Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!

The Travelling Oakey's would like to wish all our friends, family and readers a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.

We have postponed our trip while we visit family for Christmas but hope to get back on the road in the future. I still have lots of exciting stories to post on our trip back home to Qld, so come back soon and continue to follow our adventure.

Happy travelling,

The Travelling Oakey's
Chris, Nicole, Jack, Logan and Lexi
posted by The Oakey Family at 10:07 PM 1 Comments
 
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Seeing as we have made it through the "Silly Season" for another year, I now have some spare time to catch you up on our adventures in Alice Springs and the trip home for Xmas.

Now, where was I? That's right - we had just witnessed Jack's first BMX race - and what a racing legend he was!!.

Over the next couple of days, we got back into a routine. Chris working, the kids and I doing schoolwork - although one day we did have a bit of drama. Chris thought it was histerically funny when I told him, but I can tell you, the kids and I were not impressed at the time!

We had got into the habit of riding our bikes down to the local servo to pick up necessities (bread, milk etc). So on this particular day, we headed off on our treadlies and soon arrived at the shop - locked up the bikes and headed in to get the groceries. It wasn't until we were ready to leave that I realised I had left the keys for the bike lock back in the caravan!! Oh No!!! Now what??

The kids were looking at me in despair - what are we going to do Mum? "I can run home and get the keys" offered Jack - but there was no way I was letting a 7 year old run 10minutes back to the van to get the keys on his own. "We can stay here while you go back Mum" suggested Logan - No didn't like that idea either. Ever since we had arrived in Alice we had been told - make sure your bikes are locked up and don't leave them anywhere. Well at least they were locked up!!

So the decision was made - we all had to walk home, with the bags of groceries, in the heat of the midday sun, get the keys, walk back and cross our fingers that the bikes were still there! I have to say, I was a bit worried as there were lots of "locals" that hang out at the shop and I was not confident that our bikes would survive the 20min delay.

As you could imagine, it was not the most pleasant walk I have ever been on with the kids. "It's hot", "Are we there yet?" - but you know what the worst thing was? I had to drag the kids all the way back to the shop again to ride their bikes home! Once we got back to the van at least we could drop off the groceries, we picked up the keys and we were on our way back to the shop again.

It must have been our lucky day - because when we arrived back the bikes were still there - safe and sound where we left them. So on we jumped, rode home and it was only then, once we were home again after the long journey could we laugh about the whole situation!! And laugh we did! And then Chris got home - and we laughed some more!!
posted by The Oakey Family at 09:03 PM 0 Comments
 
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
BMX Racing

Today was the day.......BMX race training tonight! Jack has been counting down the days and is very keen to give it a go. So we grabbed all our gear and headed off. We signed him in and grabbed him a bike, helmet and gloves and off he went to join the other beginners and have some fun.

Most mothers would probably be really nervous here worrying that they might get hut - but to tell the truth I wasn't. It's not like he has never crashed his bike before and he probabaly wouldn't hurt himself as much here as on the bitumen road anyway - so I was pretty excited too.

The new kids were grouped together and started on the easiest bit of the track and worked their way backwards through the track until they eventually had a go at starting at the top of the track. Jack did a great job and had lots of fun and was now really, really, really looking forward to his first race on Friday night.

It seemed to take forever for Friday night to arrive - or so Jack thought anyway!! When we arrived at the track he got himself organised with his gear and headed out onto to the track to practise before the race. This was when it happened.....his first crash......over the handlebars......but he got back on and finished riding. It shook him up a bit and ripped his pants and scrapped his back, but he wanted to keep trying....so out he went and kept practising. Eventually it was time for the racing to start. All races were in age groups and they have four races each per night. He was one of the last groups to race, but eventually he was lined up at the start ready for his very first BMX race to start.....and then they were off.....Chris was very excited we cheered and clapped and he came 4th out of the seven starters.

