Annual Snow Week - Perisher July 2009

Apologies to our avid blogwatchers - it seems to be getting harder to find the time to get the blog up to date. This post has been in draft so long it is probably growing mould!

Anyway, we did get down to the Australian Alps during the July School Holidays, as Jess was in her final year at High School, and the HSC exams were coming up. This also gave Jess the chance to sport her new outfit which we snapped up during our April trip:

Unfortunately, in our rush to get down there, we left the helmets at home, so they had to use the daggy rental ones.

Here's us having a lunchtime break at mid-station:

The weather was beautiful, and inevitably we bumped into other people from "the Shire"...

Top of the Quad:

Jess at the base of Olympic:

Earlier in the week, we had so much snow falling that the resort had to hire crews to shovel the snow off the roof of the Perisher Centre. Never seen that before. Good to see they're all wearing their safety harnesses:

We had a great lodge again, with the Horwoods, Stevens', the Marshall girls and Jordan:

Mike and Alex seemed to always end up wearing matching clothes:

Jordan entertained us all with his party tricks, and snow carvings:

Midweek, the village was lit up by fireworks over front valley:

In the mornings, it was a great opportunity for Jess to express her artistic talent and she took some magnificent photos:

Jake went out in his pyjamas (and Dad's boots) to try and get captured by the web cam:

We did succeed on several occasions. In the afternoons, on the way back from the locker room, we often found ourselves sculling a G&T at the White Spider to get up the hill on the hour to get in the shot for all to see we were there:

But best of all, we had a great week skiing.

Jess followed in Kate's footsteps, and successfully completed the 5-day Black Diamond workshop, giving the boys a run for their money. Their challenges included skiing up and down Bloody Mary at Guthega on one ski (leaving the other one at the bottom) then swapping legs before getting on the t-bar to do it again!

At the end of a hard day's skiing, we treated ourselves to a hot chocolate, and a Gluhwein for Dad:

On Friday afternoon, after such a great week, we splashed out on a deluxe hot chocolate for Mum, with extra marshmallows and biscotti: Cheers!

Stolen moments of Joy in Noosa

Last week, we managed to turn a near disaster into an impromtu weekend of family fun.

Mike was due to fly up to Brisbane on Monday for a few days of meetings, but when his laptop failed leaving him unable to work from home, he had to fly up to Brisbane on the Friday before.

We realised it had been quite a long time since we had a weekend in Noosa, and decided to try and see if we could all go along for the ride if we could do it cheaply.

After a quick search on the internet, we blew some points and booked some flights, and found on Wotif that good ol' Sandy Court had a room free with a few bunks.

So we grabbed the old work car, and drove up to the Sunshine Coast on Friday afternoon.

On Saturday Morning, we met up with the Feutrills at Eumundi Markets, then had some rolls for lunch, including the most beautiful red tomatos we bought at the markets.

After lunch, we went down to Hastings St for the traditional afternoon visit to Massimos; here's some pictures for you to enjoy...

Then it is always customary to go around the corner to the beach to walk off all that Ice Cream!

Jess waited for ages for the right conditions to take this photo:

Kate realised that she missed the "happy" Pandanis Trees!

Much had changed; the recent storms had carved much of the sand away from the beach, but at least the new surf club was open:

That night, we all came back to our room for a Pizza Dinner.

We were amazed how much healthier Darren looked,

and how much weight he had stacked on!

and Abbey & Paris had a sleepover with the cousins.

Sunday Morning, we met up again with Maria and Olivia at the Tewantin Harbour Markets:

Can you tell whether this is Jess or Abbey holding Olivia?

Together again, the cousins checked out what the stalls had to offer:

Jake gave Aunty Maria's "new" car the nod of approval:

We spent the rest of Sunday relaxing by the River at Noosaville:

Olivia was as cheeky as ever...

...but Jake took care of her on the adventurous playground equipment.

While we spent the afternoon relaxing and reading the Sunday Paper (very unusual for us)

Jake insists you are never too old to have a slippery dip.

Every last moment was savoured to get cousin hugs; who knows when the next one will be?

Thanks guys, we had a fantastic weekend.

Kate and the kids flew back to Sydney on Sunday Night, while Mike kept working in Brisbane until Wednesday. But we all enjoyed those stolen moments at Noosa.