Brisbane

Yah the big drive is over, now the fun starts, catching up with our mates.  We've been so lucky to meet loads of other families on this trip and are planning on visiting as many as possible on the way home. First stop was Highvale near Brisbane to stay with Joel, Megan, Khai and Eden.  We first met these guys in Alice in 2012.  They live in an old Queenslander house on acreage in this gorgeous lush green area.  We loved it.  So so different to the dry areas we have been in of late.  It was so weird but so so nice to be in a house again.

Lounge time.....its been so long.

Toys

Joel and Megan have a few pets, two horses, a snake, two lizards, a dog, a cat and chooks.  We loved being around pets again, especially our horse mad girl.  She spent so much time with Megan and the horses.  Megan was very good and patient with Charlotte, and her endless questions.  They fed horses, rode horses, washed horses and much more.  Megan was wonderful and now Charlotte idolises her even more!  Charlotte really didn't want to leave.

I was being very brave here, that was until Joel told me the snake was about to strike and I panicked!! 

Joel and Meg live in quite a hilly area, a little nerve racking with the van.  But its such a gorgeous area with lots of small properties and horses.  We took the kids for a walk down by the river one morning.  Its a great spot with horse and walking trails everywhere.  On a couple of mornings Megan and I got up early and went for a walk, lovely to be out and about early.  The hills were a bit of a killer though, maybe we shouldn't have chatted so much! 

Charlotte and her little friend

Eden, Charlotte, Jake and Khai

We had to go into Brisbane CBD, as we needed to consult with a travel clinic prior to going to Thailand.  We decided to catch the train in instead of trying to park our big car in the city.  The kids loved it, apparently its been a while since they have been on a train.  Jake thought it went into hypo drive!

We had a walk around the city and did the usual touristy things before our appointment.  The gold man cricket statue was amusing.  So strange to see skyscrapers again, the big smoke!  Then spent a lot of money getting injections!

The kids thought this church looked like it was made out of Lego

Pick the tourist

Mark and Jake went for hair cuts at an inner city barber called the Electric Chair.  Was hilarious, they don't get a lot of kids there.  They changed the music (swearing) and then they had to put Jake up on a skate board over the chair, as he was too short.  They were really nice cool young guys.  It was a pretty funky place, we certainly stood out.  I nearly wet myself when the guy tried to convince Mark to get a more modern hair cut ( he rapped the options), of course he got a 'standard' hair cut.

We also managed to find time to go to the Newstead Brewery. Happy times for Mark, he just loves his beer, he had a lovely time chatting to the owner.

Whilst we were in the area we arranged for Charlotte to have a horse riding lesson with Liz (a lady from Marks old work).  Charlotte had a couple of lessons with Liz in 2012 on her horse Stryder.  Unfortunately Stryder isn't well and Charlotte couldn't ride him.  She had a lesson on Sultan, and loved it.  Shes getting pretty confident on a horse now.

We had such a great time hanging out with Joel, Megan and the kids.  Had some yummy food, a few drinks and lots of chatting.  Charlotte had a great time playing with little Eden, like a little mum.  Jake and Khai got on really well and had fun hanging out, except for an occasional argument on the morals of dealing with a brown snake!  We hadn't seen these guys in ages but we just took of where we had left it last time.  We really like the house and lifestyle they have here, made us realise how much we want acreage and animals when we get home.  Was sad to say goodbye, we could easily have stayed and hung out for longer with these guys.