What a fun weekend!

Well, it's currently 6:30am as I write this... I just got back from taking Em and Mike to the airport (their flight is as 7am) and I'm tired, but don't feel like going back to bed. So, thought I'd jump on here and do a quick update.

We've had a great weekend... busy... but with time for relaxing slotted in as well.

Thursday - Picked up Em and Mike at 12:30pm and we went to have lunch and some cupcakes at Carousel Cupcakes... Great to just have a casual lunch and enjoy some scrummy and pretty cupcakes... we also had the best iced chocolate ever! Beth was loving having them around and was soaking up the attention... We were sitting in a cosy booth at Carousel's and Beth was standing in the corner, jumping up and down and bopping and laughing for most of lunch! (That could also have been due to the amount of sugar she consumed in the iced chocolate and the cupcakes!) After that, we popped into Chermside to wander around and I picked up some groceries for the weekend.

Didn't do much that night... We had chicken casserole for dinner and then we watched Ratatouille, which I think is such a great movie!

Friday - Started with a slow morning... then went to the bus park... came home and Beth had her nap, whilst we had lunch and when she woke up we headed out for a spot of shopping at DFO. Because of the long weekend, the traffic on the roads was CRAZY! We got held up in one stretch for about 15 minutes... but that was the only bad spot... lucky I had brought food to entertain Beth... so Em got to feed Beth mandarin in the back seat. I did some pretty serious shopping... I never get to shop for myself when just Beth and I go shopping, because Beth inevitably gets bored very quickly and kicks up a fuss and makes it impossible to browse ... so I took advantage of having Em and Mike there to entertain Beth... well... Mike actually did a lot of entertaining, whilst Em and I looked at clothes! Beth *hates* women's clothes stores with a passion... everytime we went in one, she wanted to get out of her stroller... so Mike ended up chasing around the mall so Em and I could look at stuff. I bought quite a few tops from Portmans... nothing over $10 a top! All up, I spent $125 in the entire trip... I didn't spend more than $12 for a single item... I got Country Road towels for $12 each and some of the tops I bought were $70 reduced to $10... When I got home that night, I calculated what I would have paid if I had paid retail prices and it was $580! So I was *really* happy with my savings... :) Em also bought quite a few tops and things and this great black dress for only $20!

We had homemade chicken yiros for dinner that night and then just chilled out for the evening... the boys watched sports... Em and I talked about girly stuff.

Saturday - This was our big day out... we went to Sea World! :) We headed off at 11:15am and Beth had a short nap in the car on the way there. The weather was a bit a cool, but that didn't seem to deter the crowds... it was busy, but it wasn't as packed as I imagine it would be in summer! The displays are amazing... we got to see dugongs, sharks and fish, a polar bear... they were so fascinating... We also got to see most of the shows... They had a Sesame Street show on, which we tried to go to, but Beth got freaked out when she saw the giant Elmo come out on stage! She really didn't like seeing them as larger than life figures, so we left. Then we tried to see the sea lion show... Beth got freaked out at that too (We think it's the large crowd of people and the noise of the crowd that wigs her out)... so Phan stood up the back with her and got to see half of the show and Em, Mike and I got to see all of the show (we had great seats in the front row!). The last top for us was the dolphin show... and based on our previous experiences, we decided to sit right up the back... Beth still freaked out, but we just stood up and I just rocked her about in my arms and but we managed to see all of the show... which was just amazing! The dolphins move sooo fast and they can propel themselves into the air so high!

After that, we just moseyed around a bit more before we headed home... we had spent the entire afternoon there (4 hours) and it was the perfect amount of time to see what we wanted to see. In the summer, you could spend all day (and more) there with all the water rides and the pools and stuff.

On the way home, Em, Beth and I all napped in the back seat of the car... sleeping in cars is a genetic thing for us! :) We stopped in at Trang's and had pho for dinner (Beth ate heaps!) and then home and Beth fell asleep pretty early... all the freaking out from the shows must have worn her out! We stayed up and played Mario Kart on the Wii ... lots of fun... and very funny!

Sunday was a nice relaxing day... (Phan had gotten up at 2am to watch the Socceroos play Iraq in Dubai for the World Cup qualifier, he is sooo crazy!)... we didn't do much in the morning... Beth did some crazy funny dancing to Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics DVD... I did some prep for dinner (thit nuong - chargrilled bbq pork) and then in the afternoon we played more Wii (Beth thought she was driving too... she was holding the wheel and pretending to steer... it was so funny!) and then popped out to the park for a quick run around (And Beth accidentally fell over and bit her lip... so was a bit sooky after that... but she recovered from that mishap quite quickly!) before coming home and getting dinner ready. Beth was hilarious at dinner time... slurping her bun (rice noodles) and wanting to eat my cold rolls. I made her a mini cold roll at one point and she pretended to dip it in a bowl (like she was dipping it in fish sauce or tuong) before she ate it... She is in such a monkey see, monkey do phase at the moment. And then she had a bbq-ed corn on the cob afterwards which she just delighted in eating (making a huge mess!) After dinner, she was full of beans... rolling around on the cubby and making Em play peekaboo with her and laughing hysterically ... she worked up a huge sweat doing this... so much that her hair was lying flat against her head!

Once Beth went to bed, we had one last ditch Mario Kart session... I am terrible at the game... I kept finishing 12th and was known for shooting lightning at everybody at the most unopportune moments! (That was damn hilarious!) I also managed to beat Phan in one race, only due to the fact I got 2 speeding bullets in a row!

I took hardly any photos all weekend, amongst all of our activites this weekend... I actually forgot to take any photos of Em and Mike with Beth... it seems everytime they were playing with her, I was busy doing something... We were just having so much fun just hanging out, I just didn't take any photos! We have such great memories though...

So now, we're up for a boring day at home after such an action packed weekend... Phan's doing a long 14 hour shift, so Beth and I will have to find ways to entertain ourselves... perhaps we'll play a bit of Mario Kart on the Wii today... :p