Oh A Camping We Will Go....

Our set up

I have always loved camping. As a child, the holidays I remember the most were the ones where we were camping and for a long time I have wanted to recreate these memories with my daughter. A couple of years ago we bought a tent and at the time most of my friends looked at us like we were stupid :)

2 years on and some of those friends have finally been convinced of the joys of camping and we are starting to get some good use out of our tent!

Alot of our friends have invested in caravans or camping trailers...but for us, we still love our tent!

The thing I love the most about camping is, you don't have to go far for a weekend away to feel relaxed. Just last weekend we went to Coolum (for the 2nd time) with a group of wonderful friends and we are planning another trip to Bribie Island in a couple of weeks time with the same group. I love that our kids are getting this experience and they doing it together...memories that will last a life time.

Some of the special times and people in our life recently

Sisters, Charlie is a very lucky girl to have such a doting sister in Chey! She will certainly be spoilt for love!

Earlier this year, Chey's school held a telant contest. Chey & a couple of her friends entered and were 'highly recommended'. All contestants had a chance to perform in front of parents and family...here is Chey performing Taylor Swift's Romeo & Juliet. They did such a beautiful job!

For the second year running, Chey has walked in Bridge 2 Brisbane! I am so proud of my gorgeous girl for giving it a go and doing so well! 2009 she found the 5km walk a little difficult, but this year, she LOVED it! Must have been the fact that her Nanny walked with her this time! Each year, her Poppy has walked with Chey & her cousin Cai; this year they were joined by Chey's dad & Nanny, which made the day even more special. Well done my beautiful girl, I am very proud of you for giving it a go again!

I ran the race with my Loop team again this year, finishing in 59.26 minutes.

My birthday, August 2010

City 2 Surf

It has been a while since the big event and as per usual, I have failed to update my blog and so much has happened since City 2 Surf.

This event was a mileston in my life and one which I am very proud of. My goal was just to finish the race and if I came in under 90 minutes I would be happy! Thankfully, I did both! I made it across the finish line in 84 minutes which is exactly 6 minute k's. In my training I adverage 6 minute k's, but when doing a fun run like this where there are 80, 000 people racing and the track is extremely hilly, you expect to loose a bit of time. So finishing in 84 minutes was more than I expected and I have to say, crossing the finish line was a little emotional!

The worst part of the track is what is aptly named "heartbreak hill' which goes for roughly 2km and is located roughly 6km's into the race. I had heard alot about this hill from people who have done the race previously and knew that if we didn't train for it, we would struggle! So hill training is what we did....up Mt Cooth-ta! Yep! 10kms of hills and the first 2km is straight up! We worked this run into our training schedule a number of times leading up to the race and I can tell you, if I hadn't have done it, I don't know how I would have coped with Heartbreak Hill!

What was funny, was, RSVP had obviously sponsored City 2 Surf and they used Heartbreak Hill to advertise....as you ran up the hill you were bombarded with RSVP signs encouraging singles to get on line.....not sure Heartbreak Hill is a great way to advertise for a dating website, but anyway....

Everyone from Loop who raced, did amazing! I can't begin to tell you the feeling of satisfaction after the race, sufice to say, we were all buzzing and had a great time hanging out with the rest of the Loopy crowd for the afternoon/night! I do feel blessed to work for a company that not only encourages this sort of team effort, but gets behind them and pays for everything (flights, accommodation, meals, race fees....I did not spend a cent for 2 nights!!)

Count down is on....

The count down is on....only 4 more sleeps to the big event! Yep...City 2 Surf is almost on us and I am a little excited and anxious at the same time. My Loopie colleagues and I have all been in training for this event for a while now and there is a hint of rivalry in the air between the 3 states to see which team will come out on top!

For me, this is the largest event I have raced in, in my short years of running and whilst I am a little nervous about how I will go, I am confident that my training will pay off in the end!

Running is a fairly new sport for me, I have only been running for roughly 2 1/2 years and in this time I have gone from strenght to strenght. This is truely a testiment to the continued support and encouragement from my good friend Carrie!

For years now, I have watched Carrie compete in triathlons, cycling & swimming races as well as the odd adventure race. I have watched with envy as I just could never see myself doing any of those things. But alas Carrie made it her mission to get me running and that she did! She has been by my side from the beginning and I mean the beginning! The very first time I ran was on the service road outside my place and it took me 9 minutes to run 1km! Although this was probably the most painful 9 minutes of Carries life, she never got frustrated with me, she just kept on encouraging me.

