Our first holiday without him

After Noah passed away we caught up with the doctor who was with us when he passed away.  He is the head of the paediatric and neonatal ICU and obviously deals with a lot of heart break and talks to a lot of families who have lost a child.

He asked us if we had any holidays planned and we told him we did, and he said that he always suggests to families that they should take at least two holidays not long after their child passes away.  He said that this is because the first holiday is usually spent really thinking about their child, missing them and not enjoying it too much, but the next holiday is usually a lot easier.

When our friends offered us the use of their shack at Bicheno we thought it would be a good chance to get away and spend some nice quiet time together.  The boys were really excited, especially Harri which was nice.  He's taken Noah passing away the hardest out of the boys, so it's so nice to see him smiling more and looking forward to things.

We headed down yesterday and had to stop along the way to look at the beautiful scenery.

After a few kilometres of windy roads Kobe started crying and said his tummy was sore. I knew straight away he was car sick and told Aaron to pass a bag back and luckily Jay was right next to him as he spewed in it.  Poor thing felt bad for about five minutes or so, but then he perked up pretty quickly.

We were glad when we finally arrived at the shack. It's a really old shack with heaps of character, and you can see the beach from the front windows and yard. Kobe kept saying 'me love our new house!' and kept asking why we are staying here. He can't believe we are so lucky to be staying right across from the beach and that we can do fun things every single day.






We spent the afternoon at the beach...

before coming back to relax while tea cooked.



After tea we promised the boys a trip to the blowhole before bed.  It started raining while we were there but it didn't matter as the boys were wanting to get wet by the water anyway.  They loved it so much and Harri cried when we told them it was time to leave.  We promised a visit there again today.



It started pouring when we got back to the shack and it's supposed to be a bit rainy while we are down here, but we are hoping the weather man is wrong and we may get some decent weather. 


When we got home we pulled out the playing cards and taught the boys some games which I used to play a lot as a kid - spoons and gin rummy or 500.  I was trying to help Kobe play spoons and he kept getting cranky with me, and eventually moved across to the other side of the circle, gave me the daggers and said 'me do it me-self!!'.

After a while we put him to bed and had a huge game of gin rummy.  The boys loved it, especially when they won a round.  Harri cracked us up with his celebration dance.

We are so glad to get away for a bit, and to have some quiet family time.  While driving down I had a little cry as it made me think of our family holidays every summer, with the car loaded up and the music blaring as we drove down the coast.  I missed seeing Noah in the rear vision mirror, but I know he would be glad we are doing something special with his brothers.  Jay asked us if we thought Noah knew what we were up to, and I told him I had no doubt and was sure he was glad we were having some fun together.  I'm sure he's here with us in spirit. 

If I'm quiet on the blog over the next few days or so, don't panic. It's just that I'm enjoying the break (or am sick of the slow internet connection :)