Tyrannosaurus Reg

The boys have another favourite book... called Tyrannosaurus Reg by Dan Crisp.
It is a book we got from the library, and ended up reading nearly every night for over two weeks.
The fact that it is about dinosaurs meant that it was likely to be a hit with Josh. The fact that the last page has noises and vibrations meant that it scared the crap out of Sam... he actually started crying it was that bad. But funnily enough, he wanted to read it again the next night.... and the night after that... and the night after that.

He got to the stage where he was waiting with every page turn to see if that was the noisy page. A couple of times I would try to trick him and turn to the last page halfway through the book.

(The book has something built into it, similar to those musical birthday cards. And something that makes it vibrate like a vibrating mobile phone ring tone.) Surprisingly for a library book, these things still worked.

This book has just the right amount of words for a bedtime book, and the kids have fun trying to find where Reg is hiding in each page.

This book was a winner for both the kids and the parents :)

Running

About three years ago I started running. I did the couch to 5k running program and entered a few 5km fun runs. Then I did a triathlon... and then nothing until I entered the Run Melbourne 10km fun run. I used to run 5km and wonder why on earth people would want to run for longer than half an hour. Then I got talked into trying the 10km run. I figured I would run half, walk for a bit and then run again. In the end I ran the whole way and did it in 55 minutes! I was so happy at the end, I couldn't believe that I had done it.

In 12 days time I am going to enter in the Melbourne Marathon and run the half marathon (21.1km). Some people (well probably most people) will think that I am crazy. I was going to only enter the 10km again... but I couldn't see a challenge in that (unless I just tried to beat my previous time).
I have joined a running group, and it has really challenged me to push myself out of my comfort zone. One morning I got up at 4:30am and we went for a 15km run. It took us an hour and a half. And then I went to work!!! I was so pumped when I got to work, telling everyone that I did it... it was the furthest I have ever run.

Then while we were on the Penguin Holiday, I did a run. I didn't want to fall behind the others in the running group, since I knew they were going to be doing a 17km run that day. I mapped it out in the melways and planned my route. I was going to run along the main road (since they had a really good bike track there) and run to the general store that is half way to San Remo and back.

Things started off well, and I even stopped to take a photo of the sun rising over the paddocks.

I came across a feral cat that looked like it was going to pounce on me. I saw the Amaze'n'Things house with the tap turned off. I tried to see koalas as I ran past the koala park. I kept running, and was almost wondering what would happen if that general store didn't exit anymore! Would I just keep running and find myself on the bridge to San Remo?

Finally, the general store was in sight! I turned around for the run home. It had seemed to take forever to get halfway! Then my foot started to cramp. I kept going. But it got worse. I didn't want to walk the whole way home, so eventually I stopped and tried to stretch it out. It worked for a while, but I did have to stop another couple of times before I got home.
I made it home, and it took almost exactly 2 hours. Later that day we drove to Churchill Island, and we measured the distance in the car... and I found out that I actually ran something like 19.4km!!!
Needless to say, I am feeling a bit more confident about the half marathon now!!!
http://www.melbournemarathon.com.au/

Edited to add: I've had a bit of an injury around my right knee the last week or so. This has pushed out my training plan, I hope I will be ok for the race.

Our Penglin Holiday

We have just come back from a lovely one week family holiday to Phillip Island. Surprisingly this was the first 'driving' holiday for our family. All our other trips have been to Magnetic Island. (Josh even got a bit confused and thought we were going to Aunty Janie's Island!).
The car was packed full of stuff and we set out only an hour later than expected! It was raining all day. We caught the ferry across to Sorento and drove around to Phillip Island. We finally found our little holiday house and had time to quickly unpack the car before we went to get something for dinner.

Sam and Josh shared a room and Sam spent his first night in a big bed. Over the course of the holiday he only fell out of bed about 5 times! Some nights we would go in there half an hour after we had put them to bed. Josh would be fast asleep and Sam would be playing away and talking to himself.

In the mornings, because the house was so open plan we could here everything as soon as the boys woke up. Josh would be chatting to Sam and then tell him to 'wait here, I need to do wees'. So he would go to the bathroom, but then Sam said 'me do wees'. Josh's 'Oh no!' was classic.
On the rainy days we went bowling, and played indoor mini golf. After a couple of days the weather really fined up. We had beautiful blue skies with not a cloud to be seen.

One of my favourite days was when me and Josh went for an adventure. We went for a walk along the beach, just chatting away, and playing silly games. We walked along the jetty and sat and watched the fish. Then we headed back and made up a game called Wave Rock. This involves throwing a rock into the waves and then waiting for the right time to race in and get the rock back before the waves got you. That was lots of fun, until the waves took our rock right into the deep water!

Sam started talking up a storm on our holiday, putting together lots of sentences and coming up with new words like peacock and kangaroo. I think his most common sentence was 'me come too please?' He never wanted to be left out of things.

We went to Rhyll fishing park and Kel caught two Rainbow Trout. We had them for lunch, and they were the nicest fish I have ever eaten! Sam is always asking for fish for dinner now! He also really loves his prawns!!! Pity they never have prawns on the kiddy menu!

We all went for a bike ride one fine, blue-sky day. One bike had the child seat for Sam, the other bike had the trailer bike for Josh. Its like a bike that is attached to the first bike. Josh can peddle and feel like he is riding (but actually all that peddling didn't help us get up the hill any easier!). We stopped at the beach for a picnic lunch, played on the sand and then continued our ride a bit more. I noticed a few funny looks and comments, and turned around to find Sam had fallen asleep!

(This is about as far as I have gotten in writing this up... and the photos are still to come... but if I don't post this now, I probably never will!)
Edited to add: here is a link to some photos I posted on Facebook... see how it goes:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43622&l=40b1d&id=521726443