On holidays!

Hi all! Here I am at the beautiful Little Hartley in the Blue Mountains of NSW. We are staying at Dunja and John's house, which I must say is such a gorgeous country home! And they have been so hospitable too!
Israel is out 4WDing on the track that Sean has for his paddock basher, so I thought I would jump online and update my good old blog. Unfortunately we have been slack with taking photos so I havn't got any to show off, but hopefully we will take some today. You will just have to put up with a verbal account of what has been happening.

Well to start with, Tuesday we set off for our big trip. We were going to leave home at 5am, but we had a really rough night with the kids. Basically Gemma was up screaming all night. We finally got her to sleep, and then ended up leaving at 6:50am. We drove to Benalla and then stopped at the beautiful Benalla Bakery for breaky. It was really funny at the bakery cos the family that runs it is full of multiples. Twins and triplets all through the family!

We then drove from Benalla to Jindera which is about 20 mins north of Albury. We stayed with Israel's cousin and her wonderful family. They have the most amazing house. It's bloomin huge I tell you! The kids all had a great time there, not too much fighting. When we got there though it became evident that Chloe sickness was maybe more than just a cold, so Israel took her and Gemma off to the docs to egt checked out. It turns out that they have a respiratory infection, mild tonsilitis and inflamed ears, so not too well. It explains a lot! We have now got them all on AB's and nurofen, so hopefully by the weekend they will be a lot better. We have already seen a good improvement so far.

Tuesday night we had a great time with Cynthia and Paul. We played a very interesting card game with them called Bang! It's so confusing at first but once you understand it, it's awesome. I am so looking forward to playing it again when we go back there next week! Has anyone else ever played it?

Well, Wednesday morning we were again off to a late start, but all for a good reason. The kids slept in! Gotta love that! We ended up leaving Jindera at about 10ish, so really it wasn't too bad. We were in for a long drive though. I drove the first 4 hours to Goulburn. We played Veggie tales for Chloe on the laptop to keep her entertained. At Goulburn, we stopped at the Big Merino (by the way, it's moved now). We had a very expensive lunch there, but it was nice. We then headed off for the last part of our trip. We drove through Black Springs and Oberon to get to Little Hartley. Israel's description of the trip was simply curvy and steep, oh and windy too! I actually got car sick for the first time in years! It was very scenic though. Chloe watched Madagasca during that trip. It was very cute to see her laughing at it with headphones in her ears! I was highly offended when Chloe told me I looked like Gloria the hippo though!

We stopped again at Oberon to give the girls some dinner, and we were spoiled with good old country hospitality at a little eatery... free frankfurt and lovely chats! But then once the girls were fed and had clean bums we once again got in the car. We only had a short drive this time though to Little Hartley. I think it was only about 45 mins to an hour. We also arrived there at the same time that Dunja and John arrived home. They work in Sydney city, so drive 2.5 to 3 hours to get to work, and then do it again to get home! I don't know how they do it!

We had a lovely pasta for dinner and got all the girls in bed. Soon after Dunja and John went to bed also, since they have to get up at 3:30am. Israel and Sean played around on the computer for a while, but I enjoyed the comfort of bed and soon fell asleep.

Today so far we have just been bumming around most of the day. The boys went out for a drive, and then Chloe and I went. It was so much fun, but oh my the car is absolutely caked with mud! We are going to have a tough time getting it clean thats for sure! We have taken some photos, will load them up this afternoon.

At 3pm we are also going to go on the zig-zag railway, which is appartantly like Puffing Billy in Emerald. A steam train trip up the mountain.

Well I better get off the computer now and let Izzy load up the photos.

Will check in again as soon as I can.