In the playground area they had several doll houses set up including this castle. Isn't he a cute little prince?
J telling A&A about the Phillipine display.
This last one is posted in honor of Katie and Amber. If you girls are having a hard time figuring out why think back 7ish years to the funnest game of your life (hee, hee)!
He has also discovered the joy of toilet paper. . . it looks like we will have to keep the bathroom door closed from now on.
The emus were very friendly! They came right up to eat out of our hands and followed us all around. The kangaroos on the other hand were a bit ornery and didn't want anything to do with us. Every time we got close they would hop away.
I was a little surprised how much A&A enjoyed the Dingos. AJ who is not a dog person in the least said she wouldn't mind having one as a pet (of course some of that had to do with the fact that our guide told us their personalities are more like cats' than dogs).
Feeding the bears. . .
This cute little guy's name is Speedy. AP now wants a pet turtle when we get home.
They had a great time with the snakes too! The first two are them with a couple of corn snakes. If he can't have a turtle, AP wants a snake.
And this next one is a boa constrictor.
We learned a lot and had a great time! 
AP and AJ often join D in the window watching too. I love this next one because it shows that and their sweet relationship as brothers! Oh, and I have to mention ,AJ's theory is that D thinks the people and cars are toys and is trying to figure out how to get a hold of them to play with. I think she could be right!
The road to the memorial is lined with monuments to the various wars, battles, and people invloved.
Above and below were taken by the monument to the Rats of Tobruk. J said that he remembers reading about this as a kid and thinking, "The Australians are so cool." 
They had interactive things for the kids, like a helicopter and submarine similator, as well as uniforms to try on. Below AJ is piloting the helicopter.
This was a lifesize replica of one of the battles. As you can see J got as into it (if not more) than A&A did. It was cute to see him enjoying himself.
In the gift shop. This hat was tempting except that it cost over $100!
There was so much more there, but if I posted all the pictures you would never get through them! In fact, we didn't even get through the whole museum. AJ was actually interested in the displays and reading the history of it (much to J's delight) but after the discovery zone AP was done. I told J he needs to go back by himself so that he can spend more time reading and looking around at the displays (and playing--wink, wink).
I thought that it would be fun for A&A to decorate my cake this year so the morning of my birthday we headed to the store to get cake mix and decorations. I told them before we left that the best present they could give me was to get along and treat each other nicely. They got off to a good start but once we got to the cake isle they couldn’t agree on decorations. So the arguing began. I told them that I decided I didn’t want a cake anymore because their arguing was ruining my birthday and pointed out that there were tears in my eyes. I started to leave the store and they started apologizing and rubbing my back, patting my arm etc, saying, “Mom we are so sorry! It’s ok, just relax, take deep breaths, just calm down. Let’s go back and we’ll agree we promise! We have to have cake for your birthday!”
As for the rest of the day, J came home from work early and we went to my favorite (the only) gluten-free bakery and cafe for dinner. Then I spent a couple of hours by myself (oh the novelty!!) walking around the mall. When I got back we had the cake and opened presents. After that we went down to the lake and J, A, &A took a pedal boat around while D and I played in the sand. How is that for a complete birthday?
We didn't have a tree; my intent was to find a branch or something to decorate once we got to Lilli Pilli, but we got out much later than planned and didn't have much time to look. I sent AJ out while I made dinner (we ended up having very simple tacos), but I didn't want her to go too far and it was getting dark so she couldn't find anything. We ended up using this plant instead.
This may have been my favorite Christmas moment. As a bit of background: not only did we get out later than planned we ran into some heavy fog (as we went over the Misty Mountains--they are accurately named!) and missed our key pick-up. To make a long story short everyone was pretty hungry and cranky by the time we got to our rental. Admittedly there were some reminders (ok threats) that Santa might not make it if some certain somebodies couldn't start getting along. After Santa arrived and was setting up I started feeling bad and felt that my kids needed to be reminded that they did a lot of good things this past year that earned their spot on the nice list, so Santa obligingly wrote them each a letter detailing those things. The best part was that as soon as they saw the letters they started reading them and discussing them and it was several minutes before they remembered they had new toys to look at and open!
Opening D&D minis
They each got a box of minis. It's so funny how exciting it is for the three of them and how much fun they have looking at them together, making trades, and planning adventures.
J's loot. You might not be able to tell but the t-shirt is all marvel heros (I found it at Target the week before we left and couldn't pass it up!). He was also thrilled to get new ties. However I think he was most excited about the book idea Spencer sent him. Way to go Spence!
He is at the perfect age to enjoy Christmas! Old enough to interact with his toys but still so little and cute!
Just testing his toys! But even more than (or at least as much as) the toys he loved all the paper, packaging and boxes!
This view was just down the path from our beach house. Amazing!
splashing in the surf Christmas day
exploring our surroundings
the little tide pools were so much fun!
just lounging
rock throwing contest
