22. November 2011 02:17
by Rene Pallesen
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On the weekend we went tot he beach. Initially Aiden was a bit scared of the waves (although he loves the sand and the water)...but after a while he didn't mind the waves splashing around his little legs (I found the water cold but he didn't mind).
As usual he threw a tandrum when we pulled him out of the water.
Afterwards we spend some time in the sand and I was teaching him how to build really cool sand castles and he was teaching me how to demolish them.
22. November 2011 02:13
by Rene Pallesen
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22. December 2020 00:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments
Strange year indeed, and other than a few things, it is remarkably the same.
The kids have still done a lot of activities and here are some of them.
Aiden hanging out with his friend Jake at the beach.
Mini golf with Sammi.
Doing puzzles at home.
Aiden had patience to do one of the simpler ones.
Me trying to teach them how to use photoshop...not a bad result for a first try.
Painting the old way.
One of Aidens favourite drawings. It got soaked by accident and he was absolutely devastated. I managed to rescue it somewhat and take this photo.
He went through a phase where he was obsessed with the Titanic.
He was also into Harry Potter and made a drawing of the sorting hat.
I took Aiden out for a run and he did 4.5km without a break...very proud.
Ice skating with friends
Backyard tennis
Ice cream
Karate - Lucas got to wear a black belt after doing a 3 minute plank.
Their Kumite (sparring) gear.
Aiden reading a bit. Reading is really difficult for him. He can read all the words and sentences perfectly, but it is hard for him to comprehend the stories he reads (almost like he is unable to visualise and imagine the story as he reads it.).
21. December 2020 17:03
by Rene Pallesen
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During the lockdown we spent a lot of time in our backyard having a firepit on the weekends.
One weekend I put up my old tent and I camped in the backyard with the boys...they had a blast.
21. December 2020 17:03
by Rene Pallesen
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This weekend we went with a couple of friends to a place in
New South Wales called Mudgee. This place is about 270 kilometres from Sydney
on the other side of the mountains and is best known as a wine district.
On the way there we did a quick stop at Lake Windamere, famous for its dead trees in the water.
We arrived to Mudgee after about 5 hours of driving (including a couple of
brief stops) and had some lunch with Chris and Yvonne. While in Mudgee we did
some jump shots of Chris and I pretending to fight (obviously I did some creative editing to get to this final result).
After lunch we headed to a couple of wineries. We were immediately impressed,
some of the local Cab Savs. and some of the whites were excellent and Kim and I
walked away with quite a few bottles from the first couple of places we visited.
The wines were also more reasonable priced than the Hunter.
Late in the afternoon we headed to the Bed and Breakfast where we staying for
the night. This was a place run by an elderly couple with 4 dogs, 7-8 Alpacas, mini horses
and some cattle.
Before dinner we did a quick stop to take some sunset photos. It was a very
quick stop, because within 5 minutes from us arriving at the location the sun
disappeared behind a thick cover of clouds and the good light was gone.
Chris and I had been planning to do some star photography of the Milky Way. The
weather forecast wasn't promising, but after dinner is seemed to clear up a bit
so we decided to give it a go.
We hadn't scoped out any good location so it was a bit of a trial and error to
find a good place. The trick with start photography is to also include an
interesting foreground subject into the photo.
The first place we stopped was next to a vineyard and although the Milky Way
was reasonably clear the grapes weren't that interesting.
We therefore headed
up some of the back streets. On this paddock we found this really old truck
parked in an almost perfect position...it was something different.
While we were setting up dogs started barking at the property behind us and
after a few minutes all the outside lights came on and a woman came out and asked
what we were doing.
Chris said that we were just taking some photos and if she was alright with
that.
She went back into the house, but the dogs kept barking at us. After another
couple of minutes she returned and asked us to leave because we were disturbing
her dogs and parents.
We were on public property so we could have told here that we wouldn't leave
and that we were in our rights to be there, but sometimes it is better to not
push the issue, especially when you are just visiting the area.
Instead we found an area with some trees...alright, but not that interesting
and by that time the Milky Way had started setting in the horizon.
Next morning we met up with Sacha (he's driven up from Sydney in the morning)
to go and visit another couple of vineries (We bought more wine).
And Aiden loved all the attention and new locations.
On the way home we were planning to stop at the Blast Furnace Park in Lithgow.
As we drive into the city we passed a couple of police cars. I was going a few kilometres
over the speed limit and hit the brakes as soon as I saw them. A couple of kilometres
further down the road the cars came up behind me with their lights on and I
thought..."Damn, I got busted", but I was really surprised when they
went past me without stopping...I was even more surprised when they pulled over
Chris in front of me.
He was busted for driving his car without a valid registration (he had
forgotten to pay it a few weeks earlier), given a fine and they told him that
he was not allowed to drive any further without a valid registration.
After the cops left he quickly went on the internet and renewed all the
paperwork online so we were able to keep going.
The blast furnace is an old iron smelter dating back to more than 100 years ago
when a lot of iron was dug out of the surrounding area and processed here to
produce steel. It is interesting walking around the old ruins of which much of
the building foundation still exists.
We also used this as an opportunity for some more fighting
jump shots.
After this it was back to Sydney...
7. October 2011 07:17
by Rene Pallesen
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Aiden is now 16 Months and he is now able to crawl and stand up. He is slowly starting to walk (a few metres at a time) when supported by a walker but he is still not able to walk unsupported. He also likes sitting on this little car we have for him, racing around the lounge room.
He favourite foods are Strawberries, Mango, Durian and Yoghurt.
We did another photo shoot the other day with his favorite teddy called 'Scout'
25. August 2011 03:30
by Rene Pallesen
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The next day was spent exploring the inner city itself. Surprisingly there are not a lot of turists in Zagreb. Most of the places were went to seemed to be mostly locals. It is not loke other capital cities where you see a lot of tour groups etc. Here we sometime had the feeling that we were the only tourists.
The In the morning we explored the horse shoe shaped parks and all their buildings. These parks are have a lot of buildings such as the University and the National Theatre located in them.
This is the National Theatre with the Fountain of Life in front of it.
One of the statues is of St George slaying the dragon.
We also had a look at the Dolac market in the middle of the city.
In the afternoon we also explored some of the churches although some of them were closed for us to visit inside (Maybe because it was Sunday).
This is the St Marks church. The roof tiles show the coat of arms of Croatia and Slovenia. The church also has the Croatian Parliament located next to it so a lot of police and security looking at me suspeciously while setting up my tripod.
We also made it to the big cathedral which apparently is under constant renovation.
We also went to the Stone Gate that contains a status of the Virgin Mary that micraculously escaped being destroyed in a fire. All the locals would come here to light a candle.
In the late afternoon we went to the Strossmayer Promenade. This is a place where the local artists sell and display some of their work and also contains a rather special statue.
Aiden was very facinated by this strange man sitting on a park bench.
...And next day it is time for the long journey back to Australia.
On the other side of Botany Bay is Kamay national park.
On a very stormy day we went for a walk over there to experience the wild weather.
21. December 2020 13:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Aiden likes to dress up, this time like harry potter...