Six Years Ago
Around six years ago, a few weeks after Chris and started dating, I was invited to join him, his family and his uncle & aunty and their family at their bi-annual camping trip. That year it was in Bunbury. So this Present day
Fast forward six and a bit years ... would you believe that Chris and I just came from a weekend of camping, on an UNpowered site, with only a few of the luxuries of home?? And we all enjoyed it :)A few weeks ago we decided it would be good to get away for the long weekend, and thought it would be great to go camping in Bunbury, at a caravan park only a 5 minute drive to our family, T&K, that we have down there.
Chris had arranged with work to finish early on the Friday, but on the Thursday his boss gave him the option of not coming in and making it an extra long weekend. Chris said yes, thank you! So instead of me having a stressful Thursday night and Friday morning, trying to clean the house and pack, we were able to do it all together. We also had a little helper who insisted on carrying things out to the trailer.
We pulled out of our driveway just before midday and the trip down was pretty uneventful. Lucas was absorbed in watching a dvd, and only slept for an hour (the whole day!). Tahnee, who had just been fed before we left, slept almost the whole way down, woke up 20 minutes before Bunbury, and was happy to play with her hands and feet, until we were 5 minutes away, and then she screamed to let us know she was bored and hungry!!
After checking in, we drove around to our site. In the caravan park we stayed in, all the unpowered sites have a camp kitchen between them, with bbq's, microwave, fridge, freezer, kettle and toaster and sink. The sites aren't huge, especially compared to the ones in Esperance.
When we drove up to the site, we unloaded the kids and gave them something to eat and drink, before starting to set up. We began with the tent, and then had to decide if we could set up our oz trail gazebo we bought with birthday money. It was a tight squeeze, and we also still needed to park our trailer and car on the site. We decided to just wait and see, and continued setting up the tent. When we were only half way through setting it up, Tahnee decided she was well and truly hungry, so I ended up feeding her in the car while Chris plodded on. Just after I finished feeding, K and the kids arrived to take Lucas with them. They ended up staying to help us unload the trailer and convinced Chris that the oz trail would fit.
And this was our set up, with trailer, car, tent and gazebo. It was the best site, as we had a tree for shade, but it was on the side. Some sites had a tree in the middle!! We also had shade cloth down to reduce the sand and dirt. The wooden poles on the LHS was the edge of the site, and the oz trail was literally on the other edge. The rear boundary of the site was just behind the tent. I think we used almost all of the space available :)
 |
| Kitchen and Sitting Area under the Oz Trail |
 |
| Storage Area in the Tent Annex |
 |
| Our room |
 |
| Tahnee's Room |
 |
| Lucas' Room |
Thanks to the help of K and the kids we had the unloading down very quickly. They then headed home and we followed them. Immediately K and I headed out to do a small grocery shop and ice run. We were borrowing T&K's esky, so hadn't bought any cold food and drinks along.
The next morning the kids woke us up around 6am and we sat down to a breakfast of toast and cereal. We then prepared for a morning out, visiting the Donneybrook Apple Fun Park, a huge, enclosed playground that caters for kids of all ages, and even has exercise equipment for adults!
After the playground, T&K headed home and we headed back towards our camp. We stopped past to get a few things at the shop and some lunch. Thankfully our kids both fell asleep within a few minutes of leaving the playground, and we managed to transfer them to their beds where they kept sleeping. It allowed both of us to get an afternoon nap in too :)
When Lucas woke up, we spent time with him, reading and painting.
That night we again had dinner with T&K - lamb, steak, sausages and salad. Yummy and easy! Earlier that day, K had asked if I wanted to go and see a movie. However, since I still feed Tahnee, our plans all hinged on her. Luckily she fed earlier than expected and we were able to go. It was great having a girls night out, no kids :) We went and saw the movie "The Vow", which is definitely one I would watch again.
The next day was Sunday and in Bunbury church starts at 10am. Since Tahnee would be due for a feed around then, Chris went with Lucas in the morning. T&K and their also went and let me and Tahnee stay at their house. Tahnee sleep the whole time!! It was a little strange having the house to myself and having peace and quiet. Usually at home their is always something that needs doing, but this morning I could sit back, read, do my nails, finish my hair - all without kids
When the rest of the group came back from church, we enjoyed a yummy lunch, and then Lucas, S and Tahnee all went for sleeps. As I was going to church in the afternoon I also laid down for an hour, before feeding Tahnee before I left.
The afternoon was a special service. We could witness the baptism of a cute, little baby, the ordination of a deacon and have the service led by a new minister, who used to be one of my teachers back in Albany! After the service we went to congratulate the new parents and Bryce commented that the baby "was smaller than Tahnee". Yes she was, but I don't think she will be for much longer judging by comments her parents have made :)
When we arrived back home after church, we were again treated to dinner at T&K's, this time pizza! While we were waiting for the pizza's to cook, I was able to take some photos of the kids ... and of Miss A's drink bottled!! She insisted on the bottle being in the photos and even went to the extent of trying to sneak it in!! All with a cheeky grin on her face :)
After dinner the kids spoke for a few minutes with Opa, Oma and Uncle K via skype, something Lucas has never done before! They then had a story read to them by Chris before going down to sleep. The adults sat down to play a game.
The next morning was our last morning in Bunbury. We had a cooked breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs and toast. The decision to have a hot breaky put us behind a bit, so we had to rush to get cleaned up and packed up in time for the 10am check out. It took us longer than expected, but we pulled out of the caravan park at 1030am.
 |
| How we found Lucas sleeping - must have been cold! |
We headed to T&K's to leave the trailer behind, and then went into the City to the markets we had heard about. These markets were a little boring, so we got back in the car and went for lunch and drinks at the Dome. After this we headed back to T&K's and made the decision to head home. However, since Lucas had extremely bad nappy rash (reasons unknown), we had to wake him up to change him. Then we realised Tahnee needed a feed within the hour, so I fed her early and let Lucas play with the kids for a while longer.
On the way home we realised it was a mistake to wake Lucas up, as he refused to sleep until 10minutes before home!!! Along the drive home he was pretty whingy and cried a lot. On the other hand, Tahnee was great and slept most of the way :)
After arriving home, we put Lucas down for a sleep, unloaded the trailer, unpacked everything and sat down for dinner and time to relax and reflect on the great weekend we just had.
Thanks to T&K for making us welcome, providing us with dinners and lunch and taking us out and about. We had a great weekend and look forward to doing it all again, hopefully sometime this year :)
No comments:
Post a Comment