Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

I know I blogged about Tassie last night but I just have to dedicate a post to the glorious stuff that is snow.

Now to give some background info (and perhaps make my reaction seem a tad more understandable), before this holiday I had never been near snow. I'd seen it on the Swiss Alps, bu never actually got close to it. Since we've been here however I've got to experience it in all its icy cold goodness. We always had to go up the mountain though, and it was mainly snow on the ground (as opposed to falling snow).

Today however, that changed. This morning we were all munching on our breakfast, planning our day, when Hubby looked out the window and announced that it was snowing. I didn't exactly believe him. The conversation went something like this:

Hubby: "Look Bella (one of my millions of nicknames), it's snowing"
Me: "No it's not"
Hubby: "Yes, it is"
Me: "No it isn't, that's rain"
Hubby: "White rain?"
Me: "Yes. But it's not really white. It's just fat rain"
Hubby: "White, fat, floating rain that is making the ground white?"
Me: "OHMYGOD IT'S SNOWING!!"

I then promptly scooped up the Bear and ran outside (the Butterfly was half way through her toast and would not have been very pleased if I had taken her away from it. She takes after her Mumma that girl, nothing gets between her and her breaky!). So I raced outside, Bear on my hip, and started dancing and cheering and spinning and trying to catch as much snow as possible on our hands or in our mouths. I wasn't aware exactly how much noise I was making until the man next door opened his window, leaned out and called "Yes Lauren, it's called snow". Smarty pants :P After returning Bear back to his breakfast I resumed my snow dance and soon noticed that my feet, legs, hands, arms and face were burning. In all the excitement I had run outside exactly as I was - in my pj's of boxers and a shirt (it's a heated house, a must-have down here). I had stopped to grab Bear's coat but nothing for myself so I quickly learnt a very important thing about snow. It's cold - not gee that's a bit chilly, but seriously seriously COLD. And yes, I am aware that snow is in fact ice, but I had somehow glossed over that fact when I raced outside.

Anyway, after lunch we decided to head up the mountain and see if we could find some more snow. There wasn't too much on the ground, just a light covering, but we decided to hop out anyway. Within about 5 minutes snow started pouring down. It was so thick the sky was literally white and we couldn't see our car about 10m away. It was freaking awesome. If you looked up you could see thousands of flakes falling down to you, and if you tracked it carefully you could watch one fall from the highest height then catch it in your hand.

We all had a ball. When we were so cold we'd nearly turned into snowflakes ourselves we piled back into the car, cranked the heater then giggled the whole way back. I think this trip has converted us - we are a family of snow bunnies :)

Some piccies for you - they are hardly the best quality but I wanted to spend time playing in the snow, not photographing it!! Apologies for the scenery only pics, I don't feel comfy putting photos of my family up on the net.  xo

Tassie Tassie, oh Beautiful Tassie

Told you I'd come back sooner this time :D

So I thought I'd use this as a bit of a travel diary tonight and recap some of the amazing memories we've been making on our holiday so far.

I have to start with the plane ride. The Bear was oh so excited about flying down, his Grandma and Grandpa gave him a pilots cap a while ago and the moment he woke he scrambled out of bed to find it and plopped it on his head. It stayed there the entire trip down, an event made all the more wonderful by the fact that two actual pilots commented on his hat - one saluted him and asked if he was going to help fly the plane today, the other said he preferred the Bears hat to his own and did he want to swap. It makes me so happy to come across lovely people like this, willing to take a moment out of their own busy days to make a little boy smile. A rather amusing moment occurred though after we had taken off when Bear looked out the window then,  quite shocked, announced to the entire plane "Mummy Mummy, we are up in the sky!". He has flown before but apparently he only just noticed we weren't driving along a road :) The Butterfly took the whole thing in her typically chilled out-cheerful stride. She loved having an audience to goo and coo to, and took to batting her eyelashes and smiling at anyone who walked past. Her one moment of disapproval occurred when she desperately tried to make the mini TV screen scroll, touch screen style. She eventually gave up with a grumpy 'humph'.

Since we've been here we've done so many wonderful things, I'm filling up my camera's memory card every day and wishing I had more. The parks down here are amazing, they just kick the pants of the ones back home. There is the "Lighthouse Park" which features a great big lighthouse, a HUGE wooden boat filled with ramps, slides, tunnels, sand toys, mazes, rock climbing walls and anything else you can think of; then there is  Princes Park which has a huge slide (Bear's jaw nearly hit the ground when he saw it), rolling grassy hills perfect for the Butterfly to crawl and roll down to her hearts delight, and a really fun spiny wheel-circle thing (yea I know, a great description. It's a great big circle on tracks that the kids can sit or stand on. As they climb onto it it starts spinning around, sending them flying into the sand or squealing with delight as they spin around and around). And not to forget the Train Park, a gorgeous little corner park with a bike track, a big train to play in, wonderful climbing equipment but best of all two great big slides, side by side, perfect for Mummy-Bear races.

We've been out to Richmond and raided the lolly store, driven through some gorgeous countryside calling out hello to the millions of cows, bulls, sheep, geese and chicken that we passed. We've feasted on ice creams while wrapped up in millions of coats, beanies and scarves. We've played in the snow, making our very first snowman and snowballs, the Butterfly bursting into laughter as she watched it dissolve in her hand. We've feasted on beautiful cheeses, the Bear making his preference for Blue and Brie clearly known. We've visited Oatlands and huddled under a huge old windmill, danced in the rain through the markets, cruised the streets picking out houses we'd love to buy if ever we win the lottery. We've given up counting the rainbows, they seem to be a daily occurrence here, instead just launching into a family rendition of the rainbow song whenever we spot one.

All in all we are having such a lovely time. There is nothing quite as nice as waking up on an icy cold morning, all snug and warm inside your bed, pulling your little ones in to join you and laughingly planning what new adventures you should have that day. The Butterfly is loving this holiday tradition and happily points to our bed when I get her out of her cot, gleefully pulling the covers over her head and giggling like mad while she waits for the Bear to "find" her.

Life is sweet. So very, very sweet. xoxoxoxox

Hello, I am still here!

I know I know, I've been very slack with my poor little neglected blog lately. I have a good reason though - we are currently in Tassie!

We are spending our days playing in the snow up on Mt Wellington (we made our first snowman and snowballs today, woohoo!!), checking out all the convict buildings, playing in all the millions of fantastic parks, shopping and doing all sorts of fun things.

Now I know this will make this the shortest blog entry of all times, but I am going to go and dive under my doona and try and stop my teeth chattering. It's 3 degrees people!! Woohoo!!

(I promise I'll write again sooner this time)

xo