Good first race - Jack was rapt, you could hardly wipe the smile off his face. His second race he came 4th again and then he was starting his third race for the night. He started off really well, came round the first corner in second and was looking good. Third place was gaining when he crashed towards the end and Jack ended up with 2nd!!! He was thrilled. He rode around to us and gave me a big high five and was so excited. Chris had gone around the other side of the track to film him and when Jack saw him coming back, he let out a big "yeah" and threw his arms up in the air in triumph.

His last race of the night started off really well and he was in 2nd place again, when, he stacked it. Over the handlebars in a big stack, but he picked himself up and finished the race. At the end of the night he was exhausted but happy. He told me "I'm really proud of myself tonight Mum" and so he should be he did a great job.
posted by The Oakey Family at 09:33 AM 0 Comments
 
Saturday, October 10, 2009
The Alice Adventure Continues.....
Before leaving for the new caravan park at Alice Springs we had two special events to celebrate. Our birthdays! Chris and I are lucky enough to celebrate our birthdays one day after the other - which works well as one day I give him a present and the next day he gives me one!!

The kids are always very excited about birthdays - I think they just love the cake that comes with birthdays - and anyone who knows me, knows that you can't have a birthday without a big cake. Seeing as it was Chris's birthday first, I made him his favourite - sponge with a jam and cream centre, chocolate outside and cherry ripe topping!!!

I had just finished making the cake and we were just about to have it when....The Curry's arrived back. They had headed off for a few days to check out the McDonnell Ranges and were now just pulling back in - what a coincidence - just in time for cake!! So after all the excitement of Jack and Bella coming back (although they had only been gone for two days) we sang "Happy Birthday" and all enjoyed a big chunk of cake each.

The next day we had to do it all again - although we skipped the cake today, all the cream and chocolate yesterday was more than enough. I received lots of wonderful presents and Jack always makes sure that I get flowers for mother's day and my birthday - he will make a great catch one day!!

We both had a lovely day and finished the birthday's off with dinner together with the Curry's at the local Hotel. The next morning it was a quick goodbye to Anthony, Belinda, Jack and Isabella, once again, as we were heading to different parks today.

We made the transition to the new caravan park very smoothly and settled into our new home for the next couple of weeks of school and work. Chris has been enjoying work lately and found himself doing more than just plumbing, today he was on the excavator all day - and he loved it!! He had also found out from his work mates, that the school holidays were over and the BMX track were having a race on this Friday night - which the boys were ecstatic about - and that the drags were on this Saturday night. So the weekend is going to be fun.

Jack and Logan could hardly sit still all day, waiting for the time to come to go to the BMX racing. Finally it was time to head down and check out the racing. Jack was really keen and was amazed that their were kids his age and even younger racing. We started chatting to a father whose son had been racing for about 4 weeks - he suggested we talk to the club if our boys were interested as they have a great deal that allows the kids to try racing before you go and buy all the gear etc. Jack heard this and was keen to give it a go. So we found out the details and that he could come to training on Wednesday night to give it a go. So stay tuned and we will let you know how his first training session and race went.

We had hardly got over the excitement of the BMX racing, when we were off the next night to watch the drags - which is more Logan's kind of sport. Monster trucks, drag cars, motorbikes - pretty much anything with a motor, wheels and makes a loud noise - he's into. He had a ball - picking out his favourite cars and chosing who he thinks was going to win. The night was going really well, with everyone enjoying the drags, when I went down to buy some dinner for every.

Now you would think this is easy right? Well not really. To start with, there were about 15 people in line before me...and I needed to get enough food for three adults and four kids - Anthony and Jack Curry had joined us to watch the drags as well. So I was standing there thinking....3 steak burgers, 4 hotdogs, 3 chips and drinks....3 steak burgers, 4 hotdogs, 3 chips and drinks. Then I noticed they had chicken burgers, which I decided I would rather ...so it became...2 steak burgers, 1 chicken burger, 4 hotdogs, 3 chips and drinks. So I am standing there trying to remember all this when they come out and cross steak burgers off the menu - all sold out.

