Sydney and Canberra

It always seems like we go away for weekends which are really close together.  In May we went to Sydney a couple of times  to the National Mother of the Year award and because we had already booked a weekend away to stay with my brother Christian.  Then this month I went up to Sydney for Time Out For Women and also had a weekend booked to stay with Chrish again as we got very cheap tickets, so all of us went back up last weekend.   Mum had stayed at Chrish's after Time Out For Women so we were looking forward to spending the weekend with her as well.

It was fun to see our friend Ande at the airport. We hadn't seen each other since we were in Queensland about 18 months ago.  She lives in Queensland but was coming to Sydney for the Bears of Hope Ball which is an organisation who provides support for pregnancy and infant loss.  Ande and her husband Dave had a beautiful boy Riley who was stillborn, and since then Ande has volunteered with Bears of Hope. It was awesome to see a photo of her at the end of the weekend, with an award for volunteer of the year. Well done Ande!

We were so happy that Sydney had beautiful weather while we were there.  The first day we caught a train into the city.  We never get sick of the sights at Circlar Quay. 

We then caught a ferry to the zoo. It was such a beautiful day!

We all jumped at the chance to touch a snake. 

We couldn't resist a few selfies :)

The giraffes have the best view in Sydney!

The boys absolutely loved the seal show. 

They also loved this playground near the lemurs.

We went on the sky safari three times and Harri believed me that it cost $20 each ride (it was free with admission) so he thought I was feeling very generous (and rich!).

We spotted this poor lady trying to get her backpack out of the water, and then one of the students suggested that they use the life buoy to drag it out.  They did that and got the bag out, and Kobe absolutely cracked us up as he yelled out 'Bondi Rescue!!' really loud.  For the rest of the day we couldn't stop laughing about it.  

Mum was jealous when we went to Canberra last year as she hadn't been for over twenty years or more, so we decided to make a day trip there, while Chrish stayed at home for footy finals. 

We joked about our old mate 'Tony' (the P.M.) and how it would've been nice to catch up with him in Canberra, after spending time with him at Kirribilli House.

 Mum's broken arm was aching a lot from her moving it around a lot to take photos, and she was making us all laugh as she was in all sorts of angles trying to get a good photo.   

Kobe is such a clown and does anything for a laugh, including doing a crazy dance out the front of Parliament House!

We then went to the War Memorial. 

Last time we went to the War Memorial the World War 1 display was under construction. It was absolutely amazing and there were so many things to see.

 

 

We spent a lot of time in the Afghanistan section watching the movie that was playing in there.  I teach 8 children who are from a refugee background and their families are from Afghanistan, so it always hits me how much they've been through, and what they have had to leave to be safe.

Before we left Canberra we had a special treat at Max Brenner.   We had a fun day, but the drive back to Sydney seemed so long.

The next day we spend some time with Chrish, watching the girls from his footy club play in their elimination final, before flying home.   Harri and Kobe absolutely loved it and couldn't believe how well they played.  Kobe kept saying he wanted to watch the girls play more often. 

We made sure we had a slurpee from 7 eleven before coming home, as Aaron used to absolutely love them.  Whenever we go to the mainland we try to have one for him. 

We had a lovely (long) weekend and were so glad to get away from the cold in Tassie for a few days.  We always love seeing Chrish, and even though we wish he would move to Tassie, we love having a place to stay at in Sydney.

Blog Headers

I started blogging in 2007 after my cousin Toni started blogging. She suggested that I should start too because she said we were 'always doing something interesting' that I could share with family and friends.   Toni is always up with what's new, so I figured if she was doing it, then it must've been been pretty cool, even though not many people were really blogging yet.   This was even before there was the term 'Mummy bloggers'.  Back then I didn't even know what a blog even was, or why someone would want to write a blog, let alone that anyone would even read them.

I decided to give it a go because I thought it would be a fun way to keep a family journal as I loved taking photos, and could include text and pics.  I also thought it would be a fun way to let friends who lived far away, know what we were up to.

Before I knew it, I was obsessed with making sure I documented everything.   I think it was because I realised that Noah wouldn't always be with us, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't forget a thing.  It became a bit of an obsession  - if I didn't do a blog post each day I felt a little stressed (okay sometimes I felt very stressed!) and a few people started to read it, and would make comments so I felt like I had to keep posting.

When Noah and then Aaron passed away, I was so glad that I decided to start blogging, because it meant that I had so many memories documented.  I often catch Harri sitting at the computer going through old blog posts, and sometimes it's not a good thing as he always ends up in tears because he's missing Aaron and Noah so much.

I don't blog as often now for a few reasons - I don't have as much to share, I'm too busy to post as often and also I don't want to share as much for my boy's sake.  I often get stopped by strangers who will say hi and will tell me they read my blog, and they always say they feel like they know us.  People ask me if it's strange that people think they know us, and I don't think it is because that's what you have to expect when you put your lives out there publicly, and it's so nice when people want to say hi,  but I always say that people don't really know us. What you see on a blog is only what I choose to share. There's so much that I don't share, or say because there's a lot of things that should be kept private.

