This week was the end of the GCC challenge at work. It was 16 weeks of walking almost 10km every day competing against other teams within the company and other companies. In total there was more than 13000 teams of 7 team members each. By the end of the challenge our team was positioned at the top 10% which I think is pretty good.




Since the race finished I've been walking to work every day.

Last week we had breakfast with Audrey and Aren. Aren was born three days after Aiden was born at the same hospital and during Kims pregnancy we met them at the antenatal classes.

Menu was pancakes and afterwards I offered to do some photos of Audrey and Aren.

This afternoon Kim and I decided to try and take a photo of Aiden for his passport. This was not as easy as it sounded and he couldn't sit or lie still and was making all sort of expressions.

These photos were all taken within 10 minutes from start to finish... He is such a funny little boy!

This weekend we finally got around to taking some nice outdoor family photos.

We made out way to Centennial park in the afternoon for a coffee, walk and photoshoot. When we got there they had closed most of the roads for a bicycle race so we had to park outside the park.

After the coffee we walked over to one of the closer located lakes and set up for a couple of photos and these are the results.

Aiden was very well behaved although having a few problems with locating the direction of the camera and being confused with the new exciting surroundings. He is now 11 weeks young.












(strobist: SB80DX @ 1/2 power with 1/2 CTO camera left triggered by CTR301P, Nikon 80-200mm f2.8, 3200s, D50)

Every year my work provides with a Volunteer day where we don't have to work and can do volunteer work for any organisation of our choice.

This Friday some of the guys at work organised a day of work at the Celebral Palsy centre (spastic) so I chose to help out (beats sitting behind a desk on a sunny day). The location was at one of their houses in Frenchs Forest and we were to do some maintenance of their garden and some painting of the interior.

There was seven of us so we split up into two teams where I was on the team doing painting. The gardening team definitely had the easier job.


It was a really good day and here are some of the photos from our day out.

Last year Kim and I won 5 days worth of accommodation at Smiggings Hole at Perisher. Because we had Aiden it was difficult for us to go (for some reason the place would not allow children that young).

We therefore decided to let KC and Chong have three of the days with their kids and then I would go with someone else for a weekend. We were lucky that the place would allow all of us to go on the same weekend during the peak season at Perisher.

Soeren and I left Friday afternoon to do the 500km drive to Perisher. We stopped at Cooma to pick up car chains and ski gear and arrived at the lodge just before 7pm...just in time for dinner with the rest of the family.


In the morning we woke up to a glorious day and we hit the fields immediately heading straight to the Blue Cow area after doing a few warm up runs. In the past I have only been skiing in the front of the valley and Mt Perisher itself so it was nice to have some new unexplored territory and it was also nice to get away from the crowds.

In the evening we again had dinner with the family...4 courses at the lodge. I think everyone was pretty tired from a whole day outside so it was a fairly early bedtime.




On the second day the weather closed in and there was a blizzard. On the tops there was a fresh load of snow. My highlight was that I managed to have a good run of Kamikaze which is the only double black diamond in the area and I felt really good on it because of the great conditions. The photo above was taken on top of Bluecow shortly earlier.

Later in the morning Soeren and I met up with chong and we did a couple of runs at Perisher Mountain. Again, because of the blizzard there was no crowds and off the sides of the slopes the snow was soft and deep (for Australian standards). I had really good fun on the unprepared runs in the loose snow and felt solid getting down the terrain (you don't gain much experience from running on prepared slopes all the time).


In the early afternoon we headed back down, packed up and made our way back to Sydney (in just under 6 hours).

So how is daddy coping with fatherhood. Fatherhood is great...So far it has been a lot easier than I thought it would be. So far I would by lying if I didn't say that I enjoy every minute of it.

Everyone around me told me that it is sooo hard having kids, especially the first few months are a nightmare. Not sure what they are talking about...yeah Aiden wakes up at weird times wanting a feed, but besides from that he is doing what babies are expected to be doing. He is sleeping, pooping, crying and eating...easy!



