Melbourne!!

We had two very busy, but fun days in Melbourne .  The boys were so excited to finally get to the airport and onto the plane.   Kobe was certain we were going to visit 'Een' (Eden) as he still remembers her getting on the plane in December.  He was determined to take the little suitcase on his own!

Kobe was so excited about the plane.  He chose some Barbie crayons to colour in with and had lots of fun chatting to Jay most of the way to Melbourne (don't you love how he just imitates his big brothers, even though he has no idea what they are doing!). 

The first night the boys didn't get to sleep until after 11 pm (including Kobe) so we were worried we were going to have some very grumpy boys the next day.   We decided to head of early the next morning so we could fit in as much as we could since we lost a day because of the ash cloud.  

While walking through the city to catch a tram we ran into Alex who had been working in Melbourne for a few days.  I did get a photo but I had a brand new SD card that lost a heap of my photos from the first day :(   While we were talking to him I heard a 'hello King family!' and was thinking 'uh oh - who knows us in Melbourne!?' and it was a nurse from the kids ward at the hospital who was also over there for a couple of days.   Whenever we go away we always run into someone we know from home.

We had breakfast in the city (the boys were in heaven having McDonalds pancakes for breakfast!) and then jumped on a tram to go to the MCG so we could do the tour and visit the National Sports Museum.

Kobe was cracking everyone up on the trams as he kept saying 'on bus Mum!', and we would say 'no we are on a tram Kobe' and then he would say 'no a 'toot toot!' (meaning a train). 


Harri was so excited to go to the MCG...


although you can't tell in this photo as he was having a grump moment :)  We did the MCG tour with a group of about 12 others. 

 An older lady showed us around who was hilarious as she would always say 'come along now' or 'he was a lovely old chap' as she told us about someone in a picture etc. She was really into cricket so would told us lots about the cricket. Jay is sitting in the seat where the cricketers sit before it's their turn to bat.


Harri was so excited to be able to go into the players changing rooms.  We were lucky enough to be able to go into Hawthorn's rooms that day as it was game day.  Harri kept saying 'Dad let's do the shoulder thing!' (what they do before the game to warm up).



While the lady kept telling us about what goes on in the rooms, Harri just kept walking around the rooms pretending he was kicking a footy.




The boys thought it was really fun to sit where they do press conferences.

The tour was interesting (especially if you are into sports), but I much preferred the National Sports Museum which we paid for as part of the tour.  It is an incredible museum with so much memorabilia (we weren't allowed to take photos of that) and an awesome interactive section where you can take part in different sports.

Harri absolutely loved the interactive handball competition. 

You could spend hours there, but we didn't have a lot of time as we wanted to fit in some shopping before the game on Friday night.  Kobe was so great the whole time, even though he had a really late night.

We spent the afternoon shopping but all my photos from the afternoon are gone.  Luckly I did take a photo of Jay doing some rock climbing at the DFO.  He wasn't phased at all about going up so high and did it twice.  I was silently freaking out while I was trying to encourage him to keep going to the top!

 That night we jumped back on the tram to go to the MCG for Friday night footy - Hawks V Bombers.  It's so fun in Melbourne when everyone is heading to the footy as everyone stirs each other up about the team they barrack for or you get lots of people yelling 'go Hawks!' when they see you with the Hawks gear on.   Some Collingwood fan had a go at Aaron as we were walking in the city saying 'we'll see you next week!' which was funny.

We were disappointed that Buddy wasn't playing as he was suspended for one game, but we were right behind the goals, and close to where the Hawks ran out so we got to see him a lot.

 The second best thing to seeing Buddy (actually it's even better!) is seeing Hodgie of course :)

There is nothing like going to a game at the MCG - it was very exciting to be there.

 Even Kobe was excited about it and was so good the whole night.   It was such a beautiful evening and you wouldn't have known it is almost the middle of winter. 

Our seats were so close to the ground, so you could see all the action.

It was an awesome game with Hawks winning by 65 points.

We got back to our hotel after lots of laughs on the tram at about 11 pm again.  Kobe kept a bunch of drunk guys entertained by giving them all high fives, and he kept charming everyone wherever we went.  We were amazed at how good he was the whole time, considering he hardly had any sleep. 

The next morning we got up and checked out of our hotel early, so we could fit as much into the day as we could.  The day before Kobe kept saying all day that he wanted to see the 'sharks and fish' as he saw a video of them on the SkyBus from the airport.  We had considered going to the zoo, but he was so excited about seeing the sharks that we decided to go to the Aquarium instead. 

We all loved the aquarium and our favourite things were the penguins.  They were so cute and we could've stayed watching them swim and walk around for hours.

The boys loved seeing everything there including the crocodile...

and spent ages watching the billabong feeding presentation where eels would come right out of the water to get their food off a log.

Although Kobe was so excited to see the sharks, as soon as he saw one he started freaking out and crying and would run away from the glass!

We were there at the right time as we got to see two divers go in to feed all the fish which was awesome.

At the end the boys got to choose a souvenir each from the shop.  Harri chose a very cool penguin dressed in Hawthorn gear.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon doing a bit more shopping before we had to catch the bus back to the airport.  Kobe finally had a little sleep in his stroller.  We couldn't believe that he just kept going and going for two days after such late nights and didn't get grumpy at all.

I was actually really glad to get on the plane and know that we were heading home after a tiring two days, and knowing that we would all be together again soon. It would've been nice to have another day to fit some more things in, and it was nice to have a couple of fun days with the three boys, but I was glad to be going home to be with Noah. 

Kobe loved reading the safety card and kept saying 'mum read to me' so I would make up a story about a Mum and a boy going on the plane (not mentioning that they were wearing oxygen masks!) and Kobe would smile and say 'me and Mum!'. 

I wasn't worried at all about Noah as I knew Mum was looking after him well, and although it was nice to have a break I always find it hard to enjoy things fully when he isn't with us, as there is always that feeling that someone is missing.   There is no way we could've fitted so much in though if Noah was with us as there was no way we could just jump on and off trams and buses, or race around as quick as we did.  It was so nice to get home to see him and to know that he had behaved himself for Mum while we were gone. She did a great job with him, even though I think he exhausted her as he did his usual night time routine on her (not sleeping much). 

I just wish we could go on a whole family holiday and take Noah with us somewhere fun, but it exhausts me just trying to work out how we would get him on the plane, how we would get around and the places we could go.  It was just so much easier when he was smaller and you could lift him easily. It's nice to know that we can go away though and that he is well looked after. Thanks Mum for giving us a little break.  The boys are already asking when we are going to go away on the plane again.