Sunnyside Farm Fun: Our Annual Mama/ Kiddo Camping trip

Which Daddy gate-crashed as well this time :)

The 'setup' ~ very shaded ~ bad for photos, but good for camping in the summer heat!

I try to take our kiddos away for a camping trip at the end of our summer holidays each year ~ a final hurrah to celebrate the freedom from our schedule & the regular busyness that comes with the return of the school year.

We very nearly didn't embark on it this year. One child was quick to point out that we had only 3 days (yes, just 3 days) where we stayed at home or didn't have visitors since Christmas Eve. While we just love having visitors, I do think that next year I need to be a little more proactive in making sure that we have more days of just staying at home (although the intensive swimming lessons the twins did for two weeks certainly helped with their swimming progress). This child had an uncharacteristic meltdown & I realised how much the constant going does effect the children.

So instead of going camping for the week last week, we decided Sunday morning that the whole family would go away for just a night ( remember we have a menagerie of animals to care for). This made the parents happy as we could get away from the work of the farm ( albeit temporarily) & the children happy because they could have fun with the whole family & that particular child happy as he could handle just one night away.

We left late Sunday morning (remember we only decided to go that morning). Yes, we are super packers ~ just stay out of our way. The twins know to sit in the car while we run around like mad people throwing together everything we could need. We went the long way to the camp site so we could go to a city & buy some camp stretchers. We are so sick of air beds that go down during the night & ending up uncomfortable, attempting to sleep on the hard, rocky floor. Fortunately the shop had 4 stretchers so the children were excited about their new beds! Unfortunately there is no option for a queen & Mummy & Daddy had to stay with the air mattress ~ which of course went down sometime after midnight!!

Upon arriving at the camp site we were pleasantly surprised to find it rather empty. Maybe the predictions of storms that barely came about on Saturday had scared the usual crowd who go away camping for the Australia Day long weekend or maybe it's lack of a good place to swim reduces it's desirability in the melting summer heat ( we didn't know this fact until we had arrived). We were able to get a lovely shady site on the edge of the river.

After setting up we decided to haul out the fishing gear & give it a go. I will admit that although I enjoy fishing, I enjoy photographing the goings on more. Unfortunately my good camera is playing up, so although I attempted to capture this event, the quality is not what I would have liked. ( I need to take it in for servicing, but dread what will need to be done &how long it will be away from me ~ it's like another appendage.

Eli was so proud to be the first to catch a fish & he posed proudly with his catch. Sadly it did need to be thrown back due to it's size.

The children & Dave enjoyed fishing at various times interspersed with coming back for a sit down with food ( & thankfully this time I remembered to pack twice the amount of snacks that I would normally think is generous ~ camping makes us hungry!!). I took the opportunity to sit down in the cool shade & read a new book I had just uploaded to our ipad. This is the first time I've read a book on any kind of technology & I must say that while it isn't as good as holding a book in hand, it wasn't an unpleasant experience. I may need to invest in a kindle in the near future ~ any recommendations???

Although we were reminded why we love not having neighbours (yes, there was one group who were intent in celebrating Australia Day all weekend ~ into the wee hours of the morning & very loudly), we just enjoyed the chance to get away as a family. Lots of relaxing, lots of chatting, lots of enjoying God's beautiful creation!!