School Holidays week 1

This week the girls were back at home on their first week of school holidays. My Uni subjects have opened up so I have begun reading and preparing for what work I have ahead. I am also preparing to start a new job when the girls go back to school, helping out in the caravan park office for a few hours each day which will be a new but interesting challenge for me and will definitely keep me occupied.

Dave left the car for us to use on Monday and he intended to leave it for us another day as well but we decided we were just as happy exploring the town on foot. Most of Monday we ended up staying in the park as there was another young girl from school here visiting her grandparents who are also staying in the park. The kids made friends in the pool last week and they continued to play together at school so every day she is visiting the kids don't want to go out much. We did have to head out in the afternoon though as we had to take Jezy to the vet as she had developed a lump under her neck. Charli thankfully remembered an incident with a stick on our way up and we think that may be the cause and created an abscess. Poor Charli was distraught that she may have hurt Jezy but she was reassured that we were very grateful she remembered the incident. Jez is now on antibiotics and is on the mend.

Tuesday morning we walked into town via the new neighbourhood house to check out their pop up op shop. Elly was ecstatic to find 2 books from a series she was introduced to at school last year and Charli selected a few books too and we walked out with a nice collection of reading material for only $2. From there we visited a few other shops and grabbed ourselves some morning tea, then visited the visitor centre for some more ideas of things to do.

On our walking excursion on Wednesday we visited a different op shop where a couple more bargains were found (it is fantastic to see both the kids so into their reading at the moment) before stopping in to visit the local bakery where we couldn't leave before sampling the vanilla slice. From there we checked out the junk shop and stopped in the jewellery store to see the famous Argyle diamonds. The lady in the store was lovely, and let Charli try on a 50-odd thousand dollar ring. The girls also giggled when we experienced our My Big Fat Greek Wedding moment after they offered to give my rings a clean, the heat up here makes my fingers swell a bit and the lady suggested we squirt some windex on it to bring down the swelling - I can tell you it works! As we headed back to the caravan park we stopped in at the local aboriginal art gallery where the girls explored indigenous symbols in the artworks.

With their friend back in the park on Thursday we spent much of the day in the park (and in the pool) and Friday was much the same except that on Friday evening I took Elly over to the local hairdresser as she finally decided she needed to cut her hair a bit shorter. She is very happy with her new do and it is much more manageable.

Once again we packed as much into our weekend as possible. Saturday morning we stopped in at the market to pick up some local fruit and veg and then went off to do the rest of our shopping. When we returned we packed up the van and shifted ourselves back to the grassy area from our isolation as we were feeling too boxed in in the permanant area and we now feel more relaxed again. We had just enough time in the afternoon to take our kayaks out for a spin on Lake Kununurra before our online family trivia night began which was loads of fun.

We spent the day out driving around on Sunday. We found Middle Springs where we discovered the tiniest little frogs we had ever seen, smaller than Elly's fingernail and there were loads of them.

Next we stopped in at Black Rock Falls. Unfortunately the falls were not running as we were in dry season but what a beautiful place. As we walked into the shade we were suddenly surrounded by butterflies and felt like we were in the butterfly house at the Melbourne Zoo. We then walked into this small gorge, surrounded by huge towering rock faces and big rocks to climb over. It was one of those serene places that instantly make you feel relaxed. The girls and Dave went for a bit of a climb while I just enjoyed the ambience. As I sat I saw something swim across the pool and discovered a cane toad which is now no longer with us as Dave dropped a big rock on his head.

We continued our drive from here through to Wyndham, which we will explore more extensively next weekend but we did drive up to the five rivers lookout which overlooks the area where the 5 main rivers in the area converge and flow out to sea (the King River, Pentecost River, Durack River, Ord River and Forest River). Great view and a lovely spot for some lunch. We then headed back down the highway to Kununurra. That night we discovered a visitor in our van - a katydid or walking leaf as the kids call it thanks to Bluey. It was hilarious watching the girls with the bug, being all brave to try and pick it up but squealing when it started flying around - absolutely hilarious!!