Coast trip, house sale, house purchase

On 9-12 August the family made the traditional mid-winter trip to the coast; and boy did we need the escape from all the goings-on at home. We had a wonderful time, went to the beach every day, and enjoyed the 18 degree sunny days! We saw a whales, seals, stingrays and even an eel and octopus (the last two were sleeping on a rock)...

As I mentioned, it was just what was needed at a very stressful time in our lives - yep, nothing like the stress, worry, uncertainty caused by moving house. First step obviously to sell our place; this has now happened and was actually quite quick (one month from listing the house to an exchange of contracts - can't complain about that). And on the same day that we had an acceptable offer on our house, we had also put an offer on another house; the next day after a bit of back and forth we had our offer accepted on the new house - luck and good fortune meaning we had found a wonderful (huge - 218m2 of living) house to buy (that we could move straight into from here), rather than having to rent and hope something suitable came along in the lease period!

How exciting. Only, while we have exchanged on our house, we haven't on the new one due to waiting on the finance company's valuation... so we are, in a manner of speaking, homeless, having sold our place and not officially exchanged on the new one - with the risk of losing it to another couple who are very keen on buying it... we have everything crossed that the valuation happens quickly so we can gain some certainty with regard to our move (which is due to occur in less than FOUR WEEKS! as we will rent the new one for the week before settlement on our current house)...

Throw in the fact that EVERYBODY has been sick: Dad having had four days off work; Carter on his third round of anti-biotics; and Linc with a fever that lasted days and didn't respond to panadol - and it's just been an absolute barrel of laughs...

A simple haircut adds years to the boys!

Snow at Tidbinbilla!

Boys growing fast as the house grows smaller

Thought it was time to put a couple of photos up of the boys; they seem to be growing very quickly at the moment - especially Carter.

Carter is doing very well in his new bed; while he may get out to switch his dinosaur light off (or play with his humidifier and burn his finger!) he hops back into bed by himself and doesn't get out until Mum or Dad go into his room! It's pretty amazing; when he wakes up, he just sits there and waits for one of us to go in!

Very cold day today; snow on the Brindabellas which can be seen from our kitchen window. Looks like a road trip into the ranges is on the agenda for today.

Over the past week we've also been doing a massive amount of cleaning, tidying up and clearing away rubbish... we've finally decided to test the market, so the house is for sale... like we needed any more stress in our lives.

Carter is in a big boy bed!

On Saturday we (read: Dad) finally got around to making Lincoln's new mega-bed (it took five hours!), so Carter inherited Linc's bed in preparation for the freedom of sleep time outside of the cot!

And out of three sleeps (sat, sun night and sun day nap) he hasn't gotten out of it once. Unfortunately he does tend to get free of the doona, so we'll have to watch that to make sure he doesn't get cold; he'll get used to it, we're sure; as it's quite different to constantly wearing your doona (he has always worn a sleeping bag)...

Asleep in his big boy bed..

Linc and Carter trying out the stairs on Linc's mega-bed!

Return to routine

Dad's back - and boy is he glad to be home; 16 nights is way too long to be away from the family...

And it was just what the family needed when a road trip was scheduled over this weekend to attend Anthony's 5th birthday party in Sydney. It was a superhero theme, and Ironman even turned up! Linc went as superman (with a Captain America outfit on standby) and Carter as Robin Hood/Peter Pan/Arrow... (take your pick depending on your era/age group!)...

Daddy-less for more than two weeks...

I'll miss you guys...