Winter School Holidays

I was chatting with my sister Nicki a few days ago, and she was asking me when I was going to blog again.  I told her that I thought I was done with the blog as I just don't have time to do it anymore, and I don't feel like writing, like I used to.  I guess that's the beauty of never turning my blog into sponsored posts or getting paid to do it, as I haven't felt the pressure to keep it up.  I just do it when I feel like doing it.

I love having all our memories in one place, and I think that Instagram is such a quick, easy and fun way to do that, so that has taken over from my blog.  But then after talking about it, I felt bad that it's been so long since I posted anything, so I've decided to do a few posts to catch up a little.  When I just logged in, I was surprised to see that people are still coming here (I would've given up on me a long time ago!) but it's nice to know that people are still interested in how we are doing.

We are actually at the end of out term 3 school holidays right now, but I still haven't blogged about
our winter holidays, so I'll start with that. I'm absolutely loving my job and am so grateful that I have work full time, but it's very hard working full time, running the boys around every night to sport etc and being on my own.

I was very tired at the end of term 2 and ready for a couple of weeks holiday.  I think the best thing about holidays is that the boys don't have sport, so all the running around stops.  we can sleep in and I don't have to worry about making school lunches, and we don't have to go anywhere, unless we want to.

As much as I'm glad to have a break, the days can be very long on the holidays if we don't get out every day.  The boys are actually happy to just relax at home most days ('relax' meaning sitting on their iPads and Playstation and watching YouTube videos!) but it drives me mad, so I make sure we get out every day.

Even though the weather isn't the best in the winter holidays, it wasn't too cold.  We went to Liffey Falls one day and the boys loved taking photos as much as I do.  I hardly use my good camera anymore (as I'm just too lazy as it's too easy to just use my phone), but Jay loves using it.

 Kobe cracked me up, as he kept taking selfies all day :) 

I love these kind of days, when we just jump in the car and go for a drive and do something that doesn't cost anything.  Just being together is what I love, as it's getting harder to find time for all of us to do things together as Jay gets older, and he gets busy with work and school.

Jay has now been working at McDonalds for over a year, and actually really likes it.  Most shifts he is on Drive Thru.

Hawthorn haven't been going great the last couple of years (we keep reminding everyone that they're rebuilding!) but we still love them...except for Harri who decided to switch teams half way through last year.  He kept telling me he wanted to go for Greater Western Sydney (Giants) and I just laughed it off for a while. But he kept insisting that it was the team he barracked for the most.

At first I was very upset, which is ridiculous as it's footy! I guess I just always felt like we had to support Hawthorn for Aaron and that by him switching teams, I felt sad that he wasn't carrying on the love for the Hawks for him.  But Harri is so much like Aaron, in that he hates going for the team that everyone else goes for. He has a strong personality and opinions when it comes to sport (I wonder who he got that from!), and I told him that if he really wanted to barrack for the Giants, then that was okay.

He then said 'if Dad was here, he wouldn't let me would he?' and I told him he probably wouldn't be happy, but he's 13 and he can go for whoever he wants to.  It's actually strange to have someone in the family barrack for someone other than Hawthorn, and it makes the games very interesting with all the banter back and forth! The Giants and Hawks actually played a game in Launceston, and there was either going to be tears from Harri or Kobe, so thank goodness it was a draw!

 We love it when we can have a kick to kick, on the ground after the game.

During summer I feel like I am able to catch up with friends a lot more, but over winter I actually get very lonely as all I do is go to work, and then take the boys to sport and don't really see anyone, other than my workmates, and going out for tea every 6 weeks or so with some close girlfriends. I'm always grateful for holidays as it gives me more time, to catch up with friends.   Don't worry - I didn't run...I enjoyed a nice walk and talk with Dan and Lou.   I wouldn't want to make the boys orphans! ;)

 It was nice to have brekky at the Harvest Market with these guys, after doing Parkrun.

Kobe loves it when he and I do something on our own, so one day I took him to the Beaconsfield Gold Mine Museum.  We couldn't go to Beaconsfield without stopping at the Exeter Bakery.  It always reminds us of Aaron and he loved the chocolate eclairs. Yes he ate that whole eclair! 

We loved the Beaconsfield Gold Mine. There was a lot of interactive exhibits.  

 
Kobe didn't know anything about the mine collapse, and was very sad when I told him about what had happened, and fascinated with the story about how the miners were rescued.

On the way home, we stopped off for a play at Paper Beach.

 We always love staying at my Mum's house, and one day while we were staying with her we went to Cradle Mountain. We had hoped to see lots of snow, but unfortunately most of it had melted.  We still had a fun time.
 

On the weekend after school holidays, we headed to Hobart to the University of Tasmania open day.  Jay is wanting to do Bachelor of Media and unfortunately the course is in Hobart which means he would have to move away from home.  I'm glad that it's still in Tassie though.

At the moment he's thinking he will probably have a gap year first.  It's an exciting but also scary time in his life, and I think he would be happy to have another year at home, before he moves down (and we would also be very happy to have him at home for another year). I've told him I'm happy with whatever he decides.

While we were in Hobart we made the most of it and went for a drive up Mt Wellington.

 It was very cold and windy! Harri thought he was going to get blown off the mountain!

 It was a great day to have the open day, as it was the same day as Taj's birthday (our friend Sarah's son).  Harri and Taj get along so well, and we loved being invited to his family birthday party.