Family Time

I love having my family home. We have had a great Christmas to-gether ending with three days away camping together as a family. We were very fortunate to be able to have a few days at a fishing shack about an hour and a half out of Rocky. I am so thankful that we had this roof over our heads as the weather has been pretty bad the last few days. Constant rain - but much needed rain so I am still very thankful for it.
The shack is pretty primitive but it is situated on a hill overlooking the water. Lovely spot and couldn't have asked for a better spot for a bit of fishing and relaxation.
We had a few home comforts there -beds to sleep on, ceiling fans, lounge chairs to sit in, table and chairs. Sort of reminded us of how the early settlers must have lived when they first migrated to our wonderful county. We went fishing and caught fish for mealsWe went crabbing each morning and evening and enjoyed a wonderful feast of these.


Each evening we came home to wonderful roast dinners cooked in the camp oven over the hot coals.
and after the dishes were done, the crab pots checked and the fish all filleted we sat down to play cards together as a family till all hours of the night.

The time has gone way too quickly. It seems like we wait for ever for our kids to come home to visit and then it seems that time just flies and it is time to pack up and go home again.
We've had heaps of rain these last few days, and this morning, we got absolutely drenched as we went to collect the crab pots ready top pack up to go home. We honesty wondered how we were ever going to get packed and get everything in and out of the boat and into our cars in the absolute pouring rain. What an answer to prayer when the rain stopped only 16 minutes before we needed to start loading everything on the little ride on mower to take down to the boat. We got everything back to the boat ramp dry and then loaded in the car all dry.
We got everyone and everything back to the boat ramp in two boat loads. Good thing the shack is only a couple of hundred metres from the boat ramp cause we were pretty much weighed right down. We were keen to get it all back and loaded in the car before the rain hit again.
It was all hands on deck to get the boat unloaded and the cars loaded so we could get tied down and get home.

Just some random shots of these guys that I love the most. It was long after leaving that the rain hit again and it rained most of the way home. It has absolutely bucketed down at home here. We have had over 6 inches of rain in the last couple of days, and a lot of it fell this morning. This was just a glimpse of the scenes we saw along the road as we were driving home


We also got a glimpse of this little fella on our way out along the dirt road too. He was sitting right in the middle of the road, but by the time we got out of the car with the camera he had scampered up this tree.
A few other random shots from the last few days since the kids have been home. On Boxing day we all went to the movies to see AVATAR in 3D. Colin and Sarah went for this new look with their 3D glasses after we got out of the Movies.
Also during the week before Christmas we came across this stick insect at church. We just had to take a photo of it as it was HUGE. I have never seen anything like it. I have seen photos of huge ones in PNG, but never one here. It was massive.
I still have photos of cards that we made just before Christmas to share with you, but this post is already long and it is late, so will leave them for another day, probably in the new year.

I have so many things to be thankful for this week.

1. An awesome time away together as a family
2. The rain - it was so good hearing the rain pelting down on the iron roof.
3. God's awesome creation - the beauty that surrounds us.
4. For safety whilst traveling and on the water.
5. For the fish and crabs and the fun we had catching them and eating them.
6. The generosity of others - allowing us to use their fishing shack.
7. Just being able to have some one on one time chatting with our kids.
8. Hanging out together.
9. Washing machines.
10. Clothes dryers.

Well it's late and I need to hit the sack. All this fresh air has made me a little tired and I have an early start in the morning as our kids are heading home at about 6am in the morning and I want to get up and wave them goodbye as they head back home to Brissie.