The Delightful Insanity {Of My Life}

A weeekend @ Bribie Island

Ahhhhhhhh..... and what a relaxing weekend it was, even if it was only for 2 days. My brother and his wife are awesome..thanks for inviting us up guys!

The weather was perfect, that kinda gloomy, not too hot, not too cold beautiful beach weather (not hot sunshiny beach weather, but romantic-ly gloomy beach weather). When we first arrived Jamil took us 4wheel driving along the beach. The last time Jamil did that we got bogged, and even though it was 3 years ago, Tatiana still remembered and was a tiny bit nervous. Jamil let her have a tiny go at "driving" in his lap, and after that she became far more comfortable with the idea. We stopped along the beach to get out and play in the sand and relax for quite some time before heading back home. Doesn't sound like much, but it was just the perfect day, and the kids had a ball! And it was good picture weather, so we made sure to grab a few family pics :)

Then on Sunday, Nic, the kids and I headed down to a park to let the kids play before checking out the local (and very small) markets and then heading down to the waters edge for some more playing in the sand. Natalia *loved* the sand and kept herself happily busy crawling around and occasionally trying to eat handfulls of sand, lol.

and this is me on the swing with Natalia...or part of me anyway ; )

Then aftrewards, Jamil took us all out on his new boat...which i cant believe i forgot to take a pic of, but it's pretty cool! He took us out to get his crab nets, and the kids got to help him. Kody didnt so muchlike going anywhere near the crabs...but entoni thought it was all pretty cool. We also found a starfish (and yes, we threw it back in). All the kids also got a turn in driving the boat, and on the way back , Jamil went 'really fast' to the kids sheer delight.

Oops....there goes tatiana off the side of the boat....

So all in all it was a very relaxing very fun weekend away.

San Fransico BABY!!!!

Hello!!!!! so much to say and so little time to say it! LOL! Right now i'm at an internet cafe and i only have a few minutes so this post will be quick! I let my dad convince me out of bringing my Lou-Lou (the laptop) and am totally REGRETTING that decision. Internet access has been either impossible to find or ridiculously expensive. I would have loved to blog about this amazing trip every day while i was away, but alas. I will have to do some serious posting when i get back. We've been to LA., Vegas, Canada (niagra Falls), and now we are in beautiful San Fran. I cant get in to check my emails for some reason, so i havent been able to recieve or send any emails since we left! I've watched dad get married, walked a hell of a lot, eaten way too much, shopped and shopped....OMG i love ANTHROPOLOGY, and drank lots of tequilla! Anyway times up for me.....spo i'l post again when i get back!

xoxo

Z

Niagra Falls

OK, so Niagra Falls was a bit creepy, to say the least. At least where we were staying it was. It was some little town with the falls only a five minute walk from our hotel. It had a kinda deserted theme park feel to it. Haunted deserted theme park even, lol. Seriously... these pics are not from a theme park, they are just shots from the street.

One almost totally desrted carnival-themed town. Creepy.

So in spirit of this little town, Tash and i forked out $8 each to visit one of the many many haunted houses on the street. It was hilarious. The only thing scary about it was us, hee hee.

Then there was Tashies breakfast...salad and fruit loops. Really scary.

There were some other unique places that weren't so scary... like the Rainforset Cafe. OMG...if only Entoni could have seen that he would have loved it!

And then there was the Hersheys Shop... a chocolate lovers dream (except i dont like chocolate)

Robyn, however, LOVES chocolate ;)

She also like frolicking in the flower fields, hee hee.

But the falls were amazing.

Robyn on the USA side and dad on the canadian side...

We went on the CN tower which is 1, 467 ft high. The highest structure in the world, if i am correct.

The elevator had see through floors so you can see how far up you go as you go.

They also had a big part of the floor at the top that was also see through.It was pretty cool. Although Robyn didnt really agree. I was lucky to get her on it for this photo...

And thats pretty much it for Niagra Falls.

New York, New York!

OK, finally got around to posting about New York. OMG....what can you say about New York? It's big, it's bold, and it is beautiful! Oh, i am such a city girl at heart, and i fell in love with New York straight away. I could have easily spent the whole 2 weeks just there.

WE started off our first day with a breakkie at an old American style diner...

