A Year Without Dad

January is a big month to remember men in our lives who we love and miss so much.  My Pop passed away on the 25th, Aaron on the 26th and my Dad passed away a year ago on January 27th. 

We were still in Sydney on the 27th and we knew we wanted to go to the beach on Australia Day for anniversary of Aaron's death, but weren't sure what to do for the anniversary of Dad's death. I know I wanted to keep busy and Mum was with us, and I knew it would be an extra hard week and day for her, so we were hoping we could do something fun.

My brother Chrish suggested that we go to the Blue Mountains as we have been to Sydney so many times, but never to the Blue Mountains.  I thought it was a great idea, and he showed me the website for Scenic World the morning that we were going.   As soon as I saw what you could do there, I said we had better get moving as I knew it was going to be a full day.

Chrish lives in the western suburbs, so it was only about 45 minutes to get to Katoomba.  We headed off in our shorts and t-shirts as it had been really humid all week, but as we got closer to Katoomba the weather changed and it was actually quite cool.  We ended up stopping on the way, so that Mum could go and buy some leggings and a jumper, because she was so cold.  Poor Chrish had to ride his motorbike all week as we were using his car, and we felt sorry for him as he had to ride in the rain and cold weather. 

The only thing I really knew about the Blue Mountains was that there was a rock formation known as 'The Three Sisters'.  
 
We got our photo taken in front of it and of course I had to make Dad jokes about the three brothers standing in front of the three sisters.
The first thing we did was jump on the railway. 




It's the steepest railway in the world and it is 52 degrees down, so you have to hold onto the seat in front of you to stop from falling forward too far.  The funniest thing is they play Indiana Jones music as it starts off.

I don't think we realised how steep it was until we saw the railway from the bottom.

When we got to the bottom we enjoyed a short walk around the forest.

We then caught the cableway (cable car) back up to the top, before jumping on the Skyway which took us across from one cliff to the other. 


The coolest thing was that part of the floor was see through, so we could see the forest floor below us.

The scenery was amazing as you went across, so it was a pity that the trip was so short.

On the other side we went for a short walk and saw some incredible rock climbers, climbing down the massive cliffs. If you look closely you can see Chrish perched up on the ledge as he tried to get some photos of them going over.

We went for a walk to Katoomba Falls and Chrish and Jay had a great time climbing up them. Harri attempted it, and ended up with drenched feet.


When Chrish was trying to take photos of the rock climbers, he found two hats and this was one of them! It cracked us up and the boys had a great time taking turns wearing it for the rest of the day. 
Before we left we decided to go on the railway again, and this time the boys and Chrish wanted to go right up the front.

 We then ran around and jumped back on, to go up this time (backwards).
When we got back Mum and I made Dad's favourite for tea - roast lamb.  It turned out to be a lovely day and one that Dad would've loved.  The last year has gone so fast without him.