit while I'm ahead. Haha.

Why are train stations so photogenic?I like the names painted on the seats, stations wouldn't be as interesing without them.

And of course, the timer button is pretty useful on the camera too.

I played around with this one in Photoshop. Can you tell? lol.

Museum Station is the most beautiful place. So unchanged.

I could imagine it looking just like this in my Grandparent's day. Or even my Great Grandparents.

This is Will's best relaxed pose. loL!

Someone we know is doing his best to "Blend in" with some of the cardboard cut-outs at the Hyde Park Barracks museum. Go Willy!

So that was a short re-cap of our day.. now off to do some scrappin!

:) C