Back to It

Just like that summer holidays are over once again :( On the last day of the school year I always feel so relieved and happy that we have six weeks to rest and catch up on things I need to do at home, and it actually takes a week or two to settle into holiday mode.  But before I know it I'm stressing out that I didn't do half the things that I planned and it's the night before going back to work. 

Aaron used to moan at the end of every school holidays about having to go back to work and how he was dreading it, and every year I would say the same thing - that once he was there he always loves it.  So I keep reminding myself of that because I know I'll settle back in quickly as I do love my job.  I have mixed feelings about getting back into a routine - I like having routines, but I'll miss the sleep ins, not having to race out the door, not having to make school lunches and having time to just relax.

We've had a lovely holiday.  We went on our annual trip to Sydney to stay with my brother Chrish, and this year we ended up going for 12 days which is the longest we've ever spent there at once.  That's a whole other blog post which I'll do separately.

At the beginning of the holidays Jay and Erin went to Falls Festival. It was Jay's first time and I was a bit nervous about him going, but I knew he would be sensible and that he and Erin would look after each other, and they were also going with good friends.  They had a great time and he's already talking about going again this year.



The rest of the holidays we spent a lot of time at the Gorge, the beach or floating down the Hadspen river.  It was very cool seeing the 'thinking man' at the Gorge for a week during MONA FOMA.  We loved swimming out to him.










We spent some time out at Mum's during the holidays and always love going to the beach.


Mum has lots of great space to play cricket.

We always love playing cards when it's holidays.  It's what we were actually doing when Aaron died and we sometimes talk about that.

We had a lovely day with my Mum for her birthday. I took her out for lunch and we enjoyed the most amazing platter full of Tasmanian produce.


We then headed to the beach and it was the most beautiful day. The weather was perfect and we were excited that there were real waves for once! There's hardly ever waves at Hawley.  We had the best time boogie boarding, swimming, catching up with friends and also meeting one of my blog/instagram followers who was here on holiday from Melbourne which was lovely.  It was lovely to meet you Jen and I'm glad you had a lovely trip to Tassie.



When I'm working full time and running the boys to their sport after school, I never have time to read so it was nice to just slow down and be able to spend hours reading for once.

We had lots of fun going to watch different sports.  We had talked about going to the Australian Open this year for the first time, but we had already planned our Sydney trip so maybe we will go there instead next summer.  We enjoyed going to watch some of the matches at the Launceston International instead.   Tim and Helene's kids were ball kids all week.

I'm always amazed at how they make it look so easy.  Harri was excited to get a photo with the female player who won it last year. He had been following her all year on Instagram. Unfortunately she didn't make it to the finals this year

We also went to some Big Bash cricket matches here in Tassie and also in Sydney.  Kobe and Harri just love it and Kobe loves being able to watch the Hurricanes live.  Harri barracks for the Adelaide Strikers (he's so much like Aaron and will go for anyone other than his home team!).  Sometimes when I'm at a Big Bash game it hits me that they started after Aaron died.  He never had a chance to go to one and I think he would've loved them as much as the boys.  The atmosphere is always really fun with music and fireworks and entertainment throughout the game including the Dance Cam.  At the last game we went to I got lots of messages from people telling me that Kobe was on the TV broadcast, dancing before the game.

It was fun going with friends to the last game.



We didn't get to see any family for Christmas or during the holidays, so it was lovely to finally get together last night.  Kobe was so excited to see his cousins.  It's so nice that he has so many cousins around the same age. Jay and Harri have always felt like they're so much older than the rest of them. Jay spent a bit of time with us but left before we took photos.

 We really miss my sister Nicki and her family in the USA and wish they could've also been with us too.

Tomorrow I'm back to it - I'm sure that within an hour or so it'll feel like I haven't had a holiday.  The boys are lucky as they get an extra couple of days before they have to go back. Hopefully it'll be a great school year for all of us.