Easter 2017

9 families headed south to Dunsborough for Easter weekend. We were an impressive presence at the Dunsborough Lakes Caravan Park until the Tuesday after Easter. The kids (all 20 of them) had a great time biking, playing mini golf and riding the float with the Easter bunny!

When not wrangling an army of children the adults and older kids did some MTBing at the Pines in Margaret River. At the top of the new tracks we spotted some unsavoury wildlife…

Luckily there were no kids playing in the mound when we found it.

After Dunsborough most families left to return home. Three of us stayed on and went the 8km down the road to Yallingup Beach. It was a very relaxing part 2 to the holiday. We went on walks, did more biking and of course visited a couple of wineries!

The boys did some supping and Kristie, Kate and I went on a rather exhaustingly sandy trail run!

Van celebrates his 7th birthday in Yallingup so of course there was cake to round the day of biking off.

Until next year!

Easter Weekend in Denmark

Dave and Ellis took Thursday off to head down to Denmark for Easter. We travelled the 400+km without a hitch and only one pit stop at Kojunup for coffee and a play. We spent most of the day driving and setting up camp along with the Edwards, Jameses, Hudsons and Marshalls. Luckily at the camp site there was a great play park and bouncy pillow to keep the kids entertained while the adults drank beer and got sorted.

The kids were great and spent much of the time entertaining themselves. There was also a birthday party with pin the tail on the donkey!

We had a great walk to Monkey Rock which provided excellent views and very nearly a heart attack for Kate with kamikaze Dylan at the top!

We also paid a visit to Ocean Beach where we recreated the beach olympics but this time to music (thanks Rhys).

Saturday was rather wet but that was not any issue once we agreed to jumping in puddles!

BBQ on the beach

A nice winters day going up north to have a BBQ on the beach.

A weekend in Dunsborough to support Denise and her team in the Busso half ironman

The Fords invited us down to Dunsborogh for the weekend so we could help out with Evie and Amara and cheer on Denise in her 90 km stint of the Busso half.

It was an ace weekend of activities with the kids and shouting near the transition for Denise. The team put in a sterling effort and Denise could even walk today!

Representing North Coast TC and raising money for muscular dystrophy.

Evie and Ellis holding hands in the car.

Oh look! Dave is a climbing frame, how unusual!
Saturday was spent at a lighthouse, the beach and drawing in a spectacular location by sugarloaf rock. We also got to watch a seal playing around and pod of dolphins frolicking in the ocean surf. Can’t go past a tree without scaling it…

Many attempts to scale the lighthouse walls.

Dave having a short rest in the sunshine.

Ellis and Amara hunted for shells.

Hunting for beasties in Rockpools was fruitless but fun.

Great friends.

Colouring with a view.

Off to climb.

Ellis and Dave at the top.

We also learned a valuable lesson on beer storage at Occy’s while enjoying lunch!

Ellis still goes in for a kiss with a cracking pout!
Tom still sporting his shiner after using his face as a brake last week on Whore no More.

And we went to feed the farm animals in the rain. Evie was petrified at first but by the time she had been round the bunnies, Guinea pigs and parrots was less fearful of the llamas, goats and sheep!

This parrot never goes near women… So spent most of its time on Dave’s shoulders.

The llama in the background shortly after this was taken barged past the other animals and stole Ellis’ bucket of carrots. We were in fits, she was less impressed!!

Perhaps this sheep had a heavy night.

A great family weekend away.

Longest ocean swim!

Denise persuaded me to take part in the Sorrento OWS for Australia Day. It was 1.25km which was short compared with the 2.5, 5 and 10km options! We both survived despite a lack of sighting buoys; we both went a little too far out but I think Denise won the off course comp after being repeatedly asked by the boats to “head back towards shore”!

I am very pleased to have made it and not panicked too much (even when tickled by a stinger) and am actually looking forward to this weekend’s Olympic distance in Busso.

Lancelin with the kids

Team pathfinder (as in all the family’s have the same car, we are so trendy) set off for a day at Lancelin. Once there we set off up north of the sand dune area to drive along the beach until we found some peace and quite and set up for some beach time

Here we spent the afternoon playing in the sea, tig, running in and out and building sand castles. Lara bought me a cool ball that bounces on the water that kept me entertained for ages! Love it!

next up was to break out the Boogie board, none of the kids had done it before. They all had a go and loved it. It was pretty short lived and we didn’t want to put them off, so after each had 4 or five runs we called it a day and went back to normal beach playing, they all wanted more so hopefully we can keep up the motivation for it.

On the way back we drive up and throughout eh actual sand dunes. I had never been driving in sand dunes, intact I still haven’t as i had that morning slammed my thumb in a bike rack so couldn’t drive so Lara did all the driving. Not gutted at all.

what do you call a group of Pathfinders?!?!?!?!

A great day and will have to come back up with the kites as the wind was strong and constant! Look forward to going back! Till next time ‘Lano’

Rottnest with the Tadeuszeseses

An early start was required to make the most of a day trip to Rotto to meet the Quokkas. The original idea to cycle while there was abandoned and we opted for the hop on hop off bus instead. We visited a few beaches and Ellis loved petting the Quokkas (which we afterwards found out you’re not supposed to do). It was rather windy but beautiful and lots of shells were picked to add to Ellis’ collection. We also had a close encounter with a Dugite which decided to pop out of the sand only a few cm from where Grumpsy had been sitting! We followed it to get pictures.