T.I.R.E.D.

I took the kids to stay at Grandpa's house, to catch up on some playtime with their cousins. It is a two-hour drive, which is why we stay overnight. Did I mention that I seriously don't like driving? I have to say it was lovely driving down on Wednesday morning, bright and sunny, one of those "great to be alive" days. The kids were excited to be visiting their cousins, and actually behaved quite well in the van for that long (a pleasant change). We met my sister at the huge playground in Pakenham and ate hot chips out of the paper together. My kids had a ball in the playground, there is nothing like this near to where we live. It was a bit windy, so as it got cold, we headed back to Jen's place to play some more. The girls hatched a plan to stay overnight with their cousins, so the boys were a bit put out, but were consoled with the promise that it will be there turn to stay over next time. I am going to try to make this trip every school holidays.

I took a heap of photos at the playground, but didn't seem to get many good ones. I am getting a bit frustrated with my photography skills at the moment, I am having trouble with the harsh winter light, and many of the photos weren't focused properly. A couple of my kids aren't very co-operative with the camera at the moment, but Noah still asks for me to take his photo, so there are a few nice ones of him in the batch.



Thursday morning I left the boys with Grandpa and went to Pakenham for a 50% off sale at the scrapbook shop there. I went as early as I could, got some MM foam stamps, rub-ons, a K&Co Christmas album I have been looking for on ebay for 6 months, four bottles of glue, and stacks of patterned papers. All at half price! Gotta love a bargain.

Jen brought the kids back for lunch, and my other sister joined us too. Packed the car mid-afternoon in the rain, and headed home just after 3pm. I really don't like crossing the mountain at dusk, the road is quite winding, and kangaroos tend to spring out of nowhere. However the weather got worse, it rained, then the Valley was full of fog, and it was dark by 4.30. So much for getting home before dusk. That drive across the mountain must have been one of the worst drives of my life. Light rain, slick winding road, darkness, and then cloud down when we reached the top, the kind of cloud that headlights reflect off and give near zero visibility. We crawled along at 40km/hour for at least 5km before we got down below the cloud. It was really good to get home last night! The dog went crazy on us all for at least 20 minutes, and Ray was glad to see us too. I slept well last night!