Well we were so impressed with Lake Conjola that we drove back up there for a couple of nights. The surf had blown out when we had arrived though much to Shane’s disappointment. Took the kids to play at the jumping pillow and playground then school work again instead!

Found some massive sand dunes around the lake we didn’t see before so they became the new playground. Sand dune jumping was sooo much fun! Our injury count was increasing especially with Luke and Shane. Luke has been especially clumsy but not slowing down at all!

Pulled out the night vision goggles later that evening and had fun spotting the tawny frog mouth and the kangaroos.

Tuesday was another pearler of a day at Lake Conjola. Shane had awesome surf off the reef break at the point of Green Island. He said he has never seen water so clear. I took the kids over to the beach later and caught him as he was leaving the surf. Again the water was fantastic for swimming.

Back to the van for more school work...made no fans there, but got a decent bit out of the way. We grabbed the boogie boards in the arvo and tried surfing the sand dunes...not as successful as we thought. Probably not steep enough. Changed the task to jumping onto the boards at the end of the slope into the lake.... a lot of fun had by all.

I think this has been the most I’ve enjoyed the trip so far. I certainly am not happy about going tomorrow. Could have easily stayed for longer, but someone booked onto our site so we have to go.

Moved down to Batemans Bay today. Found a cheap but extremely nasty caravan park. Not that cheap even. Batemans Bay is very pretty. Quite rugged looking with lots of rocky out crops, headlands and islands. Went for a drive down the coast and we were not disappointed. Barlings Beach, Tomkin and Mossy Point all look just gorgeous. Tomkin reminds me where we spent a lot of holiday time at Mylestom.

Back to dodgeyville for the night. At least the pool is nice! Off to Canberra in the morning to stay with friends and will be leaving the van in storage on the coast.

Well...who would have thought that packing up your car from the van, leaving the van in storage would be hard work!

Had to pull everything out of the fridge in the van, defrost the freezer, pack the car with clothes for up to a week, and with gear for camping. IN THE RAIN, and before 10am. Had planned on having the kids do some school work before we left, but that went out the window.

Finally got away by 10.45...whoops, and then had to wait at the storage place for someone to come to let us in. Then had to take the bikes off the back of the van, and attach to the car...whilst the dude who let us into the storage is waiting so he can get back to his other job!!! In the rain and now...the mud!!!

Finally got going at about lunch time...too stressed to think about making lunch, so took the kids to Maccas...they were happy at least! Having a coffee, unwinding a bit when I realised we had not put the kids sleeping bags in, or linen for our swag....had the swag at least. Guess camping was not happening after all.

On to Canberra.....nice drive up from Batemans Bay to Canberra. Quite a winding road though. Glad we didn’t take the van.

Impressed once again with Canberra. I always love going to Canberra, it is so well organised. Met our friends at Eddison Park....loved that it has exercise stations set out along a walking track. The kids all thought these were a lot of fun, kind of scared me thinking of not going to the gym!!! Better not think about it and have a few drinks with my friends instead!

Canberra holding its festival this weekend, just in time for our arrival...how lucky are we?

Friday off to Questacon! Loved it, loved it, loved it! What fun and so interesting. We spent nearly the whole day there. The kids enjoyed it tremendously, especially the rollercoaster simulator. Went to the dinosaur talk and to a Natural Disaster talk.Very interesting, and especially poignant with the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami happening only about an hour after the talk finished.

We walked over to The National Library afterwards, which was a little disappointing as we hoped to see rows and rows of books but that is not the case. All the books are in storage in the lower floors or in two different warehouses.

Packed up the bikes and kids on Friday and set off to Commonwealth Park. Beautiful day for riding/walking. Bought coffees and milkshakes at The Deck cafe which looks over Lake Burley Griffin and The National Library. The big boys went out mountain bike riding in Stromlo Forest. Shane thought he was having a heart attack!!! But he did enjoy it nevertheless. The girls caught a movie when the boys got back, “Hall Pass”, seriously funny!!!

Woke everyone up early on Sunday to go to the Hot Air Balloon festival. FANTASTIC!!!!!!

I am so glad I got everyone up out of bed, we all really enjoyed seeing the balloons over the lake with the sun rising. It was so memorable. We had three balloons right near us. The kids got to help roll up the balloon by rolling over the top of it! Loads of fun!!!

Later that morning took the bikes back to the Lake for a ride. Started at The National Library, rode across the bridge, along the lake, over another bridge, along the lake again back to the cars, with an ice cream stop along the way. The boys loved the ride, but Emily found it rather tiring given it was quite a long way. Finished the day back at the Lake at the Sailing Club.....Lovely.