Some old pictures from June…

I was clearing the memory card from the old point&shoot compact camera and found these photos that I have apparently forgotten to upload. So, here’s some random pictures from June…

Ben on the slide at a rainbow family’s picnic.

Ethan – Driving Cead’s car (my friend’s son). He was quite good at the foot pedal for acceleration, but had no clue about steering!

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We woke up one cold June morning to the grass covered in frost. To my American friends…. this is about as close to snow as we get! I like how the frost has melted in the sunny areas, but remains in the cloudy patches. 

Ben 

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Ethan

Ethan 

Ben

Silly Boys!!!

Playing in the garden

Just a few random shots taken today, playing in the back garden. It was a beautiful day today, we just had to spend some time outside. We’ve had a few warmer days lately, and we are looking forward to spring!

Ben, swinging on the frangipani tree

Ethan, deciding that my recently re-inflated exercise ball is good to chase and kick

Ben filling the bucket with sand. After he’d filled it, he tipped it over to produce his sandcastle and said “ta-da”. Hehehehehe…. he learnt that from his Grandma!

Ethan

Tracie and Ben playing catch. Ben’s still perfecting the art of catching. He gets it about 10%of the time. Ethan is quite good and gets it more than 50%of the time.

Ethan and Mumma, jumping off the wall.

Ben

Birds

We get lots of different birds in our back yard on a daily basis. Of course it’s winter now, so we don’t get as many as the warmer months… but I’ve had fun playing with my new camera over the past week. I’ve managed to get these shots. They are not as good as I like, but I’m pretty sure all of them are taken using the manual settings. I am learning more about these settings every day, and having fun experimenting with them  :)

 

Obviously some of them have some interesting colour balances and the focus isn’t quite right…. but it’s all new to me, so I am having fun experimenting with what my camera can do!

Day trip to Brooklyn

Last Sunday we woke up to an absolutely gorgeous sunny day. As we all had a free morning, we decided it was the perfect day for a lovely family outing to Brooklyn. For my friends far away, Brooklyn is a small riverside town with a marina and a few cafe’s and beautiful water views. It is popular with tourists and boating enthusiasts.

Our morning began with a 30min train ride. We could of course have driven, but we’ve been wanting to take the boys on the train, so this was the perfect excuse.

Waiting for the train. Ethan was sooky, and cuddling Tracie the whole time. Ben was super excited, and talking non-stop. In this photo, he is pretending to drive a train.

Sooky Ethan. We think he’s getting his 2yr molars. He’s been miserable lately, sucking on his hand a lot… but no sign of the teeth as yet.

Ben with his ticket.

Ethan and Mumma talking about the train trip.

Train’s here!! 

Ben and Mumma on the train. Ben’s pretending to drive again. He was SO VERY excited about being on a train, and talked non-stop for the first 10-15 mins!

Ethan and Mummy, checking out the sights.

Ben

Ethan. Feeling better on the train. Ethan also loved the train ride, and seeing all the cars, boats and trees as we zoomed past them!

Below is an iPhone quality video of the boys on the train, followed by an HD video from my new camera. I am interested to see which one is better, and would appreciate your comments in relation to picture and sound quality versus download and streaming time. I am assuming the HD one will look better…. but can your computer/internet connection handle the big file?

HD Video

After an enjoyable and exciting half hour train ride we arrived at Brooklyn. We found a great little cafe by the water and sat down for a coffee and muffin. Yummm!

Ben

Ethan

View from our table of the boats in the marina. Notice on the other side of the water, just below the trees/hill, there is a train? The boys thought it was fantastic to sit and watch the boats and trains.

Whilst sitting and having our coffee, we noticed a small ferry that tourists seemed to be boarding. We decided to check it out and we delighted to find we could go on a half hour ferry ride across to an island and back….. so we did!

Tracie and the boys, with the small ferry at the wharf.

Ben and Ethan on the ferry.

Ethan, Mumma and Ben, enjoying the trip.

Ben was greatly amused by the rainbow that kept appearing on Mummy’s face. It’s very small in this picture, but he is pointing right at it on my temple.

Ethan and Mumma

Returning to Brooklyn. This is the marina we had our coffee at earlier.

Boys are waving and saying “bye bye, see you later” to the passing train.

Ben 

We had a wonderful day, though all too short as we had to return home so Sal could go to work. We look forward to making the trip again soon. We noticed a kids park that definitely needs exploring on our next visit!