Afterwards, Dad organised a helicopter ride overlooking the entire city. Tash and I got to sit in the front with the pilot, which was pretty cool. WE took off and the veiw was awesome! You could see everything. And the pilot was fundiong dips and mad turns....until my stomach turned as well. That traitor stomach of mine. I have no idea what happened but 5 minutes after being in the air i thought i would vomit. I was so nausiated i couldn't move and the only thing i could look at was the inside of the paper bag the pilot handed me. That has NEVER happened to me before. I have guts of steel! Or so i thought.

Heres all of us just before getting on...

And heres me having fun before my stomach turned...

dad and robyn...

and me after my stomach turned...

Nice. But i didnt lose my lunch (much to the pilots relief, i am sure). And i would still do it again, if only for those first 5 minutes of joy :) Theses are some of the views from the chopper...

While in New York, we also got to see a musical on Broadway. I wanted to see Chicago or MamaMia, but Lion King eneded up be what we all agreed on and OMG....was it good! I had no idea that it could even be that good, lol! The props and costume designs were simply stunning, and the performance was just fantastic. If you get the chance, you must definitely check it out!

Views from the lobby at the Lion King (overlooking times square)...

Afterwards i met spiderman on the street (Kody was so excited when i showed him this pic. He couldn't believe i met the real spiderman!)

We filled our Lion Kind Promotional cups with cocktails (to help keep us warm of course)

and then we headed off to a late Dinner at a little Mexican restaurant. Mmmmm.... good food :)

Our first day in NY was decievingly warm, but on day too, the real NY chill came out. It was FREEZING!!!!!! Thank goodness for that leather jacket i bought in LA, otherwise i think i would've frozen to death!

Dad had to buy a beannie to keep his head warm. Dad in a beannie is a sight i have never seen before :)

wassup homie

in the morning we kept warm at the notorious Russian Tea Room, where they charge you $10 extra just to have your tea strong.

Then afterwards Dad booked a tour around the city on a double decker tour bus. It would have been quite enjoyable had every bone in our body not been frozen stiff from the cold.

(robyn looks like she's smiling, but really, her mouth just froze that way and she cant move it until she defrosts)

Tash and i got off early to visit the downtown district where all the good shops and cafes supposedly are. Unfortunately, it was so cold, we only managed to make it to a starbucks for big warm WARM coffee.

And that was only after stopping at one of those street stalls to buy a hat, gloves and not one, but 2 scraves. After the starbucks we tried again, this time only making it as far as a small little Italian Restaraunt with a man out the front coaxing us itno the warmness of within. So after warming ourselves with coffee, and then food, we tried again. But this time we only made it as far as a very warm looking irish pub. Sad, but true. I never shopped in NY. Never even made it to our desination. We stayed in that pub until we had filled ourselves with enough alcohol to stop us from feeling the cold outside.

Met some locals, drank some more, then headed back to the hotel, Unfortunately, nightlife was out of the question due to dad's ridiculously early morning starts.

Even in that short amount of time i still managed to fall in love with NY. I must set myself a goal to get back there one day, with more time and more money to spend, hee hee. So i'll leave you with a couple other pics fron my beloved NY city...

The Wedding.....

OK, so this is the whole reason we went over to the states in the first place. To witness my Dad and Robyn (whos been a part of our family for over 10 years now) officially tie the knot. And they did it in style.....Las Vegas style that is! We stayed at Ceasars Palace which is where Robyn got ready for her special day....

And she looked Gorgeous!

Then we all met in the lobby and caught a limo together to the chapel.  It was a gorgeous little Chapel, apperantly once used in one of Elvis Presley's movies. You get a video telling you all about the history of the chapel with the wedding package... and it was quite an interesting history. Seeing as it was just the four of us, i took on the role of Dads Best Man, and Tash took on the role of the Father of the Bride, giving Robyn away.... or so we joked just before the wedding. Unfortunately our jokes were still fresh in our mind, and when Tash "gave Robyn away" we all started laughing.
And i dont mean subtle little giggles.
I mean full blown, doubled over, tears streaming down my face laughter.
All of us.
Even Dad and Robyn.
Actually dad started it , and it was seeing him loose it that made me loose it! The celebrant was nice enough to stop his preaching and quietly wait for us to regain composure.... which did take awhile. Even when we did, every once in a while during the sermon you would see one of us struggling not to burst out laughing again. And we have this all on video to look back on fondly forever.

