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Mike250 – Travel, Family, Tech & Sport Blog

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Home›Category: "Family" (Page 8)

Family

Because normal is just a setting on the dryer

  • Family
    December 11, 2025

    Katherine's Year 6 Graduation and Creative Arts Award

    There are moments as a parent when you find yourself rehearsing the speech you hope you never have to give. The one where you tell your child that their time ...
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  • Family

    Halloween 2025: Wonka Family at Bonnet Bay and Mt Kembla

    Halloween in Australia lives or dies on the back of ...
    View more
  • David Berry, Michael Doig, Gill Bockman & Sam Heughan at Supanova Comic Con, Sydney Australia 2025
    Family, Featured, Weekend

    A Dream Weekend with the Outlander Cast at Supanova Sydney

    As Outlander fans, we’ve often imagined what it would be ...
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  • Family
    December 19, 2003
    by Mike250

    The Family Is Here!

    Jenifer's family from California arrived yesterday after making the 1000 mile road trip. They left at about 9:30pm California time and arrived at about 2:30pm ...
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  • Family, Miscellaneous
    November 11, 2003
    by Mike250

    Portable DVD Player

    G'day! Check this out! I bought this portable DVD player this week because first; I've always wanted one, second; they're getting quite cheap, but mostly ...
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  • Michael Doig with sons Nevan & Liam
    Family
    October 11, 2003
    by Mike250

    New SLR Camera

    Well I just bought myself a new Minolta Maxxum 5 SLR Camera! My digital camera needs to be fixed, but I really wanted a nice ...
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  • Camping in Durango with Rick Callies & Jaimee Callies
    Camping, Family, Friends
    September 21, 2003
    by Mike250

    Camping in Durango, Colorado

    It has been a while since a photo update, but that is because I got sand in my digital camera when we visited California in ...
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  • Arwen - our black lab
    Family, Holidays
    July 15, 2003
    by Mike250

    New Home & Vacation

    What's been going on lately? Well we bought a home, yes, and have settled in pretty nicely now I feel. There's still a few things ...
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  • Family
    May 29, 2003
    by Mike250

    Liam is walking

    Well Liam is finally there, he is walking! 🙂 He started walking this week, and boy is he having a good time doing it. One ...
    Read More
  • New House Colorado
    Family
    May 28, 2003
    by Mike250

    We Bought Our First Home – New Beginnings for the Family

    We’ve done it — we’re officially homeowners! After months of searching, saving, and navigating the rollercoaster that is the American property market, we finally secured ...
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  • Liam turns 1
    Birthday, Family
    April 26, 2003
    by Mike250

    Liam turns 1

    Liam turned 1 today, Saturday 26th April 2003. We woke up first thing this morning, and after 2 cups of coffee got underway opening and ...
    Read More
  • Michael Doig reading to his sons - Nevan and Liam
    Colorado, Family, Friends
    April 9, 2003
    by Mike250

    April Photos, 2003

    Well I'm uploading some new photos taken this month, the month that Liam turns 1. Yes, he will be a 1 year old on April ...
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  • Family
    March 17, 2003
    by Mike250

    Just the boys...

    This weekend, from Friday mid afternoon until late Saturday night Jenifer was away on a women's retreat, leaving the boys alone with me for the ...
    Read More
← 1 … 6 7 8 9 10 11 →

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    Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness: History and Highland Views

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    August 23, 2017

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  • Culloden Battlefield, Clava Cairns and an Unlikely Encounter - Day 4

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  • Lallybroch, Falkland & Drummond Surprise - Day 3

