River Fire, Nudgee Beach and Spring Veges!

This past weekend was River Fire 2008. You may remember that I wrote about river fire last year. It's basically a big fireworks show, with fireworks going off everywhere downtown...the bridge, tops of buildings, barges on the river...everywhere. It's a pretty impressive show that starts and end with a fighter jet flying through really low and dumping it's fuel and burning it. Pretty cool! The jets flew over our house on Friday during a trial run and I thought a plane was crashing into our yard. I honestly think Jesse almost dropped dead. It was so loud and the house literally shook. Scared the crap out of me and Jesse!

Mariana and Nick were kind enough to head to the Botanical Gardens early to get us a spot. They picked a good place, with a view of the bridge and water. Here we all are chilling out with snacks and drinks, waiting for the show to start...

Rej and Clo.

Breagha...getting so big!

Shamus took this one of Steve...

...and this one of me and him...not bad.

Before the fireworks started, there were planes flying around doing tricks...neat to see and a great way to entertain people while they waited!

Of course, the fireworks...

...very pretty...

Then this morning, we headed to a dog beach that we had heard about awhile ago in an area called Nudgee. It was pretty impressive...very big off-lead area, right on the water. I can't believe we haven't gone there before...Jes loved it but as always, he was more interested in his ball than the million dogs there to play with.

I'm loving the warmer weather that we've been having lately! I really feel the difference this year and notice the change now that spring has arrived. It's so nice to not be freezing in our house first thing in the morning! The last 2 days are the first days in quite a long time that I had all the windows open...yippee! Oh, and Steve's growing us some veges...the lettuce is doing especially well and tastes great on sandwiches. Still waiting on the green pepper and tomato...

Just cause...

I bought myself some tulips the other day, just cause...just cause they reminded me of our wedding and that makes me smile, just cause I was feeling a bit blue and I knew seeing them on my kitchen table would cheer me up and just cause tulips remind me of spring and I'm way ready for spring. I'm tired of feeling cold in my house. I'm not sure if it's the same here as Canada, but at home, when the tulips come out in the stores, spring has sprung. If the tulips aren't a sign that spring is here, I think the geckos that are back, around our outdoor lights each evening are! Plus, it's definitely been warmer at night and first thing in the morning. Yup, I think the subtle signs of a Brisbane spring are in full swing. Won't be long and we'll be complaining about the heat;) In the meantime, I'll just enjoy my tulips. I love tulips.

What we've been up to...

On Saturday, my hottie hubby and I went to a couple of little towns on the sunshine coast called Maleny and Montville. They are adorable little touristy towns filled with cute shops and cafes. They reminded me a lot of Lunenburg and Mahone Bay at home, which I LOVE! (http://www.town.lunenburg.ns.ca/ and http://www.mahonebay.com/). We poked around Maleny in the morning, Steve bought buns for our picnic at a little bakery...
They are having a Canadian Film Festival at the end of the month! I wonder if it would be worth going back for...?
Then we headed to Lake Baroon Dam, which is the lake that the towns are by, to have a picnic. It was pretty there but a little chilly!
AND we had to eat very quickly because the Kookaburras were mean! Steve had just taken his chicken leg out and put it on his plate, when a big one came swooping in, landed right on his plate and took his entire chicken leg! It then proceeded to beat the leg on the tree to get the meat off the bone. We didn't even see him coming! We did see them after that, however...we had 3 eyeing us the whole time we were eating! We kept a close eye on them too and needless to say, it wasn't a very relaxing picnic for me, the bird disliker!
It really was a very pretty town...gorgeous country views...
This little building is Montville's state school...I'm thinking there might be 2 classrooms, maybe 3...I love that! I'm not sure that kids that grow up there would though...
Montville was just adorable...very cute shops...

Surprisingly, I didn't really buy anything (except for a cow bell because, well, I love cow bells!)but really enjoyed looking and got some inspiration and ideas for a few things that I would like to make for Christmas.