But hey   ....it's got to be a good wedding when everyones having that much fun!

So heres some pics from the wedding day. The pics inside the chapel are taken by the Chapel staff (we weren't aloud to take any pics inside).

Heres the newlyweds coming out of the Chapel...

And the Wedding Party....

Some pics taken outside the Chapel....

In the Limo...

and back at the hotel.....

Then there was "the reception", held at the french restaurant in the Eiffel Tower. We had a great table overlooking the Belaggio and it's water-fountain shows.

The food was sooooooo good, especially the dessert, which was a souffle. Mine was pistachio (yum yum and more yum), but we also had banana and chocolate.

Dad loved the fact that we had to walk through the kitchen to get to the restaurant.

Afterwards we went and saw STOMP the show...which Tash and i also saw in London, but who cant watch that show twice?? It's just AMAZING what these guys (and gals) can do with a broom!

and a rubbish bin,

and a kitchen sink,

and a lighter....

And heres a pic of Me and Tash with one of the Stomp performers....

We finished the night by wandering around the casinos. Dad and Robyn eventually went off and had a gamble, and Tash and i got ridiculously drunk and had way too much fun. So all in all it was a great day
and night!

xoxo

Z

Viva Las Vegas Baby!

Ok, it's taken me awhile i know. But the Las Vegas update is finally here. At this rate you might even get N.Y. before Xmas! Lol.

Going from LA to Vegas, we flew on this tiny plane. My sisters head could almost touch the roof inside, it was tiny. At least compared to any plane i've ever been on. From the air you could look down on vegas and see the miles and miles of dessert. We had a laugh wondering just how many dead bodies there really were buried down there. I mean , really, with that much dessert you could see why it was a popular spot to dump a body! When we finally landed the first thing that struck me was the pokies in the airport. Yes, you read that right......pokies in the airport! I mean as soon as you got of the plane, there they were. Why you would fly all the way to Vegas, and then waste time gambling in an airport is simply beyond me....but hey, each to their own i guess. Beside, i never really understood the thrill of the pokies anyway.

But that was nothing compared to the taxi line. I mean.....i have never seen a line this long....ever. It wrapped around into 6 very long lines. I tried to get a pictutre of it, but you still cant see the whole line!

Yes....ALL those people are part of te never-ending taxi line. Thankfully, it moved pretty fast. But even pretty fast took forever. We stayed at Ceasars Palace while we were there....which Leanne informed me is where they do all the CSI crime scenes (and yes Leanne, i did keep an eye out for Grisham for you. No luck i'm afraid though). The casino's themselves are so big that when you check in they give you a key and a map, so as not to get lost. And trust me, you could be lost for days in the casino we were staying at. Thank goodness for that map. To really see Vegas, you would have to spend at least a week there. It would take you one whole day just to see your whole hotel!

Heres us arriving at the Ceasars Palace...

In the lobby....

(yes....more pokies...in the lobby)

And then there's this thing in Vegas people have with distance. If someone tells you something is 10 minutes away....they mean 45 min. If they say a block , they mean 5....at least. If they say a mile......they mean a 10 minute taxi drive away. Really. Trust me, we learned the hard way, more than once, and especially when a 10 minute walk to dinner became an hour walk (or more).
In heels.
At night.
In the cold.
And we were hungry.
Needless to say we missed our booking. Luckily....they did get another table for us though. The night in mention actually, was the night before Dad and Robyn's wedding. She booked us at Bennihanas at the Hilton. And lets just say it was worth the walk.

The bride and groom to be.......

OUr ridiculously strong drinks....

Consuming our drinks....

After consuming our drinks....

After dinner we went exploring the sights at night....which really, my pics do no justice to the way it feels when you walk the streets of Vegas. it is truly the city that never sleeps.

I like this pic of dad and Robyn...so cute...

Seriously, how cool is this baby...

This is Ceasars Palace (behind me). And you can walk the streets with alcohol in hand. Yes, i walked happily with my margarita as i viewed the sites,lol. Made it all much more interesting.

