A weekend in Sydney

When the AFL fixture came out at the beginning of the year, we thought it would be fun to go and watch Hawthorn play Sydney, especially since Buddy had gone over to Sydney, if we were able to get cheap flights.  The bonus of going to watch them play would be that they were playing in Sydney and we could go and stay with my brother Chrish, and spend the weekend with him. 

It didn't look like we would be able to get any cheap flights until about a month ago, so we grabbed the cheap fares and we were excited to go and spend a few days with Chrish.   We headed up to Sydney last Thursday after school.   We couldn't wait to leave the cold weather behind. 

Chrish had the day off work on Friday.  The footy was at the ANZ stadium that night so we decided to park the car at Olympic Park, and catch the train into the city.  We had never been to Olympic Park before, so it was fun to look around.   The boys loved seeing all the bits of memorabilia from the Sydney Olympics.  

A lot of Kings competed in the Olympics.

The boys love the excitement and rush of the city, and always find it fun running to catch the train before it leaves.

The boys desperately wanted to go to Luna Park, but I was keen on a quieter day.  Kobe kept asking if we could go to the place with the 'big head and the rides' was so upset when I told him we wouldn't be going this time.  He kept reminding me that he had only been there once before, but I told him that we would go there on another trip.   Instead we jumped on the ferry and headed to Manly, for lunch on the beach. 

It was such a beautiful day, and was so warm compared to Tassie at the moment.

 It clouded over once we got to Manly but it wasn't cold at all. 

 I love the surfer smiling away at the camera as he walks past.

It was so nice to just sit on the beach for a little while - much nicer than going to Luna Park ;) 

Kobe ended up having lots of fun anyway.  

 He told me to take this photo so he could take it to show his class at school. 

Back at Circular Quay we had fun looking at the view and watching the buskers.

The boys were fascinated with this busker and how he was staying up on one leg.  He obviously had a little stand underneath his clothes, but he did look very cool. 

We had some time to fill in before the footy, so Chrish and I were keen to go to the market for a quick Chinese massage.  I never usually buy anything at the market, but always love having a massage.  As soon as they saw us they were yelling out 'Lady! One minute - you try!'.  They didn't have to ask me twice, before the guy was massaging my shoulders. After I finished having a massage, one of the women there said 'lady, your husband, he around there' and pointed around the corner.  I smiled and said 'he's my brother' and had to laugh because it would've been the best day ever, if Aaron really was around the corner. 

We caught the train back to Olympic Park and couldn't wait for the game.  

Harri loved running into 'Cyggy' the Swans mascot, and had lots of fun pretending to have a fight with it. 

We were surrounded by Swans supporters, but they were all really lovely.  The Swans supporters in front of us came up from Melbourne and kept laughing at Harri and Kobe's comments throughout the game, about how we could come back. 

It was fun to watch Buddy play against his old team mates for the first time.  It was such an intense game.  I thought it was going to be a thrashing at first, but luckily Hawthorn came back in the third quarter.  Harri and Kobe were so into it and cracking up everyone around us.  Even Jay got into it and said how awesome it was to watch. 

In the last five minutes of the game the boys realised that we weren't going to win and there were lots of tears.  Harri couldn't handle the screaming and cheering of the crowd and hated hearing all the Swans supporters.  He is so much like Aaron it's scary at times!  I told him that we had better not go to anymore live games if he couldn't handle it, and he kept saying 'but it's okay when there's lots of Hawks supporters!' :)   Despite the result it was so much fun, to watch such a great game live. 

The next day we went and did a little bit of shopping before heading to watch the end of Chrish's footy game.  At the shopping centre we saw this awesome Darth Vadar sculpture which was made totally out of Lego pieces! 

It was fun to watch Chrish play footy.  He can still play even though he's an old guy ;) 

The boys loved seeing Chrish's dog Tess again.  She had grown so much and she made us miss Milly, who was at home with Alison. Thanks Alison for hanging with her for the weekend.   Jay was so happy that he could play with Tess this time, without having to worry about a sore, broken arm. 

We had a whole day before we had to fly out.  We had lots of fun checking out Ikea, dreaming of all the things that we wished we could buy and bring home for the house.  Harri was in tears (again!) as he wanted me to bring lots of things home to do his bedroom up.  He then kept saying 'I wish the builders would just build one in Tasmania!'...don't we all Harri!.

The boys cracked me up as they were pretending they were in a psychologist's office.  Jay was the psychologist and was asking the boys what was wrong.  They've obviously had too much experience with that sort of thing :) 

Before we caught the plane we went to Bondi Beach.  The boys were hoping to see the film crews there, filming for Bondi Rescue but I guess it's not the time of the year for filming.  We did see one of the lifeguards from the show though.  

I love Jay's photobomb during Chrish's selfie :) 

While we were at Bondi we rang my Mum for Mother's Day.  I don't think she was very happy when she heard where we were ringing from, as I'm sure she would've loved to have been with us.   Chrish just needs to get a bigger car so we could all fit in at once.  

Just before catching the plane we went to La Perouse again.  It's so beautiful there with the sandstone cliffs. 

I had to get the annual Mother's Day photo with my boys.

Kobe cracks me up. He always wants to be the star of the show, and loves the attention.  He wanted to be right at the front for a photo with Chrish.  Harri had just knocked his knee before this pic, so he was complaining about a sore knee, and I did the usual 'just get in the photo and hurry up!'. It was Mother's Day after all! ;) 

Thanks Chrish for the fun weekend and for putting up with us.  Hopefuly we will be back soon!