Hamilton Island

On the plane - flying to Hamilton Island!

Check out my fancy new CARES harness - especially made for airplane seats!

Must get out for a few minutes though for some intense coloring!

GORGEOUS sunset view from our apartments

Our apartment's pool - SO nice to have that sun shade in the heat of the day!

Our place - we stayed on the ground with Nanna, Grand Dad & Helen right next door

Relaxing with Woof Woof and a kiddy magazine

AND with Dada - that's what holiday's all about after all - Relaxing!

Hey you - I'm ready for the POOL!

In the 'buggy' (golf cart) heading to the pool. It was fun to travel around the island in it! The island is small but VERY hilly - so its a necessity!

Little snack first

Then the pool - YAY! This one had a long shallow edge that was just perfect for Genna.

She got more confident each day (first day she didn't want to go anywhere but the edge, but by the last day she was wading around in shoulder deep water and jumping to us to go deeper in our arms!)

The birthday boy relaxing by the pool

We went down to the marina for lunch - these two cockatoos were busy cleaning each other - SO cute!

Lovely sunsets

Peter & Lyn at the marina

me by a tucked in thumb - just like Genna & I do!

Books with Nanna

and cuddles with Dada & Grand Dad out at dinner in the marina!

More amazing sunsets

Genevieve in her pretty 'Lady' dress (as she would say) from Grandma & Grandpa

bath time and some crazy hair! first time she has EVER let me put a hair binder in!

Murray & I had a day trip out to Whitehaven Beach on a massive catamaran.

there was a bush walk up to a viewpoint - along the way we some some SCARY looking spiders!
Gorgeous views though - that's our boat!


cool droppy leaved plants
quite a view!

and another one - eeeeeek!

Whitehaven is one of the top 10 beaches in the world!! The sand is SO amazingly fine that you can clean your jewellry with it and there's so much silica in the sand that it doesn't ever feel hot to walk on - amazing.

We spent some time doing just think - relaxing in the water - lovely!
Murray helping out on the catamaran.
Helen & Peter & Lyn had a dinner cruise that evening - all dressed up & looking great!
So we went for dinner down at the marina.
Genna in her giant high chair
she lasted for about half an hour, then she fell apart because of the humidity because she was SO uncomfortable.
So we got a few sunset shots - then headed back





for some zerberts! (is that an American term?) blowing 'raspberries' on her tummy - she loves it!

Next morning Helen & I did an intense hike up to the highest point on the island. It was worth it for the fab view!

You can see the main resorts down on the left.
and before we brought Aunty Helen to the airport - we went for some ice cream!
Genna has only had ice cream once before and thought it was ok.... but this time she was in HEAVEN!

Back in the pool again - best place to be on a hot humid day!

and one - and two - I can beat you Dada!

cuddles with Nanna after swimming to warm up

One evening we went up to the viewpoint 'One Tree Hill' - I LOVE that there's a bar set up up there - how 'holiday' is that? However this evening we brought our own beers and a bag of microwave popcorn - yummmm.

Great music too - Red Hot Chili Peppers!

and MORE amazing sunsets......

Now - time to catch up on my gossip!

I tell ya what - these people are crazy!

pony tail lady - cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute

down at the pool playing with 2 other little kids

trying out my life jacket!

I don't know Nanna - it looks pretty deep!

and a back rub from Dada - nice!

that afternoon we had lunch at the koala park

she was standing up so she could see people holding the koala

the nice keeper brought one over for her to see - she was happy to watch but did NOT want to touch it

she did get REALLY good at saying the word koala though!

we found another pool too that was right by the gorgeous Catseye Beach

Hard to see here - but it had a big deep hole in the middle that led to a waterfall - SUCH a nice pool!

the beach was fun too - at the end of the day when the tide was really low we spent some time searching for shells - Genna preferred collection rocks though :)

beautiful local flowers

post nap snuggle with Dada - she slept SO good on holiday - must have been the heat!

cuddles with Granddad

He showed her how to shake the cup with her hand over the top - fun!

Last afternoon - little girl sitting in a big chair!

I LOVE it!

Check me OUT!