Then Tash and I decided to watch the fountains at the Belaggio. They do a show every half hour or so, of water fountains to music. Its amazing. Not that we would know that night. We waited for almost 2 hours. We kept thinking....any minute now. Eventually we found out that the shows were over for the night (we thought they ran continuosly all night) and felt a bit silly for standing there freezing our arses off staring at the water. But hey, we got some pics....so it wasnt a total loss, right? Lol.

There was so much to see in Vegas....at night and during the day...

Theres this one Casino, i cant remember what it was called though (it the one in the pic below, of the eiffel tower...i think the casino was in that tower) where you go in and the cieiing are painted like the sky. And you REALLY think your outside! There is a cobblestone street and little shops and the whole effect makes you feel as though you are walking through the streets of Paris....outside! Heres some pics, althought they dont do it any justice!

All the Casinos had amazing displays, but one of my faves was definitely at the Ballaggio. The had this gorgeous display of umbrellas and flowers. There was a glass flower display on the cieling, and then a real flower display in which they made all sorts of  displays, even large animals...all out of flowers. You can see a pic of me behind a flower-snail. Very impressive, let me tell you.

The replicas of statues and differentfeatures from around the world were so well done you could easily forget where you were.

This is the ceiling in one of the Casinos....

And, of course....you cant be in Vegas with doing some major part-tay-ing...

(check out the size of my tequilla shots...downed way too many of those!)

On our last night we went to a club called Tao....definitely worth visiting if your in Vegas. It was huge. And so much to see. Including some random guy who kept throwing bundles of money into the crowds on the dancefloor.....and yes, thats real money.

We stayed out all night and basically got back to the hotel with enough time for a quick shower before checking out and heading to our next destination. Yes, i pulled an all nighter. Not bad old mum of 3, lol. In fact i probably got around 8 hours of sleep over the 3 days we were there.....in total!

And that pretty much sums up my trip to Vegas. Except for the wedding of course....which i'll share with you in a seperate post again.

Thanks for looking.

xoxo

Z

L.A. Recap

OK, so i really regret not taking my laptop with me , for sooooo many reasons. One especially, because now i have to face the daunting task of uploading and organising the many many pictures we took, as well as catching up on blog posts about the trip! Let me just say.....the trip was AWESOME, for lack of a better word. I had sooooo much fun and was sooooooo relaxed and ate sooooooooooo much good food and was soooooooooo spoiled. So a big THANKYOU to Dad and Robyn for letting us join them on this trip, and for letting us be a part of this special time in their life (for those who do not know, this trip was planned for Dad and robyn to be married in vegas. So essentially, we came to witness this moment and then hung out with them for most of their honeymoon, lol. Rest assured they did get a week to themselves, as Tash and i came home before them)

(this pic taken in the airport on our way to the USA!)

Anyway.....heres a recap from L.A.

Now, let me just say that when dad plans anything....there is always a reason for everything. Dad never does anything 'just because'. So for every stop in our trip, there was always a plan. Usually a very detailed, down to the last detail and last minute of everyday kinda plan. Which meant we were never bored. And LA was no different. We had one main reason for spending 3 days in LA, and that was solely to eat Shuwalma (dont know if i spelled that right, but we ended up just calling it a chuawa ). It's like a lamb wrap. Sounds ordinary, right? Apparently not. Apperantly its worth flying from Australia to America to eat. In fact i think dad would have destroyed anyone who tried to get in the way of his Shuawalma (spelling???). We spent the whole first day driving around trying to find it.

Dad thought he could go on memory, seeing as he used to eat there 35 years ago! You can imagine just how lost we got, right. After 17 hours of flying....whats another few hours of driving? I did however lose it at the telephone book that WOULD NOT lift up, leaving me to try and read it UPSIDE DOWN. Tash thought it was funny.

We did finally find it, but it was closed for the day. So we ended up having dinner somewhere eles. But we did go back the next day for lunch. And the next day again. And let me tell you, i am not a fan of lamb, but it was GOOD. DAMN GOOD. (i have been craving one ever since kinda good). And dad was SO HAPPY.

