This is the first of my #project365 photos with me in it!

This photo was taken on the 11th of January, I have just been a little bust and pre-occupied over the past couple of days with the current flooding here in Brisbane, as well as Central Queensland and through Queensland’s Outback.

So, this photo is Jackson and I playing the wii. The game is Rugby League 3 and Jackson LOVES it… He’s getting better at the game too but he HATES being beaten… and i REFUSE to let the Raiders get beaten, so games where I’m the Raiders are very difficult balancing game between me not wanting the Raiders to lose and Jackson’s frustration.

The game was Jackson and Kylie’s present to me for Christmas… It’s a great Christmas presie!

Too nice to eat!

Originally uploaded by ckjchambers

Photo Taken: 26th December 2009
Photo Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Funny photo. This was taken at one of my favourite restaurants, “The Cheesecake Factory” at the Forum Shops in Las Vegas. This restaurant has “good” food and “great” cheesecakes, like every restaurant in the US, the serve sizes are massive!

Kylie and Jackson are pictured with some type of chocolate cheesecake. Sadly, I must report that after having eaten their “entrees” (mains in ‘ztraylian”) the two of them were only able to eat but a few bites, after posing with silly looks and threatening to eat the whole piece.

Jackson at LAX

Originally uploaded by ckjchambers

Photo taken: 22nd January 2010

Photo location: Los Angeles International Airport

This photo was taken at Los Angeles International Airport, at the end of 30 days vacationing in the United States, whilst waiting for our V Australia flight back to Brisbane.

This photo is funny to us as Jackson and our friend Ian, who we holidayed with in Telluride, had been singing a Miley Cyrus song. Jackson was very keen to get his photo taken with the sign and have us show Kim and Ian.

I’m going to post pictures from our travels regularly here. Don’t expect any brilliant pieces of photography, just good old fashioned memories.

The condo is beautiful and has a great view of one of the ski slopes, lots of snow, big beautiful snow capped mountains and is pretty well located.

We had our first full day here yesterday and we took it very easy, no skiing yet. We went for a ride on the free gondola which goes up to the mountain village and had a look around, Jackson had a play in the snow and made snowballs and jumped in the snow, we had an afternoon rest, then went back up to the village and got fitted out for our skis and boots, Jackson had a go on a trampoline / trapeze thing (which he loved & I have a video of) and then out for dinner at a Thai restaurant (Jackson fell asleep).

We’ve run into a few Australians working here already. Apparently Tom Cruise is in town (I think his wife is stalking me).

Here’s a slideshow of some of the photos we took yesterday:

Here’s a video of Jackson trying out for a life in the circus. Aplogies it is sideways, just crane your neck for 60 seconds….

My take from EPCOT is that it is supposed to include some representation of what communities in the future will be like. If that’s the case, get ready for bunches of merchandise places, weird costumed characters and “scooter hogs” (more on that in a future post) to be everywhere.

At EPCOT there is a show called “Turtle Talk with Crush”. In this show the kids sit down the front of a small theatre on the floor and the parents / adults sit up the back. The show is pretty clever in that the kids are able to interact in real time with Crush the Turtle from the Nemo movie, who appears on a movie screen. As questions are asked the turtle responds to the specific questions and also makes comments about people in the crowd, like what shirt someone is wearing.

Jackson was sitting down the front with all the other kids and I thought I’d start video’ing Crush, because it’s just pretty nifty that they can do this. And then, Jackson asked a question….

Pretty funny stuff, hard to script this type of stuff I’d reckon!

We had a great day on our tour to San Francisco’s wine country, which included stops in the Napa and Sonoma Valley’s.

Saturday night we went out for dinner at a little Italian joint around the corner from the hotel. Jackson fell asleep at the table and I think if we’d have stayed much longer Kylie and I might have fallen asleep at the table too! We were all asleep by about 730pm and Jackson WAS NOT the last to drop off. We all had a great night sleep with the alarm waking us up at 6:30am, so even I had a sleep in which was nice.

After a VERY restful night of sleep we were off to “Wine Country” today! Our day was spent with Rick from Blue Heron Tours. Rick does a great day out and if you are in San Francisco, be sure to get in touch with him to organise your day out and about. Apologies to Rick, Jackson just could not remember his name.

9:00am kick off and at the first winery by 10:00am….. This would’ve been a fun day to spend with Kezza and Jane!

Over the day Rick took us to wineries which produce good sparkles and pinot. We went to 5 wineries, including Mumm and Tattinger’s for bubbles and Nicholson’s Ranch for Pinot and a stop at a very nice winery called Trefethan. We went to one other, but the name of it escapes me for the moment – their Global CEO is an Aussie and they have a winery in Vic somewhere.

The weather was great, the wine was very nice and I could very easily have settled in for a Sunday session at either the Mumm or Trefethan winery, which were my pick of the tasting room’s / locations.

Lunch was at a lovely Italian restaurant, we’ve got a great photo of Jackson showing his “best” table manners…. Our mains were fantastic! Kylie had what she claims was the best Ravioli she’s had and the Porcini & Sausage Fettuccine was pretty bloody good too. The highlight was Kylie’s Maple Syrup Creme Brulee… wow!

