Since it had been about five years since our last outdoor family activity, Wes and I woke our kids up bright and early one morning and hauled them off to the Blue Mountains to do some walking around.
They were extremely dazed and confused, but thankfully they survived the ordeal.
Picture time!...
Here is my super adorable family that I love. And hey! Some of them are actually smiling.
Nice.
Wes and Reid practice their swagger, Conner gabs a fascinating story to his father (I can only see the
back of his head, but I know he is based on the way he's holding his hand), Lena
enforces her life's motto: "Why walk when you can SKIP??" And Jarom decides he really ought to
be sitting in that hole in the wall.
So he did.
My husband was kind of grabby with the camera on this
outing, which doesn't normally happen, so I happen to be in
some of the pictures, which doesn't normally happen.
PHEW! That made sense.
Anyway… here we all are, sitting around on rocks like we do.
The father of our family decided we were strong walkers.
So we took the giant stairway. It probably goes on forever… but we'll never know,
because half an hour later when we got to the point where it said "half way,"
the mother of our family decided enough was enough.
It was smooth sailing.
Minus the smooth part. And the sailing.
Going down was not so bad, but going back up our weak little
thigh muscles were screaming "What the HECK?"
About five steps up Conner starts moaning:
"I wish we'd never done this!"
If we'd had enough energy/breath in us, it would have
kept us laughing all the way back to the top.
We stopped for a rest or twenty thousand.
As I was gazing thoughtfully at the beautiful surroundings,
contemplating the wonders of life, I saw
this profile of a face on the cliff and it creeped me out. Can you see it??
We reached a point in our adventure where we had to cross this little old bridge. Jarom was
kind of anxious to go, and he stood on one side working up the nerve for ages, and then
suddenly went running across whispering for the world to hear:
"Nice and quick, nice and quick, nice and QUICK!"
It was not amusing in the least, and we only laughed about it for the next five hours.
Sitting under a big old rock... my kids being my kids.
One of the cutest things about Conner is how much he is in love with his mother. I'm not sure
I deserve it, but I'll take it! He had to be next to me in our "assembly line" on the stairs,
and after one of our rest stops, Reid somehow ended up next to me instead, and
Conner's screams of "REID! I have to be next to MOMMY!!" could be heard echoing
throughout the mountains.
We wandered into a souvenir shop after all that walking around, and
Lena saw a butterfly mood ring that she had to have or she would
curl up and die. Wes and I weren't too fazed, but Reid for some reason
couldn't help himself and decided he'd have to buy it for her. Sucker!!
And now! Time for a couple of random things I had to laugh about on our trip.
They both have to do with Australian candy. I mean lollies. (I can speak a
little Australian from time to time)
First… noughts and crosses. I can't help it, it makes me smile.
We are from North America, therefore we are X's and O's kind of people.
And last!
What goes on in people's minds sometimes.
The good news is… GLUTEN FREE! (We should've bought you the box, Julie)