Weekend up north...

Life has been so busy this year that we haven’t made it up north much. We had Libby come and stay with us for the first week of school holidays and planned to spend the last weekend of her stay visiting Mum and Dad.

We packed up the van and hit the road about 4:30 Friday afternoon. A pretty normal trip up there and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset on the way. Had dinner when we arrived and packed Libby off to bed.

The next morning we hung out around the house. Lib and I spent some time exploring the gardens and Tom sorted out Mum’s outlook connection to her new ISP. It was a lovely sunny morning and we enjoyed mooching about soaking up the sun. Mum and Libs had a bit of a blast around the garden on the quad… something Libby enjoyed as she thinks she is driving the bike!

After lunch we went for a ride into town and went for a wander around the Community Gardens down by the river. I can’t remember when this project first started but it is certainly becoming more established now and makes for a nice place to hang out. The highlight for Libby was the play area which is built in the shape of a tall ship and has slides, swings, ladders…. and a fireman’s pole!

Lately Libby has been a bit more hesitant having a go at some activities which is unusual for a wee person that up until now has been fearless when it comes to climbing, jumping and swinging… Not sure where that’s coming from! Although she wanted to go down the pole she stood by it telling us “I can’t do it!!”. Tom went and took her down with him. The next time she decided to go by herself but needed a bit of coaxing from Tom as her guided her onto the pole, holding onto her as she slid to the bottom. After that she went “all by myself!” and then there was no stopping her!

A quick bit of retail therapy was had after that at the Warehouse before we went to visit Grandma…. Janene’s Grandma, not Libby’s.
As we headed back out home to Mum & Dad’s it was decided we’d whip out to the beach. Lib fell asleep in the car and was a bit groggy when we first arrived but soon woke up once she realised where we were! We found an old screwdriver which was the perfect tool for writing her name in the sand so she wasted no time in making her mark.
There was a shout from the wagon, Dad had spotted something unusual in the surf…a massive lump of kelp?… or…. is that a seal? It was in very shallow and looked to be flailing about. We weren’t sure if it was playing or whether it was injured so went down to get a closer look. Libby was keen as mustard to check it out and we had to watch she didn’t get too close in case it was in a … er … grumpy mood. Anyways, as we got closer we could see that it was okay and that it was simply playing. Rolling about in the shallows and no doubt getting a lovely old back scratch and exfoliation! When we got to the waters edge it finally noticed us. Sitting up it took a good look, we didn’t move any closer at this point because, well basically we didn’t want to piss it off! It mustn’t have been as interested in us as we were in him because it flopped back into the water and rolled and lolled his way further up the beach… nothing to see here folks!

We had a lovely roast dinner in the evening, set our clocks back for daylight saving so we would be on time to leave on time in the morning.
Another weekend had flown by all too quickly!