Is that a John Deere?

That really looks like fun

Hardwick Happenings

As you can see we are now harvesting the last of our crop. Mill stops tomorrow and we have no choice but to cut in the bog and ruin the crop for next year or leave it unharvested until next year. Doug is not very happy, the contractor and the mill have mucked him around again. We were supposed to get cut out last week in the dry. Merryl was 2 metres away from being hit by a bolt propelled into the principals office by a shang hai today. Glass sprayed everywhere. The culprits haven't been found yet. A snake in the kitchen yesterday...I wonder what tomorrow will bring! Still not game to publsih a photo of the barracks for chloe!!!

Janine's finally finished

Janine's Formal and Graduation is finally over and it was a big 2 days. Nana and Poppa were there to see her dressed in all her finery and surprisingly Lauren was working in Toowoomba those 2 days and was able to be a part of it too. Graham and I got out of our working gear into something more presentable and enjoyed the evening show with other the parents. They all 'arrived' at the school grounds (it has a great entrance for this) and after photos, nibblies and speeches, fireworks in the oval brought this segment to a finish. We then went to Rumours for the dinner and dancing - yes Graham got up to dance in the father/daughter dance but they both got a bit lost trying to work out the Pride of Erin on the crowded dancefloor! The evening ended with the students forming a guard of honour down the staircase for the parents! Rather moving!!

The Graduation Service hld a few surprises too - Janine gave the Valedictory Speech! We sort of knew but Nana didn't so she was quite moved! Janine then got a surpise by winning the All-round Achievement and Christian Character Award as well as an Academic Award.

Holidays, glorious holidays! Part 2

One of the highlights of our holiday would have to have been our bike ride. A bike ride you say? That doesn't sound very interesting!? But wait! You havn't seen THIS bike!! Take a look at this beauty!!

Mitchell's moment

Mitchell had 10 seconds of fame on the stage at the convention centre on Tuesday night. He got an academic excellence award. On wednesady night we went to Babinda speech night to see Kimberleys friend Rebekah get school captain. Two speech nights in two days... I could think of more exciting ways to spend my week nights! Actually it wasn't bad.. TAS music was very entertaining.

Holidays, glorious holidays! Part 1

Thanks Aunty Merryl! I sent you a msg on your birthday...did you get it? I had a fantastic day but more on that later...

Pete & I have just come home from 2 wks up at the infamous Caloundra penthouse. It's hard to come back down to earth after all that relaxing but so it goes! Due to terrible weather we spent most of the time watching movies, reading and playing Stars Wars Lego on playstation (no, I admit, it wasn't just Pete!).

Chelsea and Steven joined us for a night on the first week and we spent a lovely rainy-ish day at Montville (much to the delight of the boys). Got all our Christmas baby shopping out of the way...Pete's sister Bronwyn had twin boys in July and his other sister had a little girl in July also..and one of my bf's Julie is having a little girl in February so Chels and I got baby shower shopping done too.

Happy Birthday Anna

We thought of you yesterday. Hope you had a great day. It's a good thing we get a minutes silence on your day!! how could we forget Love Hardwicks

Central Queensland News

Well not much new is happening up here! I just returned from a weekend away with some of the teachers at Rydges at Yeppoon. Was lovely but got too much sun and now I'm red and sore! Not a lot has happened up here since my last post. It looks like I won't be at Mt Larcom next year which is good and a little sad! Not sure where or what I will be doing. Have applied at some of the private school which will be ok. I know God has my life worked out and thats all I need to worry about.
Janine I can't believe you're driving congrats thats so exciting you'll wonder how you ever survived without your car.
This is a picture of me with Kym, one of my really good friends up here. I was trying to find a more interesting pic but they will have to wait. Maybe after I'll try and get some rydges photos up and some of my sunburn. Hope I haven't bored you all too much.
Talk soon
Leetice

janine on the road

Hey Janine, That's fantastic. Now you don't seem to have answered the schoolies question. Which direction are you heading. We will know to look out for you.

its tru...

Hey crazy cousins
This blog thing is really hard to work out so i hope it works
Yes aunty nell its all tru... i have my licence so all u other drivers better watch out! I had 7 mistakes and ur only allowed 7 so that was kinda lucky :) And yes i'm going to schoolies ... 15 days to go!! Catch you all later luv lots xoxo

I heard it on the grapevine!

