Thursday

Today has been absolutely fantastic so far.
Sophie woke up at 5:15am, and Felix needed a breathing treatment*, so we were all up soon after. I know that it seems like I’m sort of obsessive about sleep times right now, but it’s a huge focus when you’re jet lagged with two kids.

We had breakfast in our room, then hoofed it over to Federation Square to catch a sightseeing bus to the Dandenong Ranges. The fare was a bit pricey, but totally worth every penny.






The first stop was for Devonshire tea (scones with jam and cream, and tea or coffee), and to feed the birds. The birds were awesome, even the one that pooped on Stephen’s head (though he may disagree).








These poor guys made me a bit sad. We were instructed that we were NOT supposed to feed them, as they do bite and scratch. They'd land on us, but we had to shoo them off.




Sophie kept trying to tell them that she was out of seed, but they hung with her anyway.




They really, really loved Stephen.






HAHAHAHA. It happens.






The scones were so freaking delicious, and we polished them off in no time.




Australian Christmas decorations.




I can't imagine a more beautiful place to feed birds and eat scones.




Then on to the star attraction of the day - Puffing Billy steam train. It has a lot of history to it, and runs through an amazing valley of ferns (Sherbrook Forest) that were like nothing I’ve ever seen before. There’s no way to do the view justice with photos, but I took a million of them anyway, and you’ll need to suffer through them.

If you’re old and boring, you can simply sit on the seats on the train. But if you’re awesome, which we clearly are, you sit on the edge and hang your legs out, like so:




We went over a bridge! While hanging out the side of a train!






I wisely took off my flip flops before we left the station.










At the end of the line.






The trip ended in Sassafras, which is a gorgeous little town with quaint stores. The toy store was great, but the family favorite was the lolly store, where we did almost $30 worth of damage.








It was too much excitement for Fee to endure.






We got home just in time to meet up with our Australian friend, Steve. You’ll be hearing a lot about him over the coming weeks. Here he is, teaching Stephen how to play a Descendents’ song.




We went for a walk for a while, because there’s a Starbucks two blocks away, and the jet lag has brought my caffeine dependence back with a vengeance. Back to the hotel, where we ran into some friends, including my boyfriend from Alkaline Trio (*dreamy sigh*).

Back to the hotel, where the kids snuck off and got in their beds and crashed out within seconds. Unfortunately it was like 5pm, and I had to get them up.








It's taking me hours and hours to upload photos, so there may be fewer of them in the posts to come.
It's now Friday, and we're heading out to brunch with Steve, then leaving for the show. More later.

*Unfortunately Felix needs another breathing treatment, as he’s had a cough for more than the past two months that hasn’t responded to antibiotics or a huge course of steroids. We’re actually at sort of a loss as to what to do with/for him. I’m starting to get a bit wigged out about it.