More of our day trip

The Gingin Observatory also has a Gravity Discovery Centre, with many displays to demonstrate the force of gravity. It is educational (particularly for science buffs) and fun too!

You can also go on a night tour where you get to view the night sky through massive telescopes. I haven't been on one of the night tours at Gingin, but I did go to the Observatory in the hills (hmm, can't remember exactly where, Toodyay, maybe??) in my uni days, and that was a LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE! To see the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter up close for real (as in, not in a book or photo) was awe-inspiring!! It brought me close to tears and was real lump-in-the-throat stuff. If you are ever near an Observatory, book in for the night tour (they are only at certain times of the year). You will not regret it!

The faceted dome building is a work in progress and has a fascinating display around the walls of the evolution of our galaxy, earth and its inhabitants.

The Leaning Tower in Gingin was built to lean on a slant, it is not slowly collapsing! You can get a certificate for climbing it. We did! You don't actually get a sense of the building leaning when you climb it, but in wintry weather, I imagine the winds must howl around it and make it tremble! All I know is it is 13 stories high and you definitely get a sense of that! I can't even show you a photo showing the slant, because you would have to be way over on the other side to get that angle.

Every now and then, there is a glimpse of flowers in the natural surroundings. Beautiful!

The cafe has hot food until 3pm, and yummy cakes! (Always on the lookout for those!)

You can spend a good two hours there, looking at everything.

Also, not too far up the road, there is a honey farm where you can buy all types of honey and even honey ice-cream. Yummo!

The Leaning Tower of Gingin

We went for a day trip to the Gingin Observatory. We have been before, but there were some new buildings this time.

The boys were so excited about climbing that tower. Me, not so much. But climb it we did. Here are my boys on the way up.

Then at the top.

Looking down, you can see the shadow of the tower. It is the tallest leaning tower in the world! We each dropped a water balloon down a pipe to the sand below. Jack and Jonathon watched them burst, but I couldn't look!


This is when you realise they built this place in the middle of nowhere!

On the way down. A 37 degree day and the wind was vicious on the tower!

And back on ground level. Legs are like jelly!

(You can tell a man designed this thing!)
Two days later, and my leg muscles are still sore from climbing up and down the tower. Never again!

Sun and surf

Jack had been begging to go to the beach all holidays, but it really has been too hot. Finally I gave in and took him, on Friday, to the Lagoon. We stopped for some hot chips, an ice cream, and a bottle of water at the Beach Cafe.

The sand was beautiful and warm, and the breeze was in.

The water was pretty rough but Jack likes it that way; the more waves to catch, the better! He is really into Baywatch at the moment, so he was showing me his Baywatch moves, including slow-mo running to the water! He's a crack-up!

It is a pretty place to be!

Shopping

On Thursday, Emma, Jack and I picked up Jonathon from his work and went to BCF (Boating, Camping, Fishing) to look for fishing gear for Jack.

Jack sussed out the rod he wanted. (This is serious men's business!)

Can you believe these pink fishing rods? The label is LipStix!

After BCF, we went to IKEA (LOVE IKEA!!) I was on a mission to get some goodies to make my new furniture look glam, because after taking down all the Christmas decorations, it was a bit bland. First stop was the cafe, for a delish hot chocolate and yum apple slice. Funky curtains!

I'm loving how my sofa table looks now! (Although I still have to get a frame for the print, but they were out of stock.)

The candles were a Chrissy present from my education assistant, Emma (a different Emma!), and they smell divine! The AVENY vase (which yes, looks a little like a beer bottle, but is actually tall and elegant) was $22.95 down to $6.95!! So many bargains at IKEA at the moment, especially with decorating accessories and prints. I got some other things too, mainly shelving and boxes, but haven't set them up yet.

Last traces of Christmas

I have been trying to pack away Christmas decorations for about three days! I thought I'd show you some of my favourites.

I love that I have a real Nutcracker soldier (just like the ballet!) Jack made the wooden Christmas tree in Pre-Primary, and I sooo appreciate how much time that would have taken (thanks Ms Craigie!) The other decorations were presents from students, from over the years. Check out the St Nicholas made of Fimo. What an artist that parent was!

These ornaments were made by my Mum. They are stunning, and look amazing on the tree!

This one was a present from a student. It is exquisite! I hung it off the back of a chair so you could see it better. Hmm, not a bad idea...

Jack made a candle holder at school for Christmas. Cute!



(By the way, I'm loving the red table runner I got on special from Freedom!)

This candle holder was a present from Kristie and Dave. Love it!!

And here are some other gorgeous Christmas presents!

Mum gave me a new, shorter chain for my Pandora bracelet, and 5 new, shiny beads.

Dad and Jane gave me a stunning necklace in one of my favourite colours, aqua, with sparkly gold bits.

Goodbye to Christmas for another year!

New Year's Day

We have been playing Monopoly Tropical Tycoon for two days!! It is awesome! Jack got the game for his birthday from my sister, Leonie, and her family. It's basically like Monopoly, but you use a DVD during the game. Also, instead of houses and hotels you can build beach houses, piers, restaurants, parks, casinos and resorts, that all have conditons when you land on them. We had a lot of fun playing it!


We made chocolate cookies today, which were yummo, and Jack practised on his Blade Board. He can go a really long way on it now!

New Year's Eve

We went to our friend Emma's place for dinner tonight. She made a heavenly quiche, and we brought salad, Christmas pudding and custard (who says Christmas is over?!) The boys played in the street on their blade boards and electric scooter, while Em sat to water the lawn which has been scorched by our recent 40 degree days. (Em has a prolapsed disc, so all movement is pretty painful lately).

After dinner, Em's family introduced us to RockBand, and, while we're almost always happy to grab the mic for a sing, this playing drums and guitar thing had us a bit bedazzled. Em has really taken to the drums, while Paul, Brendan and Rhys are champs on the guitar and bass. Jonathon and Jack got the idea of the bass guitar pretty quickly. We're going to need some more practice to get as good as these guys, though!