There's so much that has gone on with the boys and myself that I haven't shared publicly, because I don't think it's fair for the boys for everyone to know everything that they're going through. 

Sometimes I find myself clicking on an old blog post, and then another, and another, and I find myself still going through old posts hours later.  It's so wonderful to be able to look back on things, and it makes me realise how bad my memory is, because I've forgotten about so many things!   Thank goodness I started blogging all those year ago,  because I really wouldn't remember very much without it. 

I decided that I wanted to change my blog header up once Kobe started walking, as I thought one day how cool it was that all our legs were so different - Kobe with his tiny but chubby legs, Jay and Harri with their skinny legs and Noah in his wheelchair. 

It then became fun to change the header with each season, but the boys moaned and groaned about it as it took forever to get the camera set up in the right position and then to run back before the timer went off!



One year my friend Lynne told me I needed a mid season blog header, so we decided to do this one. I actually loved it so much that I have it as a big canvas in our dining room.  Even though we can't see our faces I still love it, because it's our whole family together, and it never really ages.   It was taken about a year before Noah passed away, and it's always how I will remember our family together - tiny Kobe and Noah in his chair.
I took this while setting up the camera, and at the time I probably could've deleted it, but now I'm so glad that I didn't.
I especially love this one, even though it's not the perfect photo.  This was always going on while I was setting up the camera, and it would usually end up in Kobe wanting to join in as well, and then me getting cranky because Aaron had made them all get out of line! :)

It was hard enough to get the boys to cooperate to do it sometimes, let alone dragging Noah out in the freezing cold in winter, so one year we decided to improvise. I only told family and friends what we did until now, and the other day I was going through some old photos on the computer and found these ones, and it cracked me up, and thought it was time to share it on my blog.

We decided it was way too cold to take Noah out in the frost, but wanted to get a new winter header, so we left him in his warm bed, and just made it look like he was in his wheelchair.
Kobe was obviously loving being out while it was so cold ;)


Our blog headers are a lot different since Aaron and Noah passed away.  First of all we did a couple of headers without their photos in them, but we aren't a family of four.


 It just doesn't seem right if they aren't in the header with us, so I like these ones much more (thanks Alison!).

Overland Jack

We feel very blessed to know the beautiful Duffy family.  They are an amazing family, who do incredible things.   I met them before Noah passed away as we ran into each other at Noah's special school a couple of times, as their son Jack also went there.

We didn't really get to know each other until after Noah passed away though, so I was so touched when they came to Aaron's funeral, even though they didn't know us very well.

We have been amazed at how they help Jack have some amazing experiences despite his disabilities.  They have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity doing things such as 'Kayak Jack' where Jack's Dad Chris kayaked from Launceston to Hobart, with Jack in the kayak an hour each day.

They then did 'running Jack' where Chris took part in a marathon, pushing Jack the whole way. 

And if that wasn't enough, earlier this year they did 'Overland Jack' to raise money for Life Without Barriers.  Jack's parents Chris and Erin and a group of supporters trekked the Overland Track which is 65 km, with Jack in a pack on Chris' back the whole way.  A film crew ended up going with them and made a short documentary about it. 

We felt very honored when they asked us if we would like to go along to the premier of it at the cinemas. 

I was prepared that I may be a bit teary while watching it, because I always feel emotional when I see Noah's friends in their wheelchairs, but I wasn't at all prepared for how emotional the whole documentary would be.

I expected it to be about the logistics of getting Jack over the Overland Track and how hard it was, and it did show parts of that, but it was more about the love between the family, and how much they love Jack and want to help him to experience everything that he can. 

I started crying as soon as it started (thank goodness it was dark!) and Harri kept looking at me.  I couldn't stop the tears flowing and I had so many mixed emotions. I was so happy for Jack as he has such a beautiful family who love him so much, but then I couldn't help but feel so sad because we used to have that, and now things are so different. 

It was so nice to see on screen the relationship that Chris and Erin have, but I left feeling so sad because they remind me a lot of the relationship that Aaron and I had. 

On the way home Kobe started crying and said that he felt like crying half way through it, because it made him think of Dad and Noah. I told him it's okay because I started crying at the beginning. 

Harri then said he saw me crying and didn't want to say anything, because he didn't want to embarrass me :) I told him it was okay and I was crying because I was happy for Jack, and that a lot of other people who were there were also crying, so I wouldn't have been embarrassed. 

I did come home and have a good cry once the boys went to bed, but despite the tears, I felt so honoured to be invited to see the premier and it made me realise even more how amazing their family is. 

Hopefully it won't be long until it will be shown on Southern Cross Television because I know it will inspire many people, and hopefully it will raise awareness and more funds for Life Without Barriers.  

Thank you so much for inviting us Chris and Erin. We are inspired by you all every day, and are so happy that Jack has such an amazing family who love him so much.