River to Sea

We just had a lovely night away at our friend's beautiful beach house at Swansea.  It's called 'Rio al Mar' which means 'river to sea' because it sits right next to a river that meets the sea.  We have stayed there before and felt very lucky to go again as it's so relaxing and therapeutic.  Even just one night there makes you feel relaxed and rejuvenated.

We kind of decided on the spur of the moment to go in the morning, and it's probably what threw me because we ended up going the long way there.  I know the 'quick' way which usually takes an hour and a half, but I saw the first turn off that said to the East Coast and because it was always the way we went to St Helens, I just turned without thinking.  

As we had been driving for about an hour and fifteen minutes, it suddenly dawned on me that we were still a long way from Swansea. I pulled over to check a map on my phone as I knew there was a turn off somewhere, and then it hit me that I had taken the really long way around! It added an extra hour to our trip, and at first I was really cranky with myself when I knew how far we still had to drive, and how close we actually were to St Helens.

Once we started driving along the coast though, I wasn't cranky anymore and kept yelling at the boys 'get off your electronics and look at the scenery!!' as it was so beautiful as we headed towards Bicheno.  We have been along that road a few times, but I can't help but pull over every time to take photos.

The boys loved hearing the story about the day we went for a drive to Bicheno from St Helens and decided to pull over at this beach, but it was so hard to get Noah's wheelchair onto the beach, and it was so windy, that by the time we got to the beach Aaron was really cranky and had enough of the wind, so we only lasted there about 10 minutes before we decided to pack up and get in the car. 

We were so happy to finally get to Swansea, and headed straight to the beach. 

Milly absolutely loves the beach and seems to understand what we are saying if we ask her if she wants to go to the beach. When we ask her she sits down straight away, waiting for us to put her lead on so we can go.  All she needs is a ball, and she's in Heaven.


The beach was empty except for a couple of people walking past.  It's so relaxing and you feel like you're the only people in the world when you are there.  The boys couldn't wait to have a game of cricket.  They always do 'rock, paper, scissors' to see who is going to bat first.


They then moved onto touch footy, and were brave enough to get into the cold water.   I only made it as far as my knees.


Last year we took a photo on these steps, so had to do it again.  I know my boys are growing up, but it hits me so much when I see photos of just a year ago. They seem like totally different boys now.

October 2013

 

I wanted to get a pic of the three of them together, and Kobe decided he was going to be a clown  because everyone was laughing at him.  He is the funniest kid and kept doing different poses to make us laugh.  Harri then joined in.

 

We loved having tea on the deck as we looked out to the amazing view.  

After tea we decided to have a play outside and go for another walk on the beach. 

 

 

 

Silly selfies on the beach :)  

When we woke up this morning it was very windy, but we couldn't resist going to the beach for a walk before we came home.   We ended up staying on the beach for about an hour because I just hate dragging myself away from it. Thank you to our beautiful friends for letting us stay there again.

 

As we were heading out I saw the sign to lots of different places that we love, and said to the boys that if it was a nicer day (it was sunny but too windy) and we didn't have to worry about Milly I would have turned the day into a massive road trip, as there are so many places I wish we could visit before the end of summer.   Hopefully we will get to a couple more places before school goes back.