New Years trip to Hobart

On Fri the 30th Dec we headed down to Port Arthur. We had a brief stop in gorgeous Richmond for a yummy bakery lunch and play with the ducks which was lovely. We arrived just in time for a Tasman Island Cruise mum and dad had booked. It's basically a 40 person jet boat (300 horsepower engine) that does a 3 hour tour along the South East coast of Tasmania. You can't really call it a cruise as it's not a placid trip along the coastline nibbling on gourmet food - it's more of an adventure boat ride...Port Arthur has always been a much loved place of mine and this tour was seriously one of the best things I have ever done in Tassie. The scenery was breath-taking and we had dolphins and seals swim around the boat and jump out of the water. We were right in their natural environment and you just can't beat that. I would TOTALLY recommend it. Even Will loved it. We rugged him up in the kid's parka they provided and he nodded off on my lap for a portion of the tour.

One of the many caves - we could fit in some of them in the boat which was pretty cool.

At certain times of the year you can even see Whales but we were there at the wrong time. However, we had the most perfect summer day - 24degrees, sunny with blue skies and not much wind. The tour owner is a conservationist and it's always nice knowing some of the money from the cost goes towards protecting the coastline and it's amazing wildlife :-)

Seals having a man fight!

This is barely zoomed in. The dolphins were very friendly and loved chasing the boat.

A shot of the amazing cliffs.

The famous Totempole. This is a very popular structure to rock climb. A crazy guy actually walked a tight rope across it. You can You tube it here.

Tasman Island

One of the boats

We stayed in Port Arthur overnight then left very early the next morning so we could get to the Salamanca markets nice and early to get a park. We probably chose the busiest weekend in Hobart with the Taste festival on as well but the atmosphere was awesome and it was another glorious day. I loved shopping at the markets and came back with a huge bag just of business cards so I can shop online when I'm needing my market fix and can't get there in person. So many talented people live in Tassie. I've signed up to Pinterest so will have to post some of my favourite things for you all to check out...

We did lots more over the weekend but I'll tell you about it in another post!

A visit to the farm

Whenever I'm in Tassie I try to visit our good friends, Heather and Les Smith, who live on a gorgeous farm in Lilydale. I haven't lived in the country since before my mission but I'd happily live there again. There's nothing like the space and serenity you get on a farm.
Whenever I'm in Tassie Les asks me to go horse-riding with him as his Grand-daughters are all grown up and living all over the place. I'm usually happy to oblige :-)
Pete got to go for a ride too this time (Last time Les didn't have a horse gentle enough for Pete :-) Pete was a lot more adventurous than me though. He and Les went for a lot longer ride than I did. I was very cautious. I was very aware that one wrong step or lack of attention and I could have been thrown off. As it was, the horse I was riding jumped a little to the right over a big puddle and I went into some blackberry bushes...I think being a mum has made me so cautious and aware of the danger in every situation. Has anyone else noticed this since becoming a mum?? I feel like a big wuss!

We had a great lunch and a big explore around the farm. Mum went exploring with Will around Heather's amazing garden and they picked berries, petted sheep and just had a great time.

Will with his favourite animal - a dog!

Getting very sleep after all his exploring

Feeding the sheep a rose

When we got back from the horse ride we got Will to check out the horses too. He wasn't all that fussed really :-)

Les showed us the new baby chicks. Will was so gentle.
It was very very cute

We had a lovely day!

Our first Christmas with Will

We took off for Tassie to spend Christmas with my side of the family. Pete ended up having to do a few days work in Hobart so Ericsson changed our flights for us and we surprised mum and dad by arriving almost a week earlier than originally planned. While they were surprised and happy to see us I know it put mum in a bit of a spin as she had certain things she wanted to get done before we got there.

Christmas has always been really low key in my family. We always celebrated it on Christmas Eve as my dad usually had to work on Christmas Day and even though he doesn't work anymore we still have kept up this tradition. We used to sing a few carols and have some kind of spiritual thought but I hate to say that just didn't happen this year. Even though my brothers , along with their wife and girlfriend don't go to church we still could have made more effort to bring more of the true Christmas spirit into our home. I really noticed it's absence :-( However, once they'd left we decided to watch the Christmas devotional that we just hadn't gotten around to watching. It was perfect. I'm so so so glad Christmas Day fell on a Sunday this year as we got to go to church. I can't think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than to worship and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas in the Lord's house. Launceston wards combined for a really beautiful sacrament meeting. We sang so many hymns and the talks were inspired. I felt so invigorated and uplifted and felt that special Christmas spirit for the rest of the day. My favourite talk was given by our Stake President (notice how I still refer to the ward and leaders etc as if they were still my own) President Prebble talked about being 'present' and not just giving 'presents.' It's been a few weeks and I've lost his actual wording but I absolutely love hearing him speak.

Anyway it turned out to be a lovely Christmas. Will was really out of sorts on Christmas Eve. Our living room was packed and he really didn't understand what was going on and he was just tired...I'm sure next year will be a bit different for him :-)

I didn't get many photos as I was trying to keep Will happy.

Before the little guy got grumpy

Watching daddy check out his new electric toothbrush!

Having a sleepy hug with daddy

Seconds later Will gets his second wind and dad takes full advantage.

Not too sure about hugs with Uncle Sim & Aunty Em

We had 3 weeks in Tassie and had a great stay. It was just a tiny bit too long though. I think Pete and I are keen to have a holiday where we just stay at home and don't travel to either Adelaide or Tassie - as much as we love it.