1 year old Bridget!

Bridget turned 1! Here's a smiley birthday girl at breakfast.

She walked! On her birthday! We were sitting on the floor playing with blocks and buckets and she stood with two buckets and walked! But trying to get her to walk again has been near impossible! Funny baby!
That evening we had our friends, the Muntz', over to celebrate. They made a beautiful button tree for her room! Adorable! Good thing it'll go up on the wall otherwise Bridget would take all the buttons off!

The kids decided we should have a peppermint chocolate cake. Good choice! I made a double layer chocolate cake with peppermint buttercream filling and chocolate ganache all around for all us big folk (it was pretty amazing). Bridget got a chocolate cupcake with the buttercream. We were all excited to see how she'd demolish it!

Unfortunately, that's as good as it got. The kids were extremely disappointed. No mass destruction like 1 year olds Lydia and Evelyn. She followed 1 year old Isaac's example and showed little interest.

And time for bed! (Check out Mike's new fashion statement. Hi-vis is the hip thing in Gladstone. One more week and we're there.)

(Please ignore the pile of stuff in the background. Have to love moving. Oh wait, that's the pile of stuff that took residence in our bedroom when we first moved in and has spawned baby piles in the 2.5 years we've been here.) But speaking of babies! We love our sweet, snuggly, baby Bridget! Happy birthday!

Meat pies

Dear Pop, this picture is for you. They were delicious.

Last Brisbane hurrahs

Since we're moving there were a few things we had to do before we left Brisbane. One was go to the Queensland Museum! We love that place with all the dead animals (and a few live ones)

and the sea turtle room.

A new piece. A coral reef and jellyfish made from reclaimed fishing line and rope.

They had a cool Deep Sea exhibit this time! Check out the life size sun fish!

A real life squid under glass. Yikes!

Sticking our arms in a pressure machine.

Searching for a giant squid.

Dig, Isaac, dig!

Bridget loves to get up and go. Not walking yet, but nearly!

Ahh! Squid fingers!

We love the Queensland Museum!

We also had to visit Melaney Dairy once more! A magical place up in the hills.
Here's Evelyn brushing Poppy the cow.

Feeding the calves.

When the calves run out of milk to drink they like to suck your fingers. I wish I'd caught a picture of the slime that hung onto Isaac's hand when he pulled it away! Ha!

And the bouncy cows! I love that I caught her mid bounce!

I'm not quite sure what happened to the color filter on this picture, but it is pretty cute. 

Evelyn found a little tree to climb. It wasn't very high, but she was so proud of herself for figuring out how to get all the way up there!

Lydia made a friend. A sheep dog from down the road occasionally comes to visit the people and Lydia was in heaven throwing sticks for him. He'd drop the stick in front of her and wait soooo eagerly for her
to throw it. Such a good dog!

Melany Dairy is such a beautiful place!  Happy memories!

Gladstone

In two weeks we are leaving our beloved Brisbane and moving 6 hours north to Gladstone, Australia. It's a little coastal town near the ConocoPhillips natural gas facility (the facility is actually on an island). Mike has been working in the office here in Brisbane, but he's excited to work onsite.  We're sad to leave Brisbane, but looking forward to a new adventure. Especially getting some time on the Great Barrier Reef!

We went up last week for a house hunting trip. All of us! Luckily we have some close Houston friends living there who watched our kids while Mike, Bridget and I looked at houses. We found one that will suit us nicely, but no pictures of it till we move in.
Isaac finally lost his other front tooth in the hotel!


And weirdly enough, Bridget got her second tooth the next day. Just like last time. Poor Bridget and her hand-me-down teeth.

While in Gladstone we got to attend the Gladstone Show, which was basically a county
fair. We loved it! There were pig races,

a reptile show

A petting zoo

And a puppet show (hard to see, but this man is dancing around a marionette sheep).




We even got a couple of the popular "Dagwood dogs" or corn dogs as we know them.

One of the things we really look forward to in Gladstone is the Tandoon Botanical Gardens not far from our new house. We stopped briefly on our way to the airport and it is beautiful! Many Gladstone adventures ahead!