This is a pic of Dad with the owner and his son. They were pretty amazed that dad had come so far just for thier food. Dad kept trying to set up my sister with his son. I think he was dreaming of a wedding and a life of Shualma happily ever after for him.

So if your ever in LA. I seriously recommend trying one. And tell them Sami sent you....the guy who flew all the way over from Australia just to eat there....they'll know.

So, although that was probably the main reason we went to LA, there were some other highlights. Like visiting the home i was born in. Its such a beautiful house, i dont know how they ever left it! And see that tree near the front path, the one on your right? My mum planted that! We did knock on the door , but no-one was home.

Then there was this cute guy i picked up.....lol.

No, seriously though, i did meet my dream man.....

And best of all, was the caramel apple. OMFG!!!!!!! I LOVE theses. I MISS these! I could eat a thousand of these!!!!!! And could you believe i only ate 2 the whole time we were there :( :( Mmmmmmm.... my mouth water now just thinking about them....the tartness of the green apple, the sweet sticky caramel, the nuts......sweet goodness on a stick!

Heres Tash, Robyn and I standing at the entrance to the Kodak theatre....where all the stars walk the red carpet.

And heres Tash and I over looking LA.

 

And this is a pic of me with my purchase of cute little knobs that i bought from Anthropology. OMG.....i LOVE that store. I could have spent the whole time in LA, just in that store!!!!!!! I am REALLY regretting not bying more from there.There were these cute aprons in the store in San Fran that i tried to get back to to buy...still not over them.

Shopping on Rodeo Drive....

So that was pretty much LA. Stay tuned for Vegas!
xoxo
Z

New Zealand Family Trip 07

So this year for Xmas dad bought all of us tickets to NZ for a week. When i say all of us, i mean dad and his girlfriend Robyn, me and my kids , mum Tosca, my sister Tash, my brother Jamil and his wife Nicole (who's 7 months pregnant and thier 2 yr old, Beau. So there was 11.5 of us in total. 11.5 people and one train , one tour bus, 3 planes , one boat, a mini-bus, a whole lot of luggage and a whole lot more of driving.

The scenery was just amazing. Is this is coming from someone who is not so into scenery (i'm a city girl at heart...give me traffic and business any day). The trip was great. We all had our moments, as you do when you have that much family squeezed in together for so long, but we all laughed them off quite well afterwards. I mean, we were literally all together the whole time. I think i wandered off for 20 minutes with the kids alone for one day, and mabey again with my sister on one night, and apart from that we were constantly all together. It was good, really good.

I loved hat the kids got to spend so much time with mum dad and thier aunts and uncle and cousin. Oh...and it was cold! So weird to be there in summer and wearing jumpers, lol.

I took lots of photos and then when we got back (a week before Xmas) i got this great idea to make a movie of our trip and give it to them all for Xmas. Yes well.....little did i realise just how hard and time consuming making that movie would be, lol. The first 3 days we were back i still hadn't started it so that left me with 4 days till Xmas. I worked on it at night so i wasn't interrupted by the kids which means i literally got to sleep around 3 am every morning (4.30 am on Christmas eve). I would LOVE to share my movie with you, as i am so proud of my efforts, but my family probably wouldn't appreciate that idea as there are a few bits on there that the world just does not need to see, lol.

So rather than bore you with lots of pics from our trip, i've made a New Zealand family album on the right hand side-bar where you can see some of our pics form the trip. Ok, well i'm off to go save our Christmas tree which just blew over from the gale force winds outside, lol. Somehow managed to knock over my fairly sturdy Xmas tree ....thats INSIDE the house!

Hope your enjoying the holidays!

xo
Z

Snippets from New Zealand

I couldn't really post any photos from NZ while i was there. so i thought i'd share some pics from the trip now :)

this was Kody's new favourite winter outfit...his Spiderman jacket, doggie beannie and sunnies. He was happy as long as he could wear all three, and the weather in NZ was perfect for it!

me, hubby and the kids.

(hee hee...i am sooooo funny)

kids at the zoo in Auckland

Zali mum, Marlo.

This woman is gorgeous! I am so lucky to be able to call her a friend. I loved catching up with her in NZ. Having us all together, the two families combined was just awsome! I love that we all get along so well. I am so thankful for that.

kids being silly

my berry-girl

&n