Trip to Oz Ends

Craig's Dad began forgetting to take pictures during the last days of the trip. He managed to pull his camera out in Brisbane when Craig was playing with some over-sized Lego provided by Great Aunty Vickie.


He had a good time with the blocks and the little cart they were kept in.


It would have been nice if he had someone closer to his own age to play with but the older people were enjoying each other's company.


Craig only stayed one night at the Hotel Bayview Tce (aka Craig's Great Uncle Brian and Great Auntie Vickie's House). The next morning he was woken up early in preparation for another long international flight. A proper camera was used to take a picture before driving to the airport. The last time Craig was in Brisbane he didn't have his photo taken with Great Uncle Brian, so this time Great Aunty Vickie did the honours and held the camera!


Craig wasn't the only one looking tired in the photo but that probably wasn't the photographer's fault. It was just after 6am, if Craig's Dad's memory serves him well.


At the airport, Craig's Dad tried to make sure that Craig didn't look at the airplane while they were waiting to board. Craig already understood very well what happens at airports and he knew that he wasn't going to like it!

Trip to Oz Day 5

The next day was lovely and warm by Yeppoon-in-the-winter standards. So, Craig went to the beach. When he arrived Craig's cousins Lizzie and Maree looked like they had been swimming.


But after Craig arrived they were happy to sit on the beach and watch him play in the sand.


That meant Craig's Uncle Jim and Aunty Anne were the only two people (crazy enough to be) in the water.


In fact, forget about how many people were in the water, the beach didn't have many people on it...


No matter which way you looked.


Craig retreated to poolside behind the L'Amor Holiday Apartments where the Canberra people were staying.


The pool looked nice and if Craig's Dad hadn't come straight from the middle of summer to late winter in Yeppoon he might have gone for a swim. Bailey was much braver than Craig's Dad.


As he demonstrated here.


In the afternoon, Craig and Bailey played in the driveway at Craig's grandparents' house again.


Craig was quite interested in the inside of Aunty Annette's motorhome.


Craig had a good time sitting, drawing and even chatting to Bailey for a couple of hours. It was a lovely quiet way to spend an afternoon.

Craig's Grandma's Birthday

The next day was Craig's Grandma's birthday. She's 70 years young, as they say.


The main present she received was a digital photo frame. It's a very cute idea.


Craig went to the park again in the afternoon.


This time he walked home by himself. In fact, he ran most of the way.


There was a dinner at Beaches Bistro to celebrate Craig's Grandma's birthday but Craig kept Craig's Dad so busy that he only took one photo! And, that was a picture of two bored teenagers, aka Craig's cousins Lizzie and Maree, waiting for their meals to arrive. Craig's Aunty Annette can be seen smiling in the background.


Unfortunately, Craig's Dad doesn't have any better pictures of the occasion.

Update:

Better pictures have arrived! Thanks to Craig's Aunty Anne for supplying these. First, we have Craig sitting at the end of the table as if he were the guest of homour and not his Grandma.


Then, we have Craig's Cousin Maree still playing with her book even though she hadn't yet finished her dinner! Craig's Grandad seems to be listening intently to someone, probably Craig's Dad.


You can tell that Craig's Cousin Bailey really likes dessert, can't you?


And, finally a group photo! Unfortunately, Craig's Aunty Jodie seems to have been cut out by the waitress who took the photo. And, Craig is way back in the darkness there somewhere........

Trip to Oz Continues Some More

The next day Craig started the day by playing with his Dad in the yard.


Craig wasn't very interested in Craig's Dad's new soccer ball. He seemed to prefer just walking around.


After lunch, Craig went back to the same park near Cooee Bay. He likes the jungle gym there.


This time there were no other children there so Craig could take his time and do whatever he liked without having to be concerned that he was getting in the way of some other child.


Craig's Dad took a video of Craig playing but he probably should have been more careful about keeping the microphone out of the wind.


In the afternoon, Craig was back at his grandparent's house.


Bailey wanted to organize a basketball game.


There was plenty of action!


Some of which was caught on video.





Craig's Mum's job was to keep Craig occupied so that he wouldn't run into the middle of the game while the older (ahem) kids played. She's very good at this type of thing and having a packet of Jumpy's close at hand was a big help.


Later in the day, just before a sunset, a kookaburra came and rested on the top balcony railing. He's probably the same one that almost drowned in the neighbour's swimming pool the last time Craig visited.

Trip to Oz Continues

The first full day in Yeppoon for Craig was a Sunday. In the morning, Craig went to a small park up the hill from Craig's Grandma's house where Craig's Mum tried to get Craig on to a swing without success.


Later in the morning, Craig went down to Cooee Bay where there was a festival to coincide with the World Cooee Competition. When Craig was hungry he sat down with the whole family on the grass to eat. He especially liked the chips and did a great job of making sure no-one needed to help him finish them.


It was a lovely day but you can see that the Canberra and Sydney people thought it was warm, and thus wore short sleeves and shorts. Meanwhile the Taipei people were wearing long-sleeves and jeans to stay warm.


Part of the fun at the festival was camel rides! Craig's Dad wishes he'd taken a better picture of the camels.


Craig really enjoyed playing with the sliding ball thing that was in the park. Lots of other kids, including Craig's cousin Bailey were there as well.


Eventually Craig's sleep debt caught up with him and an afternoon nap began while he was still supposed to be walking back to his grandparent's house.


He slept soundly there despite the quite bright sunshine outside.


One good thing about this trip to Yeppoon was that Bailey and Craig had plenty of time to play together.


Bailey seemed to like Craig's Mum and wrote a special letter for her.


He's really a very sweet boy.


One small accident happened later that night when Craig's Grandma's dog Mitch got hold of one of Craig's plastic balls.


It didn't last long........ Look at those evil eyes!!!

Trip to Oz Begins

Craig's second trip to Australia began on Aug. 22 with a 4-hour flight to Singapore. Those interested in having a look at Craig's first trip to Oz can look here.

Craig was extremely happy to get off the plane in Singapore and had great fun running through Changi Airport. His Mum fell so far behind that she's not even in this picture.


He amused many passers-by when he began dancing in time with some music coming out of a Johnnie Walker promotional stand. Craig's Dad thought it was very cute, too.


Craig became quite unhappy when he was being walked onto the flight from Singapore to Brisbane. He would probably have been even more unhappy if he'd known that it was going to be a 7 1/2 hour flight! :< After finally arriving in Brisbane Craig was once again happy to be off the airplane. Even though it was a quite chilly 15 degrees Celsius outside and a cold wind was blowing, Craig didn't stop smiling as he made his way out to the train between the international and domestic terminals.


Even though it was slightly warmer when standing out in the sun, Craig's Dad was surprised by the backpackers in the background of this photo who seemed to think sunshine = short-sleeves weather!


Over at the domestic terminal Craig continued to celebrate his happiness about not being on an airplane. He ran around as much as possible despite only having slept about five hours on the overnight flight from Singapore to Brisbane.


The tiredness finally caught up with him on the flight from Brisbane to Rockhampton. Craig crashed as soon as the plane took off and didn't wake up until he was carried off the plane in Rocky. Not long later, he was in Yeppoon when his parents took him to a local supermarket where his tiredness seemed to catch up with him again. Encouraging his son to not lie on the floor of a supermarket was not the way Craig's Dad had pictured the beginning of his holiday.


Back at Craig's Grandparent's house, Craig began playing the same type of games that he plays at home. That was a sign that he was getting back to normal.