The Big Fella started his first away week of training and it was the first week of school holidays. So the Little Big Fella and I headed into town to hang with him for a night. In the morning we went and got breakfast before the Big Fella took us to the airport to fly to Victoria and see my family.
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| Don't touch my hot chocolate!! |
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| The Little Big Fella and I often do selfies when we're travelling. We enjoyed playing with the different varieties this time! |
I just need to stop right now and say that I love my family and I miss them terribly! Our life in our little town is really good, but hanging with my family for almost two weeks was medicine that I just can't get from anything else. You guys, I love you all to pieces!!!!
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| Grandad and the Little Big Fella walking into the shops. The Little Big Fella only had one jumper that fit him properly, so we had to hit the shops pretty quickly. |
So, my parents recently bought a house in their new town, and directly across the road is the cemetery. Which, it turns out, is actually very cool! Besides the fact that it has graves from the 1800's, it is a really big space, with plenty of grass to play on, and bushland to walk through. So on the first afternoon, my sister and her kids came over and we ended up walking through the cemetery!
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| This tree was right near the main entrance. If you look closely, it has eyes, a nose and a big open mouth. The mouth just happened to have honeycomb in it that formed perfect teeth! This would be a cool spot on Halloween! |
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| The kids found a big dirt pile to play in. They ended up playing for almost 2 hours and loved it! |
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| We also discovered that a lot of the rock in the cemetery was ochre (which the Little Big Fella and I knew from an art workshop we did last year). So they crushed some up ready to use for painting later. |
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| One of my gorgeous nephews with a big chunck of ochre. |
The next morning we took the kids to play in a newly-built park. It was freaking freezing!! And that's not just from the Northerner! The wind was like ICE, people! Thankfully we found a little wind break, and mum brought some hot drinks and cookies.
The Little Big Fella and I ended up at my sister's place so the kids could play a bit longer. I can't remember the context, but it might have been while the boys were playing the PlayStation. My oldest nephew comes out with, "behold my evil armpits"! God, I love those kids!!!!
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| In the car with my sister and the boys |
My mum, one of my sisters and I got to have a girl's morning of shopping, chocolate indulgence and hanging out together. It was brilliant. Again, super cold (the wind is a killer in Victoria in winter!), but such good times.
The Little Big Fella and I ended up heading out to my other sister's place for an evening (sorry, no photos). They have a gorgeous house with lots of big windows in the middle of the bush. Gum trees, dams, plenty of space to play and explore. And they're renovated inside the house really well and made great use of the space!
My sister's soon-to-be hubby had cooked on the fire out the back, and we got to meet some of their friends. The girls decided that there might not be enough food, so made some fried rice. It turned out the kids loved the fried rice the most! And there was plenty to eat.
My art society ladies suggested that I should try to go to the wool mill, so mum, the Little Big Fella and I did! The Little Big Fella hated it, but we made him suffer through it. Mum ended up buying a pattern book and wool to make those crocheted/knitted tops for hand towels, but I didn't get anything.
Next door was the tram shed and museum, so we decided to have a wander around. The Little Big Fella was in a foul mood, but gradually picked up as we wandered through the shed, learned a bit about trams and the cat that lives there.
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| Cranky pants! |
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| We got to go into the pit and have a look under the tram! |
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| Each year the locals knit decorations for one of the trams. Apparently there's plenty of people contributing and it's a bit of a talking point. |
My poor Little Big Fella was sick that night. As in, super-fast rush to the bathroom, sick. A couple of times.
Being sick on your holidays is possibly one of the worst things. But having a few slow days on your holidays isn't, so that's what we did. We sat around reading and watching movies or YouTube or whatever. I checked in on my work emails (so that going back to work wouldn't be so massive) and my uni subject, which had just begun.
My brother came up from Melbourne, and my littlest sister came over for dinner that night. Family is the best medicine!
