But first Kelsie lost the back of one of her earrings last night, it’s a screw-back so that makes it an even greater achievement.

There was the routine morning swim, Kelsie and Ethan were so ready they actually had to wait for the pools to be unlocked, and the pool cleaning machines were still going when they jumped in.

2 hours north of where we are staying is the famous Australia Zoo. Kelsie and Ethan being well versed now in long drives didn’t even bat an eyelid at the prospect of this journey. Though they were asking for snacks at the half-hour mark. Both managed to have small naps on the trip and were ready to go when we arrived. The 30-degree heat was something we might not have been ready for. Dad’s runners were still soaked through from the day before. Ethan was out of socks so had to spend the day in sandals. And we didn’t pack enough cold water.

For a while, we were tracked by a train and the background of I’m going to guess Mount Tibrogargan was pretty spectacular.

Despite all the animals on show, Ethan was most adept at pointing out ‘Bin chickens’, Bush Turkeys, and free-range lizards roaming the park. Kelsie was counting the lizards more than looking at the animal enclosures, the final lizard count was 34.

The shuttle bus that runs from the entrance to the extreme end of the park, ‘Africa’ only had 24 seats and only ran every 25min. This resulted in Dad carrying Kelsie the full Kilometer back to the Crocoseum. Mum and Dad both caved at this point and agreed to an indulgent lunch including icecreams.

One of the crocs was stalking a ‘bin chicken’ in its enclosure deciding if it was going to be second lunch.

It was special to get to see the Wildlife Adventure show hosted at least partially by Robert Irwin. We actually spotted him as we arrived, but missed the opportunity for a snap as he ducked into the animal hospital.

Ethan was full of crocodile facts as we left Australia Zoo “If you’re 50 meters from a river a crocodile will get you, won’t it mummy!”

We caught up with neighbors from Melbourne who moved to Brisbane recently, on the way home. Kelsie had been asking to see her friend Ioni for over a year, so a trip to Queensland would never be complete without a visit. At dinner Kelsie and Ioni kept trying to eat the ‘Harrold Halt’, then they were joking about something that Ethan wasn’t impressed with so he told the girls to ‘Zip your mouth’.

Mum did a spider dance walking into a spider-web as we were leaving Ionis house and hurt her foot. Then read out a notice about a deadly sea snake on the loose near our holiday apartments and that was all Ethan could talk about for 20min on the drive home. Then he was trying to spot the lightning in the clouds until he fell asleep about 20min from home.

Home around 9:30 and Kelsie and Ethan were spent. straight to bed. Tomorrow will be a quiet day in the pool!