"Are You Sure We've Been Here Before?

We just spent a week away at beautiful St Helen's on Tassie's East Coast. Warning - this post is going to have lots of pics! I have so many I don't want to leave out, and I guess I have to make up for a week of not posting anyway :)

St Giles (therapy centre for children with disabilities) owns a holiday home that they rent out cheaply to their clients, so we make the most of it and book a year or more in advance so we can have a week away every Summer. The shack is right next to the bay - probably less than 100 metres away.

This year we weren't sure how we would actually get down there as it was a squeeze to fit everything in even before Kobe was born. Lucky for us Mick put a tow bar on our van, and we borrowed Dad's trailer for the week. It was like the Griswald's family holiday with all the boys loaded up ready to go!

This is our fourth year we have gone down, but Harri doesn't seem to remember going before as he kept saying the whole week 'are you sure we've been here before!!?'. He was excited though as we had talked about it for weeks telling him all the fun things we usually do - like fishing (no fish caught unfortunately!),

hanging out at the park,


and exploring the bay near the shack.

We love it down there as it is away from everything at we have at home including telephones, computers, appointments, jobs to do etc. Every morning the boys love coming into our bedroom and jumping into bed with us. We had two single beds pushed together so it was lovely with a big crack down the middle ;) Notice how the boys make sure Aaron is on the crack and not them!

One night we were sitting inside and the room turned an amazing colour. Jay and I went out to check out the sunset along with about 3 other families. It was awesome, and a rainbow was right over the bay!


Just up the road from the shack are some amazing beaches. One day we went for a drive and found this cute little beach that was so easy to get Noah to.


Jay had a great time exploring all the rocks.


Aaron found this cute little hermit crab on the side of the road. I actually think it had gone to someplace better than this, as it wasn't moving at all.

The one thing we hate about the house is that it doesn't have a bath. It is made for access for people with disabilities, so has a huge accessible shower, but its a pain not being able to put the boys in the bath. We have to take Noah's bath chair down and then lay him on the chair and shower him down. After a couple of days of Kobe screaming in the shower, we decided to try bathing him in the laundry trough. He liked it much better than the shower!

Every morning we would lather on the sunscreen before heading off to our favourite place of all - Binalong Bay. Here is Harri's attempt at putting on the sunscreen!

The boys were hanging out to go to Binalong and Harri was still calling it 'Bing Bong Bay' even though he couldn't remember it from last year.

Every time we arrive at Binalong Bay we are still amazed at how beautiful it is, and can't believe how lucky we are to have such a beautiful spot in Tasmania. It makes us realise how much we take it for granted living here.

Out of the four years we have gone down, this years weather was definitely the best we have had. It was so warm every day.

The boys loved hanging out at the beach for hours every day.





We weren't sure Kobe was going to go as he had only been to the beach one, but he loved, loved, loved it!



When Aaron dipped his toes in the (cold!) water he loved it and broke out in a huge grin.

He would spend ages just sitting playing with the sand toys, and then would start crawling around the sand, not even caring that it was getting in his face or nappy!


One day Jay and I walked from one end of the beach to the other. It was so nice walking together and talking.

There were such beautiful shells along the way.

Jay and I climbed up the rocks and sat for ages just looking at the scenery.


The week before we went down a 13 year old girl was attacked by a shark near these rocks. She is okay and it was a very rare thing to happen, but all week it was in the back of our minds - especially as we kept seeing her in the newspaper. We didn't see any sharks, but LOTS of huge jelly fish. The boys would freak out yelling 'get away Dad!!!'.

We knew it was time to leave the beach whenever Kobe started getting grizzly because he was tired. Within two minutes of being in the van, this is what we would turn around and see.


On Tuesday Mum and Dad came down to spend the night with us. The boys were so excited to have them come down.


Kobe decided to go crawling and didn't care at all that he was covered in sand! He sticks his tongue out so much (we think he does it when he is happy!), and I'm sure he ate about a kilo of it every day.

Jay wanted to show Mum and Dad our little beach we found, and the rocks he loved to play on.


Just up the road from the shack are lots of little dirt tracks you can drive off to different beaches. I could've sat all day looking at the scenery.

The night that Mum and Dad came down, we decided to go and sit out on the bay after tea and watch the boys have a little paddle. I wish we lived close to the beach like Nicki and Alex, so we could do things like that more often.



We made the most of Mum and Dad staying, and went to the sand dunes the next morning, while they looked after Noah and Kobe. The boys loved it and ran all the way down. I kept yelling 'don't forget you have to come all the way back up again!!'.

They loved rolling down them - until they started to feel sick. Harri looks so tiny compared to the dunes.

Look how strong this man of mine is! He has grown a lot over the Summer! ;)


It was so nice to get away for the week and just relax. It's hard work getting the boys (especially Noah) to the beach every day, but worth it to spend some time away with the boys and no distractions, and at such a beautiful place.