We packed up and took our van to storage and began the very boring and long drive to Perth. We stayed in a cabin at the caravan park, which seem luxurious to us. I walked outside to grab something from the car and Jake followed me out. Jake asked me to take him to the amenities to do a poo. The look of excitement on his face when I said that there was a flushing real toilet inside, was priceless. The traumas we are putting our kids through on this trip! That evening we caught up with Ton, Cam, Jordan and Riley. Was really great to see these guys again. Had a few good laughs and a fabulous catchup with our lovely friends. Then the very lovely Ton even drove us to the airport and looked after our car whilst we were away.
It was a really long day travelling home, made us realise just how far from home we had been. We flew from Perth to Melbourne then flew from Melbourne to Launceston. My Dad picked us up and then we drove an hour home to Devonport. It took all day. The kids were so good at travelling, we only went slightly more insane than before! They were so excited to see family again, they've really missed everyone back home and so have we. Needless to say we had a quiet day the next day.
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| The in flight movies and food kept us all entertained |
We flew home just before Christmas. I thought it was best to wait until we got home to do the Christmas shopping and do it all in one day. Remind me never to do that again, not my smartest idea. We left the kids in Deloraine with Beth and Ruth and madly rushed around getting the shopping done. We had time for a get together at lunch time with Marks mate Anthony. Not sure either of the boys drew a breath for all the talking! Then we stayed for dinner in Deloraine that night. We had missed Beth's 70th birthday a few weeks before so we went out for tea to celebrate.
Our plans were to try and catch up with as many people as we could whilst we were home. We popped out to Port Sorell and caught up with our fabulous mates Dan, Kram, Chels, Bingo, Maria, Amelia, Ez and Damo. It was so great to see our mates again, plenty of laughs and stories to tell. Had a yummy tea and the kids even got in the pool. The kids all seem to have grown up so much, its amazing how much can change in a couple of years.
Next to visit was my lovely friend Bec and her family, Ashley, Toby, James, and Elsie. They had just finished building their first home and it was great to see it completed. Made us a bit jealous seeing we now live in a caravan! Their children had also grown so much, but still the same delightful kiddies.
We just love Christmas, just putting it out there. We love everything about Christmas including the parades and carols by candle light. The small country town of Latrobe near home put on a great parade. We saw quite a few familiar faces and got to watch my Mum, seeing everyone she knew! Then we planned on going to the carols, but due to the weather it was held indoors. We almost didn't go but went in the end with Mum and the Collies. Dad bailed, apparently the parade was enough for him! It was rather amusing and different. Basically there was hardly anyone there and was a little corny. But then the kids got to go on stage and be part of the show and they loved it! Was well worth it in the end, even if we couldn't convince the old fella to stay!
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| The kids are there but a bit hard to see in the photo |
My Pop now lives in a nursing home in Launceston, due to his dementia. We wanted to spend some time with him, so we took him out for a Christmas lunch. It was lovely to see him again but sad to see the progression of this awful condition. He seemed to enjoy his wine and pizza though, apparently they don't provide that at the home! Was great to see the kids responding to Pop and being understanding of his problems. The best bit was when Pop saw Mark, his eye lit up and he gave him a huge smile. I think Mark must be a favourite!
This year my little brother James got married to a lovely girl from Canada. We weren't able to make it to the wedding so we were pretty excited to meet Robin and her two kiddies Rio and Finn. Yep that's right, more kiddies in the Thorp family. The kids are pretty similar ages to ours and have been emailing to get to know one another. And luckily they got on very well, especially Charlotte and Rio, they became fast friends and soon joined at the hip. I think Finn and Jake liked each other but I think Jake may have been a little full on for him!
We drove to Coles Bay to see them and also my little sis Megan who is also living there over the summer. My sister is a very special Auntie who is friends with the fairies. She arranged a beautiful fairy party on the beach over looking the Hazards for the children, was pretty special, just like her!
We miss our gorgeous dog Jazz so much when we were away. As soon as she heard our voices when we got home, she came racing. She's doing pretty well considering she's 13 now. We took her and Raju for a few walks, was interesting listening to the kids talking about training the dogs back when we lived at Shearwater. So pleased they remember these happy memories.
