USA 2009 - Volume 2!

Ok, so I wont do my post on Camp Sunshine here, as it is going to be big enough with all the photos I have to add and update on.

We are still in America, and fly out tomorrow, so I thought it was a good time to update!

From the last post, we were at our friend Doreen's house, wiht her 5 kids. It was a madhouse, and a lot of fun!

We had a nice relaxing time, and did not much of anything. It was nice to just spend time together, and relax.

One of the things we did do, was go blueberry picking. It was heaps of fun!

Doreen had sprained her ankle on our first night there, and it was pretty bad, so we left her and her eldest son, James behind, and took her other 4 kids, plus Jasper, Paul and I.

It was raining and really muddy, and heaps of fun!!

Here we are treking through...

The middle photo is Jordan - Doreens eldest girl (11), and on the far right is Jasper - totally in his element - mud, rain and blueberries!!























So from Rear Left = Jordan, Jacob

from Front Left = Jasper, Jorja, Julia

(notice the pattern of the names???)























I made a most delicious pie (even if I do say so myself!!), and we ate more than we picked!!! It was awesome and we loved it!!

Then we had Camp Sunshine - I will post on that soon,,, after we went back to Doreens for 2 nights, and on the Thursday afternoon, we had another FA family come to catch up and have a play... the Ice Cream Truck went past, and as the 3 mums called out "get off the road, kids - no icecream for you", Paul walks out of the house waving money and it was a bit like the Pied Piper!!

Here are the munchkins eating away -

Kristin (another FA mum) is back left, Doreen is back right, Wesley is front left, then it looks like Jorja, Jacob, Quinn, and Julia.

jasper was floating around somewhere, and the older kids were hanging out inside!























There were some interesting colours happening on the tounges...

Jorja (FA)
















Julia (twin with Jorja) (FA)













Jacob (brother to the twins, Jordan and James)

Quinn (sister to Wesley)

Wesley (FA)

Jasper (FA)

Japser had a fall at Camp, and had a big scratch above his eye - here is a close up of the black eye that started to develop nearly 1 week after the accident...

When nature calls....

Doreen did say this was ok - and what sort of mother would I be to let the opportunity go when I am standing right there with the camera?!?!

Jasper and Wesley playing ball outside.

This was a very serious conversation between Wes and Jas about some grass seeds..

you are not mistaken.. Jasper is wearing his undies.. he did not want to go swimming, but did not want to get his icypole on his clothes...

That day was Kristins birthday, and she invited us all out to dinner with her family. Doreen and the kids could not come, but here is Jasper with Quinn and Collin (Wesleys siblings) playing on the iPod touch.. it kept them quiet and entertained when we wanted to chat after eating!

Here is Wesley with his parents, Kristin and Sean.

Our boys... they are so cute together!!! They are both 6, both about the same height and weight, and play nicely together - most of the time!! I think they could almost be brothers looking at this shot!!

Our first stop after leaving Doreen's house was.... SALEM, MA..
It was really pretty and not so spooky. You can do the spooky things if you want to, but we did not, and it was a really nice time.

Here I am in my "natural state" - witch brooke!!

At lunch, Jasper ordered a Root Beer - it looks like he is drinking a real beer!! We took this one for Jasper's Poppie!!

The place we had lunch was called In A Pig's Eye. The boys that Paul does bowling with call him Pig, so we HAD to eat there!!!

Here I am with my witchey friend on a street somewhere in Salem!!

It was REALLY hot, so we stopped for icecream.. Jasper had Orange Sherbert (tasted just like it!) and I had Maine Black Bear flavour (raspberry with raspberry truffles in it - totally delicious!!)

It was as big as his head!!

We met a really nice lady at one of the t-shirt stands. We stopped for a chat, and she gave Paul and I 2 t-shirts for free. Mine matched one that we had bought for Jasper, and so Jas wanted to have a photo of us as matching twins!!

The next day we went to Plymouth to see Plymouth Rock. It was suprisingly small, compared to what I was thinking, but they had a man there who said it used to be 3 times this size, but with all the souveniers that people have taken, and pieces that have been donated to museums etc, well it is as big as it is now!

It was a good history lesson for all of us!

Here are Jasper and I at the sign that says Plymouth Rock etc

Jasper and his daddy at the same sign

We went to Plymouth on our way to Cape Cod. I was expecting more from the Cape, and was a bit disappointed... we went to the ZooQuarium, which is just as it sounds, a zoo and an aquarium! It was pretty small, but interesting all the same.

Here is Jasper at the Aquaruim part of the park, there were some big fish behind him.

I wondered who ever looked at this bird and thought "I might try to eat that" had a wicked sense of humour - but I am sure glad they tried this - DINNER!!!

Jasper at Pirate Mini-Golf

We went to a water park today on our way to Connecticut called Water Wizz. We could not take cameras in at all as they were shooting a new Adam Sandler film there. Before you ask, we did not see anyone famous!!

Our holiday officially ends tomorrow, we fly out at 7.10pm. We are planning on going to the beach tomorrow, and so should be sufficiently tanned (not Jasper - he will be coated in sun block!!) to come home brown and warm.

We are going to miss our FAmily, and are so appreciative to Doreen and her kids (my 5 J-babies) for putting up with us, we love you guys, and are so lucky to have met you 3 years ago, and to be good friends.

To Kristin and Sean, we love you and your family, and look forward to spending more time with you next year, deciphering the strange english language we all speak but struggle to understand!

