Camping Adventure 2 - Back to the Wolgan

Its been a pretty insane time with Christmas, new year and trips about all over the place. Little Man has been everywhere! Off to Daddy, Grandpa, and Grandma's for Christmas. Off to Grammy's for boxing day and beyond, hanging out with Uncle Ryan and Bianca at the beach playing in other peoples sandcastles (well destroying them anyway). Then home for New Year - a supposed restful evening with some friends, however after it took us a good couple of hours to get our kids to sleep we basically stared at the tv for a good few hours, too tired to communicate! Oh well, maybe next year????

Thankfully things have relaxed a little since then, with only the odd birthday party or camping trip organised. There has been camping in the backyard, hanging out at Ruby's, trips to the pool (between thunderstorms), watching thunderstorms, watching kids "skooting" at the local skate park (those kids on skooters rather than skateboards - skateboards appear to be a rare find these days???), and drawing in the shed on his new drawing board! There has also been a renewed attempt to cement the concept of the "TOILET" and what it should be used for and where NOT to do things intended for the wastewater system. I figured that 2 weeks at home should sort it out, but I am now questioning this assumption after a few really great days (while out camping) and a complete shocker today!!! Lets just say there were NO stickers handed out today!!!! Who knows what tomorrow may bring??? This ordinary "summer" weather isn't helping.

Anyway, I digress from the mission.... Camping Adventure Number 2!

The plan was to get a big group of people with small people keen to head out into the beautiful 6 star Wolgan Valley for a "relaxed" weekend out enjoying the views. Unfortunately we only managed to convince one other mother and her child to come along (even her husband who is keen on the outdoors couldn't be convinced it was a good idea...). There were a few scared off by the weather forecasts - like one would actually believe what the BOM has to say from day to day (given that the "forecast" for the departure day changed from night before to morning). Thankfully we were graced by the presence of Jo and Alex for Friday night of our adventure and for Friday arvo by Hamish, SJ and Staz. I think Jo and Alex had a good time, despite a "few" tears at bedtime.

LM toileted like a champ the whole weekend. He even leaped out of the river (after I had told him under NO circumstances was he to poo or wee in the water) and ran for the shore pushing me out of his path in a pretty successful attempt to avoid number 2 in the water. He could have perhaps moved a little further from the waters edge, but I was impressed with his exit effort (in hindsight it was a MUCH better effort than any he has attempted - or not - today).

Jo, Alex, LM and I attempted a walk on Friday eve before dinner, but we were pretty unsuccessful... Jo was a little tired, Alex wasn't keen on the idea, I decided that we should probably stop before it got nasty. Oh and LM grabbed hold of a stinging nettle, which was actually pretty amusing (they don't really hurt that much, thankfully).

It pretty much rained on and off Friday arvo and Friday night. Thankfully I had decided to take a real tent with me this time, so we all had somewhere dry to eat dinner and sit and talk til late...

Saturday started early, thanks to LM (surprise surprise). Breakfast, toilet, cricket/soccer (an interesting mix of the two games that Alex, LM and I played), bubbles, and a swim. Mid-swim it became evident that the late night and early morning Alex had was taking its toll on him, so Jo decided it was time for him to eat and them to bail. We (well Jo) had packed up earlier while I entertained kiddies. Not long after the early morning had its second (well third or fourth) victim - LM! It was time to get off the  "motorbike", that had started out as a "turtle", complete with a horn (well 2 or 3), leaves, sticks, and handles, that had been constructed with such intense concentration by LM, and head back to the tent for food and sleep. Unfortunately sleep lasted for too little time...

It was Mummies turn for a choice of entertainment... I decided that we should go for a walk to the other side of the river and check out the ruins (just to make sure they are still there, cause I've seen them a few times already and so has LM). Of course I wasn't sure of the shortcut across the river, so there was a battle of wills as we "walked" the long way round. I am not sure who exactly won the battle, but we did get to the ruins and we took the shortcut back across the river, with a pause at the previous day's construction (which required a little reconstruction) - this is also when the "poo" incident described above occurred - just in case you were wondering :)

LM had a choice of curry with rice for dinner or beans on bread. He chose beans on bread (which also came with avo and egg). I really liked this choice.

Early to bed. Early to rise. First to pack up out gear (in the misty morning that was Sunday). First to turn over the engine of our little beastie (yeah right!) and get out of there. This was all before 8am. Not a bad effort I thought. LM "helped" by sitting in his chair eating weet bix.

Our next adventure was today with swimming lessons... in the rain. Someone, actually someones weren't happy. LM was frozen from the moment he got in. I just didn't relish the whole concept of getting into a pool (that wasn't heated cause the heating got hit by lightening last week!!!) and remaining pretty immobile for half an hour. This was despite the fact that I was the one wearing a wetsuit shirt :) LM ended the lesson early. He flatly refused to participate in any activity other than the "get out of the pool" with him fully bailing and running off the last time. I took his cue and did the same. Maybe tomorrow will be better.... not looking too promising...