A Goodbye and a Visit to Aunty Annette's

The next day was Sunday and Craig's Canberra relatives had to begin their drive home. Before they did, they came around to say goodbye to Craig and his Mum and Dad. Unfortunately for Craig's Dad while he was making great efforts to take photos, Craig was very happy to see his relatives and he didn't want to stay still.


Craig's Uncle Jim fixed him with a steely glare, or something like that, but Craig insisted on not looking at the camera.


And, he was so happy and giggly that this photo probably doesn't need to be on the blog but it's here now.


There was no way to convince Craig that looking at the camera for a photo was a good idea. He had too many other things to look at.


Then, not long before the visitors left, he calmed down.


And Craig's dad came very close to getting a picture with everyone looking at the camera. Close, but not quite.


On Sunday night, Craig and his parents went to visit Craig's Aunty Annette. Craig didn't stay in the room to hear Bailey play his drums.


Bailey puts a lot of effort into his drumming. He's very energetic.


Unfortunately, Craig's Dad didn't get a picture of Bailey's older brother Jeremy, who was hiding in his bedroom playing a computer game. But, he did get a picture of Jeremy's bedroom door.


Craig's Aunty Jodie took good care of him when Bailey was playing the drums.


He even wanted to help order the Thai takeaway that everyone else had for dinner.


And then the battery in the camera-phone went flat. Thus ending the pictures of a very happy holiday.

Luna Park and Dinner at Great Aunty June's Place

Luna Park has lots of rides for such a small place. Just after Craig and his parents arrived, Craig's cousin Maree was on this one.


This picture of Maree was taken by Elizabeth. You can see the back of LIzzy's head in the photo above. Her picture is a bit better than the one taken by Craig's Dad.


Lizzie also took this nice picture of the Ferris Wheel with the Harbour Bridge as a background.


And, later she took this one of the Laughing Smile after dark. The camera in her phone is quite good.


It's not too bad at night but that's always the biggest weakness of the cameras in camera-phones. Craig seemed to like Aunty Anne. Every picture we have of the two of them has Craig smiling.....


Or at least, he becomes distracted by a toy, like in this picture. It was taken back at Great Aunty June's place where dinner was served for the extended family.


Sometimes, Craig had to go back and sit on his Mum's lap because Aunty Anne had to take care of one of her big babies. :)

Walk to Lavender Bay

The next day was beautifully sunny but a very cool wind was blowing. Craig accompanied his parents, his Uncle Jim and cousin Maree on a nice walk down to Lavender Bay.


That part of North Sydney, just across the Harbour Bridge from the city has a lot more high density housing than it had in the past but it's still a nice part of the world.


Craig is now very experienced at smiling for the camera.


But his Dad's camera was acting up again when it came time to take a picture of him with Maree.


And, when Craig's Dad tried to take a group picture, Craig didn't even to pretend to be patient. The sun was nice and warm plus the harbourside park was down out of the wind. It was a very pleasant spot for a sit and chat.


There were some very cute little sculptures in the bushes running alongside the harbourside park. For those who aren't familiar with the area, this is the entrance to a nearby fun park called Luna Park.


This picture was taken just outside of the laughing mouth entrance to Luna Park, looking across to the Sydney Opera House.


The area has a lot more Chinese people than it did in the past as well. That's where the demand for the high density housing seems to come from. The local church, just a few hundred yards up the hill from Luna Park, has adapted to the times.


Then, it was back to the "vast" hotel room that was occupied by Craig's Uncle Jim, Aunty Anne, Elizabeth and Maree aka "Jim and the Girls".


As usual for this holiday, Craig had no shortage of playmates.


The evening finished at a lovely Italian restaurant, the name of which Craig's Dad has forgotten. The staff were super-accomodating about us having baby at what looked like a high class place.

Bailey did his best to keep everyone entertained.


He also ate a fair share of the herb bread. He has a very good appetite.

One Last Sit in the Sunshine, then Off to Sydney

The warm weather in Yeppoon continued right up until it was time to leave.

Craig had a chance to sit in the sun with his Mum first and then Dad.


That evening Craig had a chance to meet his cousins Elizabeth (he's sitting on her lap) and Maree.


Craig seemed to enjoy their company.


The three of them played happily for quite a while. It's just a shame that Craig's Dad's camera had started to play up and it was hard to tell when the shutter would click, leading to some pretty ordinary photos being taken.


But, everyone had fun. And that's the most important thing.

Cooberrie Park

The next day, Craig had his first ever trip to a zoo! Aunty Annette, Bailey, Craig's Mum and Dad and Craig (of course) all piled into Craig's Grandma's new Toyota and travelled to Cooberrie Park, a very small zoo/park that is a couple of miles outside of Yeppoon. At 1pm every afternoon (except Christmas Day) it offers the chance to pat a koala and/or hold a joey (baby kangaroo). They also have snakes! And Bailey went straight to the line of kids waiting for their turn to hold two snakes.


Some of the smaller children only held one but Bailey wanted to hold both of the snakes on offer!


Meanwhile, the koala was doing what koalas do best, sleeping.


Craig wasn't very interested in the sleeping koala.


But he seemed to like the kangaroo joey.


Bailey was big enough to be allowed to hold the joey by himself.



After the little holding and patting show had finished it was time to go out into the zoo proper and feed the other animals. Craig's Mum was the first to feed a mother kangaroo with a joey in her pouch.


Then, Craig's Dad fed the kangaroo from a different angle so that we could get a better picture of the joey in her pouch.


The kangaroo liked to hang on very firmly to the hand of the person feeding her. It actually hurt Craig's Dad's wrist a little.


Bailey had fun feeding kangaroos as well but he found a mother kangaroo that was more relaxed about being fed. She didn't feel the need to grab the hand that was doing the feeding.


There are plenty of kangaroos at Cooberrie Park.


Bailey was very good about trying to feed as many different kangaroos as possible.


That night Craig's Grandma, Aunty Annette, and Bailey accompanied Craig and his Mum and Dad to dinner at a nice restaurant called Beaches. The next afternoon Aunty Annette and Bailey flew back to Sydney.


But that was OK because Craig would be seeing them again soon.