We are definitely at a fast stage of life; music teaching, tennis, cycling, gymnastics, the gym, Bible study, stamping; the weeks go so fast. The weekends go frightfully quickly, too, but we have had some great ones.
A few weeks ago our minister and his wife, Sandy and Karen, had their last weekend in Wagga. There were speeches, tears, much cake, sushi, curry, more cake and even more tears. They have been at our church all of the sixteen years we have been in Wagga. They have been such an encouragement and support to us; we'll miss their teaching and their friendship.
The following weekend Mum and Dad came to stay on their way home from Tasmania. Their dog, Sunny, had been staying with us for the two and a half weeks they were away. Sunny is about one quarter the size of Milo, but quite the boss when he comes to stay. We took some cute photos of Sunny in Milo's big bed and Milo in Sunny's tiny one, but they are on my old phone. I have a new iPhone now, so, hopefully, another obstacle to blogging will have disappeared....
Finally, this past weekend we had a long overdue get-together with all of Andrew's family. Andrew's sister worked out a place on the coast that is the same distance from the two families in Gloucester and us in Wagga. The winner was Corrimal, a suburb of Wollongong.
It was forecast to rain a lot, the whole weekend, but it held off enough for all of the third generation to get very sandy and wet.
If you look hard, you can even see Jordy and Toby in the ocean with boards! Madness.
Twenty-one of us went out to dinner together on the Saturday night - chaotic but fun. We stayed in cabins next to the beach. They were new and spacious. Each family had a cabin, but the kids were shared out. Having been the only girl, with five, much younger boy cousins, I really appreciate that each of my children has a special, similar age BFF cousin. Toby also gets a few adoring younger boy cousins.
On Sunday morning we gathered at a cafe to have a final meal together and celebrate Ron's birthday. Ninety-two years old, surrounded by eleven grandchildren! After much hugging, we ran to our cars and drove home through the rain.
I couldn't go away every weekend and manage to keep us fed and in clean clothes during the week, but we're definitely going to do it again next year. New tradition!
