FRIDAY
We all travelled down at various times on the Friday. Dad and Mum took Lucas in the car with them so we could go to our KEMH appt and travelled down in the morning with Frank and Rachel and kiddies. Katie took her girls down and drove down from Bunbury with them, while Tim travelled after school with Bryce. We left straight after our appointment at King Edward and got there in time for dinner. Kyle left after work and arrived after we had all eaten.
For us, it was certainly strange travelling a long distance without Lucas in the car. But the drive was nice and quiet :) And we were told he was good in Opa and Oma's car and even slept part of the way.
As each family arrived, they unpacked their cars and got settled in. For those who arrived earlier in the day, they all went outside to explore and play games.
 |
| Rachel, Amelia, Katie, Sierra, Bryce, Lucas, Maddi (half hidden), Casey & Oma |
 |
| Not sure how Lucas ended up wearing a pink jumper :P |
For dinner we had fajitas. Starting and finishing each meal definitely took a lot longer than normal, especially with 7 kids to say "lord bless/thank you" prayers!! Poor Lucas was the last to say it usually, as it went in age order. But w all survived. After dinner the adults did the clean up and put the kids to bed. Then the boys headed into the lounge to watch a movie, my FIL and Tim went to take photos of the jetty and the girls played a game. It was a nice and relaxing evening after a very busy day.
 |
| Photo credit goes to Jake Vander Linden |
SATURDAY
We started the day off with a BIG BREAKFAST of toast, cereal, eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, pancakes and hash browns. It took a little while to prepare everything but was well worth it. Everyone ate too much, and we still had left overs!! These left overs went into other meals over the weekend.
Next we piled into the car and travelled down to Dunsborough to visit the Country Life Farm. Here the kids were all given a bucket of carrots and allowed to feed the animals. These animals included guinea pigs, rabbits, chooks, kangaroos, sheep, horses, donkeys and more. All the kids had so much fun :) Lucas especially loved feeding the horses through the fence.
The kids were also allowed to ride on a merry-go-round. After a few false starts and the manager realising they needed more fuel, the kids (and big kids) had a blast riding around. Meanwhile, Tim and myself stood on the outside taking photos.
Next we went to the outside playground where there were play gyms and ride on toys. Naturally this meant more photo opportunities for Opa and Tim :)
Our last stop at the Country Life Farm was the indoor playground with slides, ball pits and toys. Again, small kids and big kids alike had fun. And it was fun just sitting back, watching and listening to them.
After the Country Life Farm, we drove the short distance to Simmo's ice creamery and were treated to whatever we wanted to eat. Lucas tried a mandarin sorbet (dairy free) and absolutely loved it. He also loved walking around after the other kids :)
The afternoon was spent relaxing, either by sleeping or by watching the football game on TV or by playing games. We elected to have an early dinner, as the men and older kids planned to go to the Jetty and do some fishing. Our dinner that night consisted of jacket potatoes, a bacon and tomato topping, cauliflower, corn on the cob, chicken and porterhouse steak with garlic sauce. And to top it off we had garlic bread too! It was a juggle trying to make that much hot food, with limited utensils and crockery, but we managed!! The meal went down a treat and was enjoyed by all (i think).
While the men and older kids went fishing, the ladies bathed the three younger children, got them ready for bed and then prepared an apple crumble for dessert. We figured the men would be cold after fishing and would enjoy this warm dessert. Surprisingly, they were all back after about an hour, as there were no fish biting and the kids were getting cold. So after putting all the kids down for the night, we adults enjoyed the apple crumble and then sat around the dinner table and played games for the evening.
SUNDAY
I was a little apprehensive about how Sunday morning would go. Getting 16 people up, dressed, eat breakfast and ready for church at 930 would be a big effort. Yet it went surprisingly smoothly. There were no arguments about bathrooms etc and we were all ready to go by 9am.
Before breakfast i went to have a shower. Finding the bathroom occupied and knowing that Chris and Lucas were still sleeping, i thought I would head into the girls bedroom and spend some time with Amelia and Maddie. I crawled into one of their beds and had one girl on either side of me. Then i had this funny conversation with Amelia:
A: i cant see your eyes
Me: oh no (opened my eyes up wide and put my face close to hers)
A: i still cant see them!! go put your glasses on!
Breakfast was a help yourself to toast, cereal and home-made raisin bread. Lucas decided that he wanted to have fruit loops for breakfast instead of his usual weetbix, and he decided that it would be better if he fed himself...so our poor child ended up very sticky!! Luckily he was still in his pj's so it didn't matter too much :)
After church we headed back to the guest house for morning coffee of lemon tart and caramel slice, courtesy of Chris who had made them at home before the weekend. While we ate our cakes, the younger kids had their lunch and then it was off to bed. The adults and older kids then prepared for a yummy hot lunch of soup (tomato veggie/meatball or pumpkin) and rolls. Then the usual afternoon pursuits of games, TV, sleeps before most of the adults and the older kids went to afternoon church.
During this time, Frank prepared the wood fired pizza oven while Katie and I made the dough and prepared each pizza base. We had a variety of toppings including bacon, chicken, steak, sausage, pineapple, pepperoni, tomato, capsicum etc. We made a mixture of pizzas, so that everyone would have something they liked. And they went down a treat!! The only negative was that we could only cook 4 pizzas at once, and they took 20mins to cook, so it took a while...it was a bit like a progressive dinner :)
Then after dinner, we packed the car and prepared to head back home again. Only Chris, Lucas and I were leaving that night, as the others all had days off for the Monday. However, we needed those days off for when the baby arrives, and therefore elected to come back early. Thankfully Lucas slept pretty much the whole way back and we made it home in just over 2 hours!
Overall we had a FANTASTIC weekend with the whole family. The house was the perfect size and layout. The kids were generally well behaved and we all got along well. And its definitely a place we would consider in the future. And especially for us, it was nice to get away one more time before this baby is due to be born.
No comments:
Post a Comment