Today we are off to Canberra for the "Ghosts of LCA Past" discussions. We are planning to have a little bit of a holiday around the weekend meetings. This will be Cameron's first plane flight and I am a bit concerned about how it will go.
Cameron seemed pretty excited to see airplanes when we were waiting at the airport and was even more excited when we got close to one. As with most things the worry about the plane flight was not warranted. Cameron fed during take off, and was interested in what was going on in the cabin for a little while and then went to sleep. He slept through landing, getting off the plane and collecting the bags. He woke up just in time for Michael to pick us up from the airport.
Michael brought Karl along too, and Cameron was pretty fascinated with Karl.
Cameron and Karl had fun playing together in the evening while Geoffrey and I spent some time catching up with Michael and Kristy.
Cameron had a little trouble walking on the polished wood floors at Michael and Kristy's house because he was wearing bonds wondersuits with feet, but we managed to find a pair of grippy socks for him to wear over the wondersuit which made it much easier for him.
Today Cameron and Karl spent quite a bit of time playing together. We stayed at "home", to recover from our trip - Geoffrey had worked quite a few long nights in the lead up to the trip to make sure he was able to have time off while we were in Canberra.
Kristy had to work today so we got met a couple of her family daycare kids while we were at home.
Today we decided to go to the Mint. I like to go to the mint to make the $2 one dollar coins (it costs two dollars to mint your own one dollar coin). This time Cameron had a go at making the coin. He inserted the money, pressed the button and then collected his newly minted one dollar coin.
We had a look at the displays but for a child of Cameron's age there was much more fun to be had outside on the grass.
When we got home from the Mint Cameron noticed the swing that hangs from the patio at Michael and Kristy's house so he had a turn on it.
In the evening we went out to a bar to meet up with some of the LCA Ghosts people. We met a couple of new people, had some good chats and some dinner - which was also pretty good.
On the way home I was a little concerned about Kristy as she was having some stomach cramping - given that she is about 4 months pregnant this didn't seem good to me. Luckily it all settled down when we got home.
Today was the first day of meetings for the "Ghosts" discussion. It was held at the Australian National University in Canberra. There were quite a few people there all with plenty of experience at running an LCA conference. I am not sure I have seen so many laptops in one room before, I think there was more than one per person - just kidding :-)
Cameron and Karl played in the back of the room pretty quietly while the discussions were going on. The only noisy part was when Karl jammed his fingers in the door, which was a bit unfortunate.
Just before lunch we went to have a look around at the conference venue. The venue looks like it will be perfect. Cameron came along with us and he seemed to enjoy wearing Geoffrey's sun glasses while we were outside.
We had lunch at a cafe on site, before heading back for more talking.
Today was again a day for talking about LCAs past. Today only had 1/2 a day assigned for this, which I was glad about. Cameron seemed to be losing interest in playing in the confined space, although while on one of our many trips outside the discussion room Cameron did learn how to climb down stairs (he already knew how to get up stairs).
At lunch time me and Cameron decided to go home with Michael, Kristy and Karl (in the hope that Cameron might have a sleep), while Geoffrey went out to lunch with a bunch of people from the Ghosts Meeting.
After lunch Cameron and Karl spent heaps of time playing together and exploring the very vast range of toys that Michael and Kristy have in their house.
After Geoffrey came home Kristy suggested a bath for Karl and wondered if Cameron would like to join him. As it turned out Cameron was very happy to join Karl and they had a nice long (and pink) bath together. They had good fun splashing around with each other while we looked on.
After a bath Cameron also had a ride on Karl's toy rocking horse. We don't have a rocking horse at home but Cameron quickly go the hang of it and he really seemed to enjoy himself.
We decided to go to Parliament house today to take a look around. Cameron had a good time playing on the marble stairs in the foyer of parliament house while me and Geoffrey watched him, and of course took lots of photos.
Cameron also tried out some of the chairs in Parliament House, while Geoffrey went off to here question time - we didn't think Cameron would find that too interesting.
In the evening we thought we might take on the chllenge of baby sitting for Michael and Kristy so they could go out but in the end we all opted to stay at home and have Pizza and KFC.
Today we headed back to Adelaide direct from Canberra. The flight was again uninteresting with Cameron falling asleep when we took off, and waking up as we touched down.