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Harry Potter Studio Tour, Watford. We took the the Harry Potter Studio Tour, Watford. We took the themed coach from Victoria, which was air conditioned. In a heatwave, that alone was worth the money. Watching a somewhat pixelated Philosophers Stone onboard was... okay. Then you walk through the doors of the Great Hall and it lands. This is not a theme park. This is the actual set. The actual flagstones, the actual long tables, the actual Gryffindor banners hanging four storeys up. They built it, they filmed ten years of movies in it, and then they just left it standing. Highlights, and there were plenty: Ollivanders. Thousands of wand boxes stacked to the ceiling, every single one hand labelled with the name of someone who worked on the films. Crew credits hiding in plain sight. Gringotts. Marble columns, chandeliers, and the goblin tellers at their desks. Then you walk through into the vault chamber after the dragon has torn the place apart, still smoking. Mirin stood dead centre of that mosaic floor and just looked up. The wizard chess set, and here's the bit nobody expects: the pieces actually move. They're animatronic, and the demo has them shifting across the board, slow and heavy and strangely menacing. The greenhouse, and the mandrakes. You get to grab hold and pull, and the thing shrieks at you. Mirin did all of them - it was a school day so it was a bit quieter. Honestly better fun than the broomstick green screen demo, which is clever but you watch it. The mandrakes you get your hands on. Aragog and the acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest, which was sufficiently spooky. Number 4 Privet Drive, out in the open, in full sun by the Night Bus. And Platform 9¾, obviously. Trolley half into the wall which is compulsory. The finale is the Hogwarts castle model. It fills an entire room, it took eighty six people to build, and you circle it slowly while the light shifts from day to night. Best six hours of the trip so far. #HarryPotter #WarnerBrosStudioTour #StudioTourLondon #Hogwarts #GreatHall #Gringotts #Ollivanders #PrivetDrive #Watford #London #FamilyTravel #LondonWithKids #TravelWithKids #Potterhead #VisitLondon #WizardingWorld
Top deck of the Original Tour, no roof, no shade, Top deck of the Original Tour, no roof, no shade, and 35 degrees in the sun. It was a bold choice. The tour is a proper way to see the shape of London. You roll down the Strand past the theatres, under the dragon marking the old boundary of the City, past the Royal Courts of Justice, and then Fleet Street opens up and there it is. St Paul's. That dome sitting exactly where Christopher Wren put it after the Great Fire. Three hundred and fifty years on and it still stops the traffic. Then east, and across Tower Bridge, up through those blue suspension chains with the Tower of London off to one side. The heat, though. There is no shade on an open top deck. Passing the Shipwrights Arms, I reckon we caught London in the sun at its best. People spilling onto the footpath, lads downing pints, everyone out. Not a tourist attraction. Just real. England does not do air conditioning the way Australia does. You feel every degree of it. But a hot blue sky over Tower Bridge is not the worst problem to have. #London #OriginalTour #HopOnHopOff #StPaulsCathedral #TowerBridge #LondonEye #LondonBus #LondonHeatwave #FamilyTravel #LondonWithKids #TravelWithKids #VisitLondon #LondonLife #Sightseeing #Thames #Westminster
Butlers Wharf Chop House - highly recommended. We Butlers Wharf Chop House - highly recommended. We had an outside table right on the river, with Tower Bridge filling the whole view in front of us. We sat down around 6:45pm, by which time the London heat wave had finally let go a little. The food more than held up its end of things. Steaks, veggie pie, roast potato, proper triple cooked chips, tenderstem broccoli, and a chicken schnitzel for Mirin. Cold beer, spritz, plates everywhere, and the bridge sitting there behind it all like it was part of the decor. Half the fun was the passing traffic, because there's a walkway running right beside the tables, so you get a steady stream of Londoners and tourists strolling past, and you can watch them clock what's on your plate as they go by. Sorry, not sorry. Mirin coloured in the Tower Bridge on the kids menu, then carried it outside and held it up in front of the real thing for a photo. Her version has more realistic London clouds. We finished up with a family photo on the riverside as the sun went down gold behind the bridge, and it was one of those nights we'll still be talking about in ten years. #ButlersWharfChopHouse #ButlersWharf #TowerBridge #London #LondonRestaurants #LondonEats #ThamesSide #RiversideDining #LondonFood #SteakNight #FamilyTravel #LondonWithKids #TravelWithKids #VisitLondon #LondonLife #DinnerWithAView
