It was a huge August and the kids have only gotten more busy, not less. We’ve had birthday parties, sleep-overs, soccer finals, dress-up days at school, martial arts Jedi training and more. Here are some of the highlights!
Dad took LR and RJ on the train into the city to look for a present for Mum's birthday.
LR has been doing some rock climbing lessons with some friends on the weekends. There are two main areas, the really tall climbing walls, where she is harnessed to a rope, and a free-climbing area with no ropes, but padding on the ground. It’s great fun!
That's one big wall.
After our first few days in Shepherdstown, we took a quick road-trip down to Charlottesville and Nelson County, Virginia to catch up with some old friends. We only had a few days, so we didn’t get to catch up with everyone that we wanted to, and it’s something we unfortunately have to get used to (until we become ridiculously wealthy and can extend our vacations to months at a time). After getting back, we had some more fun with Grandpa Jeff and had some more cuddles with Baby V.
We drove down to Nelson County, Virginia to visit Jimmy & Jane, great friends of ours. The customary cookies and hamburgers were very popular.
Last week, RJ and LR went off to try out trampolining. Their coach is an Olympic medalist and they are using full-sized Olympic equipment — these are some BIG trampolines. While LR’s schedule is pretty heavily booked up these days, it looks like RJ is going to stick with it after we get back from our trip.
RJ catches some serious air time as he works on his tuck jump.
LR’s birthday rolled around and, despite appearances, we managed to keep it fairly simple (no giant parties, sleepovers, movie nights, etc.) LR loved every minute of it and is already making plans for next year!
After searching nearly ten bike shops in the area we finally found a bike cool enough for LR.
On Sunday, we took our last trip to the old house (before ownership transferred to the new owners on Monday). We wandered around, admired the veggie patch (now overflowing with food ready to eat), and gave the kids’ trees a farewell climb. We were all sad to go.
In 2005, when they resurfaced the street and redid the curbs, we took the chance to leave our mark!
RJ says goodbye to his tree.
LR and RJ have one last climb as they say goodbye to LR's tree.
Mum reaches to switch off the lights for the last time. Goodbye house!
Near the kids play room,
There was a frog pond,
And a swingset too,
And a piano,
That had never, ever been tuned.
And there were three gum trees,
For climbing and feeding bees,
And two veggie patches,
And a pool that splashes,
And rooms full of light,
And no palms in sight,
And a study with a desk, always covered in mess,
And a street full of neighbours who were the absolute best.
Goodnight house.
The trip to Rotto with the school was full of all sorts of events, beyond the amazing LR learning to ride. A series of school competitions and activities took place on Saturday, despite the massive bursts of rain that showered down throughout the day!
RJ explores Longreach Bay on a final wander around the island.
Easter and the Autumn break rolled around once more, so we took off down south to unwind and relax a little. We brought our friends M, J, J, and I along with us and we all had a great time. Big events this time around were several extreme rock climbing sessions, decorating eggs, the Easter morning hunt, a hike through the Karri forest and the required horse riding.
We made it to the top!
Despite the hot weather, we made it up to Gingin for the grape harvest, but Grammy, Poppa, Kath and Brad had already picked all the grapes and crushed them the day before we got there! We made the most of it anyway, picking a lot of figs and table grapes that were ready to eat. Mum cooked up some fig jam and we had a big sewing ‘sesh’ during the heat of the day, before going for an explore out in the paddock.
Our incredibly brave**, heroic** and good-looking** dad rescued us from this marauding beast** that had been ransacking the countryside and was intent on destroying the farm.
We found this guy having a drink from the dog's water bowl. He's a bobtail lizard which are pretty common around here.
**Hyperbole employed as official privilege of the author
Last weekend, we took another trip down south — this time much shorter, but still lots of fun. We went exploring a Karri forest, visited a wildlife park and climbed some huge rocks.
Not siblings... Just friends. These are three of the many rescued joeys at the wildlife park.
