tumby, day 9

Kym headed back home today to finish delivering the last of the grain from this year's harvest and the general tidy up of machinery before its shedded away for the next 10 months. The kids and I had a slack morning, no rushing around to have Annie ready for Beach Mission now that's finished.

Today was the perfect day for the surfboards and boogie boards at VAC swim. Small breaking waves just the right size for kids to negotiate to 'rescue' their partner in the deeper water.

I couldn't resist this shot of Sean's toe with a band aid on it. ( I still have that kids' foot fetish lol)

After lunch, seeing that Annie had a blast with the boards in the waves we headed to a different spot on the beach for us. The view looking North.

Annie dug the waves and Sean amused himself with the beach toys. I caught up on some mag reading time.

When we got back to the cabin and had washed Annie's hair, I shooed her outside to let it dry off. I found her reading a book out loud to Max. Too cute.

Just to mention here that Annie has finished another Harry Potter book and is about to get into the Prisoner of Azkaban next. HP has really fired up her imagination. Wonderful stuff.

Later this arvo we went on the third path on the Mangrove Trail. The tide was in and we saw many little fish and little crabs. Annie took her sketch book and pencils to draw whatever took her fancy on the walk. I love to see this creative streak in her and I'm encouraging it as much as I can.

Fish and chips for the kids tonight and a late night viewing of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

side note: we've gone thru 2 large tubes of sunscreen in 8 days. That's a whole lot of sun protection  :OD

tumby, day 8

Kym finished Harvest yesterday. At last for his sake. It's been rather drawn out this season due to the weather and he needs a break. As he works off farm building in between farm commitments, he doesn't ever really make the time to just stop. Hence one of the reasons we come to Tumby each year. Kym needs to go fishing to unwind, de-stress, and take a breath. And to have family time with me and the kids. During harvest he's usually flat out so I become the single parent family with two kids and occasionally the husband. 

He went clay shooting at Lincoln Club today and came round via Tumby to spend some time and pick up both the kids. They have missed him during this last week. 

I must confess to having enjoyed the two of them during this last week. We've all got along exceptionally well, and I dont recall any major disagreements. I'm sure that will change now the Kym's here lol.

I enjoyed my first kid free afternoon in over a month. I mowed the lawn at the currently empty investment property and did a tad of gardening. Today was my first chance to get on the bike and start riding it in earnest.

Just about damn near killed me. Especially beating back against the breeze. The next couple of rides will be just as tough and then it will feel a bit easier. That's when I ramp it up again. Can't have it too easy, what's the point??

After sucking down a bit of water and cooling off with Max the Guinea Pig on the grass in the shade, I hit the computer and smoked up the keyboard getting through the pile of folders I've previously sorted to process photos for my scrapping. I do enjoy the creative mojo this seems to give me.

Kym and the kids came back about tea time and we headed down to the Sea Breeze Hotel for tea. YUM.

Kym feel asleep fairly quickly as did the kids and here I am at the keyboard. I do like this quite time of night.

tumby, day 7

We woke up to the sound of rain this morning. So without any further encouragement, the kids jumped on their DS's and I had a sleep in.

Late morning found us (well the kids) on their scooters down near the jetty to burn up a bit of energy. Lots of paved areas to scoot on without being too near a road.  =-)

While we had cooler weather we decided to go on the Mangrove Trail. This is something I've been wanting to do for while so today was the day. We walked 2 of the 3 paths. We'll do the other one on the next cooler day.

The kids took a great interest in trying to pronounce the biological names of the different plants that were sign posted around the trail. And Annie asked me to capture this little Honey Eater so she could work out what it was according to the detailed information in the hut. She got it right.

After a bite of lunch we headed to the sand bar for a bit of boogie boarding, and for Annie to start to get the hang of snorkelling. I'm a firm believer in giving rewards, incentives and encouragement to get a challenging  task done. So to help Annie help believe in herself with her swimming I've promised her a trip to either swim with the dolphins here, or swim and feed the tuna here. She's chosen to swim with the Tuna. To have her get more out of it, she needs to learn to snorkel. Hence the playing around with it on the sandbar. She will need to last more than 5 minutes with it tho. Small steps first......

Have to say the kids did have a blast with the boogie boards.

As we left the sandbar late this arvo I managed to catch this pelican having a bit of a yawn sitting way up on a light post. He looked like a sentry for the other 9 pelicans below on the sandbar with us.

The kids and I took a ride on the bikes (Annie was on her scooter again) and went round a couple of blocks. Sean battled against the breeze a bit but he got there in the end.

French onion chops for tea (that's the only way I'll do chops) and the kids love em. Relaxing evening after a wonderful Saturday.

trash the dress - album complete

At last the 'Trash the Dress' album over at Tiff Firth Photography is done and posted on Facebook.

