Celebrating the Queen's Birthday in the not so Snowy Mountains

When you live in the Commonwealth you have to celebrate the Queen's Birthday. It's terrible, I know, a mandatory public holiday. As a result we had a long weekend and seeing how it is the beginning of winter (still adjusting to how strange that is in June), we decided to check out the Snowy Mountains and make our way to the village of Thredbo. The snowy mountains are roughly 5.5 hours southwest of Sydney by car. Unfortunately, since it was the beginning of the already short snow season, there was next to no snow. Luckily, since it was "opening weekend" there were still a lot of fun activities to make the most of our weekend away.

Happy passenger!

We opted for a late evening departure from Sydney last Friday night with the hopes that the girls would sleep most of the trip and they did! The drive down was uneventful and thankfully we didn't find out how our car would hold up against a kangaroo, although many other late night drivers had clearly not been so successful in recent days.

We found our way to Bernti's Inn and although most lights were out in the village, the owners had nicely left our key sitting on the front desk awaiting our late arrival. We didn't waste any time going to bed, but Saturday morning still came too quickly even though we all slept in a bit later than normal. I sent Steve down with both girls to ensure we found breakfast before it was closed and when I joined them a few minutes later I didn't find Steve and Emma, but quickly found Morgan being held by a lady that I had never met! No I didn't panic. Actually, this is one of the reasons that I love traveling with kids, when they are cute, everyone loves them. And lucky for us, Emma and Morgan were pretty darn cute the whole weekend and were well loved on by several of the staff and family of the inn's owners. I can't say we complained that they held Morgan for us all of breakfast (and that Morgan let them hold her)!

Emma woke up before the rest of us and I found her suitcase
unpacked and everything organized to her liking!

With our lift tickets and rental equipment cancelled for the weekend, we set off to explore the small mountain town and all the special activities for the weekend. First up on Emma's list was a kid's treasure hunt. Treasure hunts seem to be on her mind a lot lately, so it was perfect time and she had a blast rotating with mom and dad's help throughout the town. With a bag full of candy as her treasure she was a happy kid, but her day only got better when it included her first hot chocolate, face painting and kids' dancing, fireworks and a fire stunt show. So, in other words I think all of the activities of the day were planned for Emma, but Steve, Morgan and I didn't mind tagging along and watching her delight, especially when it actually snowed as well!

The day went quickly and we found ourselves surprised at how cold we were. We'll place equal blame on ourselves softening to the warmer weather as well as the fact that we're pretty sure the concept of insulation doesn't exist most anywhere in Australia. So we were happy to get to bed early after our late night the day before, only to be awoken an hour later by the smoke detector in the hotel. I don't think either Emma or Morgan awoke to the alarm (amazing what kids can sleep through!), but they did wake up when we wrapped them up in blankets to make our way outside. While we should have been thankful it was nothing, I think it is fair to say we were more annoyed when they turned off a minute after we got outside. When someone else informed us that all hotels in town seemed to have sensitive smoke detectors, I'm not sure if it made us feel better, worse, or more worried that they might repetitively go off all weekend.

Cute kids ready to go!

A live snowglobe.

Starting the treasure hunt...

Treasure hunt success!

Celebrating with face paint and hot chocolate (not pictured: mom and dad happy with a glass of wine)!

Leftover ice!

Dance party!

Once again, no celebration in Australia is complete without fireworks and they did not disappoint - just look at their faces!

We were happy when we woke up on Sunday with no repeat smoke detector incidents. Even better was when we opened the curtains and saw clear skies and snow being made at the bottom of the mountain. While it still wasn't cold enough to make snow on the whole mountain they were nice enough to appease the children and make snow for all that had been anxiously waiting to play in it. Emma too was excited and our first stop involved lots of time throwing snowballs and rolling around in the artificial white stuff. From there we took the chair lift nearly to the top of the tallest mountain in Australia (Mount Kosciuszko stands at just over 2200m). The chair lift is open every day of the year and leads to many summer hiking trails and a restaurant at the top. We also found a little of the real white stuff as well! We had hoped to walk part of the trail to the Mount Kosciuszko lookout, but between the wind and ice we realized that wasn't going to happen with Emma and Morgan in tow. Settling for a drink in the warm and cozy restaurant was a good substitute instead.

Gorgeous morning view outside our window.

Our little snow bunny ready to go!

The "long lunch" in town (we didn't get tickets, but sure looked like a lot of fun!)

Kids snow play area.

Throwing snowballs at dad was one of Emma's highlights of the weekend.

Nearly the top of Australia!

View over the valley from the top of the chairlift.

Her new favorite treat and one of my favorite activities, sitting in the sun at the top of the mountains!

On the 15 minute ride back down the chairlift Morgan fell asleep and Emma enjoyed the ride so much we decided to make one more roundtrip up and back down. From there we all needed a little down time before Steve and Emma made their way to enjoy the indoor community pool. A water slide made Emma's day complete and we found dinner at a local pub before calling it for the day.

While she was still awake...

We were sad to see Monday morning as it meant it was time to head home, but not before Emma found a new snow area to play in and she made an impressive snowman with her dad's help. It was so popular that as soon as they turned their back on it there were other people there taking selfies with it. Who knew Steve was so good at making snowmen?!

Olaf!

We left Thredbo by midday, but we made a stop about halfway home in Canberra to see one of Steve's friends. It meant we could also officially check off visiting the Australian Capital Territory from our list. Canberra appeared nice, and as the national capital is certainly an important part of the country, but by outward appearance it didn't seem like too much to write home about. Certainly, much more like the midwest U.S. cities we were raised in than the picturesque Australian coastal cities that typically make all the tourist brochures. Perhaps we'll make it back one day and spend a little longer looking around and learning about Australian government, but that was not the day.

Just like our trip to Thredbo, it was pretty late by the time we arrived back home in Sydney. But this time our hearts were a little happier with the time we spent together.

Great memories!