January 2012 is Instagram Month.  I am using my iphone and the instagram app to document our lives in January 2012.  Instagram is alot of fun and has reignited my passion of taking photos of our everyday!  I love playing around with the different editing effects.  At the end of the month, I am hoping to get one of these fantastic posters printed by printstagram.  Their other products look great too.  I especially like the little books, what a great keepsake they would make.  So here is a collection of photos from one day this month, when my son had two friends visit for the day.  Because of the rain, they spent alot of the day inside, but it did not stop the fun.  Their day involved pikelets, car races, hide & seek, making cupcakes, alvin the chipmunk, a quick swim, homemade pizza, a movie, transformers, decorating cupcakes, saturn, rocket ships and stars, jelly cups, the ipad, superheros, watermelon & blueberries and lots of giggles!

With the sun up so early now, it is hard to capture the good morning light before the sun is too high in the sky.  Our household was up bright and early this morning.  So I hurried them through breakfast, so we could get to the beach while the light was still good and before the tide came in.  It made for some lovely shots and a great way to start the day!

The current Sonya Coe Photography promotion has been very popular and has kept me busy with clients shoots, editing, ordering and arranging gift certificates.  It hasn’t left a lot of time for blogging or taking photos of my own little family.  So today I made a concerted effort.  Two visits to the beach and lots of happy snaps!  First some black and whites from our visit to the beach this afternoon.

I love to photograph children!  I love taking the small, gentle, coaxing steps when we first meet.  Gaining their respect and getting them comfortable with me and the camera.  Little by little we build rapport, their smile widens, the giggling starts and sometimes they get a little bit cheeky.  I love it!  Sometimes this process can take some time and in other instances it happens immediately.  This recent family session was alot of fun and the eldest little man did not require any coaxing.  The hay bales made a great stage and he danced his little heart out, while singing his favourite Wiggles tunes.  I know a ‘couple’ of Wiggles songs myself and we sang, danced and wiggled our fingers through the entire session.  There were lots of fantastic moments to capture and the final images are gorgeous.  Here are a couple of the clients favourites.  Enjoy!

After 18 days and 4236km of travel we have arrived home.  Just in time for Al to watch the NRL Grand Final!

We have had a fabulous holiday exploring Queensland and following the Australian Dinosaur Trail, and I would recommend the trip to anyone.  There is so much to see, learn and discover out there.  It was fascinating!

The kids have had a marvellous time it has been such a wonderful adventure for them.  And one I hope they will not forget.

There are not many photos to post for today, as the camera was packed away ready for the home trip.  I did try to get a final photo of the kids together just before we were leaving, but they were not impressed that they were heading home.  As you can see I was not there favourite person.  Sadly, all good things must come to an end.

Thank you for following us on our Dinosaur Hunt!  If you get the  opportunity to go on a Dinosaur Hunt in Western Queensland, make sure you do it.  Odds are you will find a Dinosaur and maybe even discover a new species!   Happy Fossil Fossicking!

On the way to Moonie we had a quick stop in Miles, to have a look at some local landmarks.  My Father spent the first four years of his life in Miles and it is also where my Grandfather grew up.  We found the house that my Father lived in and where my Great Grandmother lived.   Miles has a wonderful Historical Village and Museum, which houses an extensive collection of photographs and displays, and over thirty historical buildings.  We stopped briefly at the museum, so I could see the photographs of my Grandfather and his four siblings that are displayed in the museum.

We then continued on the road to Moonie.  After a ‘small’ detour (we missed a turn off), we finally arrived in Moonie.  An hour and a half later than expected!  We had two fabulous days catching up with the Nolan family on their wheat and cattle property.  Patrick and Brooke gave us a great tour of the farm, Al helped to deliver a baby calf, we feed the chickens, rode quad bikes, ate enormous t-bones, introduced the Nolans to Quiddler and had a wonderful time!  We can’t wait to visit again.

Fast Facts:  3861 km travelled; Quiddler:  Sonya 1 – Allan 1 – Patrick 1;  and Al has a new nickname – The Silver Fox!

We have established great little routines for setting up the van and packing up.  Reilly and Audrey both have jobs to do and one of their favourite is putting the legs of the van down.  They also set up their outside chairs and table.  When we arrived in Roma today they were once again straight into it.

Today was what you might call a ‘rest day’.  We went into the main street of Roma to explore some shops and see what Roma had to offer.  Reilly can ‘smell’ a toy store from 1km away, and that is about as far as we got!

We spent the afternoon hanging out together at the caravan park, and taking it easy.  Reading books, colouring in and having a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we head to Moonie for two days to stay with friends on their property.  We are looking forward to meeting there not so new addition to the family, and catching up over long dinners and a few drinks.

When we left Blackall this morning, the weather was not looking promising and the closer we got to Charleville the worse it looked.  Not only was it looking like rain, but the temperature had dropped down to 24 degrees.  A significant difference from the 35 degrees it had been the day before.  We arrived in Charleville at the Bailey Bar Caravan Park around midday.  As we were setting up there was a little sprinkle of rain, and it continued to sprinkle on and off all afternoon.

In the afternoon we visited the Charleville Cosmos Centre.  It was interesting and Reilly had a great time listening to all the exhibits with the headphones.  The Cosmos Centre also has a unique observatory, which holds night programs to view the stars and planets.  The entire roof of the observatory rolls back to reveal three very powerful 12 inch Meade telescopes to enable the public to view the night sky.  Al was booked in for the 9:15pm session, but unfortunately it didn’t go ahead due to the cloud coverage.

Early in the evening we took the kids to the ‘Bilby Experience’.  We learnt all about the endangered Bilbies and the fight to save them.  As the Bilby is nocturnal and has very sensitive eyes, I was unable to take any photos, but we did see a number of them, which was very exciting!  They are very cute and do look similar to a Bandicoot, but have the one distinguishing feature of a long black and white tail.

We arrived back to the van just before the storms started and they lasted all night.  Charleville received a lot of rain, but we stayed nice and dry.

Fast Facts:  3110 km travelled.

We started the morning at the Qantas Museum at Longreach, where we had morning tea and looked at the planes currently on display.  We got to see a Qantas 747 & 707 and a Catalina, which had just arrived at the museum.

We then headed on the road to Blackall along the Matilda Highway, passing through a couple of towns with some interesting attractions.  Ilfracombe (I love this name) is a charming little town.  Along the main road into Ilfracombe they have a large collection of old vehicles, farming equipment and machinery.  Among the collection is the Ilfracombe Folk Musesum.  It is also the town where Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce the Governor-General of Australia grew up.

Continuing along the Matilda Highway we arrived in Barcaldine.  A town steeped in political history and full of pubs.  A match made in heaven?  We walked the main street and there are six pubs within 100 metres of each other.  Not sure how they all survive.  In the middle of the street is the monument to the Tree of Knowledge.  The central meeting place for the Shearers’ Strike in 1891, which also lead to the formation of the Australian Labour Party.  The tree, which was over 170 years old, was poisoned in 2006 and did not recover, and a memorial was established in 2009 to protect and house the Ghost Gum.  The memorial is on the National Heritage List and certainly is impressive.

We arrived in the pretty town of Blackall early in the afternoon, did more washing and then headed to the Blackall Aquatic Centre.  They use bore water from the Artesian Basin to fill the pool and have a spa that is directly feed from the bore.  The pool is lovely and warm due to the artesian water, but the artesian spa is particularly warm, 37 degrees!  The kids had a wonderful time swimming and wore themselves out!

Fast Facts:  2804 km travelled; averaging 15 litres of diesel/100km;  Quiddler:  still only the one game;  and the beard continues to grow.