This was enormous fun to shoot that involved 5 other ladies in the process.

And I've been able to recover the dress to do it all over again..... thinking of the bride riding a horse with the dress billowing out behind......... got a bride in mind, just need to find a quiet horse that wont bolt with all the fabric flapping behind it lol

last one to tempt you.

tumby, day 6

The last morning of Beach Misson this morning. Thanks so much to all the volunteers who put in such a huge effort and often at a cost to themselves, for creating such a wonderful experience for the kids. While Annie was there, Sean and I watered the garden at one of the rental houses and fixed a water issue for the tenant at another property we have.

Annie had a huge personal best effort this morning during VAC swim. She swam out to the pontoon under her own steam. Yes she did use a noodle to get there, but she got there. Man, she was over the moon. Now I won't be able to stop her from going out there. Mind you, I will be putting my foot down and saying no, unless she swims with a confident buddy or her own swimming ability is a little bit better. She's out of her depth, and when the noodle did slip from her grasp for a sec this morning, she did squeal a bit. But I'm proud of her. She's so proud of herself.

I've had a fair bit of ribbing via Facebook about bringing Max, Annie's guniea pig, on holidays with us. All in fun of course. Its a lot easier to bring him than to find someone to look after him for the time we are away. And where we are staying have been wonderful in allowing him to stay. We rang last year to ask and it was cool, and I rang this year and again got the ok. When we came over last weekend, I had the trailer hooked on to bring his hutch. He comes with all his bits and bobs. While the weather was lovely around lunch time today Annie let him out to go on safari in the wilds of the back lawn. He does enjoy a good forage.

I firmly believe that every child needs a pet.

After lunch and a bit of sloth time for Annie's sake we hit the sandbar and found Trish S along the way. Great to catch up with her and a couple of other ladies. Sean's getting the hang of the Boogie Board, but it still occasionally plays tricks on him.

Late afternoon found us riding scooters and bikes around the place before we headed down to the beach by the jetty for fish and chips for tea, and a run in the playground. Annie went for another swim, but not to the pontoon :O).

I had the camera on tripod for long exposures as the sun went down. I missed the best of it as the kids had been very patient with me and I decided to pack it up before they got too cool. I've got more time to get what I really want to capture when Kym gets here so I can head out on my own. And its just a bit of practise to get  my eye in.

Looking forward to a sleep in Saturday morning now that Mission has finished.

tumby, day 5.

What a weird weather day. Paige, Sean and I walked Annie to her bus stop for Beach Mission. It had all the feeling of being quite a hot day. Paige left shortly after coming back to the apartment and I took Sean to the sandbar for fishing with bread in the jam jar trick. It was getting quite warm at this point.

By late morning I picked up Annie from Mission to take her to her VAC swim class.

Well the breeze had swung round and the temp dropped a fair bit. I had a towel around Sean to keep him warm and I wished I had long sleeves on as I had goosebumps.

By 1pmish the breeze swung again and up shot the temp again. I had the air con on and shut down the apartment to stay cool. We had a vegie afternoon to avoid the heat. At long last I managed to fix a DSi card issue and I became Annie's number one hero (awwww). Just in time to occupy both of them this arvo.

 Another jigsaw was started as Paige and I finished the one from the night before.

By about 4.30pm the breeze swung again and the temp dropped to a very pleasant level. Beach Mission had a family late afternoon, games, merry go round, bouncing castle, volley ball, sausage sizzle and concert to finish off the day.

 Annie's group danced to a song, (can't post that one as it has other children's faces in it so I've popped in the one of Annie from the audience POV) and Sean sung to a song that he remembered from his first day.

Now we have a fairly warm night with total cloud cover, so the air con came on again to cool the apartment. I still have it shut up and the fan still on at 11.30pm

tumby, day 4

Annie trotted off to Beach Mission this morning via the bus. Sean and I went to go mowing the lawn at 'the house' with my Mum's electric mower. With one thing and another, and not enough extension cords, it didn't get done.

Annie's VAC Swim lessons started today. It was a bit breezy and cool on the foreshore so she was glad to have her wetsuit on.

Came back for lunch, shower off and chill out for a bit. Sean decided an afternoon sleep would be a good idea and Annie watched Harry Potter.

