dreamworld...

At Austin's kindy, they have a twist on the old 'Show & Tell', it's called 'Weekend News' and you are supposed to fill in a sheet with photos, drawings etc whenever you do something interesting so the children can get up and talk about it.

Anyway, a while ago one of Austin's friends did a weekend sheet about his trip to Queensland, it's on a massive piece of cardboard and is filled with pictures of him at Dreamworld and Seaworld. And every day without fail, Austin goes straight for it and says the same thing "I wish we could go to Queensland so I can go on the rides like Samuel did..."

So after driving all the way to Queensland with Chris & Roberta there was no way we could go home without taking Austin to a theme park. When he was a baby we went to Seaworld with Linda, Shaun & Alex so we decided to go to Dreamworld this time. I remember going there when I was a kid and to be honest nothing much has changed, everything looked a little worn and in need of a revamp. It just feels like a rip-off, they charge you a fortune to get in, then they charge you a fortune for crap food, then you wait in line for so long for rides that last half a minute!! And to top it off, the one ride Austin has been obsessed with and the one ride I really wanted to go on, The Log Ride, was closed for the day. It's just not my idea of fun, maybe the fact I'm terrified of rollercoasters has something to do with it, or maybe I'm just old!!!

Austin loved it though and was completely fearless. I managed to work up the courage to go on a rollercoaster with him but I think he could sense my fear, while we were waiting in line he kept saying "it's ok Mummy, it's not too scary".

Lily had a great day too, well apart from the first ride we took her on which we stupidly didn't watch to see what the ride actually did. We just read the sign which said you had to be over 1 years of age and thought oh well it couldn't be too scary. Oh my word, I was in the carriage in front with Austin and Steve was behind with Lily. I couldn't look behind because I was holding on for dear life myself but all I could hear was Lily screaming with terror. The ride was horrific, I can't believe it didn't have a height restriction. Poor baby girl got on it so excited too and with complete trust in us, I felt so guilty!!! Needless to say we stuck to the really tame rides for her after that, hope she doesn't have recurring nightmares....

Kenny the Koala, still exactly the same as I remember..

Some nice tame rides for Lily...

These water jets were probably one of the best bits of entertainment of the day...simple things

Austin's first rollercoaster experience, he LOVED it

...definitely doesn't get that from me...