A Perfect January

My January has consisted of a lot of wonderful family ADVENTURES.

My first adventure was to spend some very special time with my granddaughters Clare and Mikayla. I wanted to have a special day which each girl, totally on their own. It was their choice what we did, what we ate and where we went. First up it was 6 year old Clare to have an adventure.

First up it was Clare and Gaga's adventure day

For dinner her request was for Mexican. Easy done seeing that my favourite food too.

Clare loves Mexican and loved decorating the table for dinner -
NO that's not her beer!!

The following morning we travelled into the city as she wanted to go to an art gallery. At the moment she wants to be an artist when she grows up.

Clare was pretty excited about seeing the water wall at the gallery's entrance.

I was pretty excited about seeing this amazing 14 metre long reclining Buddha.
Clare was a bit surprised about all the naked figures surrounding the Buddha,
 me too actually. 

Mmmmm a room full of skulls, 100 skulls actually- very interesting

After our inspirational time at the National Gallery of Victoria we headed into the city for lunch and and a stroll through the Graffiti filled Melbourne laneways. But first it was time to stop for a yummy donut.

Seeing Clares surname is Walker we just had to get a donut from Walkers Donuts!

The next day it was 4 year old Mikayla's turn to have an adventure day with me. Her choice for dinner was Spaghetti Bolognese, with is also up with my favourites.

Time for Mikayla and Gaga to have their adventure

At first she couldn't decide how she wanted to spend her day but finally it was the beach she wanted to visit.Our first stop for the day was Luna Park, we both had fun checking everything out, we especially got a lot of laughs out of the mirrors that made us look funny.

She was pretty excited

The crazy mirrors certainly had us laughing

After lunch it was time for the beach and a playground. Mikayla was pretty happy to finally be at the beach.

One excited little girl

The playground we went to was right on the beach so we didn't have far to go.

The playground was a great place to have fun and stay out of the sun a bit

We finished our adventure off with an ice cream and it was time to head home.

Mmmm Ice-cream time

Next up was my week long adventure with my son Shane, his wife Stacey and my three gorgeous grandsons (O'Shea, Finn and Louis) visiting for a week.
First up we had a day at Brickvention, a Lego fan convention. We travelled into the city by train which was a bit of excitement for the O'Shea and Finn.

It's great experiencing a train journey through kids eyes

Louis didn't mind having a train trip either

The Lego Convention was held at the beautiful Old Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne.

The stunning Old Exhibition Buildings

This shot was taken as we walked in the door.
Within seconds of turning around the boys were overwhelmed by the amazingness 

 Some of the exhibits that had been made were huge and absolutely amazing.

Just one of the amazing Lego structures, totally amazing

Oh and a day's adventure just has to be topped off with popcorn and fairy floss!!

We had our second Christmas Day with both my children (Shane and Rachel) their spouses (Luke and Stacey) and my six adorable grandchildren.

Oh what a cherished moment this was.
I am the luckiest person alive.

Stacey and Rachel were kept busy most of the day.

Next was Papa's turn. The tiny people are starting to get restless. 

The week was full of mini adventures, among them was a day at the beach.

A fun family day at the beach

Clare, O'Shea, Finn and Mikayla also participated in a basketball clinic, although it seemed more like a relay of who could have a bit of a sook. But by the end of the session they all said they had fun.

At last they were all having fun - it took a while!

Little Louis and Lily didn't participate in much, they just layer around and looked adorable.

Oooh aren't our two new family members adorable

Then to finish of the week Clare and O'Shea lost their first baby tooth on the same day. They certainly were pretty excited about having the tooth fairy visit.

First one out Clare.....

......closely followed by O'Shea

I finished my month of with a couple of hours with beautiful Lily and I have also started a Detox in preparation for my trip of a lifetime to South America in May this year.

What a cutie Lily is.

Louis and his Lulla doll sleeping peacefully

Oh and what do you eat the night before you start your Detox? That would be Mexican of course!!

Yumm Nachos and a good old Cascade

Yes a very tasty meal indeed

Detox here I come !!

What an exhausting but totally satisfying and FUN month of ADVENTURES I have had. Thank January you were just perfect. I wonder what February will bring me.

Another year of Adventure Days commences....

Hope you have all had a fantastic Christmas and a very very happy New Year. As with the past few years when I am not away in our camper "Myrtle", once a week I take myself on an Adventure Day to explore my environment. So seeing it's the first week of 2018, I decided it was a perfect day to commence my adventures. Although this was a bit different as Shane came along for the ride and the day actually turned into a "foodventure". One night while watching telly we heard about an orchard in the Yarra Valley that sounded like it could be FUN. Seeing I live on the outskirts of the Yarra Valley why not check it out. The Yarra Valley is probably best known for the extensive and wonderful wines the area produces, but with its extremely fertile soil it is also an excellent area to grow lots of varied produce.

Beautiful fertile rolling hills

Driving through the beautiful rolling green hills we saw a sign "Cherries for sale". Now seeing we are both partial to a nice plump fresh cherry it was an obvious first stop. So our first stop was at Lanidale Orchard "The Cherry Well" in Wandin. Lanidale is a family run business that grows Cherries and Apricots, but today all they had were Cherries. But what a beautiful selection they did have, such as the sweetest  Sweethearts right through to the very sour Morello. After tasting all the different varieties they had, we purchased 1kg of the Sweethearts. If you are a fan of cherries you should check out the Victorian Cherry Trail on www.cherries.org.au
I think that could be another adventure for next cherry season. 

Magnificent Cherries

Next stop was Raynors Stonefruit Orchard in Worri Yallock. Raynors Orchard is another family run business. Throughout the year they grow around 450 varieties of fruit. We went on a tractor tour where we told about the different fruits and had tastings. Also on the tour you could pick and eat as much as you wanted - interesting time. You could also pick any fruit to take home and pay only $5.00 per kilo. 

Tractor Tour

Nothing better than the taste of fruit straight from the tree

Just a bit of what we bought

There was a row of magnificent Sunflowers

Of course I had to buy one, only $2

Absolutely beautiful countryside

From there we headed onto Yarra Glen to the very yummy Yarra Valley Choclaterie and ice creamery.  Set on 16 hectares of beautiful countryside this is a chocolate heaven with over 250 varieties of chocolates.

At the front door you are offered free samples.
Limited to one spoonful.....

Pretty Tasty pizza

After a yummy pizza and of course an ice cream we headed off home chocolates in tow.

Pistachio Ice-cream

No too bad considering....

One last stop on the way home was Sugarloaf Dam. Sugarloaf Dam is one of approx. nine water catchments that supply Melbourne and surrounding areas with water. Sugarloaf Dam has a capacity of 96,000 million litres. It was completed in 1981 and supplies the northern, western and central suburbs of Melbourne. Every time I come up here to visit I think of my late Dad. We were out going for a drive (we even had Adventure Days back then) and after buying fish and chips for lunch we sat in the Sugarloaf grounds eating our lunch and discussing how much water and how many trees were here. My Dad always used to say "I don't know what those greenies are on about, look at all these trees".

A very small corner of Sugarloaf Dam

Seeing I had filled up on fruit, pizza, ice cream and chocolate throughout the day dinner was pretty light on, but I did sit down and enjoy a nice cold beer. 

Mmmmm.... Nice way to end the day

So my first adventure day for 2018 may have been different but as everything must be, it was FUN.

Do you ever take yourself of on an adventure day? If you do I'd love to hear about them.  If not give it a try, explore your environment. You may just be pleasantly surprised to find what's hiding out there.