Holidays - Part 2

After we got home from holiday part 1 we had an evening to recuperate and then it was up bright and early for part 2.

Once again we took advantage (in a loving and thankful way) of our friends generous offer to come and stay with them at their weekender.

As I've mentioned before Warrawilla is just outside of Wingham about 5 hours north of Sydney. The property we stay at is this unbelievable rustic reclaimed mud brick and old timers home. It's buried in a valley, surrounded by rainforest like bush and wildlife galore. It's completely beautiful, and a great combination of camping but with comfort and hot and cold running water.

We arrived by 5pm on the 30th and were instantly handed a glass of wine and a comfy chair. The kids ran off into the bush almost immediately with their little besties and we soaked up the nature.

The next day was new years eve so we spent the morning relaxing and the afternoon trying to decide what we would do that night. In the end the decision was made for us with the arrival of the other people who share the 700 acre property.

Once the kids were in bed we lit the huge bonfire put on some music and danced, drank and laughed the night away. I finally wandered into bed around 4am.

We spent a few more days just chilling and drove home on the third, feeling completely full of all the things you hope a holiday will bring (laughter, drink, relaxation, space, general chaos, and fantastic company)

It was, I must say, pretty great to get home last night. As much as we all had a lovely time away (twice) I think we all also feel like its time for a break from festivities for a while and just enjoy being in our home again. That's not to say that we might not have another long weekend away before the holidays are over ... Did I mention how much I love the holiday period!!!

Memorable moments:

- The kids being completely chilled for the five hour drive up.

- Being out in the paddock NYE and one of the guys cutting open the glow stick bracelets I had brought. It was like living on Pandora (the world from Avatar) with everything having a luminescent glow. It was incredibly beautiful made even more stunning by the surroundings and perhaps aided by a little to much wine.

- Coming back to the house at 4am to have AB tell me that it looks like Hamish had the bug that Jack had as he had vomited four times.

- Going for a drive up to ELands, having a bite to eat and seeing the waterfall. Followed by a bad mummy decision to let Hamish have an OJ which was then followed by him vomiting on the way home again. Good mummy decision to pack a bucket in the car.

- Celebrating my and Jacks birthday with friends by having mini birthday pavlovas made with fresh cream and strawberries.

- Going to see the other houses on the property which included a visit to a wildlife carer. The kids got to pat a baby wallaby, two baby flying foxes, chickens, a bald cockatoo, and a very talkative bird. A perfect activity that happened to fall on Jacks birthday (who needs the zoo).

- Watching my kids run, and jump and paddle to their hearts content, whilst they got their heads around stinging nettles, leeches and the other perils of bush life.

- My birthday present from our friends was a gorgeous ring and a girls night out with tickets to see a comedian. Jacks was a journal that he has been wanting for ages that his little bestie picked out just for him. So far he is to scared to write in it because he thinks it's too precious ;)

- Ant and AB were making a new water tank stand and Ant forgot to put the handbrake on. This lead to a hilarious (albeit dangerous) moment when the old rangie with trailer in tow started rolling down the hill. AB jumped over a pile of bamboo trying to get to the door and Ant tried to catch it from the other side. It finally stopped as it hit a small tree. Car 1 Tree 0. Seeing no one was hurt it was exceptionally funny :)

- Getting home to find that our house sitters had not only looked after the house and dogs they had also bought us a thank you gift comprising of a bottle of wine, a bar of nougat, a jar of home made jam and marmalade, some manuka honey and manuka honey soap, a little book, and a gorgeous card. They had also put on a few loads of washing and filled our ice trays!!