Albany

So after spending 2 relaxing days at the dam we headed down to Albany for Christmas Day and the weekend. Christmas Day we didn't do anything overly exciting, just headed down to Middleton Beach with Kaffa and Mike so Rod and Mike could have a swim. As you can see the weather was just magic!

Spot the boys in the wave

Kaffa, Olivia and I relaxing on the beach

Olivia giving Mike a hi-5

Rubbing sand on Rod's feet

At night we went to Glenn and Leonie's for a BBQ dinner together with Dad and Mum vdSchaaf, Fritz, Viv and Samuel, Kaffa and Mike, Roseanne and some of the Kleyn's - Mr and Mrs, Eric, Sonja and Isaac, Tish and Matt. T'was lots of yummy food there too!

Glenn, Rod, Dad vds and Mum vdS with Zachary

Roseanne, Mike with Samuel and Kaffa

Zachary

SamuelTish and Matt
Lauren, Isaac and Hannah enjoying their food

Then on Boxing Day pretty much everyone who was at the Christmas dinner headed down to Two People's Bay for another day of gorgeous sunny weather and good company :-)

Hannah, Olivia and Lauren helping Kaffa put on suncream

Lauren and Olivia

Olivia with her cousins Lauren and Hannah

Two People's Bay

Drying off after a nice swim

Then on Saturday morning we headed down to Mutton Bird Beach with Fritz and Viv and Kaffa and Mike for a bit of 4WDing and fishing - the boys had no luck with the fish though

Mike's rig.
Like the bull bar? (not that you can really see it)...Rod built it. He's so clever :-)

Olivia on the 2-way to Kaffa (in the background). She's also got the map
book on her lap finding our next holiday destination

Rod playing 4WD games on Sunday afternoon

And Olivia reading a book to the dog - for once she's
not terrorising the poor thing! She chased him everywhere the whole
time we were there, trying to catch his tail or put pegs on it...in general,
just annoying him!

Aaww, I love DJ - he makes a good pillow

Tickling him - he likes that

Christmas lights in town

Camping at Logue Brook Dam

I think I've just had the longest and best week of holidays ever! It was so relaxing and everything a holiday should be.
We left for Logue Brook Dam on Monday the 22nd Dec. at around 6:30am; even though it's only just over an hours drive we had to leave early - something you're guaranteed will happen if you're married to a van der Schaaf no matter where you need to go ;-) But that's ok because by the time we found a spot to set up camp it was already 10:30 or so.
Anyway, at first it was just going to be Ali and Rita Kleyn and their four kids: Casey, Levi, Brooklyn and Toby, Ed and Evette and their two kids Tegan and Corey, Ed's apprentice Brent and us going, but Ali spread the word to his siblings Tish, Quint, Matt and Chantelle and invited them along too! So they all took their friends and in the end we had about 25 or so people there! The more the merrier hey!
So here are some pics of what we got up to...

Breakfast at the bakery in Pinjarra - that's our rig in the middle :).
Ali's ute and the boat are to the left and Ed and Evette are to the rightOlivia enjoying her apricot danish

Ali's dog Charlie came along too

A view of our campsite from the water - that's our camper to the right

Evette feeding Corey, Tegan, Rod and Marcel

Cornelia(Bertha's sister visiting from South Africa) , Marcel and Chantelle

Tish, Fred, Willem, Brent and Matt

Olivia's bath time

This was so cute...Olivia just couldn't resist helping Toby wash himself :-)
And when it was Olivia's bath time, he returned the favour!
I'm sure they don't want to see the video footage we got when they're older ;-)Olivia, Tegan and Brooklyn keeping themselves occupied

Rod and Olivia having fun on the giant shoe

Rod

Going for a ride on the boat

Tish getting some air!

Taking the boats out for a sunset ski

What's camping without a fire?! Here's Matt, Brooklyn, Quint, Kyle,
Ed, Rod, Brent, Chris and Casey enjoying the fire

Quint and Bertha

Quint, Cornelia and PeteQuint and the hubbly bubbly

Rita and Glenn

Willem (guy visiting from South Africa), Matt and Tish with Mr Hubbly Bubbly

Ed explaining something to Brent (Ed's apprentice) and Ali

We left the dam on Wednesday so Rod made the most of it and went for an early morning ski with Marcel and Pete. Olivia and I came along for the ride and to take some pics of course

Rod going for one last run

Marcel

Pete

Camping here we come...

A few weeks ago we sold our old camper trailer...


...and bought this one!



Lots more room for our growing family :-) plus it has a fridge, cooktop and oven in it and it comes with a fully enclosed annex! Never mind the '70s style interior decorating... Glenn and Leonie and family stayed in it at our house last weekend so they've trialed it for us and it worked well for them and they have 3 kids. Can't wait to try it out for ourselves next week! Yay, bring on camping and summer!

This was a few weeks ago, but we've finally put Olivia in a big bed and she loves it! It's Rod's old bed which was in the study, so that means we have a bit more room in there now, seeing as the cot is also dismantled. She fell out the second night so we've rolled up a blanket and put that in the fitted sheet...gives her something to snuggle up to as well.

Time to strip the cot sheets off...

...and help Dad put in the big bed...

Trying it out with Dad

aaww, so peaceful.
We could fit about 10 of her in there!

Pregnant Pose

Yay! 25 weeks today...we're getting there :) Saw the doctor again this morning and all is good. Didn't expect otherwise - this baby is full of beans, loves moving around and I love watching and feeling it. I think that's got to be one of the best things about being pregnant, it's such an awesome feeling! I also had a haircut and some streaks done the other week, so that's what the other photo is of :)