January

Can you believe that January is already behind us?  Wow.  I can't say that it has gone fast because it seems forever ago that we were celebrating Christmas and the New Year. 

We've been busy though and life has been pretty full for a lot of January which meant that the days continued to roll on with their usual regularity.  Then I woke up one morning and realised that it was February.

 

January consisted of quite a bit of family time as lovely hubby took a little time off work which was really nice.

 

We went out for a picnic but took the boat instead of the car. 

 

 

 

That meant that hubby could do some fishing once he dropped the kids and I off at the northern tip of Bribie Island (Caloundra end).  We walked across the tip to the beach on what was a really beautiful day for the first day of the year.  (Yes, this was WAY back on January 1st).

 

 

 

  

 The kids had a great time cooling off in the surf...

 

 

 

...and watching the ships head into the port of Brisbane. 

 

It certainly wasn't a bad way to start the year.

 

 

Little Miss R's best mate came to stay for a few days so we went swimming and a zoo trip and a few other things to keep them occupied. 

 

Master W moved away mid last year and this is only the second time they've caught up since then.  They were pretty excited (understatement :) )

 

 

 

 

We also celebrated a 10th birthday.  I can't believe I no longer have any children with a single digit age now.

 

 

 

There were more trips to the beach while Dad was home too.  This time late in the afternoon on a really hot summers day to cool off.

 

 

Then we just had to have fish and chips at the beach before heading home.

 



 

 

The kids and I had a couple of outings of our own, usually when we had appointments or needed to get school supplies.

 

We treated ourselves to Churros from here which were very much a hit.

 

(I can't seem to get the link to work today.  It was San Churro café at Sunshine Plaza shopping centre in Maroochydore)

 

 

It was lovely to spend some time with the kids doing something a bit different and having fun.

 

 

 

 

It wasn't all about food though.  There's also a new project on the go with colours picked by Little Miss R for her blanket she's been harassing me to make for more than 6 months!

 

(more on this another day)

 

 

 

 The biggest news came from the very end of January when a new school year started.  Little Miss R is no longer Little and will probably be referred to as Miss R now that she has started high school.

 

Yes my girl is now Grade 7 and off to high school.  Eeeek!

(She's loving it so far by the way)

 

Hoping you are all enjoying your start to 2018.

 

xx Susan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday camping

A week or so ago was the September school holidays and lovely hubby took some time off so we could go camping.

 

We packed up two vehicles and off we drove.  Me in one towing the camper trailer and hubby in the other towing the boat.  We had one child each and Patch the dog was in his crate on the back of hubby's ute.  When you go on a family camping holiday you really can't leave the dog behind.

 

We went to Boondooma Dam which we have been to before but it's been a few years.  No other family members came with us this time, it was just our little family of hubby, the kidlettes and me. 

 

 It was lovely.

 

From late on the first afternoon we had the campfire going which pretty well ended up getting stoked up for every meal.  Our butane gas can stoves broke within the first 24 hours because their springs aren't very sturdy so it was back to the old fashioned fire to boil a billy to have a cuppa tea.

 

 



 

 

It was pretty dry and dusty where we were.  In fact it's been pretty dry and dusty everywhere with fire bans, crunchy brown grass and big patches of parched dirt everywhere.

 

The dam levels are really down from our last visit which turned into a bit of a positive for us.  Most people like to camp near the water so they can have their boats anchored near their campsites.

 

 

 

Being camped RIGHT NEXT to other people really doesn't appeal to us unless they're our family or friends.  We camped in the same place as last time and had no neighbours at all.  If you look in the middle of the next picture you will see our little camp right there in the middle of nothing. 

 

It's not that much of a walk down to the water and we were able to keep the boat down there the whole time we were camped as well as the kids kayaks.  We seriously had a whole huge amazing area to ourselves.

 

 

 

 

There's a bit of a walk to the top of the opposite hill up to the dam wall which the kids and I did one day.  They loved the walk there but decided it was a bit too long to have to go all the way back to camp again.  (Ice-cream bribery was involved and everyone made it just fine).

 

 

 

Patch came with us on our walk too and was a very grateful pooch that he was able to be a part of our family holidays too.  He did get a treat for walking all the way too but it wasn't ice-cream for him.

 

 

 

Not only were the kids bikes utilised a lot (perfect for a quick trip to the amenities when you camp a little further away from them), but the kayaks were used quite a bit too.

 

No electricity.  No computers.  No X-Box.  Just some old fashioned fun. 

 

Bikes.  Kayaks.  Tennis.  Reading.  Card Games.  Board Games. 

 

Hubby found out Master M has been learning to play chess at school so there was a lengthy chess tournament.

 

 

 

We taught Little Miss R to play Patience.  Most people would refer to it as the American name of Solitaire these days not the English version of Patience.  Once she realised that Poppy calls it Patience, that's the only way she will refer to it now.  She then played it A LOT!

 

 

 

We did catch a few Red Claw as well which is one of the main reasons we went camping at Boondooma Dam in the first place.  Unfortunately it was still a little cool (about 0 degrees celcius our second night there), and some decent pot fulls were still a few weeks away.

 

What we did catch was pretty tasty.

 

 

 

I cooked them very basically by keeping them in their half shell, brushing them with some garlic butter and cooking them on the hot plate on the campfire.  Bloody delicious is one of the best ways to describe them.

 

Time seemed to pass all too soon and next thing we knew we were packing up and coming home.  Lets hope we don't leave it so long before our next trip away.

 

xx Susan

 

 

 

Boats and fishing

Sometime during January we purchased a second hand boat.

 

 

 

The boat is in excellent condition but the owner is elderly and hadn't used it that oftenso we decided not to use it until we could get the outboard serviced.  That means that not only do we have to organise for when the mechanic can do it but also when lovely hubby is home so things can take a little longer than we would like. 

 

As they say, patience is a virtue and I finally got to go for a run in our boat.

 

 

On Thursday we dropped the kids off at school, bought a freshly cooked hot chook from the local grocery shop on the way home and then we both got to work.  While hubby hooked up the boat and loaded the fishing gear, I made roast chicken wraps and rolls and a flask of coffee.  Then we headed out for some special 'us' and child free time.

 

 

Getting used to the boat and how she runs and sits in the water was one part of our day.

 

The other was throwing some lines in the water and hoping we could catch some dinner.

 

Hubby started the proceedings by catching a really lovely grunter.  I've heard about 'grunters' before and now that we've finally caught one I realise why they're called that.  They seriously do 'grunt' when you haul them in.  It was quite amazing actually.

 

 

 

Just being out on the water and having some time to ourselves was pretty amazing actually.  We enjoyed coffee and our picnic lunch and just being able to chat about anything.  Not that we really chatted a great deal. 

 

Anyone who knows lovely hubby knows that he is a man of few words.  I am the conversationalist in the family.  On this day however, I think hubby spoke more words than me.  I just enjoyed myself so much and loved that we were together so words seemed pretty wasteful at the time.

 

 

 

Enjoying the passage and our local water haunts, and spending time together was definitely the order of the day.

 

 

 

....and the fact that I out-fished hubby doesn't hurt either :)  Some nice bream and whiting decided to jump on my line so I was pretty chuffed with our day out. 

 

 

xx Susan