Camping, Canberra, Commuting and Catching up!

Wow what a totally insane but well worth it 24 hours.

Kyle has his first ever camp with youth group Pulse. They camped out in an old hall at Upper Kangaroo River just the other side of Kangaroo Valley. So we drove him up there and dropped him off at 7:30pm on Friday night. YAY quiet time at home! NO WAY. We then got back in the car and I drove to Canberra. Shocking trip driving over the mountain and through the highlands on dusk keeping a look out for roos and wombats (and luckily only seeing those that had already been "intimate" with other peoples cars). We arrived in Canberra about 10 o'clock. Oh and did I mention that the cigarette lighter that I needed for my ipod dock that had been FIXED before we went - well he didn't actually check that it worked! GGGRRRR I hate driving with no music.

Then we got up this morning and made our way to Calvary Hospital to see Aunty Joan. On a strict by-the-book basis Joan is Tony's Aunty in law as she married his mum's brother but realistically she is very dear to us. When ever there has been something major on down here she makes the trip from Canberra to be with us and support us. She is always interested in what we are doing and what is going on and cares so much for all of us. So when we heard she was in hospital after an emergency hip replacement we knew we had to go see her. 1) Just to say hi and check up on how she was going and 2) because we knew if the tables were turned she would be here in a flash. Oh and 3) did i mention just how lovely she is!

We had a great chat this morning. It was good to see her up and out of bed and we sat and chatted for about an hour and a half. It was so lovely to see her smiling and chatting and to catch up on everything. We got to see Lorinda too (Joan's daughter) which we were really happy about as we weren't sure if we would be able to catch up with her.

Then to appease the youngest member of the family we made a slight detour via Fyshwick on the way home to hit the DFO (namely Smiggle) and probably spent more in petrol than the cost of the couple of pens she got but hey now we can say we have been to the new DFO Fyshwick and whilst it doesn't quite match up to Essendon (got to come down again for another shopping trip) it was still great. Tasha is soooo happy she can now say she has been to Smiggle rather than looking on line and Tony got new shoes for work which he needed.

Then drove home - Tony did the trip from Canberra to Marulan before I took over - and this is where I think he had some inside knowledge because it rained the whole way down the mountain and infact just as we hit the valley to go and pick Kyle up the wind hit so hard there were branches coming down all around us.

Picked Kyle up in the pouring rain. He had a great time. They went in the river, played all sorts of games and generally just had fun. Then did the second mountain - yes I drove in the rain again.

Hope wherever you are you had a great weekend and that you are not feeling as exhausted as I am right now. Totally worn out but so glad we went.