Our Extended Family Visit

Our visit to family turned out to be a much longer stay than first planned, eleven days instead of six. Our car decided it was going to break down and so we waited for it to be repaired. We really enjoyed the longer opportunity to catch up with our loved ones.

There was so much laughter with the cousins (all nine of them) creating many imaginary games together, and having such a great time! My Father in law had a huge garage sale over two weekends where he sold all the plumbing gear that he'd 'gathered' over forty years (you can probably imagine just how much that was!) and now no longer needs due to retirement. 

We had combined birthday celebration cakes and pressies, and a birthday dinner for my Mother in law with her favourite food for dinner, curry! I cooked dinner one night with one of my brother-in-laws, roast chicken with our own stuffing. We chatted and cleaned and cleared out and worked hard, we drank coffee and peach iced tea and (the men) kept coke in business. Dad claims that the Wolter's are 'aqua-holics', we laugh at him, not with him! It was such a great time!

The photo above was taken by my sweet, beautiful sister in law.

Dad enjoyed reminiscing of years gone by during the garage sale. Each tool that he sold to people, he told them the story of it and it's use, really making them feel valuable and important. I like that about him. Dad has a nickname for me, it's 'Old Girl'. I like that too. 

I really couldn't have been blessed with more amazing in-laws and extended family.

Mum and Dad blessed me with some vintage goodies, some of which I will re-vamp and some I'll keep original. I'm still deciding, I'll show you in another post. We scoured second-hand book shops and op-shops, which was fantastic! We played card games and MR S and Mr S watched the State of Origin with Dad.  We ate ice-creams at a beach front cafe. We visited the beach and watched the sun shimmering on the water, the boats sailing along the calm surface and the birds scuffing in the sand for snacks. Our kids enjoyed the beach playground. On the Friday we went fishing, just the six of us (as no one else wanted to tag along), it was incredible, but that will be another post too!

It was a constant state of busyness, yet still wonderful times to remember.

Mr S and Little Miss J having fun together!

Mr R and Little Miss P laughing and playing!

... admiring the beautiful view!

Visiting the beach is always a bonus part of going down to visit family. Living in a sweet country town far from salt water, we often find ourselves craving sand between our toes and fresh cool sea water.

I think I'm almost back on top of the washing and unpacking, the dreaded reality of holiday returns! Oh well, we're having a garage sale this Saturday (seeing as we're in practice now from Dad's!) and the unpacking has got me in the mood of 'culling' unwanted and un-needed items, so I'm off to a good start! 

I think it'll take a few more days to recover from such a huge long week, but it was worth every minute, I absolutely love my family!

Hope you're having a beautiful time with your families too!

Have a wonderful week!