New order...3 chicken burgers, 4 hotdogs, 3 chips and drinks....and then.....the chicken burgers are crossed off the menu - all sold out!! Now we need.... 7 hotdogs, 5 chips and drinks. All the while I still have about 6 people in front of me, so I am still memorising our order when....you guessed it....they ran out of hotdogs!! Is there going to be anything left to eat? Eventually I get to the counter and walk away with 5 chips, 2 chiko rolls and drinks. In the end we all had enough to eat and had a good laugh at the confusion surrounding dinner.




posted by The Oakey Family at 04:50 AM 0 Comments
 
Friday, September 25, 2009
Life in "The Alice"....
We are now pretty well settled in Alice Springs. Chris is working, we are schooling and on the weekends we get out and about to discover the sights in and around Alice.

One afternoon we packed all the kids up and heading off for a bike ride around to Heavitree Gap to feed the Rock Wallabies. Every afternoon the wallabies come down off the ranges and you can hand feed them - so we all jumped on our pushies and headed off down the road to see them. As you could imagine it is bedlam trying to control the three boys, Jack and Logan and Jack Curry, who just want to race each other all the time and Lexie who is too busy daydreaming to look where she is going. But Luckily with three adults also riding we can split them up and try to keep them all under control.

We make it to the range and the kids have a ball feeding the wallabies - we even saw a mother with a young joey in her pouch come down to drink and feed. We stayed for quite a while feeding and patting the wallabies and then headed off for the bike ride home again.

Bikes are really popular in Alice Springs - there are great bike paths all the way around the town and lots of people ride bikes -although it doesn't seem compulsory to wear helmets here, we never seem to see anyone else wearing them! The only problem we have found with the bikes are there are lots of thorns and glass around, so you really need thorn-proof tubes, which the kids didn't have. So after replacing the standard tubes a couple of times - we went and bought the thorn proof tubes and Chris and the kids replaced them on the bikes.

There were lots of things to do around town that we could ride our bikes to - Chris, Anthony and the boys have also had a few trips down to the local skate park on their bikes - they have a ball riding in and out of the pipes and even try to convince the Dad's to have a go. We also rode into town to check out the quad bikes on display - Logan was in heaven!! They were all his favourite!! Some of them were pretty cool - even Lexie found one she liked.

Alice Springs has just about every sport you could want - I suppose it has to seeing as there are no other towns around for 500km's. There is basketball, baseball, golf, boxing, hockey, netball, swimming, tennis and a velodrome - just to name a few! The sport they have that really grabbed our interest, was the BMX racing. Chris has been driving past the track every day for work and had taken the boy past for a look - who were very keen to go and watch a race. We found out that the track was closed due to school holidays but would be open soon and they race on Friday nights. The boys were super keen to see a race - so hopefully over the next few weeks we might get down to see one - keep following the blog to find out what happens

Staying at the back of the pub had been pretty good up until now....however....over the last week or so we had a few little incidences happen that has really had us looking around for somewhere else to stay.

Beside us were two german brothers who had been travelling around Australia - we had chatted to them and gotten to know them a little since they had arrived. One morning we woke up and they found that two of their tyres on their car had been slashed during the night - A BIT SCARY!!! Then a few nights later - Chris was heading off to work in the morning and commented how the handles on the tool boxes on the back of the truck were all open, they weren't like that when we went to bed - someone had been trying to get into them!!! Luckily the boxes were all locked and nothing was taken....however.....I then found out that they Curry's had had a visitor during the night as well - the lock on their bikes had been cut!!!!

We had all decided then that it was time to move on to another campsite - especially when that night we heard movement outside the van again. None of us were sleeping, we were all stressed and tired - definitely time to move on!!

So goodbye Gap View Hotel and hello G'Day Mate Tourist Park.........

posted by The Oakey Family at 04:54 AM 0 Comments
 

 

 
THE TRAVELLING OAKEY'S
 
Chris, Nicole,
Jack, Logan and Lexie

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