Donnybrook {Family & Working}

We finally hit the road again, not as early as we planned given how hot Saturday was but around lunchtime we finally got out of Perth. A quick trip down and Donnybrook was our new home for a few weeks.

Sadly Sunday we discovered when on our way home from a cooling Sunday drive {we happened to be in Bunbury at this point} that my Dad had been evacuated due to a large fire in the area.  Needless to say it was a very long afternoon and at one point we thought that Dad had lost everything.  After Dad and my sister finally managed to get into the area they discovered that the house was still standing, so was the dodge carport & tack shed but more surprisingly was the fact that the chickens also had survived. He did lose his big shed {including solar panels} and all of his fences.  My sister informed we that you can see from the road to the house and almost all the way up the back of the block, which in all the time we have been here has never been the case.

Was more than a little too much for me and I will admit that guilt did surface in the fact that something else major had happened in my Dad's life and again I wasn't there to help him *sigh*

Monday however saw the kids and I start our next ten days of driving to Busselton for swimming lessons. It was nice to be by the ocean and even better to catch up with friends from up north for the first time in ages.

 

 

 

 

It was a blur of driving, swimming, chatting and avoiding the heat for the first week while J started to get everything organised to start the jobs he was doing for my Aunty & Uncle. Friday we left the kids with Kim & Aggie for a night {they had a wonderful time mind you} and we went out for lunch.  Not much else happened for our child free time as J worked on the Saturday and I spent the day getting ready for Pop's 80th Birthday Party.

Pop {& everyone} had a wonderful time but at 10pm I took my tired small people home after a big week {and a big night with their sleepover}.

 

 

Week two of swimming lessons started and we managed to catch up with some other people that we knew in the area after lessons one day too.  Both of the kids passed their levels and hopefully we can swing lessons again for them to keep up the progress, it also means that they are both much more confident swimming in the ocean.

Another weekend and we headed into the last week of the school holidays {no idea what happened to that 6 odd weeks}.  We again made the drive to Busselton to have another play date, which two different lots of friends. J finished up everything he could do this trip and we packed up to head down to Karridale for a week.

Phew!  I am tired just thinking about all of the driving that I did that few weeks {and it doesn't even take into account the trips to Bunbury and a few other Sunday drives that we did around the back bush of the area}