This feels like such a big post to write. I may do a two-parter. Let’s see how we go.
About a year ago, Gran proposed that we go on a family holiday up to Cairns in August to celebrate Mum and Dad’s 50th wedding anniversary. Their treat. The whole family would be invited and the idea was that we all stay together and have some serious(ly fun) family time. In January this year, Gran and I sat down to start planning. Gran and Grumpy had decided they would drive up and make a bit of a pre-holiday out of the trip, visiting friends and relatives up the Queensland coast. We booked reasonably-priced flights for the kids and Marty and I for the 13th of August (Uncle Khicken’s birthday) until the 18th. We also booked car hire and I started looking for accommodation. There wasn’t a whole lot that was suitable (and affordable) for the 10 of us, so when a four bedroom house with a pool turned up in my search, I booked it straight away.
The anticipation leading up to departure was wonderful. I honestly looked forward to this holiday for the whole year, and when the week to leave finally arrived, I was giddy with excitement. I packed as light as I possibly could for the five of us, and we were on our way! Gran and Grumpy had left a week earlier and had had a wonderful trip up. And Uncle Khicken and Aunty Kate had arrived in Cairns on the Sunday, so they got to have a couple of days with G&G all to themselves which was nice.
We arrived on Sunday afternoon, picked up the car and headed to the house to drop our stuff off, meet up with G&G, then we met K&K down at the waterfront for some bloody good burgers and let the kids run amok. We then headed back to the B&B where the kids and K&K jumped into the pool, while I sat pool-side with a glass of bubbly or two. It was so heavenly to be lazing around, surrounded by those nearest and dearest to me. We had cake for Uncle K’s birthday and the kids passed out happily exhausted.
Wednesday was a massive day of driving around and catching up with old friends. Remember how we visited Dimbulah a few years ago? Uncle Khicken hadn’t been back for nearly 40 years, and I was keen to head back out with the kids. We visited a friend in Tolga, then had lunch at the Yungaburra pub to see other friends, then headed to Lake Eacham to have a look around, then to the property outside of Dimbulah to see another friend then over to another friend’s place for dinner! It was an epic and exhausting day, and the kids did so well with all the driving. The 90min drive home at 7pm was a bit wild and crazy (and loud!) but honestly, I couldn’t have asked for any more from them.
I had planned to have one big day followed by a day of no plans, so that was Thursday. Of course this meant we ended up at op-shops and having sushi for lunch and K&K taking the kids shopping and spoiling them and lots of time in the pool. Grumpy had brought up some snorkeling gear for the kids to practice with ahead of our reef trip on Friday. They took to it so well and we also practiced with the underwater camera. The other fun thing we were doing together each night was watching a bit of the video that Mum and Dad made of our trip around northern Australia in 1987. It was so much fun watching it with the kids – Kristian was around 9 years old and I was 7. And this also inspired us to watch some All Aussie Adventures with Russell Coight which the kids (and adults) find hilarious!!
Gran and Grumpy had spent Wednesday night in Dimbulah, so they rejoined us Thursday afternoon for dinner and drinks and watching TV together. We made all the preparations needed for the next day out on the reef. I’ll blog about that soon!