The next day was apparently the coldest in 22 years, but it was one of the highlights of the holiday. My whole family (except mine and my sisters' husbands) took a steam train that looked just like the Hogwarts Express (the boys were so excited!). There was no heating on the train, but because they were in little compartments, we could shut the door and our talking warmed the room a bit.
When we got to our stop it was drizzling rain. Thankfully the clothes we'd worn were quite warm, but they weren't up for walking in the rain. So we decided to wait at the station for the little shuttle bus into town, while mum, dad, my brother and youngest sister walked into town and found a nice cafe with a wood fire for us all to have lunch in.
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| On the bus into town |
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| Dad has a Triumph, so this shop took his fancy. |
On the way back, mum and dad ended up at the back of the train with the guard, who told them all kinds of things about the steam train, its history and operation. The kids went backwards and forwards between them and our compartment.
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| Apparently the back door stayed open for the whole trip back. My middle nephew tried several times to get outside! He's such a daredevil! |
So even though it was a freezing day, we had a really great time all hanging out together! So much so, that we didn't want it to end, so we went to my middle sister's place for dinner and a games night.
When we were kids, every school holidays would see us all playing board, card and dice games. It was a key element of holidays for us. Since we've all grown up, we've tried several times to have games sessions, but it's rarely come off. So we really enjoyed playing together again. And watching the kids play together was really cool, too. Even my little niece was in on it.
One of the things on my to-do list was to do something arty. Just so happens there's an art gallery in the town my parents and sisters live. So mum, my brother, the Little Big Fella and I went to it. And actually all really enjoyed it (until my brother and I took too long looking at one exhibit at the end and the Little Big Fella cracked the darkies).
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| Arthur Streeton is one of our famous Aussie artists. I didn't realise any of the paintings in the gallery were his, but they were the ones that caught my attention. I loved the light and texture in his works. |
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| This is probably my favourite piece of the day. You can't tell so much in this photo, but the lighting in the gallery put the focus on the gum trees more than the drover or the sheep. The use of light was unusual but I loved it. |
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| This one really captured the Little Big Fella's attention, and my brother really liked it as well. Apparently it's a modern/future version of a classic painting from the Victorian era. |
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| When I first saw this piece, I thought it was a modified photo. Nu-uh! It's a drawing! As in pencil and paper! |
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| The gallery had an exhibition of Myuran Sukumaran's work. He was one of the Bali 9, convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death. These are some of the paintings he did on death row. |
Anyway, once he was fed and watered he calmed down and was back to his lovely self.
It was time to drop my brother off to catch the train. It was sad to see him go, but we'd had a great time together and I was so glad he'd made the effort to come and see us!
After heading back to mum and dad's for a little, we walked to the botanic gardens and met up with my sister and her kids. The botanic gardens are really cool! The playground area is really well done, with a mix of play equipment, plants and activities all in different areas but visible for parents.
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| Despite being the freezing middle of winter, the kids played in the water |
And they have this bush/tree that has grown with an open space inside that is perfect for playing in!
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| The Little Big Fella isn't great at climbing trees, so he was super proud of getting up into this one. |
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| They trim a little doorway into the tree so it's easy for kids (and parents) to get in and out. There's also a little letterbox on the left! |
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| Do you see who I see? |
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| My nephew is quite the climber! |
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| The photo really doesn't do this bird justice. It was SO bright and its feathers were shiny. Absolutely amazing! |
Mum and I decided that we wanted to go back to the town we'd been to on the steam train and have a proper look around. We negotiated with the Little Big Fella that if he was well behaved, we'd take him to the movies in the afternoon. So we went and walked around woollen clothing shops, a Christmas shop, antiques and garden shops, and had lunch in the same little cafe as the other day. We were nearly done (it's a small town) when we saw a sign for an art exhibition. I couldn't exactly miss that opportunity, could I???
So we followed the signs to a church hall and paid our gold coin donation. It was a really nice little exhibition! The feel of the place reminded me of my own art society. The Little Big Fella found an older gentleman painting with oils in the corner and went and chatted with him while mum and I looked around.