We got back into town early evening and headed off to ChinaTown for dinner. Jackson decided he didn’t want Chinese for dinner, so chucked a tanty in the restaurant and didnt eat anything. Quite funny…. (he didn’t think so)

This YouTube video is an update on the days activities from Jacko: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R-MfRCiCHA

This YouTube video is Jackson’s best of / worst of video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkCJjX3_YgE

Fun day! Day 3 update is written and ready to come soon.

Chris, Kylie and Jacko..

ps – we’re in New York now, Nanny arrived safe and sound.

Our flight left Brisbane a little late (thans Ju, Will and Pat as well as Kylie’s Mum and Dad for coming to the airport to say goodbye) and then there was a little bit of bumpy weather around Sydney, so we were delayed a bit getting into Sydney. By the time we got from the Domestic terminal over to the International terminal we had about 2 hours between flights. BUT, our flight out of Sydney to San Francisco was delayed by nearly an hour… Thankfully they hadnt boarded us yet and we just waited in the terminal. When they did board us they called for people in First and Business Class and families travelling with children under 5. Yeah! we got to jump the scrum…. that was by far the best bit of flying with a child under 5….

The “highlight” of the flight was Jackson starting to vomit about 4 hours out of San Francisco. He stopped vomiting after about 2 hours. He was not himself until after we’d cleared customs. He’s full of beans now.

We got in mid morning. We’re booked into a very nice hotel, right off Union Square. We step out of the front steps of the hotel and there’s the shops and the trams! Great spot, very nice hotel. They even had our room ready a little early and we were able to check in when we arrived – hooray.

Today we took it easy (if you call flying half way around the world with a vomiting child easy). We walked around the main part of town, into some shops, checked out the big Christmas tree and the ice skating rink in Union Square (Jackson said he does not want to ice skate… which is unfortunate as we’re going to make him do it in New York). Had an ordinary lunch at a restaurnt in the Westfield shopping ctr but a beautiful dinner tonight at http://www.pucciniandpinetti.com/index.php. Jackson fell asleep at the table – which is a first.

We’ve recorded a short video which we’ve asked him the best / worst bit of each day. It’s at YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h5egrnvZUI. Apologies for the film & interviewing quality.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Napa Valley for some pinot quaffing.

over and out,

Chris, Kylie and Jackson

Jackson had his orientation day at prep yesterday. He did so well, I was very proud of him. It’s true, it starts to hit you how quickly they morph from someone who isnt able to do a lot except poo and cry to an amazing critter who has the capacity to bend your will to do almost anything for them! Jackson is going to be going to “Ollie’s” – St Oliver PLumkett’s, which is Catholic School at Cannon Hill. The same school Kylie went too.

We got to the school at 830am or so and all the parents and kids went into a room there. Jackson was excited to see some of his friends from Kindy there, including Jack B, Molly, Amy, Noah and a couple of others. His favourite friends Jack Silver, Ziggy and Brandon are not going to the school but he was very happy to see his other friends, it helped him settle in. After about 1/2 an hour the kids were to go off with the other kids and teachers. Jackson was a bit reluctant to go and he did give me a few “I want to stay here with you’s”, but I walked him up the front and to the other kids and he was a real trooper and off he went with the kids. Brave boy!

There was a lot of information downloaded on us from a few different people in the school support group, the Deakin, the “minister” (I need to get up on the lingo now), the canteen lady, the P&F (no eye contact there), the board representative and so on and so on.

After an hour and a half or so the kids all came back and re-joined the parents. Of course Jackson had had a great time!

There was some type of name badge the current prep kids had made the incoming group and Jackson didnt get his for some reason (probably too shy to go up and get it when his name was called). So, we wanted to get that for him. I talked to one of the teachers and she said it was the room with the Yellow door and asked Jackson if he remembered where it was. He said yes….. but I dont think he ever knew. I went with him while Kylie bought the books, we got a little lost, but I did get a little tour of the school and we got there eventually.

Had some morning tea (jackson loved the bun with the sultanas and pink icing, he had 4 pieces, so I assume he liked it), Kylie bought his books (while I was on my magical mystery tour) and then they took me to work and they got to hang out together (BOO!, while I worked, Boo!)

I was very proud of our “little” boy, he did so well and was very brave. I’m sure he is going to love prep!

over and out,

chris, kylie and jackson

The end tally was:

Mummy’s 89
Daddy’s 52
I Just Wondered If 31

The main burst of activity happened over a stunning one hour period in which Kylie was barraged with Mummy’s as Jackson pleaded to go for a swim.

Jackson will be going to sleep in about 30 minutes. I am not writing off any chance of there being over 100 “Mummy’s” as Jackson tries to talk us into letting him stay up longer.

over and out

So, I’ve started a tally of how many times Jackson says “mummy”, “daddy” and “I just wondered if” through the day.

At 801 local the tally was

“I just wondered if” (shortened to “IJWI”) 14
“Daddy” = 24
“Mummy” = 17

I’ve taken an early lead as Jackson was playing his PSP earlier and needed my help on some hard bits. Kylie should still be considered the favourite to win the tally.

Updates will be posted to twitter: http://twitter.com/ckjchambers