Family weekend away

Wow what a weekend - our annual family weekend away this year was a big one! what an emotional ride we have been on over the last few months so it was nice to get away and just have fun.
I drove to Sutherland and managed to park the car without collecting any random cyclists or adding any bumps or dings to the car (YAY ME) then we hopped on the train and headed into central.
After a slight detour when Tasha saw the Raben Footwear shop we went and checked into our motel. This seems to be the place to stay. Cass and I have been here a couple of times and we have come here as a family before as well. Convenient location... literally across the road from the doors of the Sydney Entertainment Centre... just across the road from Paddy's Markets.... a block from Capitol Theatre... and easy walking distance to Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay..... oh and Tony's favourite -- an amazing buffet breakfast. The other big plus for the Holiday Inn..... Just a couple of doors along is Cold Rock which (thanks to Haylee) is Tasha's FAV place to call in. If you haven't been there before basically you pick your favourite ice cream flavour, pick what extras you want ...... hmm lets see choices include smarties, flake, mars bar, strawberries, nuts, fudge brownies, sour worms, caramel, mars bar, raspberries etc. etc. etc..... then they mush it all together for you. Sounds kind of weird but tastes YUM

Then we headed to the Capitol Theatre to see the matinee show of Wicked. As usual just happened to bump into someone from Nowra. Hope you enjoyed the show Janelle!

It seriously was just as good the second time around. Interestingly this time the cast was quite different. We had Jemma Rix as Elphaba, Bert Newton as The Wizard and Tim Campbell as Fiyero. When Cass and I went these three parts were played by different people. Have to say Tim Campbell doesn't fill out the costume as well as Rob Mills but he does dance a lot better! Everyone loved it. Tony even stated afterwards he could understand why I wanted to see it a second time (which from him is HIGH praise). Kyle was mesmerised and Tasha thought it was "Brilliant but they kept talking about feelings - YUCK!"

Then we wandered over to Darling Harbour to get some dinner and have a look around. The kids were amazed by the buskers and the amount of people walking around (oh and the fashions - "Does their Mum let them out looking like that?" ~L~)

Then after we had some dinner we introduced the kids to the Lindt Cafe at Cockle Bay. Mmmmmmmmm Lindt.........................

Kyle had a caramel tart and I had a blueberry/chocolate mousse layer cake.

And this is the scary result when you introduce Tasha to a strawberry dipping platter! Talk about sugar high. this girl does not need alcohol when she gets older. Just give her a spoonful of sugar! After polishing this off she was singing and dancing and jumping around Darling Harbour.

Sunday we had a relaxed breakfast at the hotel before heading over to Paddy's Markets to do some shopping and then heading back up to the trian station as Tony had to be home by about 2pm to get ready for work.