Eight hundred years of art in one building, and Ka Eight hundred years of art in one building, and Katherine walked in like she'd been waiting her whole life for it. She had a list. Michelangelo. Da Vinci. Monet. Rembrandt. Van Gogh. One by one, the National Gallery delivered. The Manchester Madonna, unfinished, the underpainting still showing. The Burlington House Cartoon glowing in its darkened room. Van Gogh's wheatfield up close, where you can see every ridge of paint he laid down. Monet's snow scenes hanging three deep on one wall. Then Delaroche's Execution of Lady Jane Grey, which stops you dead. Got to tell Katherine the story standing right in front of it. Jane was queen of England for nine days, then arrested, then beheaded at the Tower at sixteen years old. Not much older than Katherine is now. The bonus of the day: a wonderful staff member leaned in and said "go and find the Russell." Turns out John Russell was an Australian, a mate of Van Gogh, painted alongside Monet, and taught Matisse about colour. A little piece of home hanging quietly among the giants. The best part wasn't the paintings though. It was watching the girls take it in. Katherine with her phone up, framing every brushstroke. Our five year old beside her with her own little pink camera, doing exactly the same thing. Two sets of eyes, seven years apart, both completely lost in it. And a nod to the room with the giant horse (Stubbs' Whistlejacket, 1762): that's Room 34, where Bond met Q in Skyfall. "A bloody big ship." Free entry. What a place. #NationalGallery #London #Art #ArtLovers #VanGogh #Monet #Michelangelo #DaVinci #JohnRussell #AustralianArtist #Impressionism #Skyfall #JamesBond #TrafalgarSquare #FamilyTravel #TravellingWithKids #ArtGallery #MuseumVisit #LondonWithKids #VisitLondon
Woke up in London and went on the hunt for somewhe Woke up in London and went on the hunt for somewhere to watch the decider. The city delivered: Aussie flags in the windows, blue and maroon easily spotted, expats packing the bars before lunch. We planted ourselves at St Christopher's Inn (the Belushi's Origin party was adults only). And what a game to be up for. The Blues stormed home 30-12 at Suncorp, Cleary running the show with two tries; cheers, groans and full-throated chants echoing round a London boozer before midday. Surreal and brilliant. Up the Blues. 💙 #StateOfOrigin #Origin2026 #NSWBlues #UpTheBlues #Cleary #Origin #AussiesInLondon #LondonPubs #TheGeorgeInn #BoroughHighStreet #London #TravelLondon #FamilyTravel
Time for Terry's. Tucked just off Borough High St Time for Terry's. Tucked just off Borough High Street on Great Suffolk Street, this is the real deal, a proper old-school London caff serving up honest, home-cooked British grub since 1982. Union Jacks on the walls, black-and-white photos everywhere, Monmouth coffee on the go, and full Englishes that'll set you up for the whole day. Meats from Smithfield, veg from Borough Market, zero pretension. Grab a mug of proper tea and settle in, just come hungry and come early, because the locals know. #TerrysCafe #FullEnglishBreakfast #FullEnglish #LondonEats #BoroughLondon #LondonBreakfast #LondonCafe #BritishFood #EatLondon #LondonBridge #SouthwarkEats #BoroughMarket #FryUp #VisitLondon #LondonFood #TimeOutLondon
Hayden's 18th! 🎉 We started planning this one a f Hayden's 18th! 🎉 We started planning this one a few months out; the day, the evening, the night, and the all-important cleaning of his hotel room and vacating before check-out the following morning! We built an app, recorded all the questionable "victories" throughout the night, scored free laser tag games against the staff, and total randoms were buying him rounds of shots before they headed off to the hotel that Hayden booked and paid for himself. That was my devious plan: if he's the one paying, he's far more likely to keep his mates in line on the mess-making front. And it worked. A thoroughly enjoyable day celebrating Haydos officially joining the adults. Hope you had a blast, mate! #hayden18 #strikebowling #holeymoley #finally18 #18thbirthday #legaladult #nightout #bestmates #birthdayvibes
