Sunday, August 22, 2010

Horseshoe bend baby climbs






August was time for Nic's 30th birthday, and we decided to celebrate with a weekend away. We rented a farm house called the Horseshoe Bend farm, way out west and beckoned the adventurous. With 3 causeways to drive through to arrive at the property, we sat tight and waited hopefully... were we to be the only ones to brave the 4 hour journey? But minutes behind were Sarah Pete and Jack, roaring up in the 4WD... they had come the "other way" and had driven through a roaring creek. We weren't aware of another way, and became quite concerned that our other visitors with their little cars and little babies would be waiting on the other side. Luckily everyone arrived despite my unfortunate map and no one was wet!

With 4 babies in the house, now we really understand the pain of early mornings, halfslept nights and lethargic days, but, to our delight we also discovered that babies give you the perfect climbing training workout. Pop them in a backpack and off you go, wait another month and their weight increases, just when you need to increase your training weight... perhaps this is what we need for our next trip?! And I can't help but admire their perfect yogic posture and hanumanasa - monkey pose - the splitz that would definately come in handy with some climbing moves. Needless to say, babies have an innate compulsion to climb in, over, and up things, and Lucy and Miro couldn't get enough of the kitchen cupboards as I went into a cake making frenzy. We did some mini hill climbing, up the "Big Hill" and some mini adventures into the creek to recover lost number plates. Nic's party evening came alive with the premier screening of the movie production "Riddm" (in essence, part I of our adventures) and some fun competitions in Singstar with Jade's memorable rapping style and the glorious tones... or monotones of us all.