Strange Weather

The weather in Victoria has been very strange lately, with the typical pattern of lovely weather during the week and then cold and rainy on the weekends.  I was hoping for a few nice days over the Easter long weekend, as we were going to Swan Bay.  The lead up to Easter was magnificent.....around 27 degrees everyday.  Good Friday was a glorious 30 degrees, so off we headed bright and early in the morning.  We arrived around 11.00 and just lazed about and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine.  We decided we would go to the Queenscliff marina for fish and chips for dinner.  On the way we stopped off at Point Lonsdale beach as it was such a lovely afternoon / early evening.

It was 29 degrees when we were driving to the Marina.  We sat outside and ate beautiful fresh Calamari and fish and chips whilst taking in the views of the beautiful boats.  It was very busy with people everywhere enjoying the great weather.  A cool change had been forecast for the evening.  The wind picked up and I looked behind me and saw BIG grey clouds heading our way.  I had never seen clouds move so fast.  We decided to leave the rest of our dinner and run to the car.  We only just made it back to the car before the heavens opened.

The temperature dropped from 29 degrees to 17 degrees in a matter of minutes.  Very typical for Melbourne.  So back to the cabin it was, crank up the heater and snuggle up to watch a DVD.

Dry Fun at Adventure Park

The last time we went down to our cabin at Swanbay the weather was not great.  As our Summer Fun passes expire in April, we thuoght we would go to Adventure Park and utilise the dry activities.  Firstly we palyed mini golf, then Hovsep and Christian had numerous go's at Archery.

Please excuse where my cheeky Buster has his hand!!!

Below are photo's of us playing mini golf, and I am proud to say that I was the winner today.



From mini golf it was off to the Archery.

Father and Son shooting arrows together.

When we went back to the cabin, it was time to take Charleigh for a walk, as she was finally allowed to go for a small walk after being desexed.  It is such a beautiful walking track at the Holiday Park.  There are always swans and pelcans for you to look at in the dam.

This is not a great shot, but these are balck swans.

This is the view as you walk around the track.  Just beautiful...

Swans flying overhead.

Cha Cha enjoying her walk and watching the cows.

Buster riding around the track.

Buying the cabin is the best thing we have done and we just love going there... It truely is Paradise.

Cha Cha's Operation

My beautiful puppy, (well she is not really a puppy anymore) was speyed on Thursday last week.  Hovsep, Christian and I always wanted Charleigh to have one litter of puppies, because we think she is very pretty and our other dog Rio is very old, so we thought we would keep one of her pups.  In recent times I have started studying as well as working full time and now helping run Hovsep's new company, I find I don't have much free time and I would definitely not have time to look after a litter of puppies.  After a bitch has had 4 season's their risk of uterine and breast cancer increase 10% with each season.  Charleigh has been on heat 4 times, so it was time to get her done.

This is Charleigh the day we bought her home.  Very cute don't you think?

Christian and I dropped her off at the vet at 8.30 in the morning and picked her back up at 5.00pm.  She was very dizzy and kept falling over.  She has a bucket on her head which is causing all sorts of dramas.  She keeps walking into walls and doors and mostly us, which hurts.  My lower legs are covered in bruises.  The bucket needs to stay on for 10-14 days and she needs to be kept inside and quiet for that period.  She thinks all her Christmas' have come at once, as she is normally an outdoor dog.  Every time she has a drink of water she knocks the bowl over because of the bucket.  I really look forward to the 14 days being up, and she won't know what has hit her when she has to go back outside.  Rio is really missing her and feeling very left out.  We can't let Rio inside because he keeps sniffing at her stitches, and knowing him he will think he is doing her a favour and will lick them and try to chew them out.

Charleigh and her destructive bucket.

Weekend Fun at Advernture Park

Adventure Park is Victoria's largest water fun park, and lucky for us is situated a 5 minute drive from our cabin.  We purchased season's passes for the summer so we can go when ever we want to.  There are 21 rides, including giant water slides, tubes rides, go karts, mini golf, canoes and heaps more.

This is one of the kids play area's which is so much fun and there are as many adults on it as kids.

Christian just loves it there as you can see from these photos.

If the weather is not hot enough for the water rides we just go to play mini golf, go go- karting and practice archery.

I know the warmer weather is few and far between now, so I don't think there will be many more trips to Adventure Park for the water rides.  Fingers crossed for a warm Easter.