A beautiful day on the South Coast of NSW with my A beautiful day on the South Coast of NSW with my son, daughter-in-law and grandson. The water was an incredible shade of blue and the white sand was absolutely pristine. So grateful for family time and this stunning corner of Australia right on our doorstep! #SouthCoastNSW #HyamsBeach #VisitNSW #NSW #Australia #BeachLife #FamilyTime #BeachDay #ExploreAustralia #SeeAustralia #TravelNSW #PhotoOfTheDay #BeachVibes #OutdoorAustralia #WeekendGetaway #AussieLife
Merry Christmas ya filthy animals #christmas #ti Merry Christmas ya filthy animals #christmas #tistheseason #matchymatchy
Violet Beauregard, Veruca Salt and an Oompa Loompa Violet Beauregard, Veruca Salt and an Oompa Loompa visited Bonnet Bay Halloween this year! As always, what a spectacularly ghoulish and grandiose party it was. #Halloween #BonnetBay #Wonka #OompaLoompa
An Outlandish weekend in every sense! We had the An Outlandish weekend in every sense! We had the absolute pleasure of meeting Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and Lord John Grey (David Berry) at Supanova Comic Con in Sydney, Australia. As VIP guests, we attended both of their Q&A panels - each packed with charm, humour, and heartfelt insight into Outlander’s beloved characters. A pleasant addition was Charles Vandervaart (William) who made a late appearance, joining David Berry on stage and adding to the magic. I was lucky enough to be selected to ask David a question during the panel. I said (paraphrased): "When we first met your character, we wanted to hate him. But over time, we grew to like him—and eventually love him. Lord John Grey is so complex, so emotional… I’m getting emotional just saying this. We were really barracking for him. What did Lord John teach you, either as an actor or as a person?" David’s response was incredible. He shared how, as an actor, he often felt frustration reading what John was about to face - wanting to get angry for him; but the character was written to consistently respond with kindness and love. That lesson, he said, stayed with him well beyond the show. Photos, conversations, and a signature (or two!) rounded out what was truly a dream weekend for these two Outlander fans. #Outlander #SamHeughan #DavidBerry #CharlesVandervaart #JamieFraser #LordJohnGrey #WilliamRansom #Supanova #SupanovaComicCon #OutlanderFans #OutlanderCast #OutlanderAustralia #ComicConSydney #OutlanderQandA #TimeTravelWeekend #FraserClan #Sydney #Australia
Melbourne and Phillip Island ❤️ #melbourne #melb Melbourne and Phillip Island ❤️ #melbourne #melbournecafe #melbournefoodie #visitmelbourne #igersmelbourne #phillipisland #visitphillipisland #travelgram #wanderlust #australia
A tiny house stay in Willow Tree, NSW. Glorious A tiny house stay in Willow Tree, NSW. Glorious sunsets (and sunrises) with wine, cheese and a BBQ on the deck, all whilst watching kangaroos 🦘 go about their business. If you haven't tried a tiny house stay, I highly recommend it! #tinyhouse #airbnb #willowtree #nsw #australia #visitnsw #instagram #photooftheday #travel #instapic #exploreaustralia #familytravel
Kicked off Australia Day fun on Gweagal land in Bo Kicked off Australia Day fun on Gweagal land in Bonnet Bay, joining the housewarming BBQ of our buddies, Brett and Abigail. Stacks of beef & lamb, drinks flowing, pool splashes, stories flying, and laughter echoing – what a ripper of a day! To top it off, Happy Birthday to their little man, Max! #AustraliaDay #Gweagal #BonnetBay #Sydney #BBQ #InstaDaily #PhotoOfTheDay #EverydayMoments #MemoriesMade #VisitNSW
Basking in the breathtaking beauty of Ubud's rice Basking in the breathtaking beauty of Ubud's rice terraces! 🌾 Don't be deceived, it feels like a thousand degrees. 😅 Did you know these terraces use the traditional 'subak' irrigation system, showcasing Bali's ancient farming wisdom? Developed in the 9th century and ecologically sustainable. Incredible. #UbudRiceTerraces #SizzlingViews #BaliMagic #GreenParadise #NatureWonder #ExploreUbud #RiceFields #TravelLaughs #TropicalEscape #BucketListAdventures #UbudVibes #IslandLife #Wanderlust

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Michael

@marksmanwaugh ·
6 Aug

Why do the Cowboys look like Titans and the Titans look like Cowboys?!

#nrl #nrltitanscowboys

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marksmanwaugh

Michael

@marksmanwaugh ·
1 Aug

#London in a heatwave even impacts these Australians! You really think "she'll be right" but there's nowhere to hide. Everything is a sauna! 😜

#TowerBridge is pretty special though.

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