Right from the start we wanted to try to capture memories and moments from our time away that the kids will remember. But how do you get a 5, 3 and now 2 year old to remember much? I’m not really sure, but one thing we thought might help would be for them to take their own photos and videos. Maybe, hopefully, the shots they take themselves might help them remember the moments they thought were worth capturing.

So in Perth we got a so called indestructible, waterproof, bombproof camera for about $60. And weren’t the kids excited!! We worked out a plan to have the big kids take turns each day and they were in charge for each 24hr period.

But now after a month of ownership, what can we report? The camera is still going which is amazing! (Despite Dad’s best effort to destroy it by taking it snorkelling and forgetting to shut the waterproof case!) It has taken thousands of blurry images, possibly hundreds of videos that were unplanned, a ridiculous amounts of selfies and many photos of others bums! Oh, and a handful of great shots thrown in. Every now and then Mum or Dad borrow it and take some as well.

Has our plan worked? For the kids to create memories for themselves?  Maybe you should ask the kids in a few months time, and then again as they get older!

Anyway, below are a few of their happy snapsPerth

PerthGeraldtonPerthPerthSandy CapeJurien BayWho knows?Pinnicles

PerthPerth Perth

I can’t believe our baby is 2! Our last baby is 2! She seems so grown up, has for a while I suppose. But 2! Where has the time gone? The first year of her precious life was so hard for me, and I wondered if the daily grind would ever get easier. The many, many sleepless nights, and all things associated with a baby, could my life be any else other than nappies and ABC2 to keep the big kids entertained while I sat breast feeding or changing nappies?

But wow oh my golly gosh, here we are travelling Australia with a now 2 year old!! How my life has changed!! This trip has been the best thing for my little family and I’m very grateful for an adventurous husband to gently encourage me to get out of my comfort zone and do something new! The kids are learning so much, they are outside all day playing with buckets and spades, riding bikes and loving the great outdoors. We are discovering info on all sorts of animals and looking at the history of the different towns. Noah was just telling me today that seagulls can apparently drink sea water.

So back to my precious Maya. What can I write about her? Firstly, I am so very thankful to the Lord for her. She is a very strong little girl who knows her mind completely and will let us know exactly what she’s thinking. We just love listening to her talk and verbalise what’s going on in her very clever little brain. She is also very compassionate to others and often will try and hug the big kids if they hurt themselves and you can often hear her saying “OK Noah?” or “OK Ava?”. May May (as she calls herself) loves life to the fullest, that is for sure. And the past few weeks she has been singing “Happy Birthday May May, hip hip Hooray” over and over J

We are in Carnarvon for 2 nights so we could be in the one place for her birthday and also have reception before we head into Ningaloo for a while with no phone reception. As it’s raining we were a bit limited in what we could do (no train ride on the pier for instance) so we had a frozen chocolate coated fruit icecream (soooo delish!! Steve, Ava and Maya had a whole banana dipped in chocolate and Noah and I had Mango dipped in chocolate) at Morels, went to Bumbaks to pick up some award winning chutney, and had hot chips for lunch at one of the only nice looking places to eat here! And the lady came and gave the kids a scoop of icecream and a different topping colour each (noooo more additives for my kids in a loooong time as it was a very interesting afternoon with very naughty kids and Noah making his super annoying noise he makes when he’s stressed) which was so lovely and the kids really enjoyed it as they don’t get that sort of treat!! And then the skies dried up for a little while and we were able to go to the very cool park (it even has a flying fox!) which was possibly the kids highlight. For the afternoon Maya had a sleep and I’m still not able to write about the afternoon as I’m still scarred from the mud pies and painting themselves in mud while wearing their best clothes and the fighting and melt downs ;

Maya got a few little goodies for her birthday, like a new wiggles DVD and some cool duplo and new dress. But her favourite new birthday gifts are a toy turtle and little dolly from our new adoptive family Linda and Barry. They happened to arrive at Coronation Beach as the people next to us were departing, and it was so good having them near by when Noah was in hospital. We also saw them at our last place we stayed Nanga Bay (blog to come) which was so nice as they got to see Maya for her birthday, well a few days early.

Overall we have had a lovely day celebrating our precious Maya’s life.

Noah was vomiting and had a very sore tummy on Thursday night (24th April), he then had an episode of swelling up on the Friday, and on Saturday woke up with a very odd rash on his limbs so I took him into the local emergency department and we waited. Just before us a group of 4 guys involved in a cycling race accident walked in with cuts and broken arms so our wait to be triaged was a long one. We were eventually seen by a Dr, then paediatrician as his presentation was concerning. I asked the first Dr if we’d be there long, meaning hours, and she said yes, meaning days! So Noah was admitted and given meds to stop him vomiting and feeling sick, IV therapy to help him as he was dehydrated and IV Panadol for his sore tummy. My poor little boy was so sick, only talking to tell me his tummy was so sore and just lying there otherwise not even wanting to watch TV (we don’t have a TV with us, just a DVD player that they sometimes watch so I knew he must be sick when he didn’t jump at the chance to watch normal TV) or me read him a book. He was also so so brave, I was so proud of him! I’ll put on some photos of his rash.

Times like this make me really miss home. Steve of course was amazing and had the girls under control! He even did their hair in pigtails! And what made it easier for me also was having our amazing caravan neighbours next door who I knew we could count on if we needed anything (thanks Linda and Barry if you ever read this, we really appreciate you!). These caravan neighbours even gave the kids gifts and Noah things to read in hospital like a really big map of Australia which he loved. One of the best things about this journey is meeting people you would never meet going about your daily routine.

So very long story short, they are not sure what has caused this episode and think it’s an allergic reaction to the vomiting virus, or to something he’s come into contact with. So he’s now got an epi pen and we have antihistamine on stand by. But hopefully it was just a one off.

A hospital stay was not in the plan for our holiday!! But then again, when do things ever go to plan? 🙂