Aaron's 44th birthday

Yesterday would've been Aaron's 44th birthday, but he will always really be 39.  It's a hard time of the year with the anniversary of Noah's death, our anniversary, Aaron's birthday, Christmas and then the anniversary of Aaron's death within 4 1/2 months, and even though I just want to get through these months as quickly as possible, I'm grateful for friends who make it easier to enjoy the day as much as possible.

This year Aaron's birthday actually ended up being on the first official day of school holidays - for me at least! Jay has been on holidays for a little while already, and the other boys finished the day before me.  School doesn't usually finish this late.

Three years ago we had Christmas with two missionaries from our church - Sister Vermeulen and Sister Hadfield.  They were away from their families on Christmas and we find Christmas hard now, so I thought it would be nice to have them around.  We had a beautiful morning with them and have kept in touch ever since.   They are both now home and 'Sister' Amy Vermuelen is about to get married and 'Sister' Melissa Hadfield is now Melissa Morales and is married to a lovely guy Wes. 

We were excited when we heard that Melissa and Wes would be visiting Tasmania for Christmas as they live in Utah.  She sent me a message asking when would be a good time to catch up, and I organised a big group catch up a couple of nights ago, and then yesterday we met up with them again at the Gorge.  It was such a lovely way to spend Aaron's birthday. The weather was so warm and sunny and we went for a walk around before having our first swim of the season in the pool. 

At night we met up with my friend Simone and her husband Simon (who is actually my cousin), and my cousin Tim and his wife Helene and all their kids.   Simone is due to have a baby in about a month.  This will be their sixth! She was saying that people say she's either amazing or crazy when she tells them this will by number 6. I think she's both :) 

It was a beautiful night and the kids had fun playing cricket - well some of them did! Let's just say that Kobe is such a bad sport and came over to me in tears every time he got out!

Jay couldn't have tea at the park with us as he had to work, but he joined us at the cemetery afterwards to release balloons and have a Pepsi. The light was so pretty as we were walking in. Simone captured this pic of me carrying the balloons in.

I was so excited when I saw that my cousin Simon had his drone. He is a police officer and actually bought it to use for work (Search and Rescue) but it's also a fun toy to play with and it was amazing to see footage of the cemetery from another angle.

We all walked to Aaron's grave and then had a Pepsi for him, before releasing the Hawthorn coloured balloons.

Jay bought tea at work (McDonalds) and walked down and ate it at Aaron's grave. I'm sure Aaron would've loved it as Maccas was also his favourite.

Next year we will have another addition at the cemetery with us.  I can't wait to meet Simone and Simon's little man.  Simone was starting him on the Pepsi early, but cracked us up as she hates it so much and keeps saying 'it tastes like medicine!'.

We went over to Noah's grave before leaving. 

Tim is great to have around for many reasons including he gives great massages! We laughed that the drone footage would look dodgy because he was trying to crack my back for me and was giving Simone and I massages. Luckily we are cousins or people would really be talking!

Kobe was so cute as he put this t-shirt on in the morning and said 'this is all true!'.

There was an amazing sunset as we were walking out the cemetery. 

During the day I put on FB and Instagram that it was Aaron's birthday and encouraged anyone who wanted to, to have a Pepsi for him that day.  It was so fun to see photos being posted throughout the day from family, friends and even strangers  - all having a Pepsi for Aaron.   It made our day and it was nice to know that people were thinking about him and doing something that he would've loved.

Thanks for the drone footage Simon. Here is a quick edit of some of it.