18 Months

On Friday it was 18 months since Aaron passed away.  We thought it would be nice to get away and do something that Aaron would've loved, so we went to stay with my sister Nicki and her family in Melbourne for a couple of days, so we could go and watch a blockbuster footy game - Hawks V Essendon.  

The boys love seeing their cousins and it's so nice to see how excited they are to see the boys.   Linc was always all over them and held onto Jay's and Harri''s arm in the car.

Nicki dropped us off at the train station before she went to pick up 'little' Alex from school, so that we could all go into the city on the train since we couldn't all fit in the car.  It was lucky for us as there was a Max Brenner there so we made the most of it.

 We caught the train and tram into the city so we could go to the museum. 

I remember going to the museum with Mum and Dad when I was eleven when we went on a big family holiday to the mainland.  The only thing that I could remember from the museum was that the race horse Phar Lap was there, so it was cool to see that it was still there.

The museum was great and there was so much to see and do.  We spent hours there and still didn't really see everything. 

Later in the day Nicki caught the train back home with her kids while the boys and I spent some time in the city.  We were proud of ourselves jumping on and off trams and finding our way around on our own.  We went to the Docklands before the footy and the boys thought it was so fun to be able to play in some snow which they had brought in for a month. I'm hoping that this will count as our trip to the snow this year!?

We met Nicki and Alex and then walked down to the water to watch some fireworks which they were putting on every Friday night in July.  It was so cool and they went for about fifteen minutes and they had music playing which matched the fireworks.

We then walked to Etihad Stadium to watch the footy.  The boys were so excited as we hadn't been to Etihad before. 

The game was a sell out but we were very lucky to be given tickets from the Hawthorn football club, which we were very grateful for. 

 

When we sat down a guy behind us cracked us up as he started heckling us straight away as he was a Bombers supporter.  He looked at me and said 'you're going to regret sitting here with your boys!'.  The boys thought he was hilarious, even though he kept stirring us the whole game. 

The Hawks thrashed the Bombers and even at the end the guy was making us laugh as he would yell 'there's still time Essendon!' with two minutes left in the game, even though Hawthorn were winning by over fifty points.  Harri would look at me and say 'there's no way that Essendon will win Mum!' and didn't get that the guy was just being funny.  

Harri and Kobe were screaming the whole game, and were loving the atmosphere.  While we were walking to the game Alex said that there would probably 'be some fireworks at the football' meaning that there may be a few fights between the players but Kobe didn't get what he was meaning.  Half way through the game he said 'see Mum - there's no fireworks here because there's a roof on!'. 

It was funny hearing a lady sitting behind us comment on Kobe's guernsey as it has a lot of the player's signatures on it.  It reminds you how lucky we are in Tasmania to be able to get up close and personal with the players so often. 
The boys were so happy with the result of the game and we had a really fun night.  The guy who was heckling us during the game was a great sport and even shook Alex's hand at the end to congratulate him.

The next day we were excited to go to see the building of this season's TV show of The Block.  It has been our favourite season so far, so it was cool to see the hotel that they had renovated and turned into apartments.   It was great timing as yesterday was the day of the auctions, which aired on TV tonight.  We had a very exciting time there which I will blog about later.   

We miss Aaron so much and Harri and Kobe are especially struggling at the moment.   Kobe's behaviour is terrible at the moment and he is feeling really angry again.  Harri has been crying a lot saying he wishes that Aaron didn't have a hole in his heart (as he did when he was born which is the cause of his heart problems) and has been having trouble sleeping again. 

It's hard to believe it has already been 18 months since Aaron passed away, but then it feels like we haven't seen him forever.   It was nice to get away for the weekend and do something fun and try to have a break from the grief for a little while.  Sometimes it seems to help and other times it makes it harder as you really wish that Aaron could be joining us as we do fun things together. 

I don't know that it ever gets easier at all, just that you adjust more.