Just heard this morning that Janine got her drivers' licence. Is this true? Hard to believe little Janiney is old enough to drive! Hope all is going well for the country cousins doing exams, etc. And Lauren even Aunty Janelle new some of those names. She did however not know the sunny cowgirls, or whatever. Are they from the Sunshine Coast??

I'm off to the big smoke of Bribie tomorrow. The annual trek for the hairdresser. I feel like I'm wearing a beanie. Can't wait to take it off!!!
I'm looking forward to the weekend. We have a retreat at work. A whole weekend scrapbooking. Well I'll probably be doing cardmaking some Christmas little numbers..... We have a practice Friday night at our place for the Mission Trip Uncle Kerry is organising once again. This time we will end up at Mt Larcom and see Leetice before she finishes up, up there. A whole new bunch of y.p. so it will be interesting. Anyhow I'm off to bed.....An early start tomorrow.
Love Aunty Janelle.
P.S. Is Janine going to schoolies???

Spirit of the Bush

Hi all,
Just thought that I would let you know what has been happening in the little town of Roma lately. Well, not so little last weekend. Roma doubled its population, due to the "Spirit of the Bush" troupe rolling into town. It was a free concert put on by Lee Kernaghan, Adam Brand, Sunny Cowgirls and others (even my city cousins should know those names!) to rally farmers in the area battling the drought. I donned my RM's and headed off to the showgrounds looking to have some fun. It was a great afternoon/night, watching all the performances and I managed to catch up with a whole bunch of people that I hadn't seen in ages. The highlight would have had to been Lee Kernaghan- he is an awesome performer. Other than that, I have been busy trying to study for my uni exams coming up in 2 weeks. Luv Lauren

mother of the bride in aunty lyndals dress

hardwick happenings

hello family,

Thought you may like a look at some of the photos of last months events.

One of the wedding, one of Kimberleys birthday, one of the bridge on fire in the dismantling stage, the cousins haircuts and poppa and mitchell in the surf. I'm not game to show Chloes new home yet..... and now I'm having trouble putting on more than one photo...how do I do it cousins?

Love Aunty Merryl

What a Great Day...

Beach Party!!!

My 21st birthday party was a ball on the weekend...Anna, being the official photographer to the birthday star hopefully will post a piccy soon!
The day started at 730am at Windward Passage as we picked the perfect party location as we looked out from the balcony. We hired a slow slow slow 7 person bbq boat (minus the bbq), loaded it up with beach balls, a kiddies pool, 8 umbrellas, 1 main shade, drinks and nibbles, leis and sombreros and what seemed like a tonne of other stuff and headed off to party island. Unfortunately we discovered that the fantastic island location we picked would come at a much bigger cost than expected...that is about a 50m trek across sand hills...not quite the pleasant walk Steven and I recalled taking on our recent holiday at Caloundra, especially when you are lugging the above mentioned party accessories!
Following the long wait for a very slow returning boat (captained by the handsome Dean) and a hike through the sand we had all arrived and the construction of the beach slip 'n' slide began - for about 30mins we watched the dreams of 10 young men unfold as they carefully moulded out the perfect slip 'n' slide down the beach while the girls relaxed in the kiddies pool under the shade of our sombreros! Unfortunately due to severe abrasions to the stomach the slide closed after about 6mins and the footy began.
A beautiful steak hamburger, watermelon, chips, choccies and cake for lunch and my beach party dreams were complete - big thanks to mum and dad for missing half the party to prepare it all (not planned very well)! It was an awesome day but yet somehow for the muscular pain it caused I don't think it will ever be repeated again! I'm sure my obliging friends and family only love me so much!

Coming Up for Air

Howdy nephews and nieces and aunties,
Finally working out again how to get on to this blog again. I've been a bit busy at work lately with Christmas promos starting already. Going to the big city on Thursday for a training day at Kelvin Grove. Always fun to see other store owners...... Uncle Kerry is busy as ever. Came back from Fiji and now has a Mission Trip coming up with fundraising, practices, etc to be done. He also is doing a funeral this week for one of Vaughan Bruton's 24 y.o. mates who was killed on Sunday in a motorbike accident. His father (the mates) is Vaughans boss, was travelling behind his son and saw him lose control and plough into a tree. Apparently they went bike riding most Sunday's together. Rather sad. Be careful all you motorbike riders!!!!!

Now, most importantly, how did the party go on the weekend. Are there any photos to be seen...... Although I was locked up inside all day, I did get to look out and see that the weather seemed okay. And I didn't hear of any air/sea rescues at Bribie so I'm guesssing it went well????