...That is when I'm around. For example this weekend when I was in the snow he was crying all the time. It seems that he somehow senses when I'm not around and then starts being difficult. Maybe he is turning into a daddy's boy ;-)


When we were expecting I promised myself that I would just relax and enjoy the new company. There is no point stressing and swimming against the current...so if he wants to cry then he can cry, and if he wants to eat then he can eat. While we were planng kids I was worried if I was parent material and how good a dad I would be. I had never really been around newborns...let alone picked up one. I am getting a lot more confident now.

During the week Kim does the night feeds as I have to go to work in the Morning, but during the weekends I generally give him the bottle at night. Sometimes I have to then catch up on some sleep later in the day (otherwise Kim will have to deal with two babies) but that is ok.

Aiden turned two months old a couple of days ago and is a good little boy. He has started smiling and laughing once in a while when he is in a good mood. He is very curious and looks around to study and understand his surroundings all the time which I take as a good thing.

I think his favourite time is when we take a shower together. Kim and I discovered that it is a lot easier to just take him in the shower with me rather than having to fill up bath tubs etc. We also think that his least favourite time is go leave the shower.

This morning I had an early start (for a Sunday) taking the bus into the city to participate in the city to surf race. This is a race that starts from Hyde park in the centre of Sydney and ends at Bondi beach which is one of the most famous beaches in Australia (but not the best).In this years race there were over 80,000 participants.




I met up with a couple of work colleagues at Martin place in the city. We all also participate in the Global Corporate Challenge and this was a good way to increase our stepcount. We were starting at the back of thepack...which pretty much meant that we were planning to walk the 14.1 kilometers to Bondi.




Out team name in the GCC is Onthophagytes (Dung beatles)...so the photo above is very appropriate.

It was freezing in the morning but the sun was out, so as soon as we started walking we were warm.


Along the way to Bondi there is different people entertaining and a lot of people were dressed up (we were overtaken by Superman and an Avatar).















When we got to Bondi (I'll know my race time later but I think it will be around 2 hours and 15 minutes...It turned out to be 2:29:28...just just below my target of 2.5 hours) te queue for the buses were mile long. I already knew they were going to be impossible and therefor decided to walk to Coogee (another 7km) and then have Kim pick me up from there. Two of my colleagues decided to join me on the walk and then catch the bus from there.



It was a pleasant walk where we stopped for a bite at Bronte and eventually had a quick beer (for me anyway) at Coogee before Kim called me and told me she was there with Aiden in the car.

Sunday I had a couple of hours to spare to explore while Kim was looking after Aiden. I decided to drive to La Perouse and then walk along the coast to Cape Banks to find the shipwreck of SS Minmi.



The ship hit the cliffs in heavy fog and storm in 1937 and broke in two. Part of the wreck is still visible on the rocks. Because it is on the inside of the heads the wreck isn't as exposed to wind and waves as it would have been on the outside so there is still a lot of the ship left.







The walk out there from La Perouse was longer than I expected so I was a bit rushed and didn't have as much time taking photos as I would have liked. It took me about two hours to walk out there and back via Henry Heads (here there is still some remnants of gun positions from the wartime).

It is actually a really nice walk and I will have to come back with Kim and Aiden sometime. I will have to check out if it is possible to drive a bit closer.



I managed to make it back just in time for the family coming over for dinner.

Hi everyone. My mum and dad is telling me that I am now one month old...what ever that means. I am still coming to terms with me feeling really hungry every 3 hours. One Month....how many feeds is that?

I am getting more used to be in this world, my mum and dad are doing their best to make me comfortable but I still cry once in a while. My dad is telling me that big boys like me shouldn't cry...but I feel so little compared to all of them so why shouldn't I cry?

In the evening I like to sit in daddy's lap. It is nice, warm and secure there. Sometimes I almost fall asleep there before my dad puts me to bed, but I usually beg him to let me stay a little longer. On the weekends he is happy with me spending time there, but I really miss daddy during the week when he is at work. During the week I ask my mummy as well, but she is too tired from feeding me all the time...I think this sometimes frustrates her as she would like some rest in between my feeds. I have grown a lot and I can no longer fit into my first set of clothes it must be all those meals.


