God Save the Queen!

Wow, what a fantastic Queens Birthday weekend we have had!

We have been up to see Morag, Danny, Rhona, Catriona and Robbie in Newcastle and they gave us an absolutely brilliant time! They have a beautiful home and entertained us with heaps of food and drink, while the children (all of similar ages) had a ball having sleepovers (three in one bed, two in another, and Tom playing musical beds...)

On Sunday we took a short drive up to Boat Harbour, where they have a lovely holiday home - en-route we saw our first wild kangaroos (very exciting, as until now we have only seen them in zoos!) and drove along the coast to see miles of huge sand-dunes, camels, and endless beaches.

After a picnic at Boat Harbour, and some rock-climbing, paddling and sandcastle-making, we drove on to Nelsons Bay, where we joined our whale watching cruise. We were slightly anxious about the thought of 3 hours on the rocking waves with 6 small children and the captain making numerous references to seasickness, but it was amazing - we saw loads of dolphins (check this picture out Morag - impressive or not!!!!!!?????)

and loads of whales too (not easy to get a good pic with a cheap camera, I can tell you - believe it or not this was a huge humpback whale that showed up just a few feet from the boat...)

The kids even took turns captaining the boat (not just 'pretending', either - they really did have the wheel, as evidenced when we started to head precariously towards the rocks...) - here is Captain Katy...

Our weekend was finished with a barbecue and a visit to a fantastic sweetie shop (stocking much-missed UK and American sweeties!)...

*** Thanks so much Morag & Danny (and the Queen too, of course!) ***