Is a holiday with 4 kids really a holiday?

Now that we are well and truly back from our holiday (a week ago), the bags are all unpacked, the 8 (seriously. 8.) loads of washing arising out of the holiday are a thing of the past, the house is in some semblence of order and the parents children seem to have caught up on their sleep, it is time to update The Blog.

So we set off for Ballarat, the actual purpose being for a wedding and then a bit of a holiday, seeing as we have never been to that area before. We were told by the groom it would take only about 8 hours or so, but of course with kids it took us 10 and a half to arrive in Ballarat. After planning to leave Cobar by about 8am, we actually left at the extremely early hour of 10:30am, and those of you who know us will understand. On the way we stopped briefly at Hillston where we managed to get a rare picture of our four rascals all looking the same way:

If you are wondering what on earth they are sitting on, it's the neck of a wooden dinosaur. I know you are all dying to take your kids to see the dilapidated wooden dinosaur in the hidden away park at Hillston, so next time you're passing through that way email me for directions.

We then crossed the Hay plains, in which there is nothing to see other then the occasional powerline (and the really cool exact straight line of pylons that seem to disappear over the edge of the earth). It is an area of NSW that we actually love and would have happily settled somewhere there, if God hadn't had other ideas for us in the closed-in scrub of Cobar. There is just something about the open space, the blue sky and yellow dried grass (which is very sparse), and the, the, well, the nothingness. See what I mean:

That photo was actually taken when we stopped all of a sudden because our second born son had something black all over his face and coming out of his mouth, which turned out to be the black ink from the pen he had been sucking on. At almost 5 he still puts everything in his mouth.

So we arrived at Ballarat ab0ut 9pm that night, just before the caravan park office closed. Phew. We enjoyed a lovely wedding the next day:

and then Saturday headed to Sovereign Hill , which we would highly recommend, despite the fairly steep entry fee. We had planned our day to fit in most of the various activites, so did heaps of things such as: take a Cobb&Co Coach Ride, see a pantomime (oh no we didn't, oh yes we did), pan for gold, do an underground gold mine tour, see various displays such as a musket firing, tin plate making and a gold bar pour, and heaps of other things that there are to do and see. The boys of course had a ball, although Jacob was determined to find gold and was most disappointed when he didn't. We were told by the locals that they do actually top up the creek with gold flecks occasionally, so it is possible to find gold. But we didn't. Probably has something to do with patience, or lack thereof.

Here's some pics of the boys panning for gold, and then seeing gold in the underground tour:

We also took the boys to some of the playing parks in Ballarat, and they put the NSW parks to shame. Both the parks we went to were a kind of wooden fort, full of cool things for little boys to run on, in, under, over and through. I loved this one with some wooden soldiers, and an Isaac:

On our last day in that area, we took the train in to Melbourne. The boys loved the train so much they are saying it was the best part of the trip. If I'd realised that we could have saved our money from Sovereign Hill and just ridden the train back and forth all day. I've never been to Melbourne before, and PVT ages ago, so it was interesting to go and walk around, take a tram ride and see another city that was just like all the other cities we've been to in all it's glory.

Here's the proof that we went:

For those of you who are educated, you'll know that is Flinder's St Station (bit of trivia: this is one of the stations on the Australian version of Monopoly, my favourite game), and a Melbourne tram (the free one). The photo was taken outside St Paul's Anglican Cathedral.

On the trip home we went via the Garden of St Erth (if you are a keen gardener you'll know what that is) and then headed back across the Hay plains arriving home about 11pm. Tired is not the word. But yes, a holiday with four kids is still a holiday. When can we go again??!!