In the July of 2007 Carrie, Matt (Carrie's now husband) and I decided we were going to run in the Bridge to Brisbane. 10km! Yikes, I honestly did not know if I would make it this far. Carrie kindly did me a deal, if I signed up to train with In Training at Milton on a Wednesday night & Saturday morning, she would look after Chey for me. How could I resist. Matt and I enjoyed our training sessions and were amazed at how much we improved our running times.

We were so excited, we all entered in the 10km fun run for Charity held every year at Noosa. Sadly 2 weeks before we were due to race, all 3 of us went down like a lead balloon with a virus and chest infection, just as we thought we were about to recover, we all got the flu! We were devastated. The doctor told us we just couldn't risk running...not that any of us felt well enough to do it! So not only did we miss Bridge to Brisbane but we missed the Noosa fun run. Oh well, there was always next year.

After that, I made it my mission to run 1 10km race before I turned 30 the following year! I am proud to say, I achieved this twice over + an 8km fun run on Mothers day! My first 10km race was Gold Coast Marathon/10km event in July and I finished at 59 minutes! I was stoked. After this, I ventured out on my own and ran in the fun run at Noosa (the one we missed the year before) which was held early August. This time, I had my mother, Cheyenne & my niece & nephew (Aidan & Taylah) to watch...although it didn't turn out that way, they got caught in road blocks and didn't make it to the finish line until after I had gone through. I came looking for them and found them all looking eagerly up the street for me. I can still see the look on their faces as I came up behind them! Their faces all feel as they realised they had missed seeing me come in. I have to say, I was disappointed as well! I think I even did my best time of 58 minutes!
But alas, with only a couple of days to go, I had made it to my goal and even exceeded my expectations with competing 1 other 10km race and an 8km race. Happy days.

After that I ran the Bridge to Brisbane with my Loopie colleagues and it was at this race that our GM (who flew up for the event) announced that we all should race together in the City 2 Surf in 2010!

Which brings me to this point today! I write this, not in search of praise from people, but more of a reminder to myself of how far I have come and also to help releive some of the anxiety of the forth coming race..to remind myself I can do this!

Thanks to Carrie's training schedules I have gone from finding 10km runs hard work to thinking, that is a short fun! We have a great running group that meets every Saturday and we do anything from 7km runs to 12km or more. I have also managed to run up Mt Cooth-tha 3 times now (roughly 10km of hills)! That is no mean feat can I tell you! Can't say I have run the entire way up the first 2km HILL, but I am improving each time.

I have always enjoyed sporting activities but running is by far my passion! Never thought I would say that! I often worry that people think I am boasting about my achievements...but that is not true! I am amazed at how much joy I get out of running and I get so excited when I have beat my previous time. Running is such a measurable sport. Every time you run, you can see how much you have improved from the last time you ran. It has done wonders for my personal growth and happiness.

Like any mum, I do battle with feeling guilty for leaving my daugther with her dad an extra hour after work or leaving work early for a run, rather than leaving early to pick up my daughter but I know that it is important to do things that keep you healthy and sometimes you have to put yourself first. I think you always struggle with putting yourself first as a parent, but as long as this is not consuming me and taking all my time away from Chey, it is healthy. It is especially important to be role modelling good behaviour to Chey. Often she will get out on her bike and ride while I run, I love this! See...I am still trying to justify it! :)

Well I hope I haven't bored you with my thoughts, for the most part I wanted to keep a record to remind me of how much I have achieved - its not every day you can say you are proud of your self and what you have achieved.

I am truely grateful for all the encouragement Carrie has given me. In the times when I haven't run as fast as I wanted or feel a bit crappy cause I am not up to her speed, she is always there to make me feel good about what I have done! The poor girl has to listen to me rabit on about how fast I did a run or how far I ran this time etc etc...but like a champ and true friend, she revels in my achievements! Thanks Carrie xo

Stay tuned...I will blog about City 2 Surf in a few days!

New Zealand....Nana's 80th Birthday

What better way to finish off our holidaying than with a trip home to NZ to celebrate my Nana's 80th birthday and catch up with family.

My mother & Nana spent an entire week leading up to the big party cooking. For those of you who know my grandmother & mother would not be suprised to know they catered the entire event for around 80 people, every type of slice & yummy cakes you can imagine!

The celebrations were held in the Coasters hall (Coasters is a theater group which my parents were heavily involved in all our lives....we have lots of friends and family in this group and many happy memories running around the coasters hall with all the other members children while our parents rehearsed).

