Jen - Canberra trip

Thursday - Busy day: Dan went to Canberra Wed night so I had to drop the kids off at school. Had morning tea with work colleagues, lunch with an old friend in the city, then walked from Martin Place to Holme Building via Broadway so Elora could have her immunisations. Picked up the kids, drove home, fed and bathed them, packed our bag and the car and drove three and a quarter hours to meet up with Dan. It took Atti 75 minutes to fall asleep and Dante 15 minutes! Arrived at a quarter past midnight... Elora woke up at Goulburn and cried almost all the way to Canberra. The boys were too excited to sleep and didn't quieten down until after 1am. Ack!

Friday - Tired and raining: Boys woke up at 6:30am. Tried to get them to go back to sleep but ended up turning on ABC Kids and went back to bed. After breakfast the younger two went down for naps and we finally left the motel a little before 11am, taking my mother to the railway station so she could train back to Sydney (she came for the drive, to help me out... not much of an exciting trip for her). Bought lunch and had a picnic in the back of the car beside Lake Burley Griffin (it was cold, windy and rainy... compared to 28° in Sydney!), then had a lazy afternoon in the motel room while A and E napped again. Dan came home a little early and we had takeaway Chinese for dinner. Ready for bed by 9:30pm.

Saturday - Questacon: Yay! Questacon day! Dante was excited and unable to control his actions... we almost didn't go 'cause he was so troublesome. Met my cousin Cecelia Mary and her son Seth and had a wonderful time at the Questacon. Dan met us up at lunch time (and incidentally we bumped into another distant cousin - small world). The two Ds stayed on while the rest of us went home for naps. Picked up some Oportos and went to Cecelia's place for dinner, driving along the "Limit of Maps" (she's in a new suburb).

Sunday - Floriade and home: Everyone slept in this morning. Then while we were having a leisurely breakfast, an annoyed housekeeper knocked on the door wondering why we hadn't checked out as she really needed to clean the room right then! Dan had already cleared a late check-out with reception so we sent her away, although the whole affair did get us moving, packing and clearing up. Went to Floriade and looked at all the lovely flowers, had lunch, then went to the Art Gallery. None of Ian's artworks were up and the Fog Sculpture was off. Disappointing. But bumped into a family friend from Sydney, and Dan had fun in the shop. 'Twas a long tiring drive home. The kids slept until Goulburn and then Elora screamed and screamed, and Atticus yelled and yelled until I finally got Dan to stop (two cars - me with all the kids) at Pheasant's Nest. Moved Atti into the other car, fed Elora and the drive home was much more relaxing. Phew.