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Published: February 3rd 2010
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Putting the Gumnut Babies first Geocache together
There's alot of 'treasure' in here. Crowns, toys, travelling Gumnut Babies and then there's the log books and the explanation notes - it's crammed full! Day 279 - Box Hill
We wake up with the strangest feeling this morning, it’s a Saturday, we’re at the Box Hill Resort with the Adams and we have no hangover - this is unprecedented!!
After a self-imposed ‘Friday Night Off’ we all managed a reasonably early night and therefore wake up with plenty of energy for the day ahead. Now all we need to figure out is what to do with it!
We swing easily in to the breakfast routine and then start to gear up for Charlotte to go to a party at lunchtime until she realised that it’s actually tomorrow! Well that changes everything!
We took the opportunity during the coolness in the morning to make the finishing touches to the 'Close to Home'
Gumnut Babies geocache and then headed out with the girls to the chosen spot to hide it. Less than 400ft from their house is a beautiful little reserve with a children’s playground and lots of dense vegetation along the winding path. It seemed the perfect spot.
The cache contains lots of toys picked out by the girls and also two handmade Gumnut Babies with a desire to travel. The idea is
that who finds our cache first will take the Gumnut Babies to their next cache and start them on their way. Hopefully people will leave us messages and we’ll be able to track down where they are. How exciting will it be if they make it out of the country! Also in the cache is a note explaining what the ‘game’ is all about and a log book for the finders to write in.
Hiding the cache is no drama and although it’s not completely hidden from ‘muggles’ (people who don’t geocache!!) it’s not too far off the beaten track either. Fingers crossed it’s not long before the Gumnut Babies start their journey!
There’s time for a bit of a swing at the playground before we leave and even Darryl joined in - he’s just a big kid isn’t he!!
It was already time for lunch so we had a go at making our own pizzas but using mountain bread wraps for the bases rather than fussing around with dough. They worked pretty well and Grants was a complete feast! The girls had mentioned that one of their favourite things to eat is chocolate pizza so maybe
we’ll have a go at making some of those later on if we’re feeling really sickly!!
We don’t hang around much before we’re off again, this time with Grant, to watch his mucker Marty as the opening batsmen for his cricket team. The girls agree (under slight duress) to come with us but we didn’t really prepare ourselves very well. The cricket was good and Marty hung on in there for nearly 50 runs but the girls were starting to crack after the first ten minutes! Without anything to entertain them except us, we were beginning to struggle but found ourselves saved in the nick of time by the arrival of Jo, Marty’s wife and their two young children Jasmine and Caitlin. That at least gave us another fifteen minutes of cricket watching while they all played in the park but when they returned there was no way we were going to be able to keep them at bay any longer! Next time we take them somewhere ‘boring’ like that we need to remember food, books, drinks and games so they find the whole experience far more pleasant!
With Grant and Anna relaxing at home, they’re building themselves
up for going back to work on Monday, we decided to take the girls off to the local big swimming pool to get rid of some more of their energy! Charlotte has an invitation to her school’s swimming carnival which is being held on Friday but nobody is sure if she can swim the required 50 metres or not. This will give us the opportunity to find out. The pool isn’t as busy as we were expecting so we start off inside for a bit of a splash around then make our way to the outside pool where we find a ‘slow lane’ which looked about the right length. We encountered a painfully disgruntled chap who barked at us a bit for not being far enough over to the left, gosh some people take it seriously but surely the SLOW lane is meant for people who can’t swim fast and as there were no ‘Swim to the left’ signs how were we to know. Still, it didn’t deter us and we smiled politely, moved our position further to the left and carried on! It turned out to be only 25 metres but Charlotte manages two lengths, one after the other
quite easily so we put her to the test of swimming another two lengths without stopping! She nearly makes it but not quite - it was great fun though and she gave it a good go. Amy did well too, she was like a little dolphin following behind us!
Back in the main inside pool the girls were keen to go on the spring diving board which looked like great fun. I was just about to have a go when the life guards closed it off, drat. Instead myself and Amy jumped into the deep end holding hands! After that we ended up joining in a game of throw and catch going on between three or so other kids - we didn’t know them but I accidentally nearly caught their ball so they invited us to play! Darryl got gently told off by the lifeguards for having Amy on his shoulders, something we do all the time in their own pool but forgot that it probably wasn’t the done thing in a communal one!!
Well it was a good hour or so spent in the water and there’s no real need to go dry off in the changing
rooms so we just pat ourselves down with our towels then hop into the car and head for home.
Grant is treating us to a Thai dinner tonight so whilst he heads out with Amy to get the girls their requested McDonalds and our menu choices, myself and Anna set off to Camberwell for Italian ice-cream - Gelato. I nearly had a fit when I saw the amount they pile in each of the boxes but the price isn’t ridiculous and Anna assures me none will go to waste!
Dinner is divine with plenty of duck, rice, chicken in cashews plus a juicy big crab platter all followed by delicious Gelato ice-cream.
A great way to see off another great day!
Dar and Sar
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Sharing the Journey
Alec & Cindy Sharp
Homemade Pizza ...
That photo really made me hungry ... which is not good for my diet! Alec