Our piece of paradise

Hovsep and I have wanted to move closer to Christian's school and buy a property with a few acres.  We missed out on our dream house and then another about 6 months later.  The rural real estate people seem to do it differently than in the city.  Anyway, we really wanted a little piece of paradise to balance the work and fmaily life out.  Normally over summer we rent a house for 10 days at Portarlington (a cute sleepy beach town just 1 hour from where we live).  In August 2011 we decided we would look at purchasing a cabin in a caravan park, so we could go away whenever we felt like it.  We looked at the caravan park in portarlington, but it was old, run down and the cramped.  The cabins were very close together.  I then started to search on the internet for cabins for sale near portarlington.  I found a gorgeous waterfront cabin for sale.  It was a little more than what we wanted to pay, but it looked beautiful.  I rang and enquired only to be disappointed as it had been sold 3 years ago and the add had not been removed.  I told Hovsep about it and we decided to drive down and check out the park anyway.  Well as soon as we drove in we knew we would buy a cabin from Swanbay.

Swan Bay is situated on the Bellarine Penisula and is between Queenscliff and St Leonards, right on the water.

This is the view from our cabin

The Holiday Park is fantastic and extreamly relaxing.  It has 2 swimming pools, a tennis court, basket ball court, pool table, table tennis, ball and play room and a beautiful walking track over 10 acres when you can soak up the beautiful views and watch the amazing bird life of hundreds of pelicans and black swans just to name a few.

Our cabin is one of the smaller ones, but is bigger enough for us.

The park is also animal friendly which is a bonus as we can take Rio and Charleigh down if we want to.

We love our piece of paradise!!!

Level 9

Christian started swimming lessons later than most kids as he suffers from recurring ear infections and has had 2 sets of grommets.  At Paul Sadler swimland, when children pass level 8, which includes swimming 50 meters of freestyle, 75 meters of backstroke, treading water for 5 minutes and completing a dive, they get awarded their green certificate along with a special T Shirt and they ring a huge fireman's bell, so the whole of the swimming centre stop their lessons and watch the presentation and give a big clap.  They really make a big deal of it and the kids love it.  Christian has been in level 8 for about 6 months and he was getting disgruntled that he would never get his green certificate.  He suffers from Asthma and really struggles with his breathing and normally can only swim 25 metres of the pool (which includes having a few breathing breaks along the way). 

 Last night his teacher said to him "I want you to swim 3 laps of freestyle with no stopping".  I was sitting next to a girl friend and I was explaining to her, that he wouldn't be able to do 3 laps because of his breathing.  He finished 1 lap without stopping, so I gave him the thumbs up and I thought to myself I will give him $5 for making the 1 lap and this will give him incentive to complete 2 laps next week.  Well I could not believe my eyes, Christian continued on to swim his 2nd lap without stopping.  I was so excited for him that I punched Leanne on the leg and said "he has done 2 laps without stopping".  Then my clever boy completed his 3rd lap without stopping.

His teacher then asked Christian to swim 4 laps of backstroke.  Christian doesn't have the breathing problems with backstroke, however I thought after completing 3 laps of freestyle that he may struggle.  But he proceeded to swim the 4 laps.  When he got out of the pool to go and practise diving I gave him a big high 5.

I wasn't expecting him to get his certificate, I thought his teacher was getting him ready and that he would probably get it in the coming weeks.  But when I saw the smile on his face (It was literally ear to ear) I knew that he had passed level 8.  He rushed over to me and said "Mum, mum, I got my certificate." "I have to get changed quickly so they can ring the bell for me". 



I am so proud of him and I also had a smile from ear to ear.  Well done Buster.

New to Blogging

I am new to blogging, so I apologise in advance if this is either boring or a complete failure.. 

A beautiful friend of mine Lisa King, is an avid blogger and her world has recently been shattered with tragedy.  She started blogging to keep a record and memories of the time spent with her disabled son, Noah.  Noah passed away in October 2011 at the age of 10, and tragically and suddenly her beautiful husband Aaron, of 16 years joined Noah in heaven on Australia Day 2012.  Lisa is left to raise 3 boys on her own.  Luckily Lisa has captured so many memories of their family life through her blog that Lisa & the boys can always reflect on these and remember the good times spent with their Dad and Noah. If you are interested in reading Lisa's Blog, this is her blogspot http://lisajking.blogspot.com.au/.  Lisa has inspired me to keep a record my own family memories.