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| Mum and I both love watercolours. I love how bright this one is. |
As he promised, the Little Big Fella was perfectly well behaved, so that afternoon we went and saw Ant Man and The Wasp. Mum wasn't overly excited about it, but enjoyed it in the end. She's yet to understand the fun of the Marvel universe ;-D
After the movie we met dad at a great little pizza and pasta restaurant. Being a Friday night, it was packed, but we had a great evening and ate plenty of delicious food. The Little Big Fella mustn't have been completely well because he only ate one and a bit pieces of pizza. Luckily I only ordered a salad so I helped him by eating a few pieces.
It was definitely winter on our visit, but we only got one frosty morning. I went out and took photos, of course.
Ah! Our other main family event was a trip to the bush. We used to do this heaps when we were kids. We'd jump in the car, drive somewhere and hang out in the bush for the day, cooking sausages on the fire, and toasting marshmallows if we were lucky. And we'd wander around the bush for the day. We loved it! So the next generation got a chance to experience it, too!
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| Who can resist climbing up a massive rock? |
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| My favourite quote of the day from my niece: "I'm goin' to have a marshmallow on a 'tick and burn it" |
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| The obligatory walk up the hill |
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| Don't you think this rock looks like a chicken? |
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| My brother-in-law turns out to be part-mountain goat! He made his way up some very tricky looking rock faces. |
Apparently my sister and brother-in-law weren't sick of us, because they invited us all back to their place for dinner.
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| The fireplace, made of an old washing machine barrel, is the perfect size to put their camp oven on top of. Cooks a great stew in about 20 minutes! |
The next day was our last part-day in my family's town. We ended up going to my younger sister's place for lunch and had an impromptu family baby shower. Mum, my other sister and I had picked up a few things over the week and a half, and we got to give them all to my youngest sister at once while we were checking out the baby's room. It was really fun. She's due in September and I'm not sure when I'll be able to make it down to meet bub, so it was fun to not feel like I was missing out on all the good stuff.
We managed to miss the train after lunch. I'd had issues with the card system online, so had to do it at the station, but while we were mucking around the train left. So we had to go back to mum and dad's for a cuppa, then come back an hour later. We didn't miss the train this time.
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| Obligatory travel selfie |
The next morning we had breakfast in a little alley that I ate at with my friends from the ballet last year. Seriously, the food in this city!!!!!
We ended up seeing the latest Jurassic movie together, then the Little Big Fella and I did a little city sight seeing together while our littlest friend had a nap.
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| Faux brother and sister |
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| I made sure the Little Big Fella got to experience the seriously steep escalators in the train station |
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| Waiting outside the pre-concert, VIP party |
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| Just a little souvenir |
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| Inside the pre-party |
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| Another of our friends from home was there and we met up at the pre-party |
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| My friend ended up in the dance competition (she totally chatted up one of the DJs to get in), then talked them into giving both the little girls the prize |
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| The guys at the pre-party were SO annoyed, because the girls got to use both the ladies and men's bathrooms, while they all got to line up for the disabled one. The girls, of course, needed to take photos of the event. |
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| We met a couple of ladies from the next town and danced the pre-party away with them |
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| Thankfully the local police didn't mind a couple of rather drunk ladies taking selfies with them |
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| Inside and ready for the show |
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| On the tram back to the hotel |
The next morning we had buffet breakfast in the hotel, then the Little Big Fella and I snuck around to the motorbike shop and bought him some new motorcross boots (his were hurting his feet when he rode), before hiking it back to the hotel to jump in our taxi to the airport.
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| Plane selfie (our friends in the background) |
The rest of the month was pretty much full of the normal stuff: work, school, art, uni, meetings, anti-sneezing needle... the usual.
At the end of the month, though, I ended up going out with two of the girls from work, which we've never actually gotten around to doing in the 4+ years I've been working there. Probably has something to do with one or both of them being pregnant for most of the time. We had a great night, even though the pub was practically empty.
So there's July 2018 for you. Full and fun and the perfect antidote to the winter blues. Now what shall I plan for next winter???
