Staycation

I don’t know about you, but life for us has become incredibly hectic. We have been busy for more weekends in a row than I can count. Not bad busy; fun busy… lots of time with family, fun adventures and great memories… but busy, and always with other people. I literally couldn’t remember the last time it was just us.

I was craving some time with my people. Just my husband and kids. Call it grounding.. or regrouping.. I needed it. I would have loved to have gone away for a night or two and totally escaped, but money is a thing… a thing that we don’t have lots of.. so we did the next best: a staycation. A pretend holiday, where the accommodation is free and you get the luxury of sleeping in your own bed. Win-win-win! We spent the days doing whatever we wanted to do, holding hands, and just enjoying. It was magic, and it made me so, so happy.

  

It’s getting harder to fit our family into a selfie!! We started off the day at a local craft festival… checking out market stalls and enjoying free show rides and cheap locally grown fruit.

 
And yes, Mayana is wearing a beard…

How did I get so lucky as to marry this boy?

Did I mention the rides were free?

We also stopped at pretty much any playground we went past, much to the kids’ excitement!

When it started to sprinkle a little, we bought some bits and pieces for a picnic lunch and jumped in the car to another nearby town, where we found a little museum with picnic shelters, barbeques and another playground. Happy days!

 
Quinten has huge problems with watching us eat. He wants in on that!! He was particularly cranky this day, and wouldn’t be calmed until I gave him a crust off my sandwich… which he proceeded to go to town on… hands-free!

    
These two were a bit thrilled when I gave them a lolly… and that thrill was increased ten-fold when they discovered that it changed the colour of their tongues!

 
My men in their fabulous hats!

I didn’t take any pictures in the museum but we had lots of fun exploring. Mayana got it in her head that you have to be REALLY QUIET in a museum, and proceeded to adopt a very theatrical whisper as she pointed out all the things that interested her. Reuben decided that museums are a place to see dinosaurs… luckily, there was a gigantic crocodile skin on display, and that was close enough to a dinosaur for him!

 
The kids asked for a movie night, and we decided to go old-skool and hire out DVDs. The kids had fun choosing, and we all enjoyed watching The Croods with a lounge-room fish & chip picnic (despite the serious look on my kids’ faces).

On Sunday, we went to church, then popped home to pack up the picnic basket, change into some summery clothes and hit the road.. destination: unknown.

 
We landed at the beach, and found a secluded spot under some shady trees to roll out our gigantic picnic mat.

Not a bad lunch view eh?

 
Isn’t Mr Q getting a bit clever? I dug a little mound of sand around him under the blanket to help him balance, but he sat there for most of the time we were eating… all by himself! Clever fella.

It was still a little chilly for swimming, but down by the water enough wind picked up to fly our kites. Mayana had been given this butterfly kite for Christmas, and this was the first time we have had a chance to fly it. Such fun! The kids enjoyed running around on the wet sand. Reuben inevitably got completely soaked… running around and jumping into puddles, which of course almost always ended with him landing pretty much flat on his face (“Splat Mama!!!”)

We had such a beautiful weekend pretending to be on holidays. My family is so awesome; it was such a happy time just being us, being together. I feel refreshed and ready for our next slew of busy weekends ahead. I can certainly see more of these staycations in our future!

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