Sunny Melbourne

We thought we would sleep in while we in Melbourne, and we did - till 7am! That is about as long as I can sleep in these days. It was nice to not have to wake up to Kobe about 5am or to the alarm at 6am or to have to jump out of bed to get Noah's meds. The boys loved hopping into our bed to watch the footy on TV that we saw live the night before.

I think the boys were more excited about having takeaway food the whole weekend than anything else! Harri kept saying 'are we going to have something special for lunch!!?' - 'special' meaning McDonalds for him! I didn't mind as I got the weekend off cooking :)

We rang Mum in the morning to see how Noah and Kobe were (they were both having a great time with Grandma!) and Mum said it had been really cold, windy and rainy all weekend. We were so grateful we had good weather for the weekend - it was so sunny yesterday morning. The air was cool early in the morning, but as the day went on it actually was quite a nice day - a perfect day for going to the zoo.

We went to catch an early tram to take us out to the zoo and saw a homeless guy asleep on the street. We of course have homeless people in Tasmania, but not as obvious as they are on the mainland. The first day we were there we saw a number of homeless men begging in the mall. Jalen came up to me looking quite distressed and said 'Mum there's a homeless man'. I asked him if he wanted to give him some money and he seemed so happy that he could give him something. He went and gave it to him and the look on his face said it all - he was so sad for the man, but happy that he could give him something. We had a talk about how sometimes things happen that people can't help and other times the choices people make are not good ones and how anyone can end up on the street, and we don't know how he will use the money and it may not be for a good reason, but at least we know that we have tried to help in some little way. I was proud of Jay for wanting to do something as he has never come across something like that before.

On the other hand when Harri saw the guy asleep on the street he cracked up laughing and said 'that Man is asleep on the street - that's silly isn't it Mum!!?'. It goes to show how different the boys are and how just a few years age difference makes somone a lot more sensitive to situations. Harri didn't even notice the homeless men in the mall the day before.

When we got to the zoo Harri was really tired from the night before, and was quite painful most of the time as he was too tired to walk around everywhere. He seemed more interested in his map than in the animals and kept saying 'how many more are we going to see?'. Jalen though was really excited about all of them. We were lucky that we got there pretty early and at first it was really quiet. We got to get up close and personal with the bear as the keeper had just come out and put some food up near the window before we arrived. It was really cool!


Just after we arrived the lions started roaring. Harri started freaking out and burst into tears as he was too scared to go over to them. He stood way back from the fence, even though they were no wear near it.


The boys loved jumping on all the different animal statues around the zoo - the biggest boy included!




Jalen absolutely loved the meerkats. He sat there for ages watching them and bought a meerkat soft toy on the way out.

They boys were really excited to see the orangutans. Since I went to the Melbourne Zoo a few years ago they have done it up a lot. The orangutans now have a really nice enclosure. One of them was laying right up near the window with a hessian blanket pulled over him - he was so beautiful.

Almost as beautiful as this gorgeous gorilla we saw roaming around! ;)

One of my favourite parts was definitely the butterfly house.

It was amazing inside - so warm and had a tropical feel about it and had hundreds of beautiful plants and butterflies flying around everywhere inside. It was incredible. Butterflies would just come and land on your head or hands. I could've stayed in there for ages taking photos. The boys didn't last long as they found it too hot.








Jalen loved the area with different spiders including a huge huntsman and a redback spider.

Aaron was most looking forward to seeing the tigers, but we weren't sure whether they just weren't out or whether they don't have any at the moment. Jalen did an impersonation of one for us instead!

The boys loved all the different displays of information around at different places.


Harri thought it was hilarious that the elephants, zebra and ostriches were all in the same enclosure together. He kept saying 'they are all friends!!'.

It was such a beautiful day, and it was fun taking the boys to see all the different animals. We left just as it started to get really busy.

We headed back to the airport so we had lots of time to check in before our flight. With Tiger Airways you have to check in 45 minutes before or you miss your flight. I guess you can't really complain when you get seats for $22 but I guess you definitely get what you pay for. The Tiger arrivals and departures are actually 200 metres or so from the main building at Tullamarine. The bus drops you off at the usual spots where you check in for Jetstar and Virgin Blue and then you have to walk all the way down to another separate building. Inside there was a huge line up with only two girls checking people in. They had a woman going off her head at them as they had missed their flight as they didn't check in quick enough. The woman was refusing to move away from the counter as she said it was their fault as she was in the line for so long. Supposedly a call had gone over if anyone had to check in for that flight and they didn't come forward, so they missed out. As she wouldn't move the girl checking them in had to call the manager and she moved counters herself so that she could check other people in - it was so much like the show they have on TV with all the airline dramas.

We checked in and then had to walk back to the main building to get lunch and then back again to catch the flight. One you actually get through the gate to go onto the plane there is another HUGE walk to actually get to the plane! There was very little leg room between the seats - my legs actually touched the seat in front of me and I wouldn't consider myself overly tall. The other thing I did notice is that the staff are a lot more 'casual' looking than other airlines. I guess I would fly again with them if I got $22 tickets as we had no dramas with them, but it definitely is a 'no frills' airline.

Harri was so exhausted that he fell asleep on the way home.

Both Jay and Harri were happily in bed at 6pm last night. It was nice to come home to see Kobe and Noah who we missed a lot. Harri kept saying 'I can't wait to see Kobe - I've missed him'. I would then say 'what about Noah?' and he would say 'I miss him too, but he can't talk'.

Mum said Kobe kept saying 'who's that!!?' when the phone would ring and would get our family photo off the shelf to look at. He didn't seem at all like he missed us when we got home - he was quite happy playing with Grandma. It was so nice to come home to two happy boys, a lovely clean house and tea cooked for us - thanks so much Mum. I know how exhausting it is and hopefully they didn't wear you out too much. It was so nice to be able to get away - even if it was just for a couple of days.