Lake Morris

This weekend we decided to explore the hill behind our house. Our house is on the left of the first picture. The road winds up to Lake Morris and Copperlode Dam, which is where much of Cairns' water comes from. 

Sunday morning hike

Daniel and Caleb's early Sunday morning hike. (7:30am) It's getting too hot to hike much later.

Of course Caleb ended up swimming.

Joshua

Josh had an exciting trip this week. He was one of the winners in the G20 art competition and was able to meet the Australian treasurer and see the room where the G20 finance ministers will meet this weekend in Cairns.

Last week was his 13th birthday which he chose to spend with a friend zip wiring over crocodiles!!

Fathering...

Yesterday was Australian Fathers' Day, and I was spoiled with a 'big breakfast' and various presents (almost exclusively edible). We also went out for pizza on the Esplanade - it is slowly starting to warm up, but not to hot to be out and about yet.

Speaking of Fathering, Joshua and I went on a 'Fathering Adventure' a few weekends ago (see here for more). It was a good opportunity to have some good one-to-one quality time - something that has been pretty rare since Bethany was born.

We had some fairly serious physical activity (including about 7km of dual sea kayaking - fairly sore by the next day!) and a hike up to the 'forts' (during which we saw koalas in the wild for the first time - it is such a pity that you aren't allowed them as pets!)

We stayed on Magnetic Island (off the coast of Queensland, about 4 hours south of Cairns) which was a WWII outpost.

Here are a few photos:

Collages

One of the features I like about Picasa is the 'collage' creator. It was this that I had in mind when I took specific photos on our trip to Green Island.

I like the result :)

Libby was not so impressed ('too brown'), so I did her a more colourful one...

Result!

It was a good day for Ruben recently - as for reasons unknown someone parked their digger just over the road from our house. This meant he could get up closer than he ever has before.

Show Day

A couple of Fridays ago, it was 'Cairns Show Day'. Apparently every area in Australia has a 'Show Day', which is a very localised Public Holiday so that people can visit the local show. The Show is a mixture of an agricultural show, fair, fete, etc.

We thought we would toddle along - it being our first year in Cairns - to see what it was all about. Although it is the 'cold' time of year, it turned out to be a very hot day, which put a but of a damper on it - until we discovered the auditorium which offered some shade (as well as stuff to watch).

The fairground rides were very expensive, so we said the kids could do one each. Caleb and Joshua (Caleb's idea...) decided to go on the biggest scariest ride there was:

80m high, and 3+ G...Proof, if ever you needed it, that there are genes other than mine in the mix...

Ruben enjoyed the 'machinery parade' (surprisingly):

  

and we were all going to enjoy the motorbike stunt show - until the first rider on his first jump fell off and broke his ankle :( So that was the end of that.

We also watched the crowning of the Cairns 'Show Queen' and enjoyed the pole climbing competition - below. You have to be an arborealist to enter, apparently.