Camping

I just typed for about 20 minutes and somehow lost it all when I opened another window to get my smugmug link to add to this post. Makes me want to cry. Precious 20 minutes while my baby is sleeping. ARGH. This is the smugmug link to see photos from our camping trip. Click Here

So that is why I haven't been blogging this week. We left Tuesday morning. Ashley stayed with Diane since it's pretty cold right now, at least at night. We drove about 2 hours south to the campsite we planned to stay at but it was pouring rain when we arrived. The decision to find someplace else was unanimous. We finally found a caravan park near Iluka which had small cabin-type places to rent. We rented one which we slept in, and Daniel and Katherine pitched their tent nearby. We all went to the beach once we had unloaded our stuff (seemed like we brought half the house). The boys had a blast in the sand and the girls ran around being crazy. Jared, me, Kate and Daniel sat in our chairs relaxing. It was a nice time of day, the weather was cool and the sunset was behind us.






The kids got all wet and sandy then we headed back for dinner. We cooked our sausages and things on the BBQ outside the "villa", as they called it. Later on the kids watched Shrek on Jared's laptop and the adults had hot chocolate and cookies on the porch. It was a nice evening. We lit sparklers, which I had brought, and Jared and Daniel sang The Star Spangled Banner. They actually remembered all the words. I was very impressed seeing as they aren't even American! We then had a nice evening walk to the river and let the kids play on the playground in the dark. We quickly realized this isn't such a good idea when William ran straight into a bar in the dark. Ouch. We all went to back to our tent/cabin and went to sleep about 8:30 I think. I was exhausted!

The villa was so muddy and dirty by morning. It was still raining off and on and the kids were tracking mud in and out. Not so nice. This is the part I don't like about camping. I just wish rain never had to be involved. Oh well. The kids loved it. After our breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs and toast, we packed up and headed back to the beach. I couldn't believe the kids weren't freezing. I was comfortable in my BYU Rugby sweatshirt and track pants. They stripped right down to nothing, threw on their swimsuits and ran into the water. Brrrr. They ran around for a few hours while we hung out and worked on a crossword in Katherine's gossip magazine.



Anyway, we left about noon and started driving back. We passed through a lot of rural, agricultural type communities, including Sugar Town, Macademia Castle, and Fruit World. Lots of banana trees and tons of sugar cane. The names of the towns were funny too. We saw Murwillumbah, Mooball, Mullimbimby and Billinudgel. We also passed lots of "Koala Crossing" signs and "Kangaroos next 20 km" signs. Funny to think they're just running around out there. Well, hopping and climbing, I should say.



We got back home about 3:30 pm on Wednesday. I was really missing Ashley by now. It's weird how you can feel so frustrated when a baby won't sleep or how you are always holding her and can't get things done, etc. but when you leave them for just 24 hours you miss them like crazy! I personally think it's great when you can get away as a mother. Gives you a chance to miss your kids. Jared and I were practically fighting over her when we picked her up. Thanks Mum for giving us a little break!