10 Days

One of the reasons I've been so quiet here is because I was in Victoria over the past week and a bit... this is what my trip looked like (I travelled with Little Spring, while Big Spring stayed home as he had church commitments).

Day One (Saturday):
Flew to Melbourne. Picked up at airport by Mum and Dad (it only took 1/2hr to 45mins to get the car seat in properly!) and dropped off at Ben and Rachael's (my brother and his (then) fiancee's house.

Day Two (Sunday):
Helped Ben & Rachael clean their old house (they just moved a couple days before we arrived) and then headed off to Rachael's baby shower.

After a fun afternoon with family, Little Spring and I headed to Hamilton with Mum and Dad for the week.

Day Three (Monday):
Spent a relaxing day at Mum and Dad's... enjoyed playing out in the back yard, and Little Spring especially loved helping Poppa with the gardening!





















Day Four (Tuesday):
Poppa, Little Spring and I drove up to Halls Gap for the day, where we visited the local, privately owned, zoo. Little Spring loved feeding the animals, and cuddling the wallabies!
PS The day wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the Halls Gap Ice creamery. Yum!

Day Five (Wednesday):
Another day of kicking back and relaxing. In the evening, Mum, Little Spring and I visited my aunty (Dad's cousin-in-law) to get some quilting advise. While there, I witnessed the most beautiful double rainbow. Unfortunately the camera didn't pick up the beauty half as much as what I saw with my own eyes, but you get the idea... and I love the foreground "farmscape" that I unintentionally captured while taking a photo of the rainbow.

Day Six (Thursday):
Dad invited Little Spring and me out for lunch, so we took a nice stroll into town...

Waiting for lunch to arrive and the long walk back home while Little Spring collected sticks on the way!

We then settled in for an afternoon of playing cards! Fun! Dad and I played Phase 10", while Little Spring played "Luck Plus" with her bears!

Here she is, dealing out the cards!



Day Seven (Friday):
An exhausting day - packing our bags, then packing the car (certainly an accomplishment once it was done!) and then driving to Melbourne (with a slight detour to pick up Mum on the way) for the weekend. Mum and Dad dropped Little Spring and me off at the airport to pick up a hire car that we'd be using over the weekend. Little Spring and I then headed off to Big Spring's parents' house, where we made an already full house, much fuller!

Day Eight (Saturday):
The big day had arrived - the main reason for my trip down south - my brother's wedding! What an amazing, special, long, beautiful day!

Little Spring and I travelled to the wedding via train (it was being held at the Old Treasury Building in the city, so I didn't have to worry about parking)... needless to say, Little Spring loved the ride.

The wedding itself was lovely... a few hiccups, but nothing that we all couldn't laugh about at the time (the celebrant pronouncing my brother's last name wrong, a change of celebrant half way through the ceremony due to illness to name just 2 incidents!)!


After the ceremony, we headed over to the beautiful Treasury Gardens for some photos...

Little Spring and I then headed back to my parents-in-law so she could spend time with her grandparents, cousins and aunts, while I kicked up my heels at the reception! It was obviously a big day for her, as she slept in my lap almost the whole 45 minutes home!

After dropping Little Spring at her grandparents' I headed over to the reception being held at a restaurant and had a wonderful time celebrating with the newlyweds!


Day Nine (Sunday):
A fairly relaxed day with the family. A highlight was visiting the Eltham minature railway. Little Spring loved being on the train with her big cousins looking after her! And the ice cream enjoyed after the ride was delicious and refreshing on the hot day!


Day Ten (Monday):
Nearly time to head home! Today Little Spring and I headed to the Edendale Animal Farm in North Eltham. Little Spring loved seeing more animals and absolutely had a ball at the giant playground on the other side of the farm.

Once we got home, we had some more fun in the sun with water and a tea party:










My mum-in-law and I then had a lovely afternoon out together, having lunch and shopping! We don't think we've ever done that before, just the two of us, so it was quite special.

Later that afternoon, Little Spring and I drove back to my brother and his (now!) wife's house as they were closer to the airport, which meant a shorter drive in the morning to catch our plane!

And that was our ten days away!