In some exciting news for us - we bought an apartment! We've spent years lusting over real estate and imagining what we could eventually buy, and now it's happened. It's a cute little apartment, not too far from where we're living now, but it's a little bigger and perfect for us! We can't wait to move in (which won't be until around May next year). Here's to life with a mortgage! Eep!

Otherwise, life back in Melbourne has been good. A bit of an adjustment for me, and work has been insane since I started, but i'll eventually get the hang of things (I hope) on that front. Life-wise though, we've loved being back close to friends and so much amazing food! Melbourne really is the best! 

Enjoy some lovely spring photos from the last few weeks!

Caught this double rainbow walking home the other day! It was so bright!

East Brunswick Laneway

Blossoms

More blossoms! These ones at Melbourne Uni

Hot air balloons and the city views on my morning walk

More Melbourne Uni

"puppy party" in our local park

Coffees with Ollie

Ollie and his buddies

We found a super cute cottage just outside of Marysville, in a little town called Buxton, which was only a 30 minute drive from Lake Mountain (the snow destination). We didn't really have any huge expectations for the weekend, as I wasn't expecting much in the way of snow, and we really just wanted to relax. Well, our cottage was absolutely perfect and even better than we were expecting. It was super cute, with a great fireplace and a cute yard with a little creek running behind that we could hear whenever we walked outside. It was also pet friendly, so we could take the dog with us!

On our way to the cottage, we drove through the Yarra Valley and made a quick stop at the Chandon Winery to pick up a bottle of bubbles, stretch our legs and take some photos. I love that place. When we got closer to Marysville we drove through the Blackspur forest surrounded by gorgeous, tall gum trees on the winding road. It was just a spectacular drive.

Right before we got to the cottage, we stopped in Marysville to pick up a couple of supplies, and G had a play in the park. Again, so pretty, and such a great park for kids! Marysville is such a cute town!

Domaine Chandon winery

The motherland

Nice spot for a snack and a drink

Black Spur

Marysville

Our cottage for the weekend

We spent our first night afternoon and night just hanging out in the cottage, getting the fire going, eating cheese and crackers, reading books and just hanging out. Perfect really.

Saturday morning after breakfast, we headed into Marysville to rent some toboggans and get some snow gloves, and off we went to Lake Mountain. It costs $56 to enter Lake Mountain, which is the fee to bring the car in, and there's no avoiding it if you want to get to the snow. Once we we through the entrance point and driving up the mountain towards the carpark, I was pretty surprised by the amount of now around, which only increased as we got closer. 

The snow quality was much better than I was expecting (I had pretty low expectations) and was perfect for tobogganing and building snow men. There were lots of people there, but not too many to make it unpleasant, and there were a couple of different toboggan runs as well as cafes and gear rental. I think there were some pretty tame ski slopes as well but we just went to toboggan.

We didn't try any of the food there, as it seemed like overpriced cafeteria food, but overall it was heaps of fun and I totally recommend it for a fun day out (with or without kids). If you were driving up from Melbourne, it's only a couple of hours, so easy enough to make a day trip. I would also recommend stopping in Marysville on the way to get your rental gear, as it didn't take long at all, and the prices were great. There seemed to be quite a line up at Lake Mountain.

Overall, it was a perfect weekend, and I was so hard to drag ourselves back to Melbourne, and real life. We would definitely go and stay our in the same area again.

The "babbling brook" at the bottom of the cottage yard