On Sunday, Steve and I went riding with Rej, Clo and Dan. I was pretty nervous after the last time, when I hurt myself quite badly. I was actually surprised at how nervous I felt, but slowly got more comfortable as I went. I think I need more practice, so I get more confident!

In other news, I've started making some stuff for Christmas! I know it seems early, but it's really not when you have heaps to make and get mailed to Canada by December! Plus, to be honest, it feels more like Christmas now than it will when it's closer to December, so I feel really inspired to make some stuff while it's still a little chilly! I went over to Clo's house on Sunday evening and did some crafting with her and had a great time chatting, creating and sipping tea...time really flies when you do that stuff...so much fun! I can't show you what I'm making because well, you might be getting it for Christmas, but here's a photo of my crafting table, where I was working...

That's all for now! I'm missing everyone like crazy lately, so if you're reading this, take a minute and leave me a comment, pleeeease...I'd LOVE to hear from you!:)

Christmas in...

Wednesday...hump day...middle of the week...already looking forward to the weekend! Wouldn't life be just wonderful if all weekends were 3 day weekends? Anyway, some exciting news to share. Steve and I finally decided where we want to go for Christmas and we booked our tickets this morning (a great deal!). We flipped and flopped between Thailand, New Zealand, a road trip on the Great Ocean Road and finally decided on Tasmania. We leave on the 21st of December and return on the 31st. We'll rent a camper van and spend 10 full days exploring. Can't wait! I hear Tasmania is beautiful and it's always fun to have a trip to look forward to! I'll have to buy some tacky Christmas tinsel to decorate our camper van! Only 17 weeks away! :)

When you come home...

...and find your once one piece scuba mask chewed into 4 pieces...

...you have to take a second and remember those moments when the dog is just so darn cute and well behaved, otherwise you'll be pretty darn angry!Sigh.

Mt Tibrogargan Death Hike!

So Thursday morning Darryl, Dan, Morgan, Jeff and I went on a hike at Mt Tibrogargan, which is part of the Glass House Mountains National Park. Everyone at Pandemic Studios had Thursday and Friday off because we are moving to a new studio just down the street. Unfortunately the flooring came a week late so they weren't able to move last weekend, but they still honored the time off that they had previously promised.. So a bunch of us did a hike.
Jeff wanted something that had a lot of bouldering, so we decided on Mt. Beerwah. Unfortunately, there was a rock slide there and the trail was closed so we decided on Mt Tibrogargan. Well.....there was a lot of bouldering to say the least....It was an interesting/scary as hell hike/climb.

Experienced climbers? Whatever....

Darryl and I at a look off..

Starting to get steep.

My quads are starting to burn.

The trail has turned into a rock face.

Morgan "Maybe we should have listened to that sign at the beginning of the trail"... Whatever Morgan, you big wimp!

Walking along a cliff face trying to find a way up.

Hi Jeff.

Dan and Darryl racing up the cliff face.

Dan clearly wins and in his excitement throws Jeff off the mountain.

Are we there yet?

View from the top.

Beer never tasted sooo good.

So after a hard climb up we took a break and had some lunch and a couple beer.

Double post....I'm such a dumb ass.

Group shot. From Left, Morgan Jeff, Darryl, me and Dan.

Now this was a little awkward, Darryl kept pinching Dans ass, so finally Dan turned around and told Darrly to piss off. I sometimes wish Darryl would learn to keep his hands to himself...

Going back Down.

Taking a short rest, thinking about the best way down.

Not sure whats going on here, Darryl is either staring at Dans butt, or guiding him to a good spot to put his foot. You decide.

We all made it to the bottom alive! To Celebrate we broke out some more beer.

We decided to another hike when we got to the bottom, this trail went all the way around Mt Tibrogargan and was completely flat.....

Hello Mr Toad.

A view of Mt Tibrogargan from the road.

There was a pineapple farm acrose the street from the above pic (the one with the Mt Tibrogargan sign) Morgan was very put out that someone had scalped this poor pineapple.

Over all it was a fantastic hike. It scared the hell out of me, but it was fun. I'll post some of Dan's pics once I get them.

Steve (king of the mountain) Dickinson