We arrived at the transit centre in the middle of Brisbane and were soon picked up by Sophie and Haidee. Haidee however was fast asleep having spent the journey in trying to understand why Uncle Andrew wasn't a girl?! Not sure we ever really got to the bottom of that confusion but it was ultimately blamed on my hair! As is standard practice, within seconds of arriving home Jeff had placed a XXXX Gold in my hand and we spent the evening catching up over dinner, beers and wine!

After a relaxing first day, concluding with a drive up Mt Coot-tha to view Brisbane city lights, we spent the next at Australia Zoo, started by Steve Irwin's parents and developed into one of Australia's premier tourist attractions by Steve and his family. It had changed a fair bit since my last visit 4 years ago with the addition of Elephants, Tigers and the Crocoseum, the main new show venue. The new show was pretty impressive involving Elephants, Snakes, Birds and of course crocodiles! We also went to a Tiger demonstration which was also pretty impressive with the Tigers "playing" with their handlers who had raised them from birth.

The following day we were on children duty as both Sophie and Jeff had very early work appointments. As I had hoped, the children were very well behaved and we found them downstairs watching a DVD rather than waking us up early! We got them to school and day care respectively. We then went to the local shopping centre to invesitgate a new broadband deal for Sophie! $29 for 2Gb download rather than $49 for 400Mb - Telstra is a rip off!

The following evening was a 39th Birthday Party for Ben, one of Jeff and Sophie's friends. The invite said free Corona's and cocktails so we were looking forward to it! I was asked to create a Liposuction Coupon as part of the "presents" we were giving him along with a T-Shirt that said "I beat Anorexia!". He took it all in good spirit much the same as we did with the cocktails! After some complaints that the cocktails (actually alcoholic slush puppies!) didn't have enough kick a vodka bottle was found and top-ups were had! We eventually got home hoping for a relaxing lie in the following morning, or so we hoped!

The next morning the phone rang about 8am and it was Rosie and Richard to say there were 5 minutes away. About 1 minute later the front door rang and they arrived. Alex was feeling pretty good but I was not! I struggled downstairs to greet them and we then headed straight off for a Birthday breakfast at Christine and Frank's (Jeff's parents) for Kate, Jeff's niece (hope you are keeping up with all the family relations!). A swim in the pool later and I was feeling a little more normal! Surprising how a morning with children cures a hangover!

On Monday Haidee, Rosie, Richard, Alex & I ventured to Sea World. We saw a variety of shows include the Seals in Fish Detectives, Sesame Street Beach (mainly for kids but was amusing seeing Richard's expressions!), amazing Dolphin show and Water Ski spectacular. An excellent day out that pretty much broke Haidee - am sure she slept well that night! We rounded the day off with a nice evening at the Norman courtesy of Richard and Rosie.

We spent Tuesday preparing for our Fraser Island trip - see other blog entry for Fraser island.

We returned from Fraser Island to Jeff's birthday party which involved a few drinks followed by a phone call to wish Dad/John/Poppo a happy birthday - seemed a good idea at the time!! Up at 7 the next day to head for the beach. Alex's head struggled to comprehend getting up at 7 to go to the beach on a Sunday but we managed to make our way to Tallebudgera Creek just South of Surfers Paradise on the gold coast. This is an inlet with beaches either side and surf to ride our kayaks along. We had lots of hangover recovering fun with Samuel, Haidee, Sally & Kate, despite Jeff trying to mow Alex and I down in a Kayak!

Sophie had a day off on the Monday so we headed to Mt Coot-tha for a daylight viewing of Brisbane city, walking up to the summit. Not knowing exactly where the start of the walking trail was we started from the top and walked down and then back up again! There was some more Aboriginal art at the bottom of the trail which frankly was a let down but the ice cream when we made it back to the top made up for it!!

On the Wednesday Alex and I ventured back to our childhood with a visit to Wet 'n' Wild! A day full of high adrenalin rides. Highlights were Mach 5:pretty much straight down, Hurricane and the Surfrider! Plus the old favorite the wave pool! In the evening we went to the Australian Outback Spectacular which is a show about the outback (surprisingly enough!) with lots of horses cattle and even a helicopter. This was accompanied with a 3 course meal including a steak so all was good. (We were advised there was a nut free option, omission of the mash and gravy without replacement(!!). Alex decided to risk it and survived but was one of the strangest nut free responses!

The following day we went to the circus. We saw lions, tightrope walkers, and the star of the show were the juggling clowns. Rather than housed in the big top this circus was in fact at the Mother Duck Day Car centre! Haidee had some pretty awesome face paint (even if I do say so myself!) and some big bright hair! In the afternoon Samuel and I continued our 2 week long soccer game whilst Alex and Haidee played their favorite walking game, again! We were then overun by family Head who had turned out in force to see us off! Christine, Frank, Mal/Charlie, Sally and Kate all turned up and was lovely to see them all again before we left the following morning to Byron Bay.

Jeff took us to meet the bus in the morning (mainly to ensure we went I think!!)

A big thank you to Sophie and Jeff for having us to stay for a little longer than planned (their fault for the hospitality!). Was awesome to spend time with the Australian family - can't wait to come back!