The End of Our Trip

It is all over we have finished up in Brisbane, It is so sad but good at the same time. I have had enough of the van, I'm looking forward to getting into a house.
The year has gone incredibly fast i can't believe this chapter is over with a new one to begin.
We have seen so much the kids have experienced so many different thing which they would never have done if we didn't decide to leave the box we where living in. It has been so much fun seeing thing through the kids eyes they see things so differently.
We are so glad we sold everything (as scary as that was) it was the best thing we have ever done.
So if you are sick of something and need a change you are the only one that can change it.

We have been back to Melbourne to collect our things we finally found a house to rent,
I have enrolled the kids into School and they have already started and loving it.Ella is starting her first year at school she is so excited.
I think it is amazing how materialistic we become in our lives, it is unbelievable how much you don't need. As i have been unpacking some of my thing i keep thinking to myself what do i really need this for, when you are in the van with three kids you are limited for space so you only take what you really need.I was surprise what we don't need.


Mark has finally got himself back to work, i think he was really enjoying the good easy life it's hard to get back into the swing of things,
It is so much easier to to just travel. The hardest thing was to decide what to have for dinner and were to go next.

It has to be over if we want to continue to eat as the money doesn't grow on trees.
I don't think you really appreciate what you have done until it is over.
I have the odd moment were i would really love to be back on the road but for now we have to work and put the kids through school.
We have the van for sale which is really sad as it is so final, the van has been so good it had everything we needed to be comfortable i think our choice was a good one.

I do think i have grown from this whole experience i have learn how important it is to spend time getting to really know Mark again and for Mark to get to know Alyssa, mason & Ella as he spent so much of there lives working.

Thank you to everyone that has followed my blog i hope that it inspires some of you to do thing you though you never would, life is to short so live it and enjoy it don't put off today what you think you will do tomorrow.
I will continue my blog as I'm off to Thailand in October.

IT HAS BEEN AWHILE

We have been to Brisbane which is where we were meant to be finishing our trip, Ella was so excited to see Ruby,but when we were there it was so busy i couldn't wait to leave after having the slow life it was all to much for me.
We decided to go up to Maroochydore and Noosa but it is all to expensive to move up there it was nice for a trip away.

We were back in Brisbane looking at places to rent but they where all just horrible you pay a fortune and get crap, so this was not making it easy for me to decide.
We then headed to Port Macquarie to see if we like it there and we did but not enough work there.
We are in Coffs Harbour on our way back to Brisbane still not knowing where we will end up. Stay tuned to where the Mannions end up.

MACKAY

We then went to Mackay and stayed in town for few days had a look around. Then we headed out of town to Eton to Marks place Corey, We stayed out there for 5 days we had a great time catching up with them all, the kids really enjoyed spending time with there cousins Alyssa, Kayla and Patrick.
We went out in the ski boat for the the kids swam and just had a great time.
They where excited to see some toys to play with.
We had a hard time getting the kids to leave.
Thanks for having us Corey and Carmel.

ARILIE BEACH

With a quick stop in Townsville we went to Airlie Beach it is the gate way to the islands on the Barrier Reef.
We spent 3 nights enjoying the sun, swimming watching movies on the big out door movie screen at the caravan park.
We didn't visit any of the island this time but we checked out Cedar Falls and Dingo beach.
We had a great time at Airlie Beach and hope to come back again and head over to the islands.

INGHAM

We are now in Brisbane so I'm quite behind so i have found time to catch up.
We stayed with friends, we meet them on our honeymoon quite a few years ago, we haven't seen them for 4 years so it is was nice to spend some time with them.
We were only going to stay for a couple days but ended up staying for 8.
It is so beautiful up here the sugar cane is everywhere so it is very green.

We spent some time out at there beach house so it was great to spend some time in a house,there was so much room.
We went out to get mud crabs Ray took the kids out on the biscuit, we went out to Wallaman falls.
We had a great time and didn't really want to leave.

4 days on the road to Ingham

We left Alice Springs and headed for the East coast, It took us 4 days to get there.
We had 3 nights out on the side of the road so it was cheap no parks fees,
On our first night we stopped at the devils marbles for the night the sunset on the rocks was beautiful we saw a dingo & got attacked by mozzies.
The next night we stayed at Avon downs we had a dog wonder in a camp with us for the night.
The next day we crossed over into QLD we call into the dino centre at Richmond then through Mt Isa and onto a camp by the river that had no water at campaspe river.
We met a nice couple from England, we had a great fire it would be the last one on this trip.
The kids found some really cute green frogs the pic's tell it all.
Then we made our way to Ingham we are staying with friends that Mark & i met on our honeymoon 13 years ago.
It has been 4 days and 3 nights out on the road so it was great to get here. The kids were great thank god for dvd players & ds games.

Back to Alice springs

We drove back to Alice springs for two nights, to take the kids to the reptile park which i said we would do when we where here last, and tgo stock up to get back to the East coast.
So i thought i would post a couple of pic's of the lizards.