G20 fun in the sun/Giveaway

This past week has been full of fun, so much so that we forgot about swimming lessons and the market that we go to every week! We are lucky enough that we have found lots of playgroups to keep up busy throughout the week. This week she ventured into the toy boxes and found herself a giraffe tail. It's quite fitting since she absolutely loves Mr. Giraffe. She wore it the entire time we were there, and we almost ended up taking it home because I forgot she had it on.

A nice (ok, not so nice) heat wave has hit so we have been trying to avoid the heat. Between the heat and all of the fun things to do BB has been fighting sleeping all week, especially for nap time. But she couldn't fight it anymore, the second we got in the car and got our glasses on she was passed out!

Thankfully she had enough of a nap to enjoy our walk through SouthBank Parklands. I don't know if it's just because of G20 being here, but every time we walk through the park we find something new. We walked through a neat little boardwalk near the temple. 

G20 has a bunch of very important and powerful people coming to meet in Brisbane which is kind of a hassle since there are a ton of road closures, but it also means lots of improvements to SouthBank. One neat addition is the Brisbane sign, it just look so perfect with the city in the background!

We got packed up for a nice day out on the coast, and of course couldn't go without Mr. Giraffe. She's just too cool for us.

We went with a couple friends to check out Wynnum Wading Pool Park in East Brisbane. It is a neat little wading pool next to the ocean that was built during the depression to introduce some happiness, and much needed jobs. It's still a great park with the wading pool and a splash pad and playground that kept the girls entertained all afternoon. BB even started to enjoy swimming! 

It is nice that we are so close to the ocean. I'll take an hour drive over the 5ish hours we had to drive back home!

Pretty much everywhere we went was beautiful.

We took a nice stroll through the Mangroves and found a bunch of different critters including a crab, some jellyfish, a lizard and lots of spiders. Though we did have one casualty...poor paci never stood a chance.

Our friend's "The Joey's" kept us company, and little J was great at spotting critters. 

It was a beautiful little walk and nice and shaded. 

Since we were facing 39 degree C temps we decided to check out Southbank again. A nice swim in the city beach was just what we needed. Though BB is not a fan of sand, especially when it's at the bottom of the water. She did enjoy swimming and playing "ring around the rosie" in the deeper water. 

Thanks to G20 we felt very safe in the city (we actually always feel very safe here). They recruited cops from all around Australia to help patrol the city. It seemed pretty ridiculous at times when you watched them strolling around in groups of 7-10 and standing around in front of closed train stations, or even walking back to their van because they forgot their hats....at night. 

BB loves the view of the river and also loves to hog all of the bickies. 

We ended our city adventure with a nice BBQ at Kangaroo Point (a popular climbing location) with the Joey's. 

BB and J have been great friends, it's hard to imagine that in 6 months BB will be that big and talking! 

It's such a pretty spot for a BBQ, the river lines one side and the cliffs light up the other.

The girls loved having their grilled cheese sandwiches at the big table like adults. 

And couldn't get enough stories on their picnic blanket.

What better way to end the day than a climb up the mountain. BB loved it and was much better than I imagined she'd be. She did not want to stop climbing, and explaining that it's 10pm and you have to stop climbing to a 1.5 year old didn't go over so well. We'll have to go back and maybe have them show us how it's done (and maybe not wear flip flops!). 

In honor of this ridiculous heat wave I'm having my first giveaway! Along with my friends at Freshly Picked  we are giving away a pair of moccasins! Just comment with what you have been up to this weekend and on November 25th I'll randomly choose a winner. The winner will be able to choose any pair of moccasins that they want, they have so many colors to choose from great for boys and girls! And for my Australian readers, they offer international shipping and you can enter also (you'll just be responsible for the shipping cost)!