It was a WONDERFUL trip. Great to celebrate Peter's birthday, an amazing place, SO relaxing and great food. SUCH a fun week :)

19 Months

Genevieve is 19 months old! Unfortunately she wasn't cooperating with photos today - so this is the best I could get :)

Fun with Daddy in her sunnies!

Cool dude

Check out my cool mitts

FUN

A walk without a nappy feels GREAT!

And renovations have begun - the new carpet we picked on the left - the old gross carpet on the right

Murray got to work on the study first - sanding the window frame - fun fun!

It's hard work!

Genna decided to come in and give Daddy a hand

Here I'll fix that for you

Concentrating hard

and the walls are finished - fab! We just need to finish painting the window frame now :)

Genna enjoyed all her lovely Valentines Day cards

and had a GREAT time with the stickers!!!

In the past 2 weeks you sure have started saying a lot of new words! You say touch (which waving your hand at me - which means 'don't touch me', like when you want to go down the slide without me being nearby), you say push and button, cereal (you have started yelling this at dinner time when you don't like what I serve you - but that just is SO not going to happen....), house (when we pull in the garage), lady (for ladybug), and love you (you said this only once - to Dada - and he was thrilled:) You also have started regularly saying Thank You this week - which I think is fabulous! Now you are a regular please AND thank you girl - SO smart :)


This week you are also very into putting our shoes on. You find our shoes and automatically know 'Dada shoe' or 'Mama shoe' then you bring them over and try to put them on our feet. A fun game I guess! It's SUPER cute when you put your feet into Dada's shoes too - you look SO tiny when you do that!


You love the trot trot song, but this week you REALLY love the 'teddy bear sleep' song. Usually on the ride home from daycare we sing it together - you like to do the 'clap clap' part (saying the words and clapping) and you LOVE to do the shush shush part - while holding your finger up to your lips :)


Creative piano playing

Hot Potato (Wiggles song) - also a new favorite!

Nearly 19 Months Old

Genna and her 'babies'


Her favorite thing lately is to feed her babies

Look - I built it myself!

concentrating hard

Its fun to have enough room to bring the pool inside and fill it with balls!


Playing and a bit of singing

Reading before bed with Dada (the sheets are off because she wanted me to change her nappy on our bed and then did a little pee - oops!). She loves reading in our bed before she goes night night though - our routine is bath, dress for bed, books in Mama & Dada's bed, drink of milk ....

then tuck Puppy (woof woof) in and say night night (she LOVES to give puppy cuddles like this)

Oh and goodnight to you too Teddy!

tucking in woof woof just right

and one last cuddle :) After the last cuddle she usually gives puppy a kiss then strokes puppy's head and says shushhhhhh.

Its fun to draw outside with chalk!!

and a drink for 'car'

Some stories I have been meaning to write down:

Sometimes when you aren't too interested in the food I have given you I ask 'would you like a dip Genna.' You usually wildly shake your head yes and say Dip Dip! I give you a little bit of low salt ketchup in a bowl and then you eat like crazy. Last night you were dipping each bit of your pasta bake as you said 'dip, dip dip.' So so cute.

Before bath you have started hiding puppy in the bathroom drawers then running in to me and holding your hands out and saying 'Go?' (as in, where did puppy go?). I respond - Oh where's puppy??? Then you run to the drawer, take puppy out and squeal in delight. And over and over again - this fun game never gets old!

And although we aren't starting potty training yet - just getting used to the idea of a little potty seat - I must state that you did go wee in it once this week - hooray! You looked really confused - like 'who did that'? But ha ha - its the first step.

They tell me at daycare that you have made a new friend - Lachlan. They told me you two like to hold hands & push play cars around together. I'm so glad you have connected with one of the children! Why is it always boys though hmmmm? They also tell me you are a super happy lady all day long and they really enjoy playing with you. That you love to color, play in the sand box, play in the cubby house and go down the little slide!!


Funny chatty lady at dinner time. You learned this 'open them close them' song at daycare


Wearing herself out for bedtime!! I dont' know if she's going through a growth spurt or what, but she is sleeping 14 hours each night and 2 hours during the day. And not only that, in the past week and a half or so - MOST of those nights are sleeping straight through, without a peep - for FOURTEEN HOURS! Just crazy, especially considering you haven't consistently slept through the night more than 1 or 2 nights in a row until now!!