Mannum

22 December 2012
Arrived at Mannum in the afternoon and set up camp in Dad's cousins backyard.

23 December 2012
Went for a drive around the area. The Murray River is a few minutes down the road and there is great parks and people skiing and  enjoying the river.

24 December 2012
Mum and Dad arrived after lunch, the kids were really excited to see them. Spent the rest of the afternoon catching up. In the evening we let them open one present, and of all the presents they chose the noisiest one, a voice changer...thanks Uncle Tom!!!

25 December 2012
Merry Christmas everyone. The kids got to open some of their presents in the morning and the rest when everyone else arrived at lunch time. It was really nice to spend Christmas with family. Lunch was fabulous and the drinks even better. We were also blessed with beautiful weather.

26 December 2012
Not much on today, still recovering from Christmas.

27 December 2012
Off to the Barrossa Valley for some wine tasting. Joe was our tour guide, thankfully, there is way too many wineries to choose from. We went to a few and than that was enough because I had already spent too much. It's terrible to have good taste!!!

28 December 2012
Watch out...Carl and I went to Adelaide (by ourselves)...can't remember when the last time we spent a night away from the kids. Was quite strange really...but we did enjoy it. Carl bought some parts for the car and a new compressor. Seems like everything is breaking at the same time. We caught a movie, Skyfall, and we wasted some money at the Casino. OK, it was me that wasted it, would definitely never make a professional gambler. Had a seafood buffet for tea, quite nice.

29 December 2012
Had a look around Adelaide, nice city. Bought William a bike. When we got home Carl put it together and took the kids for a test drive, pity they can't touch the pedals yet, but pulls along a rope pretty good. Has a trailer so both of them can have a go at the same time.

30 December 2012
Went to Monarto open plains zoo. Was a great day. You got to sit on a bus and get driven through the animals. You could get off at certain places and walk to the viewing platforms. They even had a sausage sizzle. We spent half the day

31 December 2012
New Year's Eve. Carl and I went to lunch on the Captain Proud. A cruise on the Murray River for a few hours on a side paddle boat. Very calming and relaxing. Met some nice people who we shared a table with. Got home in time to take Mum down the street for some shopping...we both did well at that. I can finally get rid of some of the tops I've had since before getting married. We were all disappointed for the new year's eve celebrations, we had gotten the kids really excited about the fireworks and they ended up getting cancelled. Let's just say we didn't see the new year in.

01 January 2013
Happy New Year!!!

02 January 2013
Carl went with Joe and Dad to find somewhere to replace the bearing in our rear axle. Ended up getting it done in Mannum.

03 January 2013
Off to Hahndoff for the day. Mum, Dad, Joe and Lorraine left before us because Carl was still putting the car together. We managed to get going not long after. On the highway the car started having the wobbles so we pulled off and Carl had a look, couldn't see anything, headed off again and it was worse. We pulled right off then and Carl got under the car and found that our rear tyre had started to peel off. After Carl changed the tyre we got going again. We than got held up 20km out of Hahndoff due to a house fire beside the highway. We managed to get to Hahndoff for lunch. Since it's a German town we had to have a German lunch. We were not disappointed. Absolutely great service and fantastic meal. The beers could have been a bit cheaper though. We stopped off at the strawberry farm on our way and bought the best strawberries we've ever had. So sweet.

04 January 2013
We had new tyres fitted and Carl did the other rear axle bearing. Hopefully now we won't have anything else to fix on the car for a while. Mum, Dad and Joe went on the Captain Proud lunch cruise like we did last week. They enjoyed themselves. Was the hottest day ever but by 8.30pm had cooled off, very strange weather here, not sure I could get used to it.

05 January 2013
Farewell to Mum and Dad. Carl had the joyful job of getting up at 4am and taking them to the airport in Adelaide. We all had a great time together and hope to do it again in the not too distant future.