Easter 2021

Ed was only 8 months for this Easter so Claire decided to take him up each day. We arrived on Friday and left on Monday. The weather was wonderful, around 25-29 each day. The kids spent most of the time in the water and it was freezing – they all shivered but claimed not to notice.

It was an amazing holiday, the kids all played really well together. They invented a game called “Touch Mouse” which one would shine a touch on the ground and the others would pounce on it. They went on a “dunny run” in the ute and as Lindi drove them away they all chanted “dunny run, dunny run” and Claire pointed out they probably didn’t know what it was. When they arrived back Maggie said to Claire “We went to the toilet!!”

Maggie loved handing out the chocolate brownies and birds nest she had made with Claire so much that when the Easter Bunny came and left her a humpty dumpty she decided to give out the smarties to everyone.

Another funny comment was because Maggie was having difficulty telling “Tony” and “Uncle Brian” apart and she said to me on the last day she kept “getting confused because they have the same head”.

As always, these trips tend to be the hardest to write up as they are just made up of many little moments. I doubt we will get weather this good again for a while – but hopefully we can all camp as a family next year!

Maggie outlasting everyone in the water, chanting “Canooooe”
Ed very happy eating mud

Freestone Creek

The Blue Pool was once a “locals” spot where if you were from the area you knew about it. Now, it is totally loaded with people so much that is it barely useable.

Using google maps (and a chat with a mate) I found another spot on the same river that looked quite good. It did not dissapoint. It was one of the prettier spots we’ve been to swim and Maggie had an absolute ball.

The sun set behind the escarpment early in the afternoon so the lack of shade wasn’t that noticeable for Ed. The parking was pretty tight but it was a 35 degree day on a Saturday close to the Christmas and New Year break.

Overall we will definitely be back.

Last Breach Trip Before Lockdown

It was obvious that in the covid-19 world soon a lot of activities that we took for granted would be finished. We drove down to Sale to see the Grandparents for what seemed to be the last time in a while. We made sure we got a trip to the beach in.

It was a lovely day and the wind was minimal, which is saying something for Seaspray.

Maggie had a lot of fun playing in the sand, I taught her protect the stick and she mostly enjoyed running back and forth in the waves and screaming.

Claire (pregnant) mostly lay on the picnic rug with Gaga. Pa and myself splashed around with Maggie and it was a really nice day all around.

 

You can tell Claire took this photo because the horizon isn’t level

Whitehaven with Maggie

Today was father’s day and it was quite special as we got to got to Whitehaven. I definitely think it’s one of the best beaches in the world.

She was very excited about the boat that had “Tiny Tim the Turtle” on it but she got quite motion sick. We got to see a whale and her calf which was very fun. Apparently the calf is always trying to check the boat out, and the mother herds her away. It has been a ritual for the last three weeks.

As soon as she got to the beach she became herself again. Maggie had an absolute ball, and just loved being able to swim and play in the sand. She was building things and going for a swim and just generally having a ball. What made things ever better was the muffin that she was given (and refused to eat on the boat – a definite sign of motion sickness) that she called “chocolate cake”.

Even funnier was when it was time to go back everyone got a squirt with a blue hose to wash the sand off. Maggie thought this was the highlight of the trip. Of course.

 

Maggie having a swim

 

One of the professional photos

Mt Buffalo – Day 3

Woke up after a warm night thanks to cloud cover and it wasn’t long before it started to rain. I got a bit of reading done in the car, and soon we decided there wasn’t much to be done but make the best of it. We went to where there was nice view and waterfall (Brad walked, the rest of us drove) and the waterfall was pretty cool. Given the heavy fog/cloud we were in, the view wasn’t to be seen.


Claire and I at the lookout

Towards lunch the weather started clearing and we were able to enjoy things a bit more. The kids were very keen to fish again, we went on a long walk around Lake Catani. The fishing was fun, some unknown campers from the other sides thought it would be fun to coo-ey us, and what followed was around 20 minutes of the kids coo-eying back. The day before Maddie had said “Dad taught me how to coo-ey, but now he says it’s annoying”. Classic gold from Brad.


Some more fishing

On the walk

And that was mostly it, Marshmallow time seemed to be the highlight of the kids trip, and probably Claire’s too. Even if our weirdo mate decided to join us in silence. Anyawy, figured I should throw in a photo of the kids loving it:

Only just got to bed before the rains started. It was a pretty wild night, we were right in a thunderstorm which wasn’t ideal.