Christmas Eve we went with Mum and Dad to the Emmetts house as is the tradition. The kids had fun playing with the extended Emmett clan. But we made sure we were home for an early night. The four kids were so excited leaving their stockings out and a few treats for Santa. It was interesting chatting with the others about their family traditions in Canada.
The deal was that the kids couldn't go into the lounge room before 7am, a deal that was negotiated with all the other adults. I can tell you it was hard holding the kids back, but at least they got an early morning snuggle with Gran and Grumps. As soon as the clock hit 7am, they were off. They were all so damn excited, it was beautiful to see. Once the kids had discovered all their new treasures from Santa we found time to exchange the rest of the pressies. Our family is growing in size, so it took a while!!
We try to have the Christmas lunch outside each year and we were lucky enough to have a beautiful Tassie sunny day, doesn't always happen. The lunch went really well, we over ate, over drank and generally had a great time. This year at Christmas we had Mum and Dad, Ben and Mel, Mark, Charlotte, Jake and I, James, Robin, Finn and Rio, Megan, Auntie Trudy and Grandad.
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| Mum doing the turkey! |
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| Santas little helpers |
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| Dad got a little chuffed! |
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| two of my favourite people in the world! |
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| Its not really wine, I promise!! |
As you can probably tell from the photos, we had a great day. So nice for us all to be together, it doesn't often work out that way. Then that night we had tea with the Farr clan at their house. Once again the kids played and the adults chatted.
On Boxing Day we went to Deloraine to have lunch with Marks Mum Beth and Sister Ruth. Beth cooked a yummy lunch with all our favourites. Kids got carried away with Ginger Beer and christmas crackers. And the kids got spoilt rotten with lots more pressies. And we both did pretty well too!!
That afternoon we all drove through to Launceston to have tea with Marks brother Alan, Tracie and their son Caleb. By this time the kids were pretty tired, it had been a busy few days. We had a BBQ tea and exchanged presents for the kids. They ran around and played with their cousin and his cousins on his mums side. Charlotte even got in the pool, apparently it was warm enough. We really did have a fabulous Christmas and boxing day with our families.
After having such a busy Christmas time we had a couple of quiet days at home before we ventured to Launceston to spend the night with our mates the Huetts, Johnny, Paula, Sam and Abbie. Once again it was a great night , these guys always manage to make us laugh. Great to be able to catch up with them again and the kids all got on really well. We even got to see our old cat Jena, unfortunately since then she has passed away.
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| Drinks on the deck as usual! |
Marks lovely Mum and sister looked after the kids for a couple of nights and Mark and I went to Hobart. We stayed at my sis's new place on our own with no kids, no kids!! We went for walks, out for meals, the movies, MONA, the yacht racing and the Taste of Tas. Basically just spent time together. It was so so nice to spend some time together as a couple without our little cherubs. Much as we adore then.
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| Freezing Mt Wellington |
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| Sydney to Hobart yachts |
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| At MONA, modern art place in Hobart |
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| Some pretty cool and weird exhibits! |
Then my parents picked up the kids from Deloraine and brought them to Hobart. It was New Years Eve and we decided to motor the yacht over to Salamanca. Was sat and had wine and nibbles and watched the fireworks going off from a barge near us. Was such a special thing to do on New Years. The kids and adults loved it.
The next day we went sailing down towards Bruny island. It was a beautiful peaceful day, the kids had a turn of sailing, we did some fishing and generally enjoyed being out on the water again. That night the wind picked up, luckily we had anchored in a sheltered bay that night. The next morning we had a very eventful crossing the channel back over to Kettering. The front hatch blew off and water was pouring into the front cabin. Mark and I spent a good bit of time bucketing the water out. While Dad was on deck battling the wind and the rain to get us to the jetty. The kids got a bit scared but it all ended up OK. Mum and I took the kids to Megan's and dried out all the gear. The next morning the wind had died down so Mark and Dad sailed it back to Hobart. We got a good education on the perils of the sea around Tassie the last couple of days!
We stopped at Coles Bay on the way home to see the rest of the family. We had a busy night with lots of others at James and Robins. Plenty of laughs at least! We went down to the beach in the wind, it was pretty bad. We could see James Yacht on its mooring, it seemed OK. Unfortunately when James managed to get out to it a couple of days later it was full of water. A sad day for the Dawn Treader.
