Alright... prepare yourselves. This post is big. I think you deserve it after the extreme blog neglect I've been dealing you the past few months. Over the Easter weekend, we decided to drive a couple hours North to a little place called Port Stephens, and hide away from the world for a few days. Hiding away from the world is great fun. You should try it sometime.
Our good friends (the Finches) joined us in our hide out from the world (or we joined them, however you want to look at it), so whether you like it or not, you're gonna see them in several of the pictures...
Our first stop was a beach. No ordinary beach though. This beach had sand that went on for millions of miles in every direction. So much, that they were perfectly okay with you driving yourselves around all over it.
Some random people on some random camels. What a great way to start this post hey??? I know how much you all love to look at random people. Especially when they're on random camels. So... your welcome!
We decided to make our way around by foot.
The kiddies. They are all such good friends... they are bordering on obsession with each other.
Jarom and his good friend Alivia. We may or may not be arranging their future marriage. This will make a great picture for the "wedding slideshow."
Okay... this photo gets two big laughs from me. First... Jarom... what's not to love. Second...? I'll just leave that up to you to decide. (Hint: it has something to do with Wes' ever so helpful hand, and the fact that that is NOT his daughter.)
After the swimming, racing, and playing on sand piles was done, we decided to trek over to the end of the beach to search for some shells... we had heard wondrous things about the shells to be found at this beach, and so there was no way we could NOT go.
Along the way, the kids formed "The Stop and Stare at That Strange Looking Thing, Poke It, and Say COOOOL!!! Society." (It's a working title).
They had several meetings along the way.
One time they let the dads join in as honorary members.
Here's an example of one of the nasty things they found along the way. "Jellies" we affectionately called them. This is one that was actually whole and intact. Most of them were smashed and torn to disgusting little gooey pieces.
Rex earned himself the role of President of the Society... as he was the only one able to pick up the jellies and not lose his lunch in the process.
Reid worked his way up to Vice President with this find. A half eaten crab. Nicely done.
Mrs. Finch... she had a lot of doughnuts for breakfast that morning. Or she's pregnant. Hope you don't mind Julie, but I really had to share this picture... there's just something about it... like it belongs on the cover of a sewing pattern.
Something about shells... what IS it? We must collect them... we MUST have them... we must search high and low and travel far and wide to possess them! Whether you are small sweet children, or two grown men... just have to have those SHELLS!!!
Once we had exhausted ourselves scrounging up shell life, we moseyed on over to PrepchukMobile, piled it full of Prepchuk people and Finch people, and drove. And drove. And drove and drove and got stuck. And then drove and drove and DROVE. And then found our way to this...
Argh!... don't ya just hate it when you forget where you parked your boat?
Staring at the boat...
And smiling in front of the boat.
(Apparently Jarom felt this would be an appropriate time to go "digging for gold.")
Bright and somewhat early the next morning, everyone but the sane mothers chose to go for a swim. What was it that made us so sane and everyone else not so much? Well... despite the fact that this is Australia, in the "fall" it cools down enough that a swimming pool (like this one) that is not heated, is actually very FREEZING COLD.
They do look pretty happy however... so what do I know. I do think it's possible that their mouths just got frozen into those smiles though.
Here's Conner begging the sun to heat up the water just a little bit more PLEASE.
Jarom didn't resort to such silly methods though, and stuck to praying for the water to warm up.
Moving on...
Since we were having such a great time with the whole water thing, we decided why not go on a dolphin cruise? They were there... we were there... it all made sense. So... we went on a dolphin cruise.
Let me tell you a little something about a dolphin cruise. It sounds lovely. It's not.
It has the potential to be lovely of course, but the problem is PEOPLE. Grown people. They push. They shove. They won't budge an inch to let you in to see a bit of the action. They stand on benches so no one behind can even see a dang thing. And when your sweet adorable innocent PERFECT little children try to so much even get a glimpse of a dolphin, they glare at you and block your way.
The end.
Here's some of my boys on the side of the boat where dolphins couldn't be seen. It was safer there. Safe from being trampled to an early death.
I had to put this in. He's cute when his head is all blown out of proportion.
On this "cruise" boat, they had a little something called a boom net. For about ten minutes they lower this net into the OCEAN, and drag you along in the water. It strikes fear into the heart of some... like me. But not these two Prepchuks. They loved it.
On a side note... since it's on my mind for obvious reasons, let me just say this. There are people in this world who should wear bikinis, and some who really should not. But whether they should or shouldn't, I sure wish they wouldn't sit so close to my husband and son.
Moving on!
Easter morning... the Easter bunny, who I have very mixed feelings about sometimes, dropped a few chocolate eggs at our "house." And the kids collected them all in about five and half seconds. Wahoo.
Lena was drunk with excitement.
It was a lot of fun. Just ask Reid's face.
In the afternoon, we went for a little picnic, and then a little walk, and surprise surprise, ended up at a little beach. This beach was really beautiful, and believe it or not, we spotted a few dolphins swimming around. They must have felt bad that we got so gypped on the cruise.
And to finish off... a little video of the infamous dolphin cruise... Enjoy.
If there is one, and one thing only you can learn from this, it's that if you ever want to confuse Jarom out of his wits, just ask him how many dolphins he saw. This may be extremely useful information if you ever end up in hand to hand combat with him.
THE END!