A little time away...

My Mum and I had organised a little shopping trip away with Jack and a couple of days before Owen decided to come with us for the first couple of days.

We decided to drive down since we were going to be doing some shopping. It's about a seven or eight hour drive but the time went by easily enough even for Jack thanks to a portable dvd player.

We stayed at the Brisbane Holiday Village in Eight Mile Plains which was absolutely fantastic. If you're in Brisbane and need somewhere to stay, especially with kids, it is the coolest place. They have a few differnet styles of cabin. We stayed in a Metro cabin which was a two bedroom and really does have everything you need.

Jack had a very quick dip in the kiddie pool the first night we were there, the water was pretty cold. Unfortunately we didn't get time to play but check out the mini gold course they have...The staff were so friendly and helpful and we ate breakfast and dinner in the cafe. The meals were great and really good value for money. As I said, I would definately recommend it.

On Thursday we took Jack to Movieworld. They have Halloween decorations up everywhere. We had a great day, Jack had a ball. I loved the Shrek 4D movie, that is just incredible.They have characters walking around that you can get your photo taken with. The look on Jack's face in this photo with Batman is pure fear. He didn't want anything at all to do with him. I thought he was just being shy but he wouldn't even look at him.

The Flash on the other hand, he loved. The actor was really good with kids, really friendly and took his time to make Jack feel comfortable.

The character statues around the place were great. Jack insisted on making a funny face. Here he is with Yosemite Sam.

Jack standing under the vulture topped entry to the Wild West Falls area. It looked like a great ride but you get soaking wet.

Daddy was a great sport and went on the rides with Jack. Here they are in one of Tweety's birdcages.

And on the train ride.

And riding a rocket with Wile-E-Coyote on the carousel. He also went on the Sylvester ride that goes up and down, he definately didn't want a second turn, he had the same face as the Batman photo. He had been saying he wanted to go on the roller coaster as well but quickly changed his mind when he saw it.

Here's Jack having a bit of a cuddle with Daffy Duck.

I had been trying to get Jack to go on the Scooby Doo ride which I thought was just a ghost train thing but luckily he didn't want to. Owen & I went on it. HOLY CRAP!! I nearly hyperventilated!! I have definately grown out of my ride/roller-coaster stage of life apparently. I screamed and screamed, it's actually a rollercoaster in a building, in the dark, with sound effects. As I said...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

After our day at Movieworld we stopped for dinner at Cactus Jack's. There used to be a Cactus Jack's in Rockhampton but it closed down a couple of years ago. The food and margaritas are still as delicious as I remember. After dinner we had a good browse through Ikea. They have some really cool stuf and so well priced.

Owen caught the early flight home on Friday morning and our bloody GPS stopped working just as I left the airport. I ended up driving aimlessly around Brisbane for and hour and a half before the GPS kicked back in (thankfully).

We caught a bus into the city for a full day of shopping and after a coffee and some banana bread for breaky we started shopping. I'm pretty sure we saw just about every store in the Queen Street Mall.

We then headed over to the museum to check out the cool dinosaur display. Jack was amazed, as were Mum and I. It's suck a great display.Jack wanted his photo taken with just about every animal in the display. Here he is with the gigantic prehistoric fish head skeleton.

Hamming it up with the crocodile skull...

Coyly patting the turtle...

Pretending to scratch under the leopards chin...

And checking out the starfish/anenome display... After the museum we headed over to the Southbank Markets and had a ride on the giant ferris wheel. It's a great view from up there.

We had a good look at the markets and then grabbed some fresh corn for dinner and sat at the edge of the pool they have down there so Jack could have a little splash on the steps, well that was the plan at least. You know how you say something so many times that it acutally eventuates,

Me: "Be careful Jack"

Jack: "Yes Mum"

Me: "Slow down Jack, be careful"

Jack: "Yes Mum"

Me: "Be careful Jack, you don't want to fall in"

Jack: "Yes Mu.......arrrrrghhh, SPLASH, glub glub glub"

...in he went, fully clothed, he even had a hat on so of course up I jump, one leg in, leather shoe and jeaned and all to fish him out. We dried him out with some of my purchases from the day and then dressed him in a rolling stones t-shirt Mum had bought for a gift (you know the one, the tongue out Stones logo). He got some very funny looks.

On Saturday morning we got up early and made our way to Eumundi. OMG, the markets there are phenomenal!! They are HUGE!!, there is so much to see. There is also a great shop on the main street there, All Things Christmas. I got a couple of ornaments and some pieces to add to my Christmas village. There is almost too much to see at the markets in one day. After the markets we headed to Montville for a browse through a few of the stores there. Again, lots to see, so many beautiful things and then we headed to Noosa to spend the night before driving home to Rockhampton (we did have a stop at the Gympie markets on our way home and I got a really cool pumpkin soup terrine)

It was so nice to get away and great to be able to spend some time with my Mum and O & Jack and nice to get out and do some shopping too.