We spent a night in the city looking at all the Christmas lights. This tree was in the Queen Victoria Building. We saw the big Christmas tree in Martin Place, the Christmas windows at DJ's and a spectacular light show at St Mary's Cathedral. A great night!

A trip into the city on a ferry with Gran. It was a great evening. Such a perfect way to see the city.

Present time!!!!! Christmas with family at my Mum's. After a delicious Christmas Roast we happily give and receive presents.

While on the Central Coast we went to visit my grandparents at their nursing home. We had fun joining in with a game of Deal or no Deal.

Yummy Christmas lunch out on the deck with all the fam.

Celebrating Christmas with family at Pop and Nan's on the Central Coast. The girls are showing off their new dresses and necklaces.

The girls had lots of fun on the beach with Uncle Doug!!!!

We spent a couple of days with my brother Doug and his wife Amy. They showed us around the beautiful place they live...South West Rocks

Smoky Cape Lighthouse at South West Rocks.

My brother Doug takes Chris out fishing assuring him of success. He was right!!! Chris pulled in 6 of these Kingfish.

The first of our Christmas celebrations with Mitch, Em, Carrie and Luke. We were also able to share in Mitch's and Carrie's birthday too!!

We had a day trip looking around some of the beautiful National Parks around Lismore. This is Rocky Creek Dam in Night Cap NP. It was a lovely walk with gorgeous scenery.

Happy 9th Birthday Bridget!!

Wow!!! I can't believe my big girl is 9 today!!! Somehow she seemed older and more grown up today. What a gorgeous girl!!

Bridget's birthday cake. She asked for a chocolate cake and the rest was up to me. I had fun making it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME !!!!!!

Bridget was excited to be able to celebrate her birthday with her cousins.

We gave Bridget a signet ring for her birthday. She loved it and kept telling everyone that she got a 'real' ring for her birthday. So grown up!!

Bridget and her cousin Emily having fun with Singstar!!

So much more fun to get up and dance while belting out a bit of Abba!!!

We have nearly come full circle around Australia. We are now back in NSW at Chris's sisters place in Lismore. The girls are enjoying playing with their cousins Guinea Pigs. They are keen for guinea pigs when we finally get home, so this is good practise. The guinea pigs were loving the special treatment. They were being brushed and fed at the same time!!

Wedding time!!!

All the beautiful girls in their dresses ready for a wedding!!

Mr and Mrs Davis!!!

The newly weds, Brendan and Cathy Davis with Mitch, Emily, Carrie, Luke and Andrew and Barbara.

Cathy and Brendan, Mitch, Emily, Carrie, Luke and US !!

Thankfully the weather forecast was wrong and the predicted heavy rain and storms never came. We enjoyed a lovely garden ceremony. In this photo Chris is giving the bible reading.

Toowoomba is known as the Garden City. There are lots of lovely parks including this one- Queens Park. Many of the streets are lined with jacaranda trees which are in flower at the moment. Just beautiful!

The girls had so much fun playing at this park. This bit of play equipment needed pedal power to make it go.

Picnic Point. A lookout over Toowoomba. They say on a clear day you can see all the way to Brisbane. Not today!!!

The girls taking a call at the 'Royal Flying Doctor Service' in Charleville.

Chris enjoying the country in Central West Queensland. It's great having the bike to get on and go for a ride after a big day travelling in the car.

The girls are sitting on 'The Black Stump'. This is the famous stump where the saying 'Beyond the Black Stump' comes from.

Central West Queensland is usually very dry this time of year, but not this year. We were wanting to go on this road, but had to change our plans. This is the Barcoo River at Blackall.

We stayed the night in a little town out of Longreach called Ilfracombe. Chris and the girls enjoyed riding their bikes around town and playing on all the machinary along the 'Machinary Mile' as well as relaxing in the Artesian Spa.

The girls and I did a tour at School of the Air in Longreach. It was really interesting to see where it all started and how far it's come over the years.

LUCY'S 5TH BIRTHDAY

We celebrated Lucy's 5th birthday in Winton - QLD. I decorated the van with balloons and streamers to make it extra special. Lucy had a great day!!

I am 5 today!!!!! Yay!!

All three girls were so excited!! Who doesn't love a birthday party??

Lucy's rainbow cake. I knew we would be on the road and travelling for Lucy's birthday and I couldn't stand the thought of her missing out on a cake. So I planned ahead and while we were in Katherine I used an oven there to bake it, then iced it and turned our engel fridge into a freezer so the cake would last. Then I just pulled it out on the day and decorated it!!

We stayed in a caravan in Winton for the night and the girls started playing with these boys in the afternoon. Bridget invited them to Lucy's party!!! HaHa

Winton-QLD

The musical fence in Winton. This was amazing. It is set up so that you can play the fence like a guitar!! It sounds so cool!!

Lucy and Chris playing the 'drums'. All these musical instruments were made from junk and scrap metal. Lots of fun!!

Having a photo with the Jolly Swagman in the Waltzing Matilda Centre-Winton. It was good for the girls to learn more about Banjo Patterson (since he spent some of his childhood in Yeoval).

Can you find the girls?? We spent hours looking through the Waltzing Matilda Centre. There was so much to see.

QUEENSLAND!!!

We've crossed over into another state. Goodbye for now NT (we'll be back next year) and hello Queensland!!!

On the Road!!!

This part of our trip meant long days in the car as we had many kms to cover. We decided we needed some exercise when we stopped so got out the skipping ropes and had some fun!!

We stopped in at a roadhouse for the night and the girls were so excited to find all these peacocks strutting around. They wonder why God made the male peacock to be the beautiful one???

Bitter Springs

At Mataranka we had been told to stop in at Bitter Springs. We were hot and more than keen to jump in for a swim. There was a fairly strong current which helped us float down the Spring where you'd get out and walk back up again.

This country of ours keeps blowing us away. There are so many gorgeus spots!

We found a Lucy St in Katherine!!!

We stopped in at Katherine to see 'The Parkers'. It was Al's 40th birthday and we wanted to be there to celebrate with her. We had a great few days of catching up.

It was great seeing all the kids together again. They really do get on well and had a fun few days. We'll miss you Parkers!!