The kids and their new cousins had such a great time together. It was hard for them to say goodbye. Cant wait to spend some more time with these little kiddies in the future.
I've always wanted to have a go in Mum and Dads sea kayaks but my ass was always to big. It was so much fun, if a little scary to finally get a turn. Mum and I had a fun time kayaking down the Mersey River. When we turned to go back I got bit close to a moving boat, I waved to apologise to the skipper, only to realise it was anchored and wasn't moving, I was! Gave Mum a good laugh!
Our next catch up was with Meegan, Carly and Sophi. We last saw these guys in QLD and was lovely to see them again. We went for a walk along Freers beach, reminded me how much I love this place. Can easily see us living here again, but we'll see!
When I was in college and Uni my two best friends were Bec and Megan. We all live in different places now and have families of our own. Whilst I was home so were they. We had a fabulous dinner one night at Becs with everyone. The girls and the kids also went to the berry farm for afternoon tea one day. It was so nice to be back with friends who have known me for years. Its pretty special that after all these years and distance, we're still friends. I've known Megan for 23 years and Bec for 19, pretty cool, except that it makes me old!
One of my favourite days whilst being home was spent out at Port Sorell. Our friends had arranged to have their boat (and our old boat) at the beach. We spent the day fishing, swimming, biscuiting, having a few drinks and lots of fun and laughs. Was such a great day, the sun was shining and I'm sure the birds were singing!! A pretty special day, reminded us of all the times in the past we've hung out with these guys.
Mark and I took the kids to our favourite beach at Hawley for a picnic lunch and a play. Whilst we were having lunch an echidna waddle past! Then we went to Ghost Rock Winery. We had driven past this place almost everyday whilst we lived in Shearwater and had never been! The wine was delicious.
We headed out to visit Marks old work mate Brad and his wife Kell. Had a quick catch up whilst they were having a garage sail before they move to Victoria. Then from Spreyton we went to Shearwater and had lunch with Marks other old work mate Aaron, his wife Ton, Camo and Lachlan. The boys had grown heaps and they kids had a great time playing. Whilst the adults chatted away!!
I also managed a couple of catch ups with my friends from work. Was lovely to see Sharon, Andrea, Tammy and co again. We even made it to a trivia night at Mackeys, which was rather amusing. I was woeful at it of course!!
We lived at Mum and Dads whilst we were home. They loved having us, well I think they did! May have been a little noisy and loud at times!
We met up with Bec and the kids again. It was a beautiful sunny day, we went to the park, for an ice cream and a swim at the beach in Ulverstone. It was pretty hard to say goodbye to these guys.
We'd been to my friend Tracey's place earlier in our stay but I forgot to take pictures, oops. We had one last play with her, Katelyn and Sam, Dan and the kids, at the Bluff. Once again good times, and hard to leave! sniff sniff
My little horse mad daughter convinced her Gran to take her visiting to ride a horse. It was Mums friends grand kids horse. Charlotte had a lovely time with the horse and is of course even more horse mad than ever! She has some grand plans for when we eventually get a house... Then we went and had fish and chips for tea at the Bluff.
It was Marks Uncle Keith's 70th birthday whilst we were home. He had a party in Launceston with 50 or so friends and relatives. It was funny to see the kids faces when they realised they were related to so many people. Jake's couldn't believe how many Woods's there were!
My friend Victoria and her family were away in New Zealand for all barr a day of our visit home. We had time for one play date at Anvers Chocolates. Grace and Charlotte got on beautifully as usual and it was amusing to watch two full on boys like Jake and Max, they had a great time together. Another dear friend who I miss while we are away.
Gosh that's the end of the Tassie photos. I'm sure I've forgotten to add some. Life's been pretty hectic since our return to Geraldton and I'm writing this three months later! Our trip back home was such a fabulous time. We were so busy seeing people and catching up that we came back to Geraldton pretty exhausted. It has made us realise what a special place Tassie is. Its such a beautiful place and we are lucky enough to have some wonderful friends and family who we love and miss so so much. Upon lots of discussion we are now planning on returning to Tassie to live at the end of 2014, all being well with getting jobs and a place to live. But you never know, plans change!