Paige came over to stay the night with us. The kids had snitzels and vegies while Paige and I had yummy Hawaiian Chicken Pizza with bbq sauce

The glow in the dark jigsaw was brought out, and Paige gave me a hand with ipod, itunes stuff. Bless her.

trash the dress - part A

just a teaser. hope to have them all done tonight.

tumby, day 3

In case you wondering why I blog the details of our holidays, its because my blog is my go to reference for my scrapping. I've just finished scrapping about our 2009 Tumby Holidays and I refreshed my memory of it by reading my blog before I composed the journalling for the LO. So it's really for my memory recall but if you happen to find it interesting, well that's a bonus  :O)

<~~~>

Annie headed off to Beach Mission this morning via the bus from the caravan park. Sean stayed with me as he found yesterday a bit overwhelming. Lots of kids, noise and distractions. He and I headed over to the vacant rental house to water and a spot of gardening. And we've inherited a wonderful bounty of vegies.

We caught up with Granny (my Mum) and then did the grocery shopping (good to see the main street busy again after so many days with businesses closed for the public holidays).

Annie walked back from the Mission bus for a spot of lunch. It was so lovely outside so we went fishing on the sandbar. I remember doing this when I was a kid and it was a fun way to use up the crusts of bread.

This big fella flew overhead. Its amazing that they look so cumbersome on land, but so graceful in the air.

We headed down to the jetty for the kids to run off energy in the playground and for me to try out a couple of shots for a project later on. 

I like to reward good behaviour so it was icecream for the two of them, (and for me to get a shot of melting icecream running down their hands:-)

Back to the apartment by late afternoon for a quick ride on the bikes around the block and down to the boat ramp. (Working on Sean's pedalling stamina). Shower, change and chilled out. Ham steaks and salad for tea. The kids rode their scooter's down to CH's shack so C and I could have a quiet cold one and watch the kids in the playground from the front yard. Had to put all the jumpers on at this point.

Is anyone else still sleeping in their flannie PJ's??? And bed socks???? I must be such a frog (never used to be) or its still bloody chilly for a summer's night. Mind you its supposed to be warm and raining here not too far away, so I guess it will get a bit sticky then. LOL. might have to shed those bed socks.

trash the dress - album is (almost) complete

Head over to Trash the Dress on Tiff Firth Photography on Facebook for a sampling of the images.

I loved shooting them, working with them, and pretty keen to do it again with a special lady in mind. Just got to work out when it all.  And I am working thru the Part A session that was in the ruins to load up later.

just to tease ya!!

tumby, day 2

What a lovely sunny day.

Annie and Sean went to Family Mission this morning. (sort of like a really really large XRoads) with lots of craft, and activities. I went for a coffee with a friend, a walk on the beach and worked on the last of the Trash the Dress Photos (which I'll post shortly).

Picked up the kidlets, had lunch and took Max out for his photo shoot on the beach. Little poser!!

Went and watered the garden in one of our rental properties (currently seeking tenants atm, know of anyone??) and then headed to the sandbar for some sun, sea and beach action for the kids. Came back and slothed for a bit  and set up the Wii for the kids.

More play, tea (French onion chops), showers, watched one of Annie's Harry Potter DVDs.

HP as really captured Annie's imagination. I found her a few weeks ago reading HP and the Chamber of Secrets. I found the Boxed set of all the HP DVDS for Christmas, and have a lend from a friend the entire series of books. She's just eating them up. Talk about a power reader. I'm pretty darn proud of her reading skills!!

and that's Monday done and dusted.

trash the dress part B - one more.

this is my fave shot from the 'Trash the Dress' shoot the other day. I'll be adding more images to the 'Trash the Dress' album on FaceBook in the next day or so if you like to see them all together.

And just to clarify before I'm asked, NO, I don't shoot wedding photography. This session was all about fun and friendship with 3 other beautiful ladies.

tumby, day 1.

The kids and I are here. Kym is still home reaping our harvest and we are a bit sad about that. I feel for him. On one hand, the longer the harvest the better ($$), but the sooner its done, then he can have a break. Harvest is long hours usually in solitude in the header cab and it is mentally fatiguing. Kym needs to fishing and crabbing to chill out and switch off.

This is were we are staying.....

in....

with Max in attendance.

Yes the guinea pig has come on holidays with us. I hope to take him down the beach tomorrow for a quick photo in the sand lol.

Sean's impression of being a toadstool when he was in the shower tonight. What a laugh!!

cya tomorrow!!
:O)

trash the dress part B - another teaser

I just cant help it.

I have to show you what I'm seeing on my 'puter atm.

trash the dress part B - teaser shot.

This was the last shot of the day and the first one I've processed. I've popped it here just to tease you of what's to come.

Looks like a jelly fish washed up onto the beach doesn't it lol.

Big thanks to Paige for stepping into the dress last minute for Laura, Tanya and I to go nuts over photographing it.

I sprayed off the dress with a hose when I got home, washed it in the machine and I reckon I'll have another session of trashing it in the sea with Sarah next time!!