To our other FAmily, we love you all, and had a great time meeting you all again at Camp Sunshine - Until 2010!!

I am looking forward to getting home - I miss my mum and dad - as does Jasper.

He is ready to get home, so it is good timing!!

Love to all, and to all a good night!

Thanks for reading.

Brooke

xxx

USA 2009

Ok, so we are here in America for Camp Sunshine 2009.


We arrived on Monday 27th, and journeyed our way to Maine yesterday - 29th July.





On our journey, we have had some adventure - not the least being Paul becoming aclimatised to driving on the wrong side of the car, and the wrong side of the road!!! There have been no dramas though, and he has just slotted right back into his "normal" driving habits.





On our first day (the day after we arrived), we went to a place called Yorks Wild Kingdom. It is in York, and offer elephant rides.


It was something we had talked about for a while with Jasper, and he was pretty excited, although did not want to go on alone.


I got to go on with him, and Lydia the elephant took us for a lap of her enclosure. It was not the most comfortable animal to ride on, but an experience we could not overlook!!


Here is one of the many photos that Paul took... you need to look real close, but we are there!!!

Jasper is never one to let a pony ride go begging, and they were on offer too...

Feeding the baby goats...


























and the baby deer...





























with his daddy at a waterfall - we were looking at some animals in this part too, there was a chipmunk stealing birdseed behind the boys when I snapped this one!!




























Not only are there animals, but rides and games too..
Jasper went on this big slide, and got some air over one of the bumps... he was totally pertified, and did not want to go on it again, but he had a go, and it was awesome!!!












Jasper and I went on the ferris wheel, and you get a really nice view of York Beach. The issue with this ferris wheel was that it went SO fast and the wind really blows you around up the top. It was so fast, it was like being on a rollercoaster ride. Jasper was hanging onto me calling "mummy, mummy". I was holding onto him pretty tight, and the rail in front... I was laughing throughout the ride, but it was NOT funny!!!




























We come all the way to America, and what do we see??
Australian wildlife. pft.
there was about 5 baby emu in this enclosure, and they all followed Paul around it!!































The thing I was looking forward to most of all this trip was the Maine Lobster Festival (in Maine of course). We drove up to Rockland, Maine to attend, and it was worth the trip!!
They have a cooking area with BIG cages of live lobsters that you see get locked in the boiling water, then tipped into crates to take to the food tent... smells and sights that were delicious.
Here is the menu that was over the Food Tent... mmmmm one of everything please!!!
































Here are the boys moving the cooked lobsters from the cooking cages to the transport bits...






































Mmmmmm. Fresh produce. WHERE'S MY DINNER?????

































Getting ready to eat....

Ahhh, now the remains... D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!

While we were waiting for the food tent line (we waited about 25 minutes), Black Beard and King Neptune wandered past. Could not resist the photos! Jasper was a bit scared of them, so refused to photograph with them, Paul was not so scared!!!

We are now at the Flynn's house in Lewiston Maine, getting ready for Camp.

Doreen and her 5 kids have been kind enough to put us up... I think it was all part of a cunning plan... Doreen fell over yesterday after we got here and ended up with an aircast on her ankle... unfortunate accident, or part if the master plan???

I will update with some more photos soon...

thanks for reading, Love you mum and dad. Miss you,.

Brooke

xxx

Jasper's 6th Birthday

Well, now my baby is officially 6 years old!!! I still remember when I was pregnant, like it was yesterday! Where is my little baby!!!
It was a great day, and we all had lots of fun. I have put some photos here so you can share in our day!
This is Jasper at 6.15am, eating scrambled eggs for breakfast in my bed! It is what he wanted to do!

Then it was present time! He loved all his presents... especially the electric blanket for his bed! (he gets so cold at night, he shivers and shakes when he is rugged up, so now it is really cold (we are in winter), the blanket makes getting to sleep easier for him).
In this photo, he is "pumping"" the 1kg weights his brother, Brent gave him!




Next up was swimming lessons. That is a normal Sunday morning for us. This is Megan. She used to be Jaasper's teacher, and is really lovely. She is now supervisor on Sunday, so we have a new teacher, but she is still there to watch him!
Megan made him a birthday certificate with 6 stickers on it! He loves it... and loved going to swimming on his birthday, because he knew he would be the centre of attention!!



Here is a photo of his cake, It was my first attempt, and it does not look so good in this photo. It was a number 6 in the colours of Hot Wheels (Orange and Blue). There was a real hot wheels car on it, with some red icing flames coming out the back! It did not taste too good... last time I use a brand new recipe!!!


This is Jasper's best buddy, Liam. He lives around the corner from us, and is older than Jasper by just one day. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum... Liam is really tall for 6, and Jasper is a teeny poppet!
We just had a "family"day here, with my mum and dad, Liam and his mum Carly, and my other friend Hayley here. My sister and her kids could not make it.
It was a nice time, and Jasper loved being silly and mucking around.


This is Jasper at the end of the day... He was pretty tired and ready for bed. He does this smile when he really wants something that he know I am going to say no to... It is the face I cant say no to!!! Very cute, and really sweet!!!

Jasper starts school holidays tomorrow... Friday - for 2 weeks. He will go to Vacation Care, as I am working.

He does have a blood test due next week, so I will post when we have some results!!

Thanks for reading.

Brooke

xxx