Billy Cart Challenge

The last couple of years I have heard about the 'Billy Cart Challenge' that the youth have at church. It seems like every year it gets bigger and better. I was excited to be able to go to it this year to see what all the fuss was about. I have to admit I was actually a little scared about people getting injured and couldn't really work out how we would be allowed to have race with billy carts as an activity, but not a game of football! There were some awesome looking billy carts. The Deloraine girls had done theirs out in pink and even had a number on the back!

This year it was held at 'Pop's' river flats - it isn't owned by Pop anymore, but will always be his river to us. I was excited to go down there especially as it was such a beautiful day and we thought we may go for a swim afterwards. When we got there everyone was pumped and ready to go. Burnie had gone all out this year and even had special t-shirts and pom poms!

The boys from our ward (East) always seem to be working on their billy cart for mutual and were raring to go.


This year there were three different challenges - cross country, uphill and then downhill. Kym hadn't arrived in time for the cross country race, so Bonnie asked me if I would steer the billy cart for their girls as they had to have a leader in the cart while the girls pushed. I have to admit I was a little bit scared, even though it was a pretty flat course.

I was very glad that I was the one driving it rather than pushing it as it was very heavy.


The Deloraine girls took out the cross country challenge and then every other challenge as well! They were pumped as they won the whole thing last year as well. They have to be cheating somehow - drugs (chocolate fix beforehand of course!), not actually having a leader in their cross country challenge, or maybe it's just because they are clever and have a really light billy cart. Either way East Ward were robbed again!

After each of the girls races, the boys then did the same race.

I'm so glad I didn't have to go in the uphill challenge! It looked like a killer.

Poor Leia was a bit worse for wear after the uphill challenge as she made contact with another billy cart and cut her leg really deep. The girls cracked me up as they were saying 'we need first aid!' and I reminded them that THEY should know first aid after learning it at our boot camp. Bonnie patched her up, but later on she ended up going to hospital and had to get 5 stitches! Ouch!

The downhill course was the scariest as it was quite steep and they had to go around a bend. I was surprised that there was only one big crash with Aley flying out and getting quite hurt. Luckily she was okay.

Jay and Harri came down with us and had a great time watching the races and playing with their friends.

Aaron thought he'd start a small water fight which I was very happy to stay out of after the last time with the girls.

Harri and Jay thought it was fantastic and were trying to get in on the action as well. Harri kept coming up to me to show me how wet he was and would yell at everyone 'get me, get me!'.

The funniest thing was Harri going to the porta-loo or 'dial a dunny' as it was called. He kept yelling out 'there's NO flush!!!' as he didn't know how to flush it.

After all the billy cart races had finished lots of people raced down to the swimming hole for a dip. The day was really hot so we were all keen to cool down. I shocked myself that even I went in - and it's only the beginning of November!

The water was absolutely freezing, but once the numbess set in it was fine :)

Harri was asking if we were going swimming and we would tell him we were. While we were driving to the swimming hole he asked if we were going to the aquatic centre. We told him we were swimming at the river and when he saw where we were swimming he yells 'I don't want to go to this pool - I want to go to another one!!!' and was not impressed at all with the swimming hole. He sure is a city boy like his Dad!

It was lots of fun hanging out together. It makes me really miss the river and the good times we have had there. There were a lot of people getting splashed or thrown in.


Since Pop sold it, the owners have put a great platform on the other side that you can jump off.

It actually doesn't look very high until you climb up and then it is very scary. Makayla and I decided to jump off together and it took us a long time to finally count to 3 so we could jump!

It was a fantastic day and especially nice to be able to relax as we didn't have to chase Kobe around or worry about Noah and med and feed times, or whether he was okay or getting too hot etc. Both of them stayed with Mum and Dad and had a great time. Noah relaxed and slept under the trees outside all day.

Kobe loved it so much with them that he refused to have a sleep. Mum taught him how to climb up the ladder to the slide and was a pro at it by the time we got back there. I couldn't believe how good he was at it. He just seemed to little to be able to do it so well. He would just go over and climb up by himself and then get onto the slide by himself and fly down and wet himself laughing and do it all over again!


Thanks Mum and Dad for watching the boys for us. It was nice to not have to worry about whether Kobe was going to be run over by a billy cart!

We are looking forward to next years billy cart challenge, when East Ward will hopefully stop the Deloraine girls taking out the trifecta :)