14th birthday in Sydney

This year is our last year with Jalen at home, so I decided that we would make the most of it and make lots of memories together.  I bought tickets to see Ed Sheeran and Pink and a couple of other concerts later in the year which Kobe and Harri are really excited about. 

After I had booked tickets for these concerts Jalen's favourite band - Bastille announced that they were coming to Australia to do two concerts.   I knew how spoilt (and lucky) the boys were this year to go to so many concerts, but I'd rather spend my money on experiences and creating memories than possessions that we don't need.  I also know it's going to cost a lot to keep Jay at Uni next year, so I keep telling the boys that this is the year for fun, and next year we are living off rice and beans ;)

I booked tickets to see Bastille in Sydney, and it worked out to be on the weekend of Harri's 14th birthday which he was happy about.   Just a week before the concert Bastille announced that they were postponing their Australian concerts!  I was frustrated as we had spent all that money on airfares and I had taken Leave Without Pay from work for a day, so we decided we would just go to Sydney anyway and have a fun weekend away.   Bastille said they would do their concerts in January instead, which is when we are usually in Sydney anyway.

The day before we left we went to see Nanna and Pa (Aaron's dad and step mum) and Harri loves rubbing it in that he is almost as tall as Pa now.

Harri loved getting off the plane in Sydney and seeing the GWS ads at the airport (as he now barracks for them). 

We went into the city and did some shopping (Harri was excited to have some birthday money to spend) and got an ice cream before catching the train to Chrish's house.

Harri was happy to have a cake from Woolies at Chrish's house that night.  We also went out for tea.

It had been a while since we had gone to Madame Tussaud's, so we decided to get a two attraction pass and went there and to the Sydney Sea Life Aquarium.  The boys were in a really fun mood and go really involved in interacting with the exhibits and it was lots of fun. 

They cracked me up as they were all keen to dress up and pretend they were on the catwalk.

We had way too much fun making Cosmopolitan magazine covers.

We spent a couple of hours in Madame Tussaud's but not as long in the aquarium - it was so busy. It was much bigger than we remembered it. We had gone with Aaron when I was pregnant with Kobe, and the year after Aaron died. 

On the way to the airport I wanted to go to La Perousse at Botany Bay National Park as Kobe had been learning about the First Fleet at school.  He was so excited to go there (even though we had been before, but it didn't mean anything to him then) but it started pouring with rain just before we got there. We did a mad dash to the sandstone cliffs, and all got back to the car saturated!

Chrish then did a detour on the way to the airport as we had some time to fill in. He took us to a really cool ten pin bowling place called Manhatten Superbowl. Inside it was retro themed with an old car, arcade games, an old 50s looking diner and a statue of Elvis Presley.  Aaron would've loved the Pepsi sign in there.

We were disappointed that we didn't get to see Bastille that weekend, but we ended up having a really fun weekend away anyway.