pageant, zoo and all the magic

Friday saw Annie, Sean and I rise really early to catch the flight to Adelaide for a weekend of surprises.  Up until driving out the gate, they knew nothing of the weekend. And I only let them know tiny little snippets as the weekend progressed to keep the surprises rolling in. I had the 2 small sports bags packed and hidden from the night before.

(ps all iphone pics. the 'real' ones from the weekend are still on camera)

Fortunately Sean rose quite early and just as well he woke me up at 6am. The power had gone off, and that means my alarm clock wouldn't have gone off either. So he was the Friday hero.

So surprise number one was us going to the airport. But I didn't tell them where we were going. I couldn't tell them anymore than that otherwise they would have been such wriggly worms on the flight.

Mel, June and I have been planning this trip since August. So spending time with these guys and Mel's kids was the next surprise. June picked us up from the airport as she and Mel had driven over the afternoon before and had wheels.  While June taxi'd all of us in two trips from lunch on the Parade to our next destination, the kids had a run in the park in front of the Norwood Oval.

Surprise number three was when I announced "let's go to the Zoo today!"  There was a fair bit of happy noise about that.  

Next surprise for me was the best one. 

Paige and Dion met us after our 4 hours of wandering around the zoo to spend the evening with all of us. We went in their car and followed June to the City Park Motel (where we had already dropped off all our bags earlier on the way from the Airport to Norwood). Dion, Paige and I took all four kids across South Terrace to the playground for an hour or so of burning up lots of energy, and to give June and Mel a bit of quiet time.

We had tea at Fasta Pasta which certainly did not live up to its name of Fasta. The manager had overbooked and it was an extremely busy night with the pageant on the next day. So dinner wasn't the best experience for the weekend.

The next morning was the next surprise. The 80th Christmas Pageant. I had managed to get our school onto the Credit Union (sponsor of the Pageant) Rural Schools list. Our school hasn't been on the list for years, so with a bit of nice asking and a few phone calls, our school had 30 passes to the Credit Union Community Site. Shade, water, toilets and its all cordoned off. We walked the 10 mins up from South Terrace to the Community area and by 8.30 am the kids were on the picnic blanket right on the blue honor line. Certainly beats the reported 2.30am madness of getting to a spot and holding it for the pageant to start at 9.30am. Paige met us there.

Kids are encouraged to bring pavement chalk to draw on the road before the pageant starts.

 As I don't watch TV I seem to never remember to turn it on for the Christmas Pageant. So the kids have never watched it so had no idea what its all about. So for them it was very very magical. And for me, well, I'm a big kid and I loved it too. ( I had the Canon out for the parade, so the next couple of shots are Paige's.)

After the Pageant we went the MFS shed which had its annual open day. And it was directly behind us on Wakefield Street from the Community Site. And it had a sausage sizzle so that made lunch really easy for the kids.

Paige bid us goodbye after the MFS shed and the rest of us headed back to where we had stayed so I could grab our bags out of June's car. On the way back I snapped this little gem.

After we had collected our bags, the kids and said our goodbye to Mel, June and kids, we had the next surprise. SIL Sharon picked us up and we spent the afternoon with her and her adult kids. We had a blast and it was so nice to sit and sip a little.

Next suprise was meeting up with more of the kids cousins and we all trammed to another SIL's home. (My first tram ride since I was a little girl) 

           

This is where we stayed for the night. And she has an outdoor spa, so there was a lot of time spent in that. (the kids that is lol). D, SIL's partner is Sean's idol. Sean wants hair just like him so D helped out.

Another late night spent with Nana, Aunties, Great aunties, Uncles, Great Uncles and Cousins. I have an awesome in law family.

Sunday morning was the third 6am rise for us to catch our flight back home.

Waving goodbye to Aunt T

 He's fascinated by it all. (west coast of Yorke Peninsula in window)

She's rather a seasoned traveller now, and just disappears in a good book.

And our last pic of our amazing weekend full of surprises. Memories made forever.