I have also started having a shower on some days with my dad instead of a bath in my bathtub. It is really nice to feel the warm water drops on my little body and it feels much nicer and secure than having a bath in my bathtub. I have learned that I should close my eyes and hold my breath when he puts my head under the water. Daddy says that hopefully it will make me less scared in a couple of years time when he is going to teach me something called 'swimming'.



Most evenings I get a little upset for a couple of hours, I don't understand why but mummy and daddy calls it my 'witches hour' and says that it is normal and should pass. My dad is very patient and is telling me that for the first 6-8 weeks they will respond to all my needs, but after that they will start setting some rules to make me sleep all through the night.

My dad is still taking photos of me. I still find it confusing and I am not sure in what direction to look when he is taking photos. Should I look at him, mummy, the lights or all the interesting alien space ships I'm surrounded by?

During the winter we went for a walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Here are some of the photos from the walk.

On fathers day we used the opportunity to do some family photos with the boys as well as Kims dad.

Aiden and Lucas sometimes loves to play with boxes and other items that are in the recycle bin inside.

One morning they had used the boxes to create a farm...not bad!






...and then there is the silliness...

Years ago Aiden got a little fluffy toy tiger as a gift.



Over the last couple of years this has been the most treasured toy to the degree where him and Lucas is sometime fighting over it. They sleep with it and they bring it to school to do show and tell.



It reminds me of the comic called Calvin and Hobbs - with a little boy and his toy tiger often getting up to mischief.

Now that Aiden is a school and Lucas at daycare they are invited to heaps of birthdays.

One evening Kim took Aiden to a birthday and in the meantime I took Lucas for a little desert treat at Choc Top in Rosebery.

The menu looked delicious and not know that they were so big I ordered one for each of us. They also gave us a free ice cream because they were slow.



I felt so sick afterwards and we didn't even finish it.

It has been a while since we did a family trip with the family. Kim's dad is getting older and it is getting harder for him to do longer extended trips.

The family found a nice house at Scarborough just an hours drive from Sydney. It was a beautiful coastal home with room enough for the whole family and with the conveniences of a large kitchen, a fireplace and TV for the kids.





The inlaws recently got a dog and she made it on the trip as well.



More importantly, it was just a short walk to the Scarborough hotel for coffee in the morning.





And also plenty of beaches nearby.

We are trying to keep the boys (and ourselves) more active on the weekends. This weekend Audrey asked if we wanted to join them for an easy walk at the Royal National Park (about 30 minutes drive from home).



The walk was along an old horse carriage trail (Lady Game Trail) and was fairly level and easy walking the whole way. We made it well past the half way mark where there is an old watering station for the horses before turning around.



I think the kids eventually managed to walk almost 7 kilometers without too much complaining which is pretty far for their little feet.

For a long time I had wanted to introduce the boys to Camping. Since Kim had never been camping either and wanted a certain level of comfort we looked around for suitable location within easy reach from Sydney.

We eventually settled on Cattai National Park as it has a lot of amenities such as flushing toilets, hot showers and allows camp fires.

Kim also asked some of our friends if they'd like to join, so we ended up going three families together.





We bought a new tent which by most standards is huge, but has plenty of space on rainy days (which we didn't have) for cooking and eating inside the tent as well as air mattresses for sleeping on.
We also had a camping table and chair and amazingly we were able to fit it all into the booth of my car.










Apart from Lucas getting a little cold during the night it went very well. The boys had a blast of a time making up games, eating food (constantly), fishing (no bites) and eating roasted marshmallows.













I also tried a Danish specialty, 'SnogBroed' (Twisted Bread) which consists to of a sausage and bread dough wrapped around a stick and then baked in the fire. Mavis made one that turned out perfectly - unfortunately everyone was too full from eating to really have a go at it (Maybe next time)



In the evening and morning there were lots of kangaroos in the camp ground, which the boys quickly chased away.

For Aidens 6th birthday we invited his friends to a game of bowling.