Esperance

Today is a big day...Justin and Annette's wedding!!!

I was awake at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep so I thought I may as well finish off this post that has been sitting around for who knows how long!

So here are the rest of the photos from the holiday we took at the end of last year...and a few notes about our holiday...

Esperance: 28 December2009 - 8 January 2010

• Esperance has the most whitest beaches and amazing colour water (which is also very cold!) - it is just sooo pretty there!
  
• we experienced 2 very hot days - the second day we were there it was 42C, and we thought that was bad... a week later we had a day of 47C!!! Now that is a heat I've never felt before. And it was still 40C at 9pm! Not much sleeping happened that night.
  

• generally it's pretty windy in Esperance, they don't have wind farm there for nothing! But Ed and Evette (who we went with), have been there twice before and they said this time was definitely the windiest. We had to go out early to the beach, because the wind picks up around 10am and then it's not so pleasant to be there.

• Devon was a bit of a nightmare when it came to the sleeping department...The first few nights he slept till about 4/4:30am and wouldn't want to go back to sleep unless I fed him. But as the week went by, he woke up earlier and earlier and then it'd take a bit to get him back to sleep. And if he woke up around 3/3:30, he'd be a wake again at 5am and not want a bar of going back to sleep, so Rod ended up taking him for a walk every morning at 5! Sometimes he slept again, other times he didn't. So, even though this sounds ungrateful, it really wasn't such a relaxing holiday.
  

• Ed and Evette were the best company to have along. They have two kids as well, Tegan who is 3 1/2 and Corey who is 1 1/2, - good playmates for Olivia and Devon.

On the road again... we left around 6am and arrived
around 3pm and the kids were champs in the car!



our usual setup on the beach

Ed and Evette took their clam shells and play pen which
was so handy to have on the beach

Evette and Corey
Tegan and Olivia playing hairdressers and 'eyebrow ladies' in our camper

We were going to use this box as a cot, but of course he could pull himself up to stand
by this time, making it not so safe.
He did fall out of it once...luckily onto the couch first and then the floor.

another beach, another day

Rod and Ed trying their hand at some fishing but got nothing

amazing sand dunes there

Ed stuck on a ridge...

trusty Patrol will pull the Prado out

New Years Eve with my uncle and aunt who also happened
to be in Esperance at the time, but in a different caravan park

aaaww, he loves me :-)

now doesn't that just look like a piece of Paradise?
Surely this will convince you to come visit us Marian!


roo on the beach

Olivia and Tegan playing happily

Corey bear

another day, another beach...

Rod going for an early morning dip

out for brekky one morning

Ed and Evette

girls enjoying their breakfast

nothing beats vegemite toast, hey Corey!

on our last day, I took Devon for a walk and
got to see this sunrise

having a stop at a little country town on the way to Albany

Olivia just had to have a swing :-)

December and January Events...

I was going to do one big post on the last couple of months, but I realised that that would just be too much. I have way to many photos to choose from to post!

So here's the events of the second half first...

Walpole
11 Jan- 15 Jan.

Our campsite is towards the back there, where the lovely striped annex is.
And that's Dad and Mum's campsite with the caravan and tent (Renee's sleeping quarters)

The kids thought it was great fun to jump around on our bed and look
out the windows before it was their bedtime

There are some massive trees in this area of the south-west - it's really a beautiful part of our state


On the back of the 'Troll'

Devon's playpen while in Walpole. We were originally going to use this as a 'cot' for him and put it on the bed next to Olivia, but that was before we realised how mobile he actually was...

The inlet we were camped along

early morning boat ride

we even had dolphins swim right next to the boat!

Mr Grub-a-lubs - impossible to keep this boy clean!

One of the best things about camping I reckon - eating outside all the time

our little water rat

Olivia having fun in the sand with Courtney and Uncle Paul

I think they were singing psalms in church...


tall tree country

22nd January - Moving house
The week after we came back from camping was spent packing all our belongings and getting ready for the big move. We were fortunate to receive the keys 2 days earlier than expected so Rod could already start moving a few things on Thursday afternoon and Friday. On Saturday John Bruning came with his truck and along with Mike they helped Rod move all the furniture and any other stuff that had to go.

Olivia will merrily do her own thing...

...while Devon thought he should give Mum a hand
with unpacking the kitchen cupboards.

Seriously, how many hats does a guy need?!

Another ute and trailer load ready to go

truck packed full

supervising

Thankfully the only spider of this kind that we've
seen (so far). There's plenty of daddy long legs and black
house spiders, but these ones here freak me out just a bit...

boxes stacked in the games room

my laundry


Australia Day
A quick afternoon swim down at the beach on
Australia Day - 26th of January

Catching up...

Seeing as we have an internet connection again and the busyness has kind of settled down, I guess I don't have any good reason not to write a new post...

Boy, I'm loving our new house! It's big and spacious, light and bright and starting to feel like ours. The first week it felt like we were still camping or just looking after someone elses place, but now that it's all been painted and all our furniture is in the right place, it's starting to feel like home, and that's nice. The pest control guy came yesterday and took care of all the creepy crawlies that think this place is their home, and today I'm seeing the effects of all his spraying - lots of dead spiders, cockroaches and flies around the place. Now I just need to clean the windows and window frames, light shades and air con vents and I'll be 100% happy :-)

Our house: 89 Nettleton Road Byford :-)
To the left of the drive is another driveway with a gate which
Rod uses to park his truck securely at the back of the property

Here are some before and after shots from inside

lounge before...
The people before hadn't sealed the walls when they painted it
so we could just peal the paint off in huge sections!

and after...

Dining room before...

and after...

Spare/storage/craft room before...

and after...

Olivia's room before...

and after...

We've had everything painted the same colour for now. If we
want to get fancy and do some feature walls, or change the bedrooms
to match bedspreads or whatever, it can be done later.

Ok, that'll do for now.
Photos of December and January events can wait till next time!