During the couse of the afternoon, Coasters put on a little production for Nana which she thoroughly enjoyed. For me, it was like going back in time......all these relations and old family friends I hadn't seen since we left NZ! It was lovely to see them all again and especially to be able to introduce Cheyenne to them. It was fantastic seeing family friends again who we kept in contact with over the years but don't get to see as often as we would like.

Afterwards, we all met at 'Cookies' restaurant for a lovely dinner. Again, it was a lovely night, catching up with everyone. It was especially nice to be together as a family (not something that happens very often at all). Catching up with cousins....my mother had to laugh when I mentioned all of the cousins sitting at the kids table together....she pointed out that we aren't really kids anymore (majority of us have our own children now), but since the last time we were all together, we were children....it is hard to believe we are all grown ups now!

Happy Birthday Nana, you are a wonderful, inspiring woman who I can only hope to become like. We love you so much and miss you now you are back home but you are always in our heart

Mum, Nana & Uncle Murray

Me & my little cousin Tessa (such a beautiful girl)

Uncle Richie & Taylah, Mark & Cheyenne

Nana & her children, my mother Kaye, Uncle Ian & Uncle Murray & Nana's grandchildren (too many to name!!) a photo to cherish.

two of the star performers and close family friends, Uncle John & Aunty Maureen

Grandma Caroline, who played all the music

My beautiful nieces & nephews & daughter.

Chey, Taylah, Kaiya, Aidan & Olivia

Chey & Uncle Ian

My beautiful nephew Aidan

The other highlight of our trip home was catching up with this beautiful woman, Sarah Lloyd! Sarah is the mother of my gorgeous nieces Kaiya & Liv's and I love her to bits! Sarah has been a part of my life since I was a little girl and we have shared many, many fun times together. Now we have to settle for chats over email, so the times we get to see each other are so blessed! I am inspired by this lady who has such a beautiful heart. She is a wonderful mother and friend.

I love you Sezzie. Bless you and keep being you. I can't wait to see you at Christmas xoxo

Check out the t-shirts....:)

Vegas

All in all, we had a wonderful couple of weeks. The kids were so well behaved and at the right age to really enjoy everything! We certainly have some great memories.

Tigers in the MGM Grand's Casino....

We took a trip out to the 'old Vegas Strip' one day to have a look around. This was the Golden Nugget hotel which has a slide going through a fish tank! Not sure I would be so keen on trying that slide out! Kids were though.

The Venetian was another amazing hotel! A canal in the middle of a hotel!

What better way to drink a beer than out of a cowboy boot!

Gilly's was one of our favorite places to eat....or rather Davey's favorite places to eat! A country and western bar and restaurant, right up David's alley.

We managed to get a quick (super quick) shot of Chey sitting on this bar stool which was a saddle! One for daddy who also, is a cowboy at heart!

Planet Holywood had this fantastic rain fall in the middle of the walkway. On the hour and every half hour, this pond filled up with water and it sounded like a rain storm was taking place.

Located in the MGM Grand was a restaurant called "The Rain Forest Cafe" where we dinned for breakfast one morning. This cafe was amazing, with real water falls around the bar and wild animals everywhere complete with real animal noises and nature calls. The ceiling even changed from day to night with the animals becoming louder at night time. Fantastic!

We loved walking the strip and visiting all the hotels. Amazing creativity!

Another hightlight...M&M store, all 4 levels of M&M's.....Mmmmmmm

We stayed at the MGM Grand Signature Hotel, but the best pool to swim in, was the MGM Grands. So whenever we got a chance, we walked over to the MGM for a swim in their rapid pool. The kids loved it and so did the adults. You could hire these tubes for $20 a day, but we did what the poor people do and wait until someone leaves the pool and offers theirs to us! Worked everytime and saved us a fortune!

On the way home, Davey and I got front seats - view was amazing

The highlight of Vegas was definitely flying over the Grand Canyon. We decided to leave the kids with a babysitter as they were not really interested and for the money, it wasn't worth taking them. Was a nice break for us adults.

The kids thought they were royality and demanded everytime we left the hotel that we get a limo!

Vegas was all we imagined it to be and more! We drove from LA to Vegas in style; with 4 adults, 7 kids and more luggage than you could poke a stick at, it was cheaper to hire a limo than it would have been to fly and pay for each piece of luggage as we were informed we would have to do.