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Christmas 2012
All of our family in the same place at the same time .... amazing and VERY special On the Road Again!
It's been more than 12 months since Peter was in hospital receiving his first Chemotherapy. The year has really gone very quickly.
Christmas was a lovely time for us. We were excited to be able to organize a special day where all of our family could be in the same place at the same time - THAT hasn't happened for quite some now. As you can see in the picture, the tribe is growing!
Late January/ early February we had another week in Shoal Bay which was most enjoyable. We arrived the day after the area had experienced extremely high winds. A yacht and a fishing boat had been washed ashore and were well and truly stuck in the sand. It was entertaining to watch each of them being refloated by teams of men with very differing degrees of experience! Geocaching is an activity that we enjoy, so we got on our bikes and discovered quite a few “treasures” in the area. We also enjoyed swimming in the warm waters of the Bay. It has been YEARS since we’ve been in the sea. Most refreshing! The weather then turned which saw us
A challenge for the owners...
and a great attraction for the visitors spending the whole day in the van. Wendy kept herself busy cooking up a storm.
On our return to Jilliby, James and Judy departed for their big adventure to South America, Antarctica and Galapagos Islands. We had a day at the Reptile Park with the grandkids - a Galapagos turtle being one of the highlights. Disappointingly, James and Judy didn’t get to see any turtles on their visit to GI – go figure!
Wendy secured a casual job for a few weeks, driving special-needs kids to and from school. Life continued on around medical appointments, yoga sessions, playing with the grandkids and catching up with friends and family. We also took on the task of selling Wendy’s Mum’s campervan. THAT was quite a process, involving rego checks, repairs and rust removal, as well as getting it polished up to present it at it’s best. It took a while, but it’s sold.
In the middle of March Wendy really enjoyed being able to spend a special weekend in Kangaroo Valley with her Wombat friends. She’s not sharing any news about those few days because “What happens at Wombats, stays at Wombats!!”
Esther Elaine Close was pleased that Grandma came back to Jilliby after her weekend away. At 3:45 am her dad had to wake Grandma and Grandad so that someone could come and be with Matilda, Gabrielle and Jared while Mummy and Daddy made a very fast trip to North Gosford Hospital so that Esther could be delivered by 4.55am! 2 days later, Nanny and Poppy Gordon (James and Judy) returned home from their big trip. We made an overnight trip to Tamworth to deliver our market stock to our friends, Carol & Ernie, who had some big weekends (for markets) coming up. The countryside up through the Upper Hunter Valley all the way to Tamworth was lush and green. We are pleased and relieved that we made the decision to quit the market game. It has been fun and we met some amazing lovely people, …. But ……we know when we’ve had enough. While there, we took the opportunity to purchase some wonderful country meat from Carol & Ernie’s son Stephen, who operates the Paddock to Plate Butchery. Nothing can beat fresh country meat.
At the end of March we moved over to Matcham to
housesit for 6 weeks. We felt like we were living in a resort, with a heated swimming pool, and a double spa bath in the ensuite. As the summer faded, the autumn sun flooded the living areas, keeping the house cosy and warm, and the swimming pool was used several times. Needless to say, house-sitting is something we really enjoy doing and look forward to many more opportunities.
Towards the end of April, Peter had his 3-monthly check up with the specialist (6 months after Chemotherapy finished) and was given an almost clean bill of health – Cholesterol was high, possibly a side-effect of all the drugs, and was it LDL or HDL that was high?
On 3
rd May we moved back to Jilliby to prepare for our departure from the coast. We had our hearts set on being in Lismore to spend Mothers Day with Mel, Gareth and the girls. After a very slow pack-up day due to Peter suffering one of his dreaded bad hayfever days on the Tuesday, we departed Jilliby at 5.30am on Wednesday. The travelling was very leisurely and stopping at Coffs Harbour for lunch, we decided to stay
there for the night – right at the break wall. The Pacific Highway upgrade is progressing well and the Kempsey bypass is outstanding. We made it to Lismore by lunchtime Friday. Needless to say we have enjoyed our stay here immensely. It’s great to catch up with the grandkids' activities and watch part of their progress. Anouk has started to crawl, and Maya is learning to dive at her swimming lessons! At the end of May, Shannon flew up to spend some time with us all and to celebrate her birthday. She is waiting to receive news on Thursday about her acceptance into Queensland Uni to study zoology, specializing in insects – her personal favourites are bees.
We had a special "holiday" in Lennox Head when we took Maya away for the weekend in the motorhome. Grandma & Grandad were exhausted by the time we got back to Lismore, but the special memories we made together over those few days will last a long time.
We are now preparing to depart Lismore tomorrow, Wednesday. Our destination is the Lockyer Valley to volunteer for Blazeaid. There are friends in Toowoomba to visit and the rest of Queensland is waiting
Shannon celebrates with us
The cake was an all-day team effort and we were very proud. for us to explore.
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