The Quirke Oz Holiday - Canberra and Bris-Vegas

After our week of skiing it was back to reality of life in the big smoke. We returned to Canberra to spend some time with the Gordon's and to see the sights in Canberra. We took the kids to Quest-a-con (a kids hands on science exhibition), The National zoo and aquarium and The National War Memorial where we saw Dad's old boat HMAS Brisbane. We also managed to point out Parliament House to the kids. We went out to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary with Cath & James Dew (our old navy neighbours from Darwin) and Belinda & Ian. A good time was had by all - dinner and drinks at a local bar and not a kid to be seen, we felt like kids again , yes all of us.

Happy 11th Anniversary drinks until 3am.

Lucais, Em, Thomas and Dyl playing the one DS - now that is sharing.

The view of Parliament house from the steps of the War Memorial

Dad with his old boat high and dry also in a museum - what does that say about his age?

The Quirke's and Dew's at the National Zoo. Who's a naughty monkey kids?

The big cat displays were awesome.

A little bit of Cougar viewing hey girls.

The kids playing at Quest-A-Con.

Ian showing the Gordon boys about Tsunami's and imagine that, Em and Dyl no were to be seen.

Once we had finished up in Canberra it was off to Brisbane for our last visit before flying out. This time around we caught up with Great Grandma and took her out for lunch. But it wasn't all fun this time round either as the kids had to finish off their vaccinations and also visit the dentist before returning home. Let's just say it needed a little bribery! The kids loved catching buses all around town with grandma while she took her baby girl (Jodie) for some retail therapy. We also stocked up with 20kgs of fresh meat to take home. Our luggage for the return flight was a fine juggling act we even had to load up every ones carry on to the absolute max (maybe even over). Lets just say the kids are now stronger after lugging their bags through all the airports and no whinging was done, although we couldn't bring back everything we wanted too so some gear was left behind at grandma's.

Four generations of girls. Em was initially stumped and thought everyone was a Quirke?

Em's check up was all good even after swallowing a tooth earlier that week. See all mum's screaming about cleaning their teeth has paid off.

Next was Dyl again all good but we were wondering if they could fit anything else in as Emily is normally the big mouth.

Bribery for the Dr and dentist visits came in the form of bowling and Jodie won her first family game.

On our last night out we hit the Theatre and saw Mamma Mia, even the kids were singing along although they thought they missed some bits from the DVD.