Holidays Birthdays Layouts and More Holidays

Well, we have finally extracted all photographs from all cameras, and I have a couple of final pics to post from our wonderful Hawaiian holiday - unfortuneately not of the quality of the Nikon shots, since it died three days from the end of our holiday - but a memory is a memory, and I am just happy to have some photos from the last three days. We are eager to get our camera back from the repair shop though. The Olympus which died two days from the end of the trip, was sent away today for repair - so not a lot of luck on the camera front!

The last couple of days in Hawaii entailed a trip around to the other side of the island of Oahu to go to the Polynesian Cultural Centre - the drive was soooooo scenic, Dave took some pictures out the car window, I have included one below. We arrived at the Polynesian Cultural Centre at lunch time, and had a buffet lunch. Note to self- if we go back, we need 2 days here - not half a day! We only really had time to do the major things - view the Canoe Pageant, do the canoe ride down the canal, go to the IMAX theatre, and go to one of the many villages, where the girls made a toy fish out of a leaf and played some games.

The last day was pretty much spent at the beach and the pool, which the girls loved. Dave being the boy he is, had to go to the Waikiki Gun club to have a go at some weapons - eg. AK47, M16 (I think I have those right).











Eliza's third birthday was while we were in Hawaii, and Cameron being such a little gentleman, kindly let Eliza celebrate her birthday with him, when he turned 11. We got Eliza an Ariel cake, as she really loves mermaids, as does Jas. Eliza scored a bike for her birthday from us, along with a Dora Helmet, Ariel Dress up outfit, and a very special hand-crafted fresh water pearl necklace with fine silver charm on it, which we bought for her in Hawaii. A great momento of her time there, which I hope she will treasure.




Having been deprived of scrapbooking for the last 5 weeks, I needed to get a fix. So completed four layouts on the weekend as part of a challenge on the Addicted2scrapping website. One of my friends is on the design team, and she set some most excellent challenges to create "All About Him" layouts. I used some pics from our Holiday for the layout.






I am also very excited to be doing a Cathy Z. class online with my friend Mel at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It is a 12 week course for US$99. You do three layouts a week for homework. I am so excited. The course is almost 3 months - so you have a complete album at the end of the course, with pages of different sizes.

Whilst we were away, our very first niece was born. Annie is just a little one at 6lb 7oz, a little smaller than Jas, so tiny. WIll have to post a pic when I get a decent one, probably means waiting for Nikon to come back, as I have only managed some blurry low light indoor photos to date with the video camera (which is excellent for outdoor photos, not for indoor ones as it has no flash!)

Well, I am also very excited about our next holiday in summer. Nothing like finishing one holiday and planning the next. We are going to do the drive up to Coolangatta. I got a fantastic deal on the Radisson resort for <$200 a night in peak period! It looks so nice, looking forward to relaxing in the pool, going to the beach, taking the kids to Dreamworld (since we did all the other parks last year when we went to Currumbin) and I guess I'